Wang Yi-zi said: Human relationships, spanning a lifetime of mutual support and dependence, may be held within one’s embrace, understood in the confines of one room; or they may arise from entrusted messages, dissolving into the vastness beyond.

• In a lifetime, like a fleeting flower. Like grass and trees blossoming and withering, like the rising and setting of the sun and moon.
• Yet, in this life, desires are numerous.
• As a child, I lay under lotus plants and hemp in the stream, busy catching the east wind to fly kites, chasing yellow butterflies in haste,
• Also learned to grow gourds by the shade of mulberry trees, returning home with a full meal after dusk, not shedding my cloak to lie beneath the moonlight.
• As I grew older, I hoped to be inscribed on the gold list, to have a beautiful woman accompany me, to have endless wealth, to rise continuously, to have a full table of guests, to sing and play every night.
• When old, I wanted health and longevity, welcome childhood servants, young children waiting at the door, a chessboard, a confidant, a bottle of wine, a courtyard, enjoying family harmony.

You see people rushing about in a panic, only seeking a few taels of broken silver. Yet, this broken silver, can it dispel all kinds of melancholy in the world?

• Half the people are still struggling with their lives, where do they have time to seek meaning?
• In fact, human life is just an experience, like plants, sun and moon – experiencing the cycle of desire.
• If you don’t understand it, you’ll feel like a fleeting moment in the vastness of the world, a tiny grain of sand on the Yangtze River. When you understand it, you’re happy with what you encounter, temporarily possessing yourself, content and self-sufficient, unaware of your approaching old age.
• You can pursue wealth and fame, or poetry, wine, flowers, and tea. You can pursue the clear breeze on the river or the bright moon in the mountains.
• But don’t overly concern yourself with the results; they will all eventually pass away.
• After a lifetime of hardship, when you arrive in this world, try to experience the joys and sorrows, birth, old age, sickness, and death.
• I really like the quote from The Tale of the Sea Deer:

Our lives are short, and we will eventually lose them, so why not be a little bolder – love someone, climb a mountain, chase a dream – there are many things with no answers.

I greatly enjoyed The Analects of Zan Gong and Red Cliff.

Reflecting on the rise of past generations, one feels a sense of longing; if only they could be brought together as one, never to have lamented or mourned, unable to convey it within my heart. I know that dying in one’s lifetime is an absurdity, and the tragedy of Zang and Peng is a false fabrication. Those who look upon us now are like we look upon them then. Alas!