Wang Xizhi (王羲之) - Lanting Xu 蘭亭序 (Preface of the Orchid Pavilion)

More about Wang Xizhi (王羲之) - Lanting Xu 蘭亭序 (Preface of the Orchid Pavilion)

In the ninth year of the Yǒng-hé (353 CE), at the beginning of the third moon, on this late spring day we gathered at the Orchid Pavilion in the Guì-jī, Shanyin (present-day Shaoxing (紹興) of Zhejiang (浙江) province), for the purification ritual.
All the literati have finally arrived. Young and old ones have come together.
Overlooking us are lofty mountains and steep peaks. Around us are dense wood and slender bamboos, as well as limpid swift stream flowing around which reflected the sunlight as it flowed past either side of the pavilion. Taking advantage of this, we sit by the stream drinking from wine cups which float gently on the water.
Despite of the absence of the grandeur of musical accompaniment, drinking wine and chanting poems give us delight and allow us to exchange our deep feelings.
As for this day, the sky is bright, the air is fresh and the breeze is mild and bracing.
Looking up, we admire the beauty of the sky and wonder at the immensity of the universe. Looking around us, we see the myriad variety and wonder at their extraordinary diversity.
Stretching our sights and freeing our minds, we can stretch the pleasures of our senses (of sight and sound) to the limit. This is really delighting!
People gather together, in a blink, life passes by. Some find relief in freeing their thought and hopes and discuss their ambitions in (the quiet atmosphere of) a study or closet.
Some free themselves from the shackles of their body in their search for spiritual refuge.
Despite the interests and moods are widely different, tranquillity and recklessness are not the same, we all share one thing: whatever circumstances we meet, we can get some fleeting happiness, and there for just a moment, in self-satisfaction, making us hardly realize how fast we grow old.
When we become tired of our desires and the circumstances changes, disappointment and grief will come.
As for all that happiness, in a blink of time, it is already a past tantalizing memory. We cannot help but lament and act in accordance with our emotions.
Whether life is long or short is up to destiny, but in the end return to nothingness. The ancients said, ‘Birth and death are big events.’ How could it not be agonizing?
And look at the cause of sentiment of the ancients, it shows the same origin. We can hardly not mourn before their scripts although our feelings cannot be verbalized.
Of one thing I am quite sure: it is foolish to believe that life and death are one, or that long-life can be equated with early death.
The future generations will look upon us just like we look upon the past. How sad!
So we recorded the people here and their works (poems). Even though time and circumstance will change, the cause for their feelings and moods remain the same.
When people look back on us in the future, they will be moved by this prose.
- English translation done by TC Lai, Monica Lai, Liu Yi Ru