Seven-character Regulated Verse
Ascending Mount Lu[1]
(1 July 1959)

A mountain flies aloft, towering beside the great river;
I leap up four hundred twists of lush verdure.[2]
With a cold eye I look toward the oceans upon the world,
A hot wind blows rain, sprinkling the river and sky.
Clouds stretch across the Nine Tributaries,[3] a yellow crane floating;
Waves surge down to the Three Wu,[4] white mist rising.
Tao Ling,[1] I know not where he has gone—
In the Peach Blossom Spring,[2] can one still till the fields?

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[1] Mount Lu, in the northern part of Jiangxi Province, stands towering between the Yangtze River and Poyang Lake.

[2] “Leap up four hundred twists of lush verdure”: “Lush verdure” refers to lush, verdant vegetation, here indicating the mountain summit. The Mount Lu climbing road, completed in 1953, is thirty-five kilometers in total length, winding nearly four hundred turns.

[3] Nine Tributaries: See the note for “Buddhist Dancers · Yellow Crane Tower.” The annotation for “Nine Rivers” in the “Book of Documents · Tribute of Yu” in the *Commentaries and Annotations on the Thirteen Classics* states: “The river in this prefectural boundary divides into nine channels.” Ming dynasty poet Li Panlong’s “Thinking of Mingqing”: “West of Yuzhang (present-day Nanchang), I gaze amid colorful clouds, / The Nine Tributaries of the Yangtze, the Ninefold Mountain.” Mao Zedong, in a letter dated 29 December 1959, said: “The Nine Tributaries are the nine great rivers of the three provinces of Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi. As to exactly which nine, accounts differ; there is no need to delve deeply.”

[4] Three Wu, in ancient times referred to certain areas in southern Jiangsu Province and northern Zhejiang Province, with varying specific definitions. Here it broadly denotes the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Mao Zedong, in the same letter of 29 December 1959, said: “Three Wu: anciently, Suzhou was called Eastern Wu, Changzhou was called Central Wu, and Huzhou was called Western Wu.”

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[1] Tao Ling refers to Tao Qian (365–427), also known as Yuanming, courtesy name Yuanliang, a poet of the Eastern Jin dynasty. He once served as magistrate of Pengze County, hence the appellation Tao Ling. According to the *History of the Southern Dynasties · Biography of Tao Qian*, he once ascended Mount Lu. The land where he returned to till after resigning from office was not far from Mount Lu.

[2] Peach Blossom Spring: Tao Qian once wrote “The Record of the Peach Blossom Spring,” in which it is said that during the Qin dynasty some people fled to a remote and tranquil “Peach Blossom Spring” (a water source overgrown with peach blossoms) to escape the chaos, thereafter cutting themselves off from the world and living a peaceful life of labor. It was not until the Jin dynasty that a fisherman from Wuling (Changde, Hunan), having lost his way, chanced upon this beautiful and blissful wonderland.

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“With a Cold Eye Look toward the Oceans upon the World, a Hot Wind Blows Rain, Sprinkling the River and Sky”