Water Melody: Reascending Jinggang Mountain [!]
(May 1965)

Long have I cherished soaring ambitions,
Reascending Jinggang Mountain.
A thousand li to seek the old base,
The old face transforms to a new countenance.
Everywhere orioles sing and swallows dance,
Even more, murmuring streams flow,
High roads enter the cloud's end.
Having passed Huangyang Boundary,
Perilous places need not be seen.

Wind and thunder stir,
The journeying banner unfurls,
This is the human world.

Reascending Jinggang Mountain,
Late May 1965, Mao Zedong reascended Jinggang Mountain for sightseeing and inspection.
On the day, he went to Huangyang Boundary and Ciping successively. During his stay in Ciping, he learned about water conservancy, highway construction, and the people's livelihood in the Jinggang Mountain area, and met with veteran Red Army soldiers, families of martyrs, cadres, and the masses.
He wrote this
poem on the 25th.
He descended the mountain on the 29th.
[2]
Huangyang Boundary, one of the five major sentry posts of Jinggang Mountain, the other four being Bamianshan, Shuangmashi, Zhushachong, and Tongmuling.

Twenty-eight years have passed,
A snap of the fingers.
[1]
We can ascend to the ninth heaven to seize the moon,
We can descend to the five oceans to capture turtles,
Laughing and talking, we return with triumphant songs.
In the world, the most difficult things,
Only require a willingness to climb.
[1]
Thirty-eight years have passed,
In the snap of a finger,
From October 1927 when Mao Zedong led the Autumn Harvest Uprising
troops to Jinggang Mountain, until this re-ascent,
38 years have passed, but he feels it is only a short time, a snap of the fingers.
[2]
Seize the moon in the ninth heaven, the ninth heaven, the highest point of the sky. *Sun Tzu: The Art of War*:
"Those skilled in attack move above the ninth heaven." Seize the moon, pluck the moon. Tang Dynasty Li Bai, "Farewell to Secretary Shu Yun at Xie Tiao Tower in Xuanzhou": "Both cherish soaring aspirations and grand thoughts, wanting to ascend to the blue sky to view the bright moon." View is the same as seize.
[3]
Capture turtles, a metaphor for capturing the enemy. Yuan Dynasty Kang Jinzhi, *Li Zao Carries Thorns*: "I guarantee he will be like a turtle in a jar, easily captured."