Just when glory and splendor are at their height,
Impermanence arrives again, hateful and abrupt.
With eyes wide open, all worldly things are cast away.
Drifting, drifting, the fragrant soul is spent.
Gazing homeward—the road is far, the mountains high.
So in her parents' dreams she comes to plead:
'My life has entered the Yellow Springs below;
Dear family—you must retreat and withdraw while there is time!'
English titles, text, and notes are AI-assisted for reading only; for scholarship cite the Chinese and authoritative editions.
Annotation
This song concerns Jia Yuanchun. At the height of her glory as Imperial Consort, death arrives suddenly. 'Yellow Springs' means the underworld. In death she warns her family in a dream to 'retreat and withdraw'—a prophecy that the Jia family should pull back before catastrophe strikes.
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