Ode on Ascending the Tower

Wang Can, foremost among the Seven Masters of Jian'an, fled the turmoil of the age to Jingzhou, where he found shelter under Liu Biao yet was given no office to fulfill his talents. Ascending the tower at Dangyang, he was moved to compose this rhapsody. It was gathered into the Selections of Refined Literature, the literary anthology compiled by Crown Prince Zhaoming of the Liang dynasty in the Southern Courts, where it stands at the head of the Journey and Sightseeing division of the rhapsody section, recited and admired across the ages ever since. Its guiding spirit—the longing for one's homeland and the longing to serve, the two intertwined without resolution—opened a gate for all later writers who would ascend to great heights and give voice to their sorrows in verse. Scholars of letters today hold in particular esteem the air of stirring melancholy that pervades it.