Yuan Dynasty
山坡羊（二）
Shān pō yáng · Qí èr
Shēn wú suǒ gān, xīn wú suǒ huàn, yì shēng bú dào fēng bō àn.
Lù xiū gān, guì xiū pān, gōng míng zòng dé jiē xū huàn, fú shì luò huā kōng guò yǎn.
Guān, yě mèng jiān; sī, yě mèng jiān.
Translation
With no entanglement in the body and no anxiety in the heart, one need never come near the shore of storms. Do not chase salary; do not climb after rank. Even if fame is won, it is illusion. The floating world passes before the eyes like falling blossoms. Office is a dream; private gain is also a dream.
Analysis
This piece is more openly renunciatory. To be free from entanglement is to avoid the shore of storms. Rank, salary, fame, and private gain are all exposed as dreamlike. The falling blossom image gives the poem lyrical softness, while the repeated ending hardens it into a moral warning: both public ambition and private profit vanish like dreams.
About the Author
Chen Cao’an’s sanqu often voices skepticism toward fame and status in brief, forceful lines. His withdrawal is not merely literary elegance; it comes from a hard awareness of worldly danger.