From
范仲淹《
岳阳楼记》(Fan Zhongyan, Northern Song, 1046), the canonical prose essay written at the request of his friend Teng Zijing, governor of Baling (modern Yueyang, Hunan):
庆历四年春，
滕子京谪守巴陵郡...
予观夫巴陵胜状，
在洞庭一湖。
衔远山，
吞长江，
浩浩汤汤，
横无际涯 (In the spring of the fourth year of Qingli, Teng Zijing was demoted to govern Baling... As I behold the glorious scenery of Baling, it all lies in Dongting Lake — holding distant mountains in its mouth, swallowing the Yangtze, vast and rolling, boundless without shore). The essay's closing lines
先天下之忧而忧，
后天下之乐而乐 are equally famous.
