In "Short Song" Cao Cao laments how short life is and hopes that all the talent of the realm will come to help him.
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culture
Cao Cao's poem opens 对酒当歌，人生几何, 'facing wine, let us sing: how long is a man's life?', and answers its sorrow with 何以解忧？唯有杜康。 'What can ease my cares? Only Du Kang', the legendary first brewer, standing for wine.
history
The title is an old yuefu tune. 傅玄 of the Jin dynasty wrote another, the lament of a wife cast aside, whose image of being held like a pearl in the palm became 掌上明珠 'a beloved daughter'.
