The 《
世说新语》 records his words at the willows,
木犹如此,
人何以堪, 'if trees change like this, how can people bear it?' His biography in the 《
晋书》 has him say that if he could not leave a good name for a hundred generations, he might as well leave a stench for ten thousand years, the source of
遗臭万年.