From Mao Zedong's (
毛泽东) 1917 couplet 『
自信人生二百年，
会当水击三千里』— 'I trust that life lasts two hundred years; I shall beat the waters for three thousand li.' The young Mao wrote it while a student at Hunan First Normal School, paraphrasing Zhuangzi's (
庄子) giant Peng bird in 《
逍遥游》. The line projects romantic, almost reckless confidence in his own longevity and ambition.
