Xiān tiānxià zhī yōu ér yōu, hòu tiānxià zhī lè ér lè — zhè shì Fàn Zhòngyān de míngjù.
'Worry before the world worries, rejoice after the world rejoices' — this is Fan Zhongyan's famous line.
Tips
history
Orphaned young and raised in poverty, he led the short-lived Qingli Reforms (庆历新政) of 1043-1045 and defended the Song frontier against the Western Xia. The line 先天下之忧而忧 became the moral template for every later Confucian official.
culture
He never actually visited Yueyang Tower — a friend commissioned the essay from him based on a painting, which makes its sweeping evocation of Dongting Lake even more famous.
