Birthday poem · December 17Major Snow, the 21st solar term: heavier snow.
Birth character
江 jiāng · river
江 combines 水 "water" with 工 as a sound element; it once meant the Yangtze.
唯見長江天際流
“Where I see but the endless River rolling by.” — Li Bai, ‘Farewell to Meng Haoran at Yellow Crane Tower’
Other dates with this poem: August 21
The poem
“Floating on the Han River” 漢江臨汎
- 江流天地外The river flows beyond heaven and earth;
- 山色有無中the mountains' colours hover between there and not there.
- 襄陽好風日Xiangyang has such fine wind and weather —
- 留醉與山翁I'll stay and get drunk with the old man of the hills.
Why this poem
Wang Wei boating on the Han River, where the hills seem there and not there.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Major Snow.