Yueyang Lou Ji: To Worry Before All Under Heaven, and Rejoice After All Under Heaven
Grandevity Studio sets Fan Zhongyan’s complete Northern Song masterpiece Yueyang Lou Ji, Record of Yueyang Tower, to newly composed music with no modern lyrical expansion. Through a cinematic reimagining of Dongting Lake, Yueyang Tower, exiled scholars and the ideal of the ancient benevolent person, the work moves from changing scenery and personal emotion toward the enduring vision of responsibility for all under heaven.
Some works describe a landscape.
Some describe a life.
Fan Zhongyan’s Yueyang Lou Ji begins with a tower and a lake, and ends with the world.
先天下之憂而憂，後天下之樂而樂。
To worry before all under heaven worry, and to rejoice only after all under heaven rejoice.
These words have endured for nearly a thousand years.
Yet they are not an isolated maxim placed at the end of an essay.
Fan Zhongyan builds an entire journey before reaching them.
First comes Dongting Lake:
銜遠山，吞長江，浩浩湯湯，橫無際涯。
It embraces the distant mountains and swallows the Yangtze River, vast and surging, stretching beyond visible limits.
Then the world divides into two emotional climates.
One is a world of ceaseless rain.
The other is spring light and calm water.
Storm produces sorrow.
Clear skies produce joy.
But Fan Zhongyan asks a more difficult question:
Must a person’s inner life always rise and fall with external circumstances?
The essay therefore moves from displaced officials and poets toward another ideal:
the ancient benevolent person.
Their principle is:
不以物喜，不以己悲。
They do not rejoice because of external things, nor grieve because of themselves.
From there the scale expands again:
居廟堂之高則憂其民；處江湖之遠則憂其君。
In high office, they worry for the people.
Far from the court, they still remain concerned for the state.
Only after this long movement does Fan Zhongyan arrive at the declaration for which the essay is remembered:
先天下之憂而憂，後天下之樂而樂。
Grandevity Studio’s Yueyang Lou Ji sets Fan Zhongyan’s complete original classical text to newly composed music.
There is no modern lyrical expansion.
No contemporary paraphrase.
No newly written chorus explaining Fan Zhongyan on his behalf.
The prose creates its own progression:
Baling and Yueyang Tower.
Dongting Lake.
Storm and sorrow.
Spring light and joy.
The ancient benevolent person.
Court and wilderness.
Responsibility.
All under heaven.
The climax is not a quotation suddenly attached to the ending.
It is an answer the entire essay has travelled toward.
Watch the MV: 🎬 Yueyang Lou Ji | Official Music Video
Headphones recommended. Begin with the restoration of Yueyang Tower and the vast waters of Dongting Lake. Travel through distant mountains, the Yangtze, morning light, evening shadow and changing weather. Watch the same lake become a world of rain, wind and violent waves, then reopen into clear spring, moonlight and fishing songs. As the prose turns toward the ancient benevolent person, the camera also moves beyond scenery toward government, exile and ordinary human lives, until “all under heaven” becomes not an abstraction but a world made of people.
A Famous Essay Fan Zhongyan Did Not Write at Yueyang Tower
Yueyang Lou Ji was written in 1046, the sixth year of the Qingli era of the Northern Song dynasty.
It begins:
慶曆四年春，滕子京謫守巴陵郡。
In the spring of the fourth year of Qingli, Teng Zijing was demoted to govern Baling Commandery.
Teng Zijing, also known as Teng Zongliang, was a friend of Fan Zhongyan.
After being demoted to Yuezhou, Teng restored Yueyang Tower, enlarged its former structure and had poems and prose by writers of the Tang dynasty and his own age inscribed there.
He then asked Fan Zhongyan to compose a record of the restored tower.
One historical fact is essential to understanding the work:
Fan Zhongyan was not in Yueyang when he wrote Yueyang Lou Ji.
He was in Dengzhou.
The famous vision of Dongting Lake is therefore not simply an eyewitness travel diary.
The central question is not merely:
What did Fan Zhongyan see?
It is:
What did he see through the idea of this lake?
Holding the Distant Mountains, Swallowing the Yangtze
The second movement begins:
予觀夫巴陵勝狀，在洞庭一湖。
As Fan Zhongyan considers the magnificent scenery of Baling, its greatness is centred upon Dongting Lake.
Then come two extraordinarily powerful verbs:
銜遠山，吞長江。
The lake embraces the distant mountains.
It swallows the Yangtze.
It is immense.
It moves.
It changes.
Morning light changes it.
Evening shadow changes it.
Storm changes it.
Moonlight changes it.
Fan Zhongyan therefore asks:
覽物之情，得無異乎？
Could the feelings produced by viewing these different scenes possibly remain the same?
The next two movements provide the answer.
Endless Rain: When the Landscape Becomes Sorrow
The first Dongting Lake is a world beneath prolonged rain.
Cold winds howl.
Turbid waves rise toward the sky.
The sun and stars lose their light.
Mountains disappear.
Merchants and travellers cease their journeys.
Masts lean.
Oars break.
At twilight, darkness deepens.
Those who ascend the tower in such conditions think of exile, home, slander and humiliation.
The result is:
滿目蕭然，感極而悲者矣。
Everything before them appears desolate, and emotion reaches its extreme in sorrow.
The storm exists on the lake.
It also exists within the observer.
Bright Spring: The Same Lake Becomes Another World
Then Fan Zhongyan turns the entire landscape over:
至若春和景明，波瀾不驚。
Spring becomes mild.
The light becomes clear.
The waves become calm.
Sky and water open into an immense field of green.
Gulls fly and settle.
Fish move beneath the surface.
Fragrant plants and orchids grow along the shores and islets.
At night:
皓月千里，浮光躍金，靜影沉璧。
The moon shines for a thousand li.
Floating light leaps like gold.
Its still reflection sinks like a jade disc.
Fishing songs answer one another.
The observer now becomes open-hearted and refreshed, forgetting favour and disgrace.
The same tower.
The same lake.
Two entirely different emotional worlds.
Yet Fan Zhongyan refuses to end the argument there.
Not Rejoicing Because of External Things, Not Grieving Because of Oneself
With:
嗟夫！
the prose changes direction.
Fan Zhongyan asks about the mind of the ancient benevolent people.
Why might their response differ from the two emotional states already described?
His answer is:
不以物喜，不以己悲。
They do not rejoice because of external things.
Nor do they grieve because of themselves.
This does not mean the absence of emotion.
It means that one’s moral centre is no longer wholly governed by weather, success, failure, honour or disgrace.
The lake may be storm-darkened.
The lake may be radiant.
A career may advance.
A career may collapse.
But a human being may choose to care about something larger than the self.
High in Government, Far Among Rivers and Lakes
Fan Zhongyan then writes:
居廟堂之高則憂其民； 處江湖之遠則憂其君。
In high government office, they worry for the people.
Far away among rivers and lakes, they remain concerned for their ruler.
Thus:
是進亦憂，退亦憂。
They worry when advancing.
They worry when retreating.
This produces the essay’s decisive question:
然則何時而樂耶？
Then when can they be joyful?
Only now does Fan Zhongyan give the answer.
To Worry Before All Under Heaven
先天下之憂而憂， 後天下之樂而樂。
The statement does not reject happiness.
It changes the order between the self and the wider world.
Responsibility comes before personal ease.
One worries before others must worry.
One allows personal joy to come only after the wider world can share in joy.
This is the final expansion of scale in Yueyang Lou Ji.
A tower became a lake.
The lake became emotion.
Emotion became character.
Character became responsibility.
Responsibility became all under heaven.
“Without Such People, With Whom Could I Return?”
The essay does not actually end with its most famous declaration.
Fan Zhongyan adds:
噫！微斯人，吾誰與歸？
Alas.
Without such people, with whom could I return?
The emotional temperature changes again.
After the grandeur of “all under heaven,” there is sudden solitude.
Who else shares this ideal?
Who can walk the same path?
The final moment is therefore both elevated and deeply human.
The MV does not turn the ending into a triumphal tableau.
It returns instead to solitude:
one figure,
one lake,
and the unanswered search for a kindred spirit.
Cinematic Chinese Narrative: From Landscape to Emotion, From Emotion to the World
The complete original prose is used as the sung text.
There is no modern lyrical expansion.
No newly written refrain.
No contemporary line added to manufacture a climax.
The production is built around Cinematic Chinese Narrative / Cinematic Guofeng / Classical Chinese Fusion.
The musical architecture follows the prose itself:
the restoration of Yueyang Tower,
Dongting Lake,
storm and sorrow,
spring light and joy,
the ancient benevolent person,
court and wilderness,
advancement and retreat,
the world’s sorrow,
the world’s joy,
and finally:
微斯人，吾誰與歸？
The music does not rewrite Fan Zhongyan’s argument.
It gives the original language space to unfold.
The MV: A Changing Lake and an Expanding Moral Horizon
The visual world is grounded in a Northern Song historical setting.
Yueyang Tower maintains a consistent three-tiered architectural form throughout the film.
The early movements belong to Dongting Lake:
mountains,
waterways,
sails,
clouds,
storms,
spring light,
moonlight.
The storm sequence gradually removes light from the world.
Water becomes violent.
Travel stops.
The harbour empties.
The emotional world of the displaced scholars contracts with the landscape.
Then, with spring light, the film opens again.
Water clears.
Gulls return.
Fish move beneath the surface.
Plants cover the banks.
Moonlight stretches across the lake.
Fishing songs answer one another.
But the visual argument ultimately moves beyond scenery.
The later sections introduce Fan Zhongyan, the imagined court, distant life among rivers and lakes, and ordinary people.
By the time the text reaches:
先天下之憂而憂
the camera is looking directly at human lives.
Because all under heaven is not merely a landscape.
It is people.
📜 Complete Lyrics / Original Text with English Translation
Fan Zhongyan, Yueyang Lou Ji
Complete original classical text set to music
No lyrical expansion, paraphrase or newly written lyrics
【The Restoration of Yueyang Tower】
慶曆四年春，
滕子京謫守巴陵郡。
In the spring of the fourth year of Qingli,
Teng Zijing was demoted to govern Baling Commandery.
越明年，
政通人和，
百廢具興。
By the following year,
government was functioning smoothly, the people lived in harmony,
and many neglected affairs had been restored.
乃重修岳陽樓，
增其舊制，
刻唐賢今人詩賦於其上。
He therefore restored Yueyang Tower,
enlarged its former scale,
and had poems and prose by distinguished Tang writers and contemporary authors inscribed upon it.
屬予作文以記之。
He asked me to compose a record of the occasion.
【The Grand View of Dongting・The Feelings Inspired by What One Sees】
予觀夫巴陵勝狀，
在洞庭一湖。
As I consider the magnificent scenery of Baling,
its greatness lies above all in Dongting Lake.
銜遠山，
吞長江，
浩浩湯湯，
橫無際涯；
It embraces the distant mountains,
swallows the Yangtze River,
vast and surging,
stretching without visible limit.
朝暉夕陰，
氣象萬千。
Morning light and evening shadow
transform it into countless different scenes.
此則岳陽樓之大觀也，
前人之述備矣。
This is the grand prospect of Yueyang Tower,
already fully described by earlier writers.
然則北通巫峽，
南極瀟湘，
遷客騷人，
多會於此，
Yet it connects northward with the Wu Gorges
and extends southward toward the Xiao and Xiang rivers.
Displaced officials and poets
often gather here.
覽物之情，
得無異乎？
Could the feelings inspired by what they see
possibly remain the same?
【Endless Rain・Sorrow at Its Extreme】
若夫霪雨霏霏，
連月不開；
When continuous rain falls in fine sheets,
month after month without clearing;
陰風怒號，
濁浪排空；
cold winds howl,
and turbid waves rise toward the sky;
日星隱曜，
山岳潛形；
the sun and stars hide their light,
and the mountains disappear from sight;
商旅不行，
檣傾楫摧；
merchants and travellers cease their journeys,
masts lean and oars are broken;
薄暮冥冥，
虎嘯猿啼。
as evening approaches, darkness deepens,
while tigers roar and apes cry.
登斯樓也，
則有去國懷鄉，
憂讒畏譏，
滿目蕭然，
感極而悲者矣。
Ascending this tower then,
one feels the pain of leaving the capital and longing for home,
fears slander and ridicule,
sees desolation everywhere,
and reaches the extreme of sorrow.
【Bright Spring・Overflowing Joy】
至若春和景明，
波瀾不驚，
上下天光，
一碧萬頃；
But when spring is mild and the light is bright,
the waves remain calm,
sky and water shine together,
over an immense expanse of green.
沙鷗翔集，
錦鱗游泳；
Gulls fly and settle,
while brilliantly scaled fish swim beneath the water.
岸芷汀蘭，
鬱鬱青青。
Fragrant plants along the banks and orchids upon the islets
grow lush and green.
而或長煙一空，
皓月千里，
浮光躍金，
靜影沉璧，
At times the lingering mist disappears entirely,
and the bright moon shines for a thousand li;
floating light leaps like gold,
while the still reflection sinks like a jade disc.
漁歌互答，
此樂何極！
Fishing songs answer one another across the water.
How boundless is this joy!
登斯樓也，
則有心曠神怡，
寵辱皆忘，
把酒臨風，
其喜洋洋者矣。
Ascending the tower then,
one feels open-hearted and refreshed,
forgets favour and disgrace,
raises a cup before the wind,
and becomes filled with delight.
【The Mind of the Ancient Benevolent Person・Concern in Advancement and Retreat】
嗟夫！
Alas!
予嘗求古仁人之心，
或異二者之為，
何哉？
I have tried to seek the mind of the ancient benevolent people.
Perhaps it differed from these two responses.
Why?
不以物喜，
不以己悲。
They did not rejoice because of external things,
nor grieve because of themselves.
居廟堂之高則憂其民；
處江湖之遠則憂其君。
Dwelling high in the halls of government, they worried for the people;
living far away among rivers and lakes, they worried for their ruler.
是進亦憂，
退亦憂。
Thus they worried when advancing,
and worried when retreating.
然則何時而樂耶？
Then when could they be joyful?
【Worry Before Others・With Whom Could I Return?】
其必曰：
「先天下之憂而憂，
後天下之樂而樂」歟！
Surely they would say:
“To worry before all under heaven worry,
and to rejoice only after all under heaven rejoice!”
噫！
微斯人，
吾誰與歸？
Alas!
Without such people,
with whom could I return?
時六年九月十五日。
Written on the fifteenth day of the ninth month
in the sixth year of Qingli.
From One Tower to All Under Heaven
The lasting power of Yueyang Lou Ji is not simply that it contains memorable quotations.
Fan Zhongyan changes the scale of the reader’s attention.
First:
a tower.
Then:
a lake.
Then:
weather.
Then:
emotion.
Then:
the moral centre of a human being.
And finally:
all under heaven.
The journey is from what we see,
to what we feel,
to what we choose to care about.
💿 Credits
- Song Title: Record of Yueyang Tower
- Chinese Title: 岳陽樓記
- Classical Source: Fan Zhongyan, Yueyang Lou Ji
- Literary Period: Northern Song Dynasty
- Literary Form: Ji prose / commemorative prose
- Original Text / Complete Sung Text: Fan Zhongyan
- Lyrics Format: Complete original classical text set to music, with no modern lyrical expansion, paraphrase or newly written lyrics
- Composition / Arrangement: Suno AI / Grandevity Studio
- Vocals: Suno AI Mandarin male vocal
- Music Production: Grandevity Studio
- AI-Assisted Visuals: ChatGPT Images
- Video Editing / Art Direction / Creative Production: Grandevity Studio
- Released by: Grandevity Limited
- Production Year: 2026
- Official MV: https://youtu.be/xg1Cz4QVsr8
- YouTube Music: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mfxOlaKQXKK-ia6hwsbkhSthpn4Q0ekVk
Music Style and Mood:
Cinematic Chinese Narrative / Cinematic Guofeng / Classical Chinese Fusion. The through-composed setting follows Fan Zhongyan’s complete prose from the vastness and changing weather of Dongting Lake through the opposing emotional worlds of storm and spring light, then into the philosophical turn of “not rejoicing because of external things, nor grieving because of oneself.” The work expands from court and wilderness toward responsibility for the wider world, reaches its moral summit in “to worry before all under heaven worry, and to rejoice only after all under heaven rejoice,” and closes with the solitary resonance of “Without such people, with whom could I return?”
⚖️ Copyright Notice
Fan Zhongyan’s classical prose work Yueyang Lou Ji is in the public domain.
The sung text in this musical work is drawn entirely from the original classical prose, with no modern lyrical expansion, paraphrase or newly written lyrics.
The musical composition and production, sound recording, arrangement, mixing, mastering, MV visuals, cover artwork, video editing, subtitles, storyboarding, art direction, promotional copy and overall creative production were created by or lawfully produced for Grandevity Limited / Grandevity Studio and are protected, where applicable, by copyright and related rights.
Unauthorized re-uploading, redistribution, reproduction, editing, sampling, commercial use, public broadcasting, platform distribution, AI training, dataset use, remixing, or incorporation into any other audiovisual work is strictly prohibited.
Licensing Contact:
About This Project
Yueyang Lou Ji is part of Grandevity Studio’s Classical Literature Reimagined in Music series.
The purpose is not to replace classical literature with modern lyrics.
It is to allow the original language to enter sound, image and time again.
Fan Zhongyan begins with a tower.
He opens the view toward a lake.
The lake becomes weather.
Weather becomes emotion.
Emotion becomes a question of character.
Character becomes responsibility.
And responsibility finally expands toward all under heaven.
Nearly a thousand years later, the question remains:
What comes first,
our own joy,
or the world we share?