Q0174

Wang Guowei

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Those who in ancient or modern times achieved great enterprises and profound learning must pass through three realms: first, standing alone atop a high tower after the west wind withers the green trees, gazing to the end of the road at heaven's edge; second, the belt growing looser without regret, wasting away for the beloved; third, searching a thousand times in the crowd, then suddenly turning — and finding that person standing where the lanterns grow sparse.
Thinker Wang Guowei
School Learning
Source Remarks on Lyrics in the Human World, §26
Theme Learning
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Remarks on Lyrics in the Human World, §26, within the tradition of Learning. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of learning, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Wang Guowei's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Wang Guowei. (n.d.). Those who in ancient or modern times achieved great enterprises and profound learning must pass through three realms: first, standing alone atop a high tower after the west wind withers the green trees, gazing to the end of the road at heaven's edge; second, the belt growing looser without regret, wasting away for the beloved; third, searching a thousand times in the crowd, then suddenly turning — and finding that person standing where the lanterns grow sparse. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0174

MLA: Wang Guowei. “Those who in ancient or modern times achieved….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0174.

Chicago: Wang Guowei. “Those who in ancient or modern times achieved….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0174.

Same thinker

More from Wang Guowei

  1. In the realm with a self, one views things through the self, so things take on one’s coloring. In the realm without a self, one views things through things, and no longer knows which is self and which is thing.

All quotations by Wang Guowei

Same theme

More on learning

  1. Leisure without study is death — a tomb for a living man.
  2. The Master said: Is it not a pleasure to learn and to practice what one has learned in due time? Is it not a joy to have friends come from afar? Is it not the mark of a gentleman to remain unresentful when others fail to appreciate one?
  3. The Master said: When three people walk together, one of them is sure to be my teacher. I select what is good in them and follow it; what is not good, I correct in myself.
  4. Zengzi said: Each day I examine myself on three counts: In acting on behalf of others, have I been loyal? In dealings with friends, have I been trustworthy? Have I practiced what was passed on to me?
  5. The Master said: Those who know it are not equal to those who love it; those who love it are not equal to those who delight in it.

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