The People’s Liberation Army Captures Nanking

Mao Zedong

April 1949

Over Chungshan swept a storm, headlong,
鍾山風雨起蒼黃，
Our mighty army, a million strong, has crossed the Great River.
百萬雄師過大江。
The City, a tiger crouching, a dragon curling, outshines its ancient glories;
虎踞龍盤今勝昔，
In heroic triumph heaven and earth have been overturned.
天翻地覆慨而慷。
With power and to spare we must pursue the tottering foe
宜將剩勇追窮寇，
And not ape Hsiang Yu the conqueror seeking idle fame.
不可沽名學霸王。
Were Nature sentient, she too would pass from youth to age,
天若有情天亦老，
But Man’s world is mutable, seas become mulberry fields.
人間正道是滄桑。

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Publication Details

The Chinese text of the poem was included in the official selection Chairman Mao’s Poems 《毛主席詩詞》, which appeared through People’s Literature Publishing House in 1963. The official English translation is taken from Mao Tse-tung Poems, Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1976.

Background
一九四九年四月二十日，國民黨拒絕在和平協定上簽字。當夜，解放軍在東起江蘇江陰，西迄江西湖口的千里長江上，分三路強行渡江。二十三日晚，東路陳毅的第三野戰軍佔領南京。

Notes 注釋
鍾山：莽莽南京中山門外紫金山。
虎踞龍盤：《三國志》諸葛亮與孫權論金陵說，「鐘阜龍蟠，石城虎踞。」
慨而慷：曹操《短歌行》，「慨當以慷，憂思難忘。」
追窮寇：《孫子兵法·軍爭篇》有「圍師必闕（網開一面之意），窮寇勿迫」。
霸王：指西楚霸王項羽。鴻門宴上，他聽了項伯的話，「今人有大功而擊之，不義也，」沒有殺劉邦。後來劉邦項羽血戰連年，終於約定以鴻溝為界，中分天下。雙方士兵為和平連呼萬歲。項羽守約退兵，劉邦卻立即背信棄義地圍攻項羽於垓下，他的部下更把楚霸王分屍為五。事跡見《史記·項羽本紀》。
天若有情天亦老：這是李賀的詩句，見《採桑子·重陽》。
滄桑：滄海桑田的略語。葛洪《神仙傳·麻姑》里，麻姑對王方平說，「接待以來，已見東海三為桑田。」

Source for Notes, see here.