原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
含詞賦 With rhapsody
死復生詩 Verse on Death and Return
萬古江山幾變更，歷來數代敗和成。万古江山几变更，历来数代败和成。
周秦漢晉多奇事，誰似唐王死復生？周秦汉晋多奇事，谁似唐王死复生？
逐句解 Line by line
萬古江山幾變更，歷來數代敗和成。
万古江山几变更，历来数代败和成。
Through myriad ages, how often have rivers and mountains changed hands; down the generations, dynasties have fallen and risen.
變更 (biàn gēng) to alter, to change; 更 gēng. 敗和成 'defeat and success,' the fall and founding of states.
周秦漢晉多奇事，誰似唐王死復生？
周秦汉晋多奇事，谁似唐王死复生？
Zhou and Qin, Han and Jin knew many a strange event — but who, like the Tang king, has died and lived again?
周秦漢晉 the successive dynasties. 誰似 sì, 'who is like.' The couplet frames Taizong's resurrection as unique in all history.
The closing couplet sets the emperor's return from death against the long sweep of dynastic history — the endless rise and fall of Zhou, Qin, Han, and Jin — to insist on its singularity. It is a conventional historian's gesture, the vanity of worldly power, turned to a marvel: of all the strange events of the ages, none matches a sovereign who has died and lived again.