In the introduction to his Essay on the Orchard Pavilion Gathering, Wang Hsi-chih, the great painter of the Eastern Chin dynasty, lamented how, How long you live is up to chance, but in the end all comes to nothing. "He was pointing to the absurdity of life and death, and his sentiment," Death is so final, how can one not grieve! "
東晉書畫名家王羲之在蘭亭集序裡慨嘆：「修短隨化，終期於盡」，忍不住指稱死生為一的虛誕；於是「死生亦大矣，豈不痛哉！」仍是多數人傷逝的心境。