The Tang-dynasty poet Wang Bo (650-676), in his early twenties, stood by the water at Hengyang and saw how "A lone duck flies with the red dusk, / The autumn water shares the color of the broad sky." He lamented: "Shifting clouds, shadows on the pool, the days slip by / Life revolves, the stars move, autumns come and go."
立於衡陽水濱、僅二十出頭的唐人王勃，面對「落霞與孤鶩齊飛，秋水共長天一色」，感嘆：閒雲潭影日悠悠，物換星移幾度秋。