the land outlasts the king; a country may fall but its mountains and rivers remain
Proverb from a poem by Du Fu. Expresses that while human institutions like kingdoms may perish, nature endures. Often used to reflect on the transience of power or the resilience of the natural world.
Even after the war, as the saying goes, 'the land outlasts the king,' the mountains and rivers remained unchanged.
He fell from power, but as the proverb says, a country may fall yet its mountains and rivers remain; nature is unchanged.
Most common modern form of the proverb.
Variant using 敗れる; less common but still seen.
Classical Chinese-style form; mainly encountered in literary or historical contexts.
Archaic spelling using 在り instead of あり.
From a poem by the Tang dynasty Chinese poet Du Fu (杜甫). The phrase entered Japanese as a classical proverb and is used in literary and reflective contexts.