唐 Tang · 诗 Poem
兵车行
Song of the War Carts
车辚辚，马萧萧，行人弓箭各在腰。
爷娘妻子走相送，尘埃不见咸阳桥。
牵衣顿足拦道哭，哭声直上干云霄。
道傍过者问行人，行人但云点行频。
或从十五北防河，便至四十西营田。
去时里正与裹头，归来头白还戍边。
边庭流血成海水，武皇开边意未已。
君不闻汉家山东二百州，千村万落生荆杞。
纵有健妇把锄犁，禾生陇亩无东西。
况复秦兵耐苦战，被驱不异犬与鸡。
长者虽有问，役夫敢申恨？
且如今年冬，未休关西卒。
县官急索租，租税从何出？
信知生男恶，反是生女好。
生女犹得嫁比邻，生男埋没随百草。
君不见青海头，古来白骨无人收。
新鬼烦冤旧鬼哭，天阴雨湿声啾啾。
Fathers and mothers, wives and children run to see them off; dust hides the Xianyang Bridge from view.
Clutching robes, stamping feet, they block the road and weep; their cries rise straight to the clouds.
A passerby by the roadside asks a conscript, who only says the levies come too often.
Some, at fifteen, went north to guard the river, and at forty still till the fields in the west.
When they left, the village head wrapped their heads for them; returning white-haired, they are sent again to the frontier.
At the border the blood flows like the sea; the Martial Emperor's thirst to expand the realm is not yet spent.
Have you not heard how in the two hundred prefectures east of the mountains, thorns and brambles grow in a thousand villages?
Even with strong women wielding hoe and plough, the grain in the fields grows in disorder.
How much more the Qin soldiers, hardened to bitter battle, driven like dogs and fowl.
Though you, sir, have asked, how dare the laborer voice his grievance?
Take this winter: the soldiers of the west are not yet released from service.
The magistrate urgently demands the rent; from where shall the taxes come?
Indeed we know a son is ill-fated; a daughter is the better lot.
A daughter may wed a near neighbor; a son is buried and lost among the hundred grasses.
Do you not see at the head of Qinghai Lake, white bones since ancient times uncollected?
New ghosts fret in wrong, old ghosts wail; when skies are dark and rain falls, their cries are faint and shrill.
Meaning
This poem dramatizes the suffering of conscripted soldiers and their families under the Tang court's relentless military expansion. Through a passerby's dialogue with a conscript, Du Fu exposes the endless levies, the ruined countryside, and the twisted popular sentiment that now dreads the birth of sons. It stands as one of the supreme anti-war poems in Chinese literature and a model of Du Fu's 'poetry of history.'
战车辚辚响，战马萧萧鸣，出征的士兵弓箭各佩在腰。爹娘妻子跑来相送，尘埃遮蔽了咸阳桥。牵着衣襟跺脚拦路痛哭，哭声直上云霄。路边过路的人问征夫，征夫只说征兵太频繁。有的十五岁就北上防河，到四十岁还在西边营田。去时里正给他裹头，归来头发已白还要戍边。边疆流血成海水，武皇开边的欲望还没停止。您没听说汉家山东二百州，千村万落都长满荆棘。纵然有健妇把锄犁，庄稼也长得不成东西。何况秦地的士兵吃苦耐战，被驱赶起来不比鸡犬。长者虽然有问，役夫怎敢申诉怨恨？且说今年冬天，关西的士兵还没休整。县官急着催租，租税从哪里出？确实知道生男不好，反倒不如生女好。生女还能嫁给近邻，生男却埋没随百草。您没看见青海头，古来白骨无人收。新鬼烦冤旧鬼哭，天阴雨湿时啾啾哭号。
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] The poem opens with the sound of war carts and horses as conscripts depart, their families clinging and weeping by the Xianyang Bridge. A traveler questions one soldier, who recounts a lifetime of service from age fifteen to forty, the blood-soaked frontier, and the wasteland left behind. The conscript dares not complain, yet notes the taxes demanded from empty villages and the bitter irony that daughters are now preferred to sons, since sons are sent to die. The poem closes on the unburied bones at Qinghai and the wailing of new and old ghosts in the rain. [Structure] The poem moves from a public scene of departure, to a private monologue of grievance, to a panoramic vision of national ruin and the spirit world. Its question-and-answer frame (passerby and conscript) lets the victim speak for himself, lending the indictment an immediacy and authenticity that pure description could not. [Imagery] The opening onomatopoeia ('rumble,' 'whinny'), the dust that hides the bridge, and the cries that 'pierce the clouds' establish scale and pathos at once. The repeated images of blood like seawater, thorns in a thousand villages, and white bones uncollected accumulate into a total picture of devastation. The final ghost-cry transforms physical horror into the supernatural, extending the sorrow beyond death.
【白话串讲】 杜甫写《兵车行》：“车辚辚，马萧萧，行人弓箭各在腰”——“爷娘妻子走相送，尘埃不见咸阳桥”——“牵衣顿足拦道哭，哭声直上干云霄”——“信知生男恶，反是生女好”——他写征兵之苦。 【意象与手法】 此诗写征夫之苦与战争的惨烈，是杜甫最著名的反战诗篇。开篇「车辚辚，马萧萧，行人弓箭各在腰」以声响写出征的场面，「牵衣顿足拦道哭，哭声直上干云霄」写送别的惨状，是千古名句；中段「或从十五北防河，便至四十西营田」写征夫服役之久，「边庭流血成海水，武皇开边意未已」以「武皇」暗指当朝，写穷兵黩武；「信知生男恶，反是生女好」写民心的反常，是千古名句；结句「新鬼烦冤旧鬼哭，天阴雨湿声啾啾」以鬼哭写战场的惨烈，是千古名句。全诗以问答体展开，由送别写到征夫自述，再写到田园荒废、民生凋敝，层层深入，正是杜甫「诗史」精神的体现。 【情感与主旨】 此诗约作于唐玄宗天宝年间（约751年前后），时杜甫居长安。唐玄宗晚年穷兵黩武，连年对吐蕃、南诏用兵，征兵频繁，百姓苦于兵役。杜甫有感于时弊，作此诗控诉战争的惨烈。诗中「或从十五北防河，便至四十西营田」写征夫服役之漫长，「边庭流血成海水，武皇开边意未已」以「武皇」暗指唐玄宗，写穷兵黩武；「信知生男恶，反是生女好」写百姓因兵役而重女轻男的反常心理，深刻揭示战争的残酷。全诗以「行人」的自述，写尽征夫之苦、田园之荒、民生之困，是杜甫「诗史」精神的典型体现。 【名句点睛】 常考「车辚辚，马萧萧」的开篇声势；「牵衣顿足拦道哭，哭声直上干云霄」写送别惨状的千古名句；「边庭流血成海水，武皇开边意未已」的讽喻；「信知生男恶，反是生女好」写民心反常的深刻；结句「新鬼烦冤旧鬼哭，天阴雨湿声啾啾」以鬼哭写惨烈；以及此诗问答体与叙事艺术、杜甫「诗史」精神。
Background
Du Fu (712–770), styled Zimei, self-titled 'Old Man of Shaoling,' was the great realist poet of the Tang dynasty, later honored as the 'Sage of Poetry.' This ballad was composed around 751, during the Tianbao era of Emperor Xuanzong, when Du Fu lived in the capital Chang'an in strained circumstances. In his later years Xuanzong was militarily aggressive, campaigning almost yearly against Tibet and Nanzhao; the old militia system had broken down and conscription grew frequent and brutal. In 751 the jiedushi Xianyu Zhongtong was crushed at Lushui with the loss of sixty thousand men, and the court, on Yang Guozhong's orders, seized men by force and marched them in cangues, their weeping shaking the countryside. Moved by these abuses, Du Fu wrote this poem as an indictment of warmongering and a record of popular suffering—a quintessential instance of his 'poetry of history.'
此诗约作于唐玄宗天宝十载（751）前后，时杜甫居长安，生活困顿。杜甫（712—770），字子美，自号少陵野老，唐代伟大的现实主义诗人，被后人誉为「诗圣」。唐玄宗晚年穷兵黩武，连年对外用兵——天宝年间，唐军连年征讨吐蕃、南诏，加之府兵制破坏、募兵制兴起，征兵频繁，百姓苦于兵役。天宝十载（751）四月，剑南节度使鲜于仲通征讨南诏，大败于泸南，死者六万；同年，朝廷又征兵讨伐南诏，百姓不愿从军，杨国忠遣御史分道捕人，连枷送军，哭声震野。杜甫此诗即有感于时弊而作。诗中「或从十五北防河，便至四十西营田」写征夫服役之漫长，「边庭流血成海水，武皇开边意未已」以「武皇」暗指唐玄宗，写穷兵黩武，「信知生男恶，反是生女好」更写百姓因兵役而重女轻男的反常心理，深刻揭示战争的残酷。此诗作于杜甫居长安十年（751年前后），此时他已目睹国事日非、民生凋敝，遂以诗记之，是杜甫「诗史」精神的典型体现，也是中国文学史上最著名的反战诗篇之一。
Art
The poem's craft may be read in four moves. First, it opens with sonorous scene-setting: 'Chariots rumble, horses whinny' establishes the departure through sound before sight, and 'dust hides the Xianyang Bridge' conveys the multitude of mourners. The line 'clutching robes, stamping feet, blocking the road and weeping' chains three actions into one breath, while 'cries rise straight to the clouds' uses hyperbole for the height of grief. Second, it unfolds through question and answer, letting the conscript narrate his own long service, the ruined fields, and the people's plight with plain, wounded sincerity. Third, it deploys ironic contrast: 'a son is ill-fated, a daughter is the better lot' inverts the normal preference for sons, exposing how war has deformed the most basic human valuations. Fourth, it closes with the wailing of ghosts—new and old—whose shrill cries in the rain evoke the battlefield's horror 'by way of the unreal,' leaving a pain that outlasts the poem. These four layers carry a narrative indictment of the times and embody Du Fu's historical conscience.
此诗的艺术特色可从四个方面解析。其一，以声势开篇的场面描写。开篇「车辚辚，马萧萧，行人弓箭各在腰」以车声、马声、行人装束写出征的场面，先声夺人；「爷娘妻子走相送，尘埃不见咸阳桥」以「尘埃不见桥」写送别人多、尘土飞扬，场面惨烈；「牵衣顿足拦道哭，哭声直上干云霄」连用「牵衣、顿足、拦道哭」三个动作与「哭声直上干云霄」的夸张，写尽送别的惨状，是千古名句。其二，以问答展开的叙事。中段「道傍过者问行人，行人但云点行频」以问答引出征夫的自述，借「行人」之口写服役之苦、田园之荒、民生之困，叙事委婉而真切。其三，以对比写民生。「信知生男恶，反是生女好。生女犹得嫁比邻，生男埋没随百草」以生男不如生女的反常对比，写尽百姓因兵役而生的心理扭曲，深刻而沉痛。其四，以鬼哭收束的惨烈。结句「新鬼烦冤旧鬼哭，天阴雨湿声啾啾」以新鬼旧鬼的哭号写战场的惨烈，鬼哭声声，阴森惨烈，以虚写实，余痛无穷。四重手法，使此诗以叙事写时弊，是杜甫「诗史」精神的典型体现。
Allusions
The poem's language is steeped in the traditions of war and separation. 'Chariots rumble, horses whinny' echoes the chariot-and-horse imagery of the Shi Jing ('Neighbor, neighbor, the chariot; white-foreheaded, the horse') and Li Bai's 'the whinnying of parting horses.' The Xianyang Bridge evokes the long tradition of frontier campaigns and the loneliness of the road north. 'Blood at the border flows like the sea' recalls the bitter fields of frontier verse ('half the army dead before the battle'), while 'the Martial Emperor' discreetly figures Xuanzong through the Han emperor Wu, a customary device for criticizing the reigning monarch. 'A son is ill-fated' reverses the folk sentiment that Bai Juyi later voiced as 'parents no longer prize sons, they prize daughters.' 'The head of Qinghai' summons the border lakes of Wang Changling's 'cloud-darkens the snowy mountains'; 'new ghosts fret, old ghosts wail' reaches back to the 'spirits of the slain' in the Chu Ci and to Chen Tao's 'bones by the Wuding River, still in spring dreams of the bride.' Throughout, Du Fu transmutes the inherited images of war, parting, frontier, and ghostly lament into a documentary of his age.
此诗的用语深植于战争与离乱的传统。「车辚辚，马萧萧」令人想到《诗经·秦风·车邻》「有车邻邻，有马白颠」的车马意象，也令人想到「萧萧班马鸣」（李白《送友人》）的马鸣意象；「行人弓箭各在腰」令人想到「老当益壮，宁移白首之心」的征夫形象，也令人想到「将军角弓不得控」的边塞意象；「咸阳桥」即中渭桥，令人想到「秦时明月汉时关」的征战传统，也令人想到「咸阳古道音尘绝」的送别意象；「边庭流血成海水」令人想到「醉卧沙场君莫笑」（王翰《凉州词》）的沙场，也令人想到「战士军前半死生」的惨烈；「武皇」以汉武帝暗指唐玄宗，令人想到「武皇开边」的用兵传统；「信知生男恶，反是生女好」令人想到「生女犹得嫁比邻」的民谣传统，也令人想到「遂令天下父母心，不重生男重生女」（白居易《长恨歌》）的反常心理；「青海头」即青海湖，令人想到「青海长云暗雪山」（王昌龄《从军行》）的边地意象；「新鬼烦冤旧鬼哭」令人想到《楚辞·九歌·国殇》「身既死兮神以灵」的鬼雄传统，也令人想到「可怜无定河边骨，犹是春闺梦里人」（陈陶《陇西行》）的战场白骨。全诗化用战争、送别、边塞、鬼哭的传统意象，以叙事写时弊，正是杜甫「诗史」的本领。
Commentary
This poem has long been ranked among Du Fu's finest anti-war works and a supreme instance of his 'poetry of history.' Critics through the ages have praised it: Song readers called it 'every line heavy with grief, every word blood and tears,' and Qing scholars singled out 'clutching robes and stamping feet' and 'a son is ill-fated' as models of realist pathos. Its special value lies in narrating, with documentary plainness, both the horror of war and the desolation of the people—the rumbling carts, the cloud-piercing cries, the blood like seawater, the villages overgrown with thorns, the sons lost among the grasses, the uncollected bones. Together with 'The Old Man of Shihao' it forms a twin study of conscription: one in the conscript's own voice, one in an old woman's. It belongs to the same current as the 'Three Officers' and 'Three Partings.' For modern readers it remains a window onto Du Fu's historical conscience and his protest against militarism; the ghosts' faint crying still accuses, across a thousand years, the crime of reckless war.
此诗历来被推为杜甫最著名的反战诗篇，也是其「诗史」精神的典型体现。历代论者对此诗评价极高：宋人评此诗「语语沉痛，字字血泪」；清人更指出「牵衣顿足拦道哭」「信知生男恶」等句写尽战争惨烈，是杜甫现实主义诗篇的典范。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以叙事之笔写尽战争的惨烈与民生的凋敝——那辚辚的车声，那干云霄的哭声，那流成海水的边血，那长满荆杞的村落，那埋没百草的生男，那无人收的白骨，都写尽了这位「诗圣」对战争的控诉；那「信知生男恶，反是生女好」写民心反常，更是千古名句。此诗与杜甫的《石壕吏》（「暮投石壕村」）同为写兵役之苦的名篇，一写征夫自述，一写老妇应征；又与「三吏」「三别」一脉相承，可见杜甫「诗史」精神的全面体现。对于今日读者，此诗是理解杜甫「诗史」精神与反战思想的窗口，也是中国诗写战争苦难的经典——那啾啾的鬼哭，穿越千年，仍在控诉着穷兵黩武的罪恶。
Prosody
Line by line
牵衣顿足拦道哭，哭声直上干云霄
Clutching robes, stamping feet, they block the road and weep; their cries rise straight to the clouds.
牵着衣襟跺脚拦路痛哭，哭声直上云霄。
They clutch the conscripts' clothes, stamp their feet, block the road and weep; the wailing rises straight up to pierce the clouds.
此句写送别的惨状，是千古名句。「牵衣顿足拦道哭」连用「牵衣」「顿足」「拦道哭」三个动作——「牵衣」写拽住征夫衣襟不舍，「顿足」写跺脚痛哭，「拦道哭」写拦在路上哭泣，三个动作一气贯下，写尽送别之人的悲恸；「哭声直上干云霄」以夸张写哭声——那「直上干云霄」写哭声上冲云霄，以「干」字写哭声之高，写尽哭声之惨烈。这句的深意在于：它以「牵衣顿足拦道哭」的具体动作与「哭声直上干云霄」的夸张，写尽战争强加于百姓的惨痛——爹娘妻子送征夫，牵衣拦道，哭声震天，那「干云霄」的哭声，正是百姓对战争的控诉；三个动作写尽悲恸，一声哭写尽惨烈，以实写虚，震撼人心。若换作直说「大家哭得很伤心」，则失其惨烈；唯以「牵衣顿足拦道哭」的动作连用与「干云霄」的夸张，写尽送别的惨状，也让此句成为写战争苦难的千古名句。这句的感染力，还在于「牵衣」「顿足」「拦道」「哭」四个动作一气呵成——那「牵衣」写扯衣不放，「顿足」写跺脚失态，「拦道」写拦路不让，「哭」写放声痛哭，四个动作连用，写尽百姓送别的悲恸。
The opening is a documentary horror. Three actions tumble over one another—clutching the garment, stamping the foot, blocking the road—before the cry itself, which pierces the clouds. The physical verbs are the poem's first protest: parents, wives, children clutching at men who are being marched to the frontier, and the noise of that struggle rising beyond the sky. "Pierce" is the exact word—the weeping is not lament but accusation, driving upward against heaven. To have said people wept as their men were taken away would lose the choreography; the four successive actions are what make the scene unbearable.
信知生男恶，反是生女好
Indeed we know a son is ill-fated; a daughter is the better lot.
确实知道生男不好，反倒不如生女好。
Now we know for certain: bearing a son is bad; it were better, instead, to bear a daughter.
此句写民心的反常，是千古名句。「信知生男恶」写确实知道生男不好——那「信知」写确信无疑，「生男恶」写生男孩不好，写尽百姓因兵役而厌生男；「反是生女好」写反倒不如生女好——那「反是」写竟然反过来了，「生女好」写生女孩好，写尽重女轻男的反常。这句的深意在于：它以「生男恶」「生女好」的颠倒，写尽战争对民心的扭曲——本来重男轻女，如今却因兵役而重女轻男，生男要当兵送死，生女还能嫁在近邻；那「信知」写这种反常已成共识，「反是」写这种颠倒的荒诞，深刻揭示了战争如何扭曲了百姓最基本的情感与价值观。若换作直说「百姓害怕生男孩」，则失其深刻；唯以「生男恶」「生女好」的颠倒对照，写尽民心反常的沉痛，也让此句成为揭示战争残酷的千古名句。在重男轻女的古代，这种颠倒更见反常之极——那「信知」写确凿无疑，「恶」写生男为患，「反是」写反转之甚，「生女好」写生女为福，四字之间层层递进，把民心倒置写得触目惊心；而这正是战争对人性最深的扭曲，也是杜甫反战思想最沉痛的一笔。
Du Fu's most terrible social observation is about reversed values. In a culture that prized sons, the conscripts' families have arrived at the opposite: a son will be marched off and left to rot on the frontier, while a daughter may at least be married to a neighbor. "We know for certain" shows the reversal has hardened into common knowledge; "instead" shows the scandal of it. No war poem has so clearly measured what conscription does to the most primitive affections of ordinary people. To have said families no longer wanted sons would be a summary; the inverted proverb itself is the evidence of how deep the injury goes.
新鬼烦冤旧鬼哭，天阴雨湿声啾啾
New ghosts fret in wrong, old ghosts wail; when skies are dark and rain falls, their cries are faint and shrill.
新鬼烦冤，旧鬼哭号，天阴雨湿时啾啾哭号。
New ghosts are full of grievance, old ghosts wail; on wet, overcast days their thin cries sound, chiu-chiu.
此句是全诗的结句，也是千古名句，以鬼哭写战场的惨烈。「新鬼烦冤旧鬼哭」写新鬼旧鬼的哭号——那「新鬼烦冤」写新死的鬼魂满怀冤屈，「旧鬼哭」写旧死的鬼魂哭号，新鬼旧鬼，冤魂不散；「天阴雨湿声啾啾」写天阴雨湿时的鬼哭——那「天阴雨湿」写阴雨连绵的惨淡天气，「声啾啾」写鬼哭的啾啾之声，以鬼哭写战场的阴森。这句的深意在于：它以鬼哭写战场的惨烈与冤魂的不得安息——青海头白骨无人收，新鬼旧鬼在阴雨中啾啾哭号，那「烦冤」写尽冤魂的冤屈，那「啾啾」写尽鬼哭的凄厉，以虚写实，写尽战争的惨痛；那「天阴雨湿」更以阴惨的环境烘托鬼哭，写尽战场的阴森与惨烈。若换作直说「战场死了很多人」，则失其惨烈；唯以新鬼旧鬼的哭号写战场的冤魂，以「啾啾」的鬼声写惨烈，也让此句成为全诗最沉痛、最震撼的千古名句。而且「新鬼」「旧鬼」之「新」「旧」二字，写尽死亡的一批接着一批；「天阴雨湿」写尽鬼哭的背景，愈增其凄厉。
The poem ends on the battlefield, and the ending is supernatural. "New ghosts" and "old ghosts" means one generation of slaughter after another—the dead of last year and the dead of ten years back, still unreleased—and when the sky drizzles, their thin cries rise from the unburied bones. The weather is not atmosphere but accomplice: the wet, grey murk is the only climate the ghosts have. By turning war dead into a continuing population of complainers, Du Fu makes the battlefield a place that never closes. To have said many people died in the war would be journalism; the wailing of new and old ghosts in the rain is the poem's final, unforgettable image.
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'The Old Man of Shihao' ('At dusk I lodged in Shihao village; at night an officer seized men') shows an officer dragging people off and an old woman volunteering to follow him, a famous piece among Du Fu's 'Three Officers.' 'Song of the War Carts' renders the conscript's own account and the battlefield's horror ('a son is ill-fated'; 'new ghosts fret, old ghosts wail'). Both treat conscription, yet one shows the officer's angry cry and the woman's grief at capture, the other the clinging and weeping at parting; one writes of the living separated by death, the other of blood flowing like the sea. Read together, they reveal two faces of Du Fu's poetry of conscription.
《石壕吏》「暮投石壕村，有吏夜捉人」「老妪力虽衰，请从吏夜归」写吏夜捉人、老妇应征的惨状，是杜甫「三吏」中的名篇。此诗《兵车行》则「信知生男恶，反是生女好」「新鬼烦冤旧鬼哭」写征夫自述与战争惨烈。同为写兵役之苦，一写「吏呼一何怒，妇啼一何苦」的捉人（石壕吏），一写「牵衣顿足拦道哭」的送别（兵车行）；一以「存者且偷生，死者长已矣」写生离死别，一以「边庭流血成海水」写战争惨烈。两诗对读，可见杜甫写兵役之苦的两种方式。
登高 Climbing High 杜甫 · 同杜甫诗，一叙事反战一登高感怀 Both by Du Fu—one a narrative protest against war, one a meditative climb.'Climbing High' ('Swift the wind, high the sky, apes wail in grief') writes the autumn scene and the poet's exiled condition, the crown of Du Fu's regulated verse. 'Song of the War Carts' writes anti-war feeling and the people's plight ('blood at the border flows like the sea'). Both by Du Fu: one the sorrow of a life passed in autumn's exile, the other the pain of livelihood under conscription; one the immensity of 'the endless Yangtze rolling,' the other the horror of 'new ghosts fret, old ghosts wail.' Read together, they show two expressions of Du Fu's 'grave and restrained' (chen yu dun cuo) manner.
《登高》「风急天高猿啸哀，渚清沙白鸟飞回」「无边落木萧萧下，不尽长江滚滚来」写登高所见的秋景与身世之感，是杜甫七律的压卷之作。此诗《兵车行》则「边庭流血成海水，武皇开边意未已」写反战与民生。同为杜甫诗，一写「万里悲秋常作客」的身世之悲（登高），一写「信知生男恶」的民生之痛（兵车行）；一以「不尽长江滚滚来」写苍茫，一以「新鬼烦冤旧鬼哭」写惨烈。两诗对读，可见杜甫诗「沉郁顿挫」的两种表现。