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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

代应二首·其二

Dai Ying, No. 2 (Written in Another's Place)

李商隐

Li Shangyin

咏怀Meditations on Life

昨夜双钩败，今朝百草输。
关西狂小吏，惟喝绕床卢。

Last night the double-hook game was lost;
this morning the hundred-grass contest too.
A wild little clerk from the West of the Passes,
who only shouts 'lu' as the dice go round the couch.

Listen

Meaning

A four-line jeu d'esprit on games of chance. The speaker opens with two defeats — at the double-hook and at the contest of a hundred grasses — and then brings in a swaggering young clerk from the West of the Passes who, at the game of throwing the 'lu' dice, does nothing but shout his throw aloud. The tone is mockery rather than misery, and because the title Dai Ying means 'written on behalf of another', most readers take the voice to be borrowed from someone at a banquet. The losses read, obliquely, as a complaint about misfortune in love or in public life.

昨夜双钩败，今朝百草输。关西狂小吏，惟喝绕床卢。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Two games are lost in succession, and then a coarse figure shouts his way into the poem. That is the whole story, and its economy is the point.
[Structure] The first couplet is made of abstract nouns — double-hook, hundred-grass, loss, defeat — while the second couplet supplies a character with a place, a temper and a verb. The poem therefore proceeds from the general to the particular, exactly as a scene does.
[Tone] Nothing is stated about whether the speaker is amused or aggrieved, and that ambiguity keeps the irony alive.
[Form] Two of the four lines are grammatical subjects with predicates; the last two are a single figure standing still, which is why the poem feels finished rather than cut short. Everything Li Shangyin needs — boredom, envy, the sense that worthless men have the luck — is left for the reader.

【白话串讲】李商隐写《代应二首·其二》：“昨夜双钩败，今朝百草输”——“关西狂小吏，惟喝绕床卢”——他写赌博游戏。【意象与手法】此诗写感慨，以戏谑写感慨，是李商隐的名篇。前二句写双钩：「昨夜双钩败，今朝百草输」写昨夜双钩败、今朝百草输——写尽双钩的败；后二句写小吏：「关西狂小吏，惟喝绕床卢」写关西狂小吏、惟喝绕床卢——写尽绕床的卢。全诗以戏谑写感慨，写尽双钩的败与绕床的卢，是李商隐的代表作。【情感与主旨】此诗写感慨，以戏谑写感慨，是李商隐的名篇。此诗为《代应二首》之二，写博弈戏谑之事，寄寓身世感慨。李商隐一生蹭蹬，此诗以游戏笔墨写其输赢无常的感慨。此诗写昨夜双钩败，今朝百草输；关西狂小吏，惟喝绕床卢。此诗写双钩：昨夜双钩败，今朝百草输——写昨夜双钩败、今朝百草输，写尽双钩的败；关西狂小吏，惟喝绕床卢——写关西狂小吏、惟喝绕床卢，写尽绕床的卢。全诗以戏谑写感慨——那「昨夜双钩败」写尽双钩的败，「惟喝绕床卢」写尽绕床的卢，写尽双钩的败与绕床的卢，是理解李商隐感慨诗的重要篇章。【名句点睛】常考「昨夜双钩败，今朝百草输」写双钩的败；「关西狂小吏，惟喝绕床卢」写绕床的卢；以及全诗以戏谑写感慨、以用典写博弈的手法。

Background

Li Shangyin (c. 813–858), courtesy name Yishan, and titled Yuxi Sheng, was from Huxiang in modern Qinyang, Henan. He passed the examinations but never held a post of his own merit, drifting between patrons at the court of Zhu Kezhi and later at Dongchuan, and his poems are often read as disguised complaints about that dependence. He and Du Mu are the two late-Tang poets later called 'the Little Du and Li'. 'Dai Ying' — 'written in another's place' — is a pair of poems about amusements; this is the second, and it is the more outspoken.

此诗写感慨，以戏谑写感慨，是李商隐的名篇。李商隐（约813—约858），字义山，号玉谿生，又号樊南生，怀州河内（今河南沁阳）人，晚唐著名诗人，与杜牧并称「小李杜」，与温庭筠并称「温李」。此诗为《代应二首》之二，写博弈戏谑之事，寄寓身世感慨。李商隐一生蹭蹬，此诗以游戏笔墨写其输赢无常的感慨。此诗写昨夜双钩败，今朝百草输；关西狂小吏，惟喝绕床卢。此诗写双钩：「昨夜双钩败，今朝百草输」写昨夜双钩败、今朝百草输——写尽双钩的败（昨夜双钩败，今朝百草输）；「关西狂小吏，惟喝绕床卢」写关西狂小吏、惟喝绕床卢——写尽绕床的卢（关西狂小吏，惟喝绕床卢）。全诗以戏谑写感慨，写尽双钩的败与绕床的卢，是理解李商隐感慨诗的重要篇章。此诗虽为小诗，然为《代应二首》之一，与「代应」之题相合——代友应酬之作，写博弈戏谑而寄身世。李商隐晚年多叹不遇，此诗以「双钩败」「百草输」写输赢，正暗含才士失路的感慨。

Art

The poem works by contrast and by a single decisive verb. Its first couplet is a pair of balanced failures: 'last night' against 'this morning', the double-hook against the hundred-grass, 'lost' against 'lost' again — the rhythm of a run of bad luck stated in the most conventional words available. The second couplet then introduces the opposing principle: a man from the frontier who owns nothing about the game except the shout. The chosen word 喝 ('shout') is the pivot of the whole poem; it is coarse, audible, public, and entirely at odds with the flower-and-leaf elegance of the games named before it. What the poet withholds is even more important than what he gives: not one word says how the speaker feels.

此诗的艺术特色可从四个方面解析。其一，以对仗写输赢。「昨夜双钩败」以对仗写输赢——那「今朝百草输」写尽今朝的百草输，以对仗写尽双钩的败。其二，以白描写博弈。「双钩败」以白描写博弈——那「百草输」写尽百草的输，以白描写尽双钩的败。其三，以用典写小吏。「关西狂小吏」以用典写小吏——那「关西」用关西大汉典写小吏，以用典写尽绕床的卢。其四，以戏谑写感慨。「惟喝绕床卢」以戏谑写感慨——那「绕床卢」用掷卢典写博弈，以戏谑写尽绕床的卢。此外，此诗前二句写双钩的败，后二句写绕床的卢，由败及赢，正是感慨诗「以戏写慨」的写法。四重手法，使此诗以戏谑写感慨，写尽双钩的败与绕床的卢，是李商隐的代表作。此诗还善于以「昨夜」「今朝」的对照写输赢之频——昨夜双钩败而今朝百草输，正见连输的写照，以「昨夜」「今朝」写尽双钩的败。又善以「狂小吏」的「狂」写小吏之狂放——关西狂小吏，正见小吏狂态的写照，以「狂」写尽绕床的卢。

Allusions

The language of this poem is rooted in a tradition of melancholy expressed through playful allusion. 'Double hooks' evokes the ancient game of hiding hooks (cang gou) and the imagery of that guessing game; 'hundred grasses' calls up the ancient contest of fighting grasses (dou bai cao); 'Guanxi' brings to mind the stalwart men of the region west of the pass, famed in the saying 'Guanxi produces great generals'; 'the insolent petty clerk' evokes the figure of a wild, unrestrained minor official; 'the dice spinning around the bed' recalls the game of casting dice (zhi lu), an ancient gambling pastime, and the idiom 'shouting hu and casting zhi'; and 'the shout' itself recalls the cries of triumph in those games. Weaving together the imagery of hidden hooks, fighting grasses, Guanxi, the insolent clerk, the whirling dice, and the triumphant shout, the whole poem turns allusion into playfulness that carries quiet melancholy -- the hallmark of Li Shangyin's 'deeply subtle' mastery of allusion in the tradition of playful lament.

此诗的用语深植于感慨与戏谑传统。「双钩」令人想到「双钩」写藏钩博弈的意象——古代藏钩之戏，也令人想到「藏钩」的意象；「百草」令人想到「百草」写斗百草的意象——古代斗草之戏，也令人想到「斗百草」的意象；「关西」令人想到「关西」写关西的意象——关西大汉，也令人想到「关西出将」的意象；「狂小吏」令人想到「狂小吏」写狂放小吏的意象——也令人想到「小吏」的意象；「绕床卢」令人想到「绕床卢」写掷卢的意象——古樗蒲之戏，也令人想到「呼卢喝雉」的意象；「喝」令人想到「喝」写喝彩的意象——也令人想到「喝雉呼卢」的意象。全诗化用双钩、百草、关西、狂小吏、绕床卢、喝的意象典故，以戏谑写感慨，正是李商隐「深婉」而善用典、承感慨传统写戏谑之本领。「双钩」令人想到「双钩」写藏钩博弈的意象——也令人想到「藏钩」的意象；「百草」令人想到「百草」写斗百草的意象——也令人想到「斗草」的意象；「关西」令人想到「关西」写关西的意象——也令人想到「关西出将」的意象，以关西写小吏。

Commentary

Commentators have disagreed about whether this is a poem about gambling or about people. The Qing anecdotal tradition read it as a satirical sketch of a boorish favourite at court, and modern readers have accepted that, while noting the elegant cover of the title. Its place in literary history is as evidence of the range of the late-Tang short poem: twenty characters can carry a banquet, a loss and a judgement of character without ever becoming rude. It has also been grouped with Li Shangyin's other games and with his 'investiture' poems, in which courtesy and insult are impossible to separate.

此诗历来被推为李商隐感慨诗的名篇，也是唐诗写博弈戏谑的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以戏谑写感慨，深婉有致」；近人更指出「关西狂小吏，惟喝绕床卢」写绕床的卢，是此诗的名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以四句的五绝写尽双钩的败与绕床的卢——那昨夜，那双钩败，那今朝，那百草输，那关西，那狂小吏，那惟喝，那绕床卢，都写尽了李商隐笔下的代应二首其二；那「惟喝绕床卢」更以戏谑写尽绕床的卢。此诗与李商隐《夜雨寄北》「君问归期未有期」同为短章名篇，一写「巴山夜雨涨秋池」的寄北（夜雨寄北），一写「惟喝绕床卢」的代应（代应其二）；一写深情，一写戏谑。两诗对读，可见李商隐短章的两面。对于今日读者，此诗是理解李商隐感慨诗的窗口，也是唐诗写博弈戏谑的经典——那绕床的卢，穿越千年，仍在诉说着双钩的败。此诗虽短，然其妙在以游戏之笔写身世之感——「双钩败」「百草输」皆输，正见失路之叹；「惟喝绕床卢」之狂，正见不遇之愤。短短四句，深婉有致，是李商隐小诗中的精品。

Prosody

Form Poetry — five-character quatrain (wu-yan jueju)诗·五言绝句

Rhyme A regular five-character quatrain rhyming on the -u sound (shu, lu) in the 虞 rhyme of the upper level tones; one rhyme throughout, unhurried and clean.五绝，押「输」「卢」韵（上平七虞），一韵到底，音节明快

Tone pattern Flat tone pattern, level rhymes, no strict tonal contrast between the lines: the metrical surface is smooth and slightly dull, which is exactly the effect of genteel boredom the poem wants.此诗为五言绝句，押平声韵，一韵到底，音节明快，正合戏谑的明快。

Reading note Twenty characters in four lines of five. The rhyme on shu and lu — both in the 虞 rhyme — closes the poem with the very sound of the dice, and the single声 line 'Who only shouts lu' lands on the rhyme. Read it quickly and evenly: the verse is meant to sound like small talk at a table, and the abruptness comes from the content, not from the metre.此诗为五言绝句，四句——「昨夜双钩败，今朝百草输。关西狂小吏，惟喝绕床卢」，押「虞」韵（输、卢），一韵到底，音节明快。全诗以戏谑写感慨：前二句写双钩的败（昨夜双钩败、今朝百草输），后二句写绕床的卢（关西狂小吏、惟喝绕床卢）。四句短章，前写输赢，后写小吏，以「惟喝绕床卢」写尽绕床的卢，正见李商隐「深婉」的本色。诵读此诗，宜以明快的语调读「昨夜双钩败」的输赢，以戏谑的语调读「惟喝绕床卢」的卢，结句要读得明快而有余韵，方能传达出李商隐的深婉有致。李商隐绝句以「深婉」著称，此诗正是其感慨诗的典范。此诗虽为二十字小诗，然音节明快，结句「绕床卢」一喝，颇见顿挫，正合戏谑之致。

Line by line

昨夜双钩败，今朝百草输

Last night the double-hook game was lost; this morning the hundred-grass contest too.

昨夜双钩败，今朝百草输。

Last night I lost at the hooked tiles; this morning I lost again at the hundred-grass game.

此二句是全诗写输赢的核心，以昨夜双钩败写双钩败，以今朝百草输写百草输，写尽双钩的败，是千古名句。「昨夜双钩败」写昨夜双钩败——那「昨夜」写昨夜，「双钩败」写双钩败，写尽双钩的败；「今朝百草输」写今朝百草输——那「今朝」写今朝，「百草输」写百草输，写尽今朝的百草输。这句的深意在于：它以「昨夜双钩败」的双钩败与「今朝百草输」的百草输，写尽双钩的败——昨夜双钩败，那「昨夜双钩败」写尽双钩的败——昨夜双钩败，正是昨夜钩败的写照，那「双钩败」写尽双钩的败；今朝百草输，那「今朝百草输」写尽今朝的百草输——今朝百草输，正是今朝草输的写照，那「百草输」写尽双钩的败；那「昨夜双钩败」写尽双钩的败，那「今朝百草输」写尽今朝的百草输，一写昨夜，一写今朝，写尽双钩的败——昨夜钩败而今朝草输，正是输赢的写照；此二句以昨夜、今朝写尽双钩的败，也为下文的卢作铺垫，也让此二句成为全诗写输赢的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「昨夜藏钩输了，今朝斗百草又输了」，则失其深婉；唯以「昨夜双钩败」写双钩败、「今朝百草输」写百草输，写尽双钩的败，也让此二句成为全诗写输赢的核心。

The poem records two defeats in a row. Last night she lost at hooked tiles, the hiding game played at banquets; this morning she lost again at the hundred-grass contest, comparing the strength of plant stalks. The yesterday and today, lost and lost, stack one small failure on another. The games are the amusements of idle days, and the repeated losing suggests a restlessness that games cannot cure. To have said she gambled and lost twice would be a diary; the two named games and their two losses are the restlessness.

关西狂小吏，惟喝绕床卢

A wild little clerk from the West of the Passes, who only shouts 'lu' as the dice go round the couch.

关西狂小吏，惟喝绕床卢。

That wild little clerk from the western passes, shouting only for the winning throw around the mat.

此二句是全诗写戏谑的核心，以关西狂小吏写狂小吏，以惟喝绕床卢写绕床卢，写尽绕床的卢，是千古名句。「关西狂小吏」写关西狂小吏——那「关西」写关西，「狂小吏」写狂小吏，写尽关西的狂小吏；「惟喝绕床卢」写惟喝绕床卢——那「惟喝」写惟喝，「绕床卢」写绕床卢，写尽绕床的卢。这句的深意在于：它以「关西狂小吏」的狂小吏与「惟喝绕床卢」的绕床卢，写尽绕床的卢——关西狂小吏，那「关西狂小吏」写尽关西的狂小吏——关西狂小吏，正是关西狂吏的写照，那「狂小吏」写尽绕床的卢；惟喝绕床卢，那「惟喝绕床卢」写尽绕床的卢——惟喝绕床卢，正是惟呼卢的写照，那「绕床卢」写尽绕床的卢；那「关西狂小吏」写尽关西的狂小吏，那「惟喝绕床卢」写尽绕床的卢，一写小吏，一写绕床，写尽绕床的卢——狂吏惟喝而绕床呼卢，正是戏谑的写照；此二句以小吏、绕床写尽绕床的卢，也让此二句成为全诗写戏谑的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「关西的狂放小吏，只吆喝着掷出绕床的卢彩」，则失其趣味；唯以「关西狂小吏」写狂小吏、「惟喝绕床卢」写绕床卢，写尽绕床的卢，也让此二句成为全诗写戏谑的核心。

The second couplet introduces the man. That wild little clerk from the western passes—the allusion is to the rough-hewn men of the northwest—and he shouts only for the winning throw, the lu that rolls around the gambling mat. The portrait is drawn with relish: uncouth, loud, obsessed with the dice. The poem's mood is light, satirical, fond; the clerk is neither hero nor villain but a loud presence. To have described a rowdy gambler would be a sketch; the shouted winning throw around the mat is the rowdiness.

Study

Word focus

败 The 'bai' of 'shuanggou bai' — 'lost, defeated'. It is the bluntest word available, and Li Shangyin uses it twice in four lines so that the losses land like arithmetic rather than feeling. 「昨夜双钩败」之「败」字是写输赢关键词，一个「败」字写尽双钩的败。败者，失败、输了也。李商隐以「昨夜双钩败」写输赢，这个「败」字至少有双重意味：其一，写钩之败——那「昨夜双钩败」写昨夜双钩败，那「败」字写尽双钩的败——双钩败，正是藏钩输了的写照，那「败」字写尽双钩的败；其二，写运之蹇——那「败」字更是写蹇——败，正见命运蹭蹬的感慨，那「败」字写尽李商隐的深婉。以「败」字写输赢，正是李商隐写感慨的枢纽——若换作「输」「负」等字，则或失其与「昨夜双钩」「败」的配合，或失其写败的意味；唯「败」字，以昨夜双钩败写尽双钩之失败与命运之蹭蹬，与「今朝百草输」的百草相合，写尽双钩的败，也让「昨夜双钩败」成为全诗写输赢的名句。

喝 The 'he' of 'wei he rao chuang lu' — 'to shout, to call out'. In the game of chupu the player announced his throw aloud; Li Shangyin keeps only the shout and lets the reader infer the man. 「惟喝绕床卢」之「喝」字是写戏谑关键词，一个「喝」字写尽绕床的卢。喝者，吆喝、呼喝也。李商隐以「惟喝绕床卢」写戏谑，这个「喝」字至少有双重意味：其一，写彩之喝——那「惟喝绕床卢」写惟喝绕床卢，那「喝」字写尽绕床的卢——惟喝，正是只知吆喝的写照，那「喝」字写尽绕床的卢；其二，写态之狂——那「喝」字更是写狂——喝，正见小吏狂放的姿态，那「喝」字写尽李商隐的深婉。以「喝」字写戏谑，正是李商隐写感慨的枢纽——若换作「呼」「喊」等字，则或失其与「惟喝」「绕床卢」的配合，或失其写喝的意味；唯「喝」字，以惟喝绕床卢写尽呼卢之吆喝与小吏之狂放，与「关西狂小吏」的小吏相合，写尽绕床的卢，也让「惟喝绕床卢」成为全诗写戏谑的名句。