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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

宫辞

Palace Elegy

李商隐

PLACEHOLDER_LI

宫怨Palace resentment

君恩如水向东流，得宠忧移失宠愁。
莫向尊前奏花落，凉风只在殿西头。

Your favour runs east like water,
To hold it is to fear its turning away, to lose it is to grieve.
Do not play before the cups the song of falling blossoms,
For the cold wind already waits at the west end of the hall.

Listen

Meaning

A palace lady watches imperial favour drain away like water running east. To be in favour is to fear its transfer to another; out of favour, one has only grief. She begs that no one perform the tune of falling blossoms at the banquet, because the cold wind is already at the west end of the hall — the omen of her own disgrace. Read beneath the complaint about the palace is the poet's sense of how unsafe official favour is for anyone who depends on it.

君恩如水向东流，得宠忧移失宠愁。莫向尊前奏花落，凉风只在殿西头。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The sovereign's love runs east like water; whoever holds it fears the day it shifts to someone else, whoever loses it is left with grief. So the speaker begs: do not play, before the wine cups, the melody of petals falling — for the cold wind is already waiting at the west end of the hall. [Structure] The quatrain moves in a single hinge from statement to omen. The first couple turns a whole institution into a natural process, then into a balanced pair of opposites — favoured and unfavoured, fear and grief — so that neither state appears safe. The second couple abandons analysis and warns, and closes on an image. [Imagery] Water running east suggests both direction and irretrievability; petals falling and the wind at the palace's western corner are the same event seen twice, once as music and once as weather. Leaving the warning unspoken is what makes the ending so effective: in a place where favour is weather, nobody needs to be told that the wind has arrived.

【白话串讲】李商隐写《宫辞》：“君恩如水向东流，得宠忧移失宠愁”——“莫向尊前奏花落，凉风只在殿西头”——他写宫女——君恩如水——得宠怕失宠，失宠又忧愁。【意象与手法】此诗写宫怨，以讽喻写宫怨，是李商隐的名篇。前二句写恩移：「君恩如水向东流，得宠忧移失宠愁」写君恩如水向东流、得宠忧移失宠愁——写尽恩移的忧惧；后二句写劝警：「莫向尊前奏花落，凉风只在殿西头」写莫向尊前奏花落、凉风只在殿西头——写尽失宠的预兆。全诗以讽喻写宫怨，写尽恩移的忧惧与失宠的预兆，是李商隐的代表作。【情感与主旨】此诗写宫怨，以讽喻写宫怨，是李商隐的名篇。此诗写宫中女子对君恩无常的忧惧。李商隐屡咏宫怨，此诗以「君恩如水向东流」写君恩之易逝，得宠者忧恩移、失宠者愁自身；末二句劝莫奏《梅花落》之曲，因为凉风已在殿西头，暗喻失宠之将至。全诗以宫怨写宦海浮沉，正是李商隐借宫怨寄托身世之感的手法。此诗写恩移：君恩如水向东流，得宠忧移失宠愁——写君恩如水向东流、得宠忧移失宠愁，写尽恩移的忧惧；莫向尊前奏花落，凉风只在殿西头——写莫向尊前奏花落、凉风只在殿西头，写尽失宠的预兆。全诗以讽喻写宫怨——那「君恩如水向东流」写尽恩移的忧惧，「凉风只在殿西头」写尽失宠的预兆，写尽恩移的忧惧与失宠的预兆，是理解李商隐宫怨诗的重要篇章。【名句点睛】常考「君恩如水向东流，得宠忧移失宠愁」写恩移的忧惧；「凉风只在殿西头」写失宠的预兆；以及全诗以讽喻写宫怨、以隐喻写忧惧的手法。

Background

PLACEHOLDER_LI (c. 813 – c. 858), courtesy name Yishan, self-styled Yuxi Sheng, came from Huai Zhou He Nei (modern Qinyang, Henan) and spent most of his life as a mid- or lower-ranking official who moved between patrons at the late Tang court. Paired with Du Mu as the 'little Li and Du', he is prized for the density and ambiguity of his love and political verse. He returned again and again to the theme of palace women abandoned by the emperor, and this quatrain is among his most quoted. Modern readers take it as an allegory: the lady's dread of losing favour stands for an official's dread that a patron's patronage will pass to another man.

此诗写宫怨，以讽喻写宫怨，是李商隐的名篇。李商隐（约813—约858），字义山，号玉谿生，怀州河内（今河南沁阳）人，晚唐诗人，与杜牧并称「小李杜」，与温庭筠并称「温李」。此诗写宫中女子对君恩无常的忧惧。李商隐屡咏宫怨，此诗以「君恩如水向东流」写君恩之易逝，得宠者忧恩移、失宠者愁自身；末二句劝莫奏《梅花落》之曲，因为凉风已在殿西头，暗喻失宠之将至。全诗以宫怨写宦海浮沉，正是李商隐借宫怨寄托身世之感的手法。此诗写恩移：「君恩如水向东流，得宠忧移失宠愁」写君恩如水向东流、得宠忧移失宠愁——写尽恩移的忧惧（君恩如水向东流，得宠忧移失宠愁）；「莫向尊前奏花落，凉风只在殿西头」写莫向尊前奏花落、凉风只在殿西头——写尽失宠的预兆（莫向尊前奏花落，凉风只在殿西头）。全诗以讽喻写宫怨，写尽恩移的忧惧与失宠的预兆，是理解李商隐宫怨诗的重要篇章。

Art

Four crafts can be picked apart here. First, metaphor: 'your favour runs east like water' converts a court relationship into a physical process, so that its unreliability needs no argument. Second, antithesis: 'to hold it is to fear its turning, to lose it is to grieve' compresses the entire psychology of court life into one balanced line in which neither condition is comfortable. Third, restraint by prohibition: rather than describe her fear, the speaker asks that the song of falling blossoms not be sung — the plea implies the fear and leaves the reader to supply the conclusion. Fourth, scene as omen: 'the cold wind is only at the west end of the hall' answers with weather rather than with a claim, so the poem ends on an image, the kind of close that leaves a quatrain ringing in the memory.

此诗的艺术特色可从四个方面解析。其一，以比喻写恩移。「君恩如水向东流」以比喻写恩移——那「如水向东流」写尽君恩的易逝，以比喻写尽恩移的忧惧。其二，以对举写得失。「得宠忧移失宠愁」以对举写得失——那「得宠」「失宠」写尽宠辱的对举，以对举写尽宫怨的忧惧。其三，以劝阻写预兆。「莫向尊前奏花落」以劝阻写预兆——那「莫向尊前」写尽劝阻的深意，以劝阻写尽失宠的预兆。其四，以景语写失宠。「凉风只在殿西头」以景语写失宠——那「凉风」写尽失宠的暗喻，以景语写尽失宠的预兆。此外，此诗前二句写恩移的忧惧，后二句写失宠的预兆，由忧及警，正是宫怨诗「以警写怨」的写法。四重手法，使此诗以讽喻写宫怨，写尽恩移的忧惧与失宠的预兆，是李商隐的代表作。此诗还善于以「君恩如水」的比喻写恩宠之无常——那「如水」写尽君恩的易逝，正是以水喻恩的贴切，以比喻写尽恩移的忧惧。又善以「莫向尊前奏花落」的劝止写自警——尊前莫奏花落之曲，正是恐听悲音的写照，以劝止写尽失宠的预兆。

Allusions

The title places the poem in the palace-lament lineage running through Han yuefu and Wang Changling. 'Falling blossoms' alludes to the Han crossbow melody 'Plum Blossoms Fall' (Meihua Luo), a tune of parting and decay that would be unbearably fitting at a banquet. 'Cold wind' recalls Du Fu's 'cold wind begins at the end of heaven', while 'running east' gathers the whole family of poems comparing royal favour to a river, including Li Yu's 'all the spring water of the river runs east'. The plainest word of the poem, therefore, is already loaded with earlier verse about the fragility of favour.

此诗的用语深植于宫怨与讽喻传统。「君恩如水」令人想到「君恩如水」写君恩的意象——也令人想到「恩深似海」的反面「恩移」的意象；「花落」令人想到「花落」写《梅花落》曲的意象——也令人想到「花落知多少」（孟浩然）的意象；「凉风」令人想到「凉风」写凉风的意象——也令人想到「凉风起天末」（杜甫）的意象；「殿西头」令人想到「殿西头」写宫殿的意象——也令人想到「西风残照」的意象；「向东流」令人想到「向东流」写东流的意象——也令人想到「一江春水向东流」（李煜）的意象。全诗化用君恩如水、花落、凉风、殿西头、向东流的意象，以讽喻写宫怨，正是李商隐「深婉」而善用比、承宫怨传统写忧惧之本领。「尊前」令人想到「尊前」写酒樽之前的意象——也令人想到晏几道《鹧鸪天》「舞低杨柳楼心月，歌尽桃花扇底风」的尊前意象；「梅花落」令人想到汉乐府横吹曲《梅花落》——也令人想到李白《与史郎中钦听黄鹤楼上吹笛》「黄鹤楼中吹玉笛，江城五月落梅花」的意象。

Commentary

Qing readers judged the poem 'deep, graceful and pointed' (yi feng yu xie xin), and modern anthologists single out 'your favour runs east like water' as the line that carries the quatrain. Its place in the canon is secure as one of the Touchstone of Tang palace verse: it is customarily read beside Wang Changling's 'Autumn Verses of Changxin Palace', where a discarded lady Comparing her white face with a crow that still carries the sun of Zhao Yang, and often beside PLACEHOLDER_LI's own 'Yaochi', which mocks an emperor's search for immortality. Placed together, the two show the two available postures toward the court — satire of the sovereign, pity for the woman who serves him.

此诗历来被推为李商隐宫怨诗的名篇，也是唐诗写君恩无常的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以讽喻写宫怨，深婉警策」；近人更指出「君恩如水向东流」写恩移的忧惧，是此诗的名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以四句的绝句写尽恩移的忧惧与失宠的预兆——那君恩，那如水，那向东流，那得宠，那忧移，那失宠，那愁，那尊前，那花落，那凉风，那殿西头，都写尽了李商隐笔下的宫辞；那「凉风只在殿西头」更以景语写尽失宠的预兆。此诗与李商隐《瑶池》（「八骏日行三万里」）同为咏宫廷名篇，一写「穆王何事不重来」的求仙（瑶池），一写「凉风只在殿西头」的宫怨（宫辞）；又与王昌龄《长信秋词》「玉颜不及寒鸦色」的宫怨传统一脉相承，可见唐诗写宫怨的传统。对于今日读者，此诗是理解李商隐宫怨诗的窗口，也是唐诗写君恩无常的经典——那殿西头的凉风，穿越千年，仍在诉说着恩移的忧惧。

Prosody

Form Seven-character quatrain (七言绝句), a jueju of four lines诗·七言绝句

Rhyme A single rhyme, level tone, on the -iu/-ou group: liu (flow), chou (grief), tou (head) — the 11th You rhyme board, held throughout七绝，押「流」「愁」「头」韵（下平十一尤），一韵到底，音节深婉

Tone pattern Level-tone rhymes give the line an unhurried, plangent close; the even cadence lets the grief be stated twice (fear, then grief) without any urgency of rhythm.此诗为七言绝句，押平声韵，一韵到底，音节深婉，正合宫怨的深婉。

Reading note The poem is one of the short forms, four lines of seven characters. The rhyme words are 流, 愁, 头, all level tone and all pointing downward in sound while the sense moves onward — an effect that matches the theme of favour escaping. Read 得宠忧移失宠愁 with a measured, sorrowing voice, and close 凉风只在殿西头 as a quiet pronouncement rather than a lament; the line should sound like a fact noticed, not a grief expressed. PLACEHOLDER_LI's jueju are famous for exactly this mixture of plain statement and lingering tone.此诗为七言绝句，四句——「君恩如水向东流，得宠忧移失宠愁。莫向尊前奏花落，凉风只在殿西头」，押「尤」韵（流、愁、头），一韵到底，音节深婉。全诗以讽喻写宫怨：前二句写恩移的忧惧（君恩如水向东流、得宠忧移失宠愁），后二句写失宠的预兆（莫向尊前奏花落、凉风只在殿西头）。四句短章，前写恩移，后写预兆，以「凉风只在殿西头」写尽失宠的预兆，正见李商隐「深婉」的本色。诵读此诗，宜以深婉的语调读「得宠忧移失宠愁」的忧惧，以警策的语调读「凉风只在殿西头」的预兆，结句要读得深婉而有余韵，方能传达出李商隐的深婉警策。李商隐绝句以「深婉」著称，此诗正是其宫怨诗的典范。

Line by line

君恩如水向东流，得宠忧移失宠愁

Your favour runs east like water; to hold it is to fear its turning away, to lose it is to grieve.

君恩如水向东流，得宠忧移失宠愁。

The sovereign's grace flows eastward like water; in favor I fear it will shift, out of favor I grieve.

此二句是全诗写恩移的核心，以君恩如水向东流写东流，以得宠忧移失宠愁写失宠，写尽恩移的忧惧，是千古名句。「君恩如水向东流」写君恩如水向东流——那「君恩如水」写君恩如水，「向东流」写向东流，写尽君恩的东流；「得宠忧移失宠愁」写得宠忧移失宠愁——那「得宠忧移」写得宠忧移，「失宠愁」写失宠愁，写尽失宠的忧愁。这句的深意在于：它以「君恩如水向东流」的东流与「得宠忧移失宠愁」的失宠，写尽恩移的忧惧——君恩如水向东流，那「君恩如水向东流」写尽君恩的东流——君恩如水，正是恩泽如流的写照，那「向东流」写尽恩移的忧惧；得宠忧移失宠愁，那「得宠忧移失宠愁」写尽失宠的忧愁——得宠忧移，正是得宠而忧的写照，那「失宠愁」写尽宫怨的忧惧；那「君恩如水向东流」写尽君恩的东流，那「得宠忧移失宠愁」写尽失宠的忧愁，一写恩流，一写得失，写尽恩移的忧惧——恩如流水而宠辱无常，正是宫怨的写照；此二句以东流、得失写尽恩移的忧惧，也为下文的凉风作铺垫，也让此二句成为全诗写恩移的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「皇帝的恩宠靠不住，得宠失宠都让人忧愁」，则失其词情；唯以「君恩如水向东流」写东流、「得宠忧移失宠愁」写失宠，写尽恩移的忧惧，也让此二句成为全诗写恩移的核心。

Li Shangyin's palace complaint opens with the fact. The sovereign's grace flows eastward like water—water is the perfect figure for imperial favor: directionless, unstoppable, gone as soon as it comes. In favor she fears it will shift, out of favor she grieves. The two states of court life are symmetrical anxieties: neither being loved nor being unloved is rest. The flowing water measures the instability of all favor. To have said the emperor's favor was unreliable would be a statement; the water flowing east that cannot be held is the unreliability.

莫向尊前奏花落，凉风只在殿西头

Do not play, before the cups, the song of falling blossoms — for the cold wind is already waiting at the west end of the hall.

莫向尊前奏花落，凉风只在殿西头。

Do not play the song of fallen blossoms before his cup; the cool wind is already at the western end of the hall.

此二句是全诗写预兆的核心，以莫向尊前奏花落写花落，以凉风只在殿西头写凉风，写尽失宠的预兆，是千古名句。「莫向尊前奏花落」写莫向尊前奏花落——那「莫向尊前」写莫向尊前，「奏花落」写奏花落，写尽劝阻的奏曲；「凉风只在殿西头」写凉风只在殿西头——那「凉风」写凉风，「只在殿西头」写只在殿西头，写尽殿西的凉风。这句的深意在于：它以「莫向尊前奏花落」的奏曲与「凉风只在殿西头」的凉风，写尽失宠的预兆——莫向尊前奏花落，那「莫向尊前奏花落」写尽劝阻的奏曲——莫奏花落，正是劝其莫奏悲曲的写照，那「奏花落」写尽失宠的预兆；凉风只在殿西头，那「凉风只在殿西头」写尽殿西的凉风——凉风殿西，正是失宠将至的写照，那「凉风」写尽失宠的预兆；那「莫向尊前奏花落」写尽劝阻的奏曲，那「凉风只在殿西头」写尽殿西的凉风，一写奏曲，一写凉风，写尽失宠的预兆——莫奏花落而凉风已在，正是恩移将至的写照；此二句以奏曲、凉风写尽失宠的预兆，也让此二句成为全诗写预兆的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「别得意，失宠的时候快到了」，则失其含蓄；唯以「莫向尊前奏花落」写花落、「凉风只在殿西头」写凉风，写尽失宠的预兆，也让此二句成为全诗写预兆的核心。

The warning is to a rival, or to herself. Do not play the song of fallen blossoms before his cup—the tune about falling flowers is an omen of autumn, of beauty ending; the cool wind is already at the western end of the hall. The cool wind on the palace's western side is the approaching season's end, and by extension the end of her own favor. The advice not to play the sad tune is itself an admission that the sad turn has already come. To have said don't get too comfortable, your favor is ending, would be a warning; the forbidden tune and the wind already at the hall's western end are the warning.

Study

Word focus

移 In 得宠忧移失宠愁 the word 移 means 'to shift, to transfer'. It is the pivot of the whole line: the favour itself moves from one favourite to another, and the lady can only watch. It makes her position something held rather than earned, and it answers the opening image of flowing water. 「得宠忧移失宠愁」之「移」字是写恩移的关键词，一个「移」字写尽恩移的忧惧。移者，转移、迁移也。李商隐以「得宠忧移失宠愁」写恩移，这个「移」字至少有双重意味：其一，写恩之移——那「得宠忧移失宠愁」写得宠忧移失宠愁，那「移」字写尽恩移的忧惧——忧移，正是忧恩移的写照，那「移」字写尽宫怨的忧惧；其二，写宠之无常——那「移」字更是写无常——移，正见宠恩的易变，那「移」字写尽君恩的无常。以「移」字写恩移，正是李商隐写宫怨的枢纽——若换作「变」「易」等字，则或失其与「君恩如水向东流」「得宠忧移」的配合，或失其写移的意味；唯「移」字，以得宠忧移失宠愁写尽恩移之忧惧与宠恩之易变，与「君恩如水向东流」的东流相合，写尽恩移的忧惧，也让「得宠忧移失宠愁」成为全诗写恩移的名句。

只 In 凉风只在殿西头, 只 means 'only, nothing but', and carries a note of imminence. The wind has not yet entered the hall but has already reached its western corner, so 只 places the threat at the door instead of at a distance; it is the word that turns an omen into an alarm. 「凉风只在殿西头」之「只」字是写预兆的关键词，一个「只」字写尽凉风的逼近。只者，仅、已也。李商隐以「凉风只在殿西头」写预兆，这个「只」字至少有双重意味：其一，写凉之近——那「凉风只在殿西头」写凉风只在殿西头，那「只」字写尽凉风的逼近——只在殿西，正是凉风已近的写照，那「只」字写尽失宠的预兆；其二，写祸之近——那「只」字更是写近——只，正见失宠将至的紧迫，那「只」字写尽宫怨的警醒。以「只」字写预兆，正是李商隐写宫怨的枢纽——若换作「正」「已」等字，则或失其与「凉风」「殿西头」的配合，或失其写只的意味；唯「只」字，以凉风只在殿西头写尽凉风之逼近与失宠之将至，与「莫向尊前奏花落」的劝阻相合，写尽失宠的预兆，也让「凉风只在殿西头」成为全诗写预兆的名句。

宫辞