柳州城西北隅种柑树

Meaning

Exiled to Liuzhou in the far south, Liu Zongyuan plants two hundred orange trees and writes about them. He places himself beside the poet of the Chuci who pitied the orange tree, and refuses the example of the man of Jingzhou who treated oranges as slaves to produce wealth. He looks forward to the blossom and the hanging fruit, and ends by saying that if only he might sit and wait until the trees become a grove, the fruit would still be enough to sustain him in old age. Beneath the calm is the exiled official's stubborn moral claim: a man may be banished and still choose what he tends after.

手种黄柑二百株，春来新叶遍城隅。方同楚客怜皇树，不学荆州利木奴。几岁开花闻喷雪，何人摘实见垂珠。若教坐待成林日，滋味还堪养老夫。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Two hundred trees, planted by his own hand, and by spring their new leaves have covered the north-west corner of the city. The poet then names his models: he stands with the man of Chu who pitied the imperial orange, and refuses the man of Jingzhou who made the orange a slave. Then the future: in a few years the flowers will burst like snow, and someone will pick the fruit and see the pearls hanging; and if only he may sit and wait for the day when they have made a grove, the fruit will still be sweet enough to feed an old man. [Structure] The eight lines run in one movement — planting, growth, the moral claim, the imagined future, the Conclusion in the last two lines. Nothing is asserted twice; each couplet adds a stage. [Imagery] 'New leaves cover the whole corner of the city' is the first small triumph of an exile's labour. 'Blossoms bursting like snow' and 'pears hanging low' are two pictures of the same tree in two seasons, and they belong to the future, where the poet puts his whole hope. The last couplet contains two ordinary words — 'sit and wait' and 'feed an old man' — and those plain words are what give the poem its dignity: the exiled official does not complain of his banishment, he simply claims a right to tend and to grow old.

【白话串讲】 柳宗元写《柳州城西北隅种柑树》：“手种黄柑二百株，春来新叶遍城隅”——“方同楚客怜皇树，不学荆州利木奴”——“几岁开花闻喷雪，何人摘实见垂珠”——“若教坐待成林日，滋味还堪养老夫”——他在柳州种柑橘。 【意象与手法】 此诗写咏物，以迁谪写咏物，是柳宗元的名篇。前段写种柑：「手种黄柑二百株，春来新叶遍城隅。方同楚客怜皇树，不学荆州利木奴」写手种黄柑二百株、春来新叶遍城隅——写尽不学荆州的木奴；中段写盼柑：「几岁开花闻喷雪，何人摘实见垂珠」写几岁开花闻喷雪、何人摘实见垂珠——写尽何人摘实的垂珠；后段写守柑：「若教坐待成林日，滋味还堪养老夫」写若教坐待成林日、滋味还堪养老夫——写尽滋味还堪的养老夫。全诗以迁谪写咏物，写尽不学荆州的木奴与滋味还堪的养老夫，是柳宗元的代表作。 【情感与主旨】 此诗写咏物，以迁谪写咏物，是柳宗元的名篇。此诗为柳宗元在柳州之作，写其种柑自遣的迁谪之情。柳宗元此诗写其手种黄柑的咏物。此诗写手种黄柑二百株，春来新叶遍城隅；方同楚客怜皇树，不学荆州利木奴；几岁开花闻喷雪，何人摘实见垂珠；若教坐待成林日，滋味还堪养老夫。此诗写种柑：手种黄柑二百株，春来新叶遍城隅——写手种黄柑二百株、春来新叶遍城隅，写尽春来新叶的遍城隅；方同楚客怜皇树，不学荆州利木奴——写方同楚客怜皇树、不学荆州利木奴，写尽不学荆州的木奴；几岁开花闻喷雪，何人摘实见垂珠——写几岁开花闻喷雪、何人摘实见垂珠，写尽何人摘实的垂珠；若教坐待成林日，滋味还堪养老夫——写若教坐待成林日、滋味还堪养老夫，写尽滋味还堪的养老夫。全诗以迁谪写咏物——那「不学荆州利木奴」写尽不学荆州的木奴，「滋味还堪养老夫」写尽滋味还堪的养老夫，写尽不学荆州的木奴与滋味还堪的养老夫，是理解柳宗元咏物诗的重要篇章。 【名句点睛】 常考「手种黄柑二百株，春来新叶遍城隅」写春来新叶的遍城隅；「若教坐待成林日，滋味还堪养老夫」写滋味还堪的养老夫；以及全诗以迁谪写咏物、以用典写咏物的手法。

Allusions

The poem is built on two named readings of the orange. 'The man of Chu' is the poet of the Chuci, who in 'The Orange Song' speaks of the lovely tree given from heaven, born in the south and unable to cross to the north, and says that it is fit for the host to plant on the park wall — the classic statement of a man bound to his place and unshaken by the world. 'The imperial tree' is that same orange. 'Jingzhou' and 'the slave of the orange' refer to the rich man of Jin who cut the orange trees of Jingzhou and sold their fruit as slaves, turning a noble tree into a source of profit — the opposite reading. 'Pearls hanging' comes from the common comparison of round fruits to pearls. 'Feed an old man' closes the poem in the plainest possible terms, far from any court language. The frame of the piece is the seven-character regulated verse, a form short enough for one complete argument.

此诗的用语深植于咏物与迁谪传统。「手种」令人想到「手种」写亲种的意象——也令人想到「手植桃李」的意象；「黄柑」令人想到「黄柑」写黄柑的意象——也令人想到「黄柑美酒」的意象；「二百株」令人想到「二百株」写多株的意象——也令人想到「三百株」的意象；「春来」令人想到「春来」写春来的意象——也令人想到「春来江水绿如蓝」（白居易）的意象；「新叶」令人想到「新叶」写新叶的意象——也令人想到「新叶生枝」的意象；「遍城隅」令人想到「遍城隅」写遍隅的意象——也令人想到「绿遍城隅」的意象；「楚客」令人想到「楚客」写楚客的意象——也令人想到「楚客欲听瑶瑟怨」（刘长卿）的意象；「怜皇树」令人想到「怜皇树」写皇树的意象——屈原《橘颂》「后皇嘉树，橘徕服兮」，也令人想到「橘颂皇树」的意象；「荆州利木奴」令人想到「荆州利木奴」写木奴的意象——《三国志》李衡种橘千株号「木奴」，也令人想到「千头木奴」的意象；「几岁」令人想到「几岁」写几年的意象——也令人想到「几岁开花」的意象；「开花」令人想到「开花」写开花的意象——也令人想到「一树花开」的意象；「喷雪」令人想到「喷雪」写喷雪的意象——也令人想到「雪花怒放」的意象；「摘实」令人想到「摘实」写摘果的意象——也令人想到「采菊东篱」的意象；「垂珠」令人想到「垂珠」写垂珠的意象——也令人想到「果实累累如垂珠」的意象；「坐待」令人想到「坐待」写坐等的意象——也令人想到「坐待成林」的意象；「成林日」令人想到「成林日」写成林的意象——也令人想到「十年树木，百年树人」的意象；「滋味」令人想到「滋味」写滋味的意象——也令人想到「甘之如饴」的意象；「老夫」令人想到「老夫」写老夫的意象——也令人想到「老夫聊发少年狂」（苏轼）的意象。全诗化用黄柑、新叶、遍城隅、楚客、怜皇树、荆州、利木奴、几岁、开花、喷雪、摘实、垂珠、坐待、成林日、滋味、老夫的意象典故，以迁谪写咏物，正是柳宗元「简淡」而善用典、承屈原橘颂传统写咏物之本领。

Commentary

The poem is counted among the best of Liu Zongyuan's Liuzhou verses and among the finest of Tang object-subject poems that state an ambition. Later critics praised its plainness and its restraint, noting that the poet never mentions his banishment; modern readers single out the two models in the middle couplet, where the orange is taken both as a noble tree and as a slave crop. Its special place is that eight lines hold a planted tree and an exiled official without ever joining the two by saying so. It stands beside Liu Zongyuan's 'Clear Snow' — 'a thousand mountains, no birds; ten thousand tracks, no footprints' — where the same exile's isolation is written in snow, and further back beside Qu Yuan's 'Orange Song', which is the poem's ancestor and its model of an untransplantable life.

此诗历来被推为柳宗元咏物诗的名篇，也是唐诗写种柑自遣的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：宋人评此诗「以迁谪写咏物，简淡深婉」；近人指出「手种黄柑二百株，春来新叶遍城隅」写春来新叶的遍城隅，是此诗的名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以七律写尽不学荆州的木奴与滋味还堪的养老夫——那手种，那黄柑，那二百株，那春来，那新叶，那遍城隅，那方同，那楚客，那怜皇树，那不学，那荆州，那利木奴，那几岁，那开花，那闻喷雪，那何人，那摘实，那见垂珠，那若教，那坐待，那成林日，那滋味，那还堪，那养老夫，都写尽了柳宗元笔下的柳州城西北隅种柑树；那「方同楚客怜皇树，不学荆州利木奴」更以用典写尽不学荆州的木奴。此诗与柳宗元《江雪》「千山鸟飞绝」同为柳宗元名篇，一写「独钓寒江雪」的江雪，一写「手种黄柑二百株」的种柑树；一写独钓，一写种柑。两诗对读，可见柳宗元迁谪诗的两面。对于今日读者，此诗是理解柳宗元咏物诗的窗口，也是唐诗写种柑自遣的经典——那滋味还堪的养老夫，穿越千年，仍在诉说着春来新叶的遍城隅。

Prosody

Line by line

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