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近现代近现代 · 词 Ci lyric

沁园春·长沙

Qinyuan Chun: Changsha

毛泽东

Mao Zedong

写景抒怀Scenery and Feeling 革命豪情Revolutionary Zeal 名篇Famous Piece

独立寒秋，湘江北去，橘子洲头。
看万山红遍，层林尽染；
漫江碧透，百舸争流。
鹰击长空，鱼翔浅底，万类霜天竞自由。
怅寥廓，问苍茫大地，谁主沉浮？
携来百侣曾游。
忆往昔峥嵘岁月稠。
恰同学少年，风华正茂；
书生意气，挥斥方遒。
指点江山，激扬文字，粪土当年万户侯。
曾记否，到中流击水，浪遏飞舟？

Alone I stand in the autumn cold, the Xiang river flowing north, at the head of Orange Island.
I see a hundred thousand hills all red, and every layer of forest deep-dyed; the whole river, clear and deep, with a hundred barges racing each other.
Eagles beat the long sky; fish glide in the shallow water; all things under the frosty sky compete for freedom.
Empty and measureless, I ask of the vast earth — who governs the rise and fall of things?
Along with a hundred companions I have traveled here. Remember those crowded, glorious years.
Just so, we were young students, at the height of our flowering vigour; scholar's spirit and passionate energy, commanding and bold.
We pointed at the rivers and mountains, we roused the written word to storm; we treated the great lords of the age as dirt.
Can you remember, in the middle of the current, striking the water — the waves holding back the flying boat?

Listen

Meaning

Mao Zedong stops at Orange Island in late autumn and looks out over the Xiang. What he sees is a world in which nothing is still: hills red, forest dyed, barges racing, eagles striking upward, fish gliding, everything contending for freedom. Out of that brightness comes the poem's question — who decides the fate of a country like this? The second half answers with memory: the same few people, then young students, striding on the same water, writing boldly, and treating the lords of the age as refuse. The question is never formally answered; it is embodied, and the poem ends on the image of striking the current so hard that the waves hold back a flying boat.

深秋时节，我独自伫立，看湘江向北奔流，橘子洲头在望。看万座山峦红遍，层层树林尽染秋色；漫江碧水清澈见底，无数船只争相竞发。雄鹰搏击长空，鱼儿潜翔浅底，一切生物都在寒秋霜天中竞逐自由。面对辽阔宇宙，我不禁怅然发问：这苍茫大地，该由谁来主宰它的沉浮？当年我曾和许多同学结伴来此畅游。回忆往昔，那峥嵘的岁月多么稠密。恰同学少年，风华正茂；书生们意气风发，奔放挥斥。指点江山，激扬文字，把当年的权贵视如粪土。还记得吗？那时我们到江心水深流急处游泳，激起的浪花，几乎遏止了飞驰的舟船。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The poem moves from a view to a memory to a challenge. First the autumn river and the things competing in it; then the question about who rules; then the years when the poet and his companions were students, furious and confident; then the closing challenge to strike the current.[Structure] The two stanzas are made to answer each other. The first ends on a question, 谁主沉浮; the second supplies the answer in flesh and activity, and closes by reversing the metaphor — a boat held back by waves instead of a wave holding back a boat.[Imagery] The images are all in motion and all in competition: red hills, dyed woods, racing barges, striking eagles, gliding fish. Only two nouns are given human attention — 百侣 and 同学少年.[Sentiment] The tone is young and combative throughout. What distinguishes the poem is that its grandeur is not rhetorical: the landscape is described the way a man in a hurry would describe it, and the closing image is an act of defiance rather than a conclusion. The 'who rules' question is left hanging, and the reader is left to supply the answer.

【白话串讲】毛泽东青年时写《沁园春·长沙》：“独立寒秋，湘江北去，橘子洲头”。“看万山红遍，层林尽染；漫江碧透，百舸争流”——“怅寥廓，问苍茫大地，谁主沉浮”——“恰同学少年，风华正茂”——“曾记否，到中流击水，浪遏飞舟”——他年轻时与同学在湘江游泳。【意象与手法】全词上阕写景、下阕抒怀，景中寓情、情中见志；写景层次分明，远、近、仰、俯、动、静交错，「看」字领起七句，一气贯注；下阕「忆」字领起，今昔对照，虚实相生。意象壮阔（万山、长空、大地、飞舟），色彩明丽（红、碧），用典入化（「击水」化用《庄子》），是毛泽东词中雄浑阔大风格的奠基之作。【情感与主旨】通过描绘湘江秋景的壮丽与回忆青年时代意气风发的革命生活，抒发对国家命运的深切关注与改造旧中国的凌云壮志，表现以天下为己任的革命豪情。【名句点睛】常考「问苍茫大地，谁主沉浮」——以设问立骨，把个人的独立寒秋升华为对民族命运的追问；「到中流击水，浪遏飞舟」则以健笔收束，尽显青年的自信与担当，与「谁主沉浮」遥相呼应。

Background

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) wrote this poem in 1925, at the age of thirty-two, while teaching at the Hunan provincial first normal school in Changsha and preparing for the peasant-movement work that would follow the assassination of the labour leader Liu Huai'an. He had lost an earlier post for his political activity, and the poem is generally read as a statement of a generational claim made by a man who was not yet in power. Among his works it is the one most often put beside the 'Qinyuan Chun: Snow' of 1936, and together the two are called the Qinyuan Chun pair.

毛泽东（1893—1976），字润之，湖南湘潭人，伟大的无产阶级革命家、政治家、军事家，也是当代杰出的诗人、词人。他一生戎马倥偬而诗情不辍，以传统诗词形式抒写革命情怀，其词「以旧瓶装新酒」，气魄之大、境界之高，为近现代词坛之冠。《沁园春·长沙》作于1925年秋，时值第一次国共合作、大革命风起云涌之际。毛泽东此时由湖南赴广州主持农民运动讲习所，途经长沙，重游青年时代求学的故地——橘子洲、岳麓山，触景生情，抚今追昔，写下此词。毛泽东1913至1918年在长沙湖南省立第一师范读书，与蔡和森、何叔衡、萧三等同学常于湘江游泳、橘子洲头聚会，纵论天下，组织新民学会，投身五四运动——「恰同学少年」正是这段岁月的写照。1925年，国共合作方兴未艾，工农运动蓬勃高涨，革命形势大好，毛泽东亦以青年运动领袖的身份登上政治舞台；此词即写于这一大时代的潮头，字里行间奔涌着对革命前途的自信与对「谁主沉浮」的回答——人民，必由革命者领导的人民来主。

Art

The poem's best-known craft is the pairing of verbs. Instead of 'eagles fly in the sky' the poet writes 鹰击长空, eagles strike; instead of 'fish swim in the water' he writes 鱼翔浅底, fish glide. Both substitutions make a physical act out of a neutral location, and both were chosen with older models in mind. The structure is held together by its leading words: the first stanza opens on 'I see' and the second on 'remember,' and each stanza then groups its clauses in matched pairs of four characters. The final image inverts the relation the reader has been given all along — previously the water holds up the boat, here the boat's own energy holds back the water — and that single reversal is the poem's answer to its opening question.

此词是毛泽东词风奠基之作，艺术上最突出处在一「壮」字，而章法极严。上阕写景，下阕抒怀，一「看」字领起上阕七句，一「忆」字领起下阕七句，双峰对峙，布局谨严。写景层次井然：远望「万山红遍，层林尽染」，近观「漫江碧透，百舸争流」，仰视「鹰击长空」，俯察「鱼翔浅底」，四维并举而动静相生——「击」写鹰之刚健，「翔」写鱼之自如，万类皆在寒秋中竞逐自由，景中已寓「自由」之志；「红」「碧」二色对举，浓淡相映，色彩明艳。继而「怅寥廓」一笔陡转，由写景入问，天问式的设问「谁主沉浮」振起全篇，景、情、志在此熔于一炉。下阕忆旧：写「同学少年」的意气风发，四个四字短句排宕而下，一气如虹；「粪土当年万户侯」以蔑视写豪情，痛快淋漓；结句「到中流击水，浪遏飞舟」以健笔收束，实写游泳而虚写革命，浪遏飞舟的夸张意象，把青年的力量写得惊心动魄。全词今昔对照、虚实相生、情景交融，是「以诗言志」的极致。

Allusions

The setting is the head of Orange Island, where the Xiang river divides on its way north past Changsha. 万户侯, the marquises of ten thousand households, is the Han institution of a peerage worth ten thousand households of tax; by making them refuse soil the poet invokes the whole traditional reward system and throws it away. The 大水 and 飞舟 of the close recall the classical image of a boat struggling in a torrent, which earlier writers used for loneliness or peril, and it is turned here into a defiance. The poem also carries the Jiangxi and Hunan accents of the cipai form, in which a lengthy tune is carried by matched four-character clauses under a leading word.

此词用典不多而化用入神。其一是「击水」：结句「到中流击水，浪遏飞舟」化用《庄子·逍遥游》「鹏之徙于南冥也，水击三千里」——以大鹏击水的神话意象写青年游泳击浪，暗喻革命的巨大力量；一说亦用《晋书》祖逖中流击楫之典，祖逖渡江北伐，中流击楫而誓曰「祖逖不能清中原而复济者，有如大江」，「击水」与「击楫」同写中流奋发的壮志，革命者以中流砥柱自期，其义尤显。其二是「橘子洲」之地望：橘子洲位于长沙湘江之中，长岛浮碧，是毛泽东青年时代与同学聚游之所，词以地名入词，既有纪实的亲切，又为「携来百侣曾游」的追忆张本。其三是「峥嵘岁月」：语出《楚辞·远游》「岁忽忽而遒尽兮，恐余寿之弗将」一脉及杜甫「峥嵘赤云西」，以「峥嵘」状岁月之奇崛壮伟，写青年时代革命活动的轰轰烈烈。其四是「粪土当年万户侯」：「万户侯」指汉代封邑万户的侯爵，泛指权贵，以「粪土」视之，直承李白「安能摧眉折腰事权贵」的傲骨而更富阶级意识，是中国诗词中蔑视权贵传统的革命化发展。

Commentary

The poem has been among the most widely read of modern Chinese poems, inside and outside China, and it is the early work most often cited as evidence of the continuity between classical Chinese poetry and modern political verse. Its rhyming and metrical regularity, its use of the cipai form, and its allusions to Han and Tang sources are the reason it reads as a classical poem even to readers who know nothing of the revolution. The line most often quoted is 问苍茫大地，谁主沉浮, and 粪土当年万户侯 is the second most cited; together they are taken as the poem's thesis, since the question is asked by the same voice that then refuses every answer the old order could give.

《沁园春·长沙》是毛泽东公开发表最早的词作之一，也是其词风与词坛地位的奠基之作。它发表于1957年《诗刊》创刊号，立即震动文坛，被誉为「一代伟人的青春宣言」。其价值首先在思想境界：以「谁主沉浮」的天问把个人的青春豪情升华为对民族命运的担当，以「粪土当年万户侯」的蔑视写无产阶级革命者的阶级自觉，为传统诗词注入了全新的革命内涵，实现了旧形式与新内容的完美结合。其次在艺术成就：雄浑壮阔的意象、大开大阖的结构、精警凝练的语言，确立了毛泽东词「雄奇豪放」的主导风格，与《沁园春·雪》并称「沁园春双璧」，被柳亚子誉为「才华信美多娇，看千古词人共折腰」。再次在文学史意义：它以传统词牌写现代革命情怀的成功实践，证明旧体诗词在现代语境中依然生机蓬勃，对当代诗词创作产生深远影响。此词自问世起即入选各级语文教材，其「独立寒秋」的开篇与「谁主沉浮」的设问，已成为几代中国人耳熟能详的青春记忆，是近现代词史上里程碑式的作品。

Prosody

Form Ci in the 'Qinyuan Chun' tune, a long double stanza of one hundred and fourteen characters, thirteen lines to each stanza.沁园春·长沙（长调慢词，双调一百十四字，上下阕各十三句）

Rhyme Rhymed throughout on the -iu sound of the you division (头, 流, 由, 游, 稠, 遒, 侯, 舟); the leading words 看, 忆 and 恰 are themselves all in the rhyme, which pulls the whole stanza into one extended line.押仄声「尤」韵（头、流、由、游、稠、遒、侯、舟），一韵到底，韵脚密而铿锵；上阕以「看」领起的四个四字句两两对偶，下阕「恰」领起四句同样排偶，句内平仄交替，形成整齐而顿挫的节拍。

Tone pattern The long o vowels of the rhyme carry and lift, so the stanza sounds open and unhurried even where the content is violent; the four-character clauses under each leading word give a marching regularity to the rhythm.句式以四字句为主体，间以三字、五字、七字句，长短错落；「看」「忆」「恰」三个领字以去声振起，一气领下数句，气势如虹；结句「曾记否，到中流击水，浪遏飞舟」以设问收束，语调由追忆的昂扬转为叩问的激越，余音不绝。

Reading note The tune is a long one, and the stanza is built on matched pairs of four-character clauses that all close on the same -iu sound: 头, 流, 由, 游, 稠, 遒, 侯, 舟. That open rounded vowel is what makes the poem sound large without effort. The three leading words — 看, 忆, 恰 — all belong to the rhyme and all are yells, so each one gathers the clauses after it into one breath. Within that regularity the lines are unevenly cut, three characters here and seven there, and the unevenness is where the force comes from: 鹰击长空, 鱼翔浅底 fall like hammer blows between the longer pairs. The question 谁主沉浮 ends the first stanza on a rhyme at the same time; the closing line, four characters, 浪遏飞舟, drops out of the rhyme entirely and lands flat — which is the prosodic equivalent of stopping dead after a challenge.《沁园春·长沙》的音韵之美，在于以长调的铺排气势写壮阔的革命情怀，声情与辞情高度统一。词牌「沁园春」本是长调，上下阕结构大体对称，毛泽东充分利用这一体制：上阕「看」字领起四字对偶句组（万山红遍，层林尽染；漫江碧透，百舸争流），下阕「恰」字领起同样结构的四字对偶句组（同学少年，风华正茂；书生意气，挥斥方遒），前后呼应，节拍整齐如进行曲；「鹰击长空，鱼翔浅底」「指点江山，激扬文字」等句四四相对，平仄交替，读来铿锵顿挫。全词押「尤」韵，韵脚（头、流、由、游、稠、遒、侯、舟）皆开口呼与齐齿呼相间，音调悠长而昂扬，正合壮阔的内容。三个领字（看、忆、恰）皆去声，声调高亢，领起长句时如将军发令，气势一泻千里；「问苍茫大地」「曾记否」两处设问句，语势先抑后扬，如盘马弯弓，引而不发。结句「浪遏飞舟」四字仄仄平平，戛然而止，音节响亮而余韵悠长，把青年的豪情定格在浪花飞溅的瞬间。全词声律上「以豪放之声写革命之情」，开毛泽东词雄浑一派之先声，是传统词律服务于现代革命抒情的典范。

Line by line

独立寒秋，湘江北去，橘子洲头。

Alone I stand in the autumn cold, the Xiang river flowing north, at the head of Orange Island.

深秋时节，我独自伫立在橘子洲头，看湘江之水滚滚向北流去。

Alone in the cold autumn, at the head of Orange Isle, as the Xiang flows north.

开篇三句，写景先立「人」，是全词抒情主体的出场。「独立寒秋」四字极富画面感与分量感：「独立」写一人卓然屹立，遗世而孤独——这孤独不是凄清，而是「举世皆醉我独醒」的思想者的孤独；「寒秋」点明时令，深秋霜天，万物肃杀，为下文「万类霜天竞自由」的反衬张本。「湘江北去」以动景破静：湘江自南向北奔流，一个「去」字，水势滔滔，如历史长河奔涌不息。「橘子洲头」点出地点，是诗人青年时代活动的故地，为下阕「携来百侣曾游」埋下伏笔。三句以「人—水—地」的顺序展开：人独立于洲头，水奔流于眼前，地点、时令、人物一一坐实，一个「看」字即将领起，全词的情境由此确立。句式上三句短促而顿挫，声情苍劲，为全词定下雄浑的基调。

The isle. Alone in the cold autumn, at the head of Orange Isle, as the Xiang flows north. The alone in cold autumn and the Orange Isle with the north-flowing Xiang are the opening. To have stood alone would be a standing; the alone-in-the-cold-autumn-at-the-head-of-orange-isle-as-the-xiang-flows-north is the standing.

看万山红遍，层林尽染；漫江碧透，百舸争流。

I see a hundred thousand hills all red, and every layer of forest deep-dyed; the whole river, clear and deep, with a hundred barges racing each other.

看万座山峦红遍，层层树林尽染秋色；满江碧水澄澈见底，无数船只争先竞发。

See: ten thousand hills are red, layered forests all dyed; the river runs clear green, a hundred boats racing.

「看」字领起，是全词写景的总枢纽，其势如长焦距镜头由远及近、由静而动地扫过整个秋日湘江。「万山红遍，层林尽染」写远景：以「万」状山之众，以「遍」写红之广，霜叶红透千山，如火烧云海；「漫江碧透，百舸争流」写近景：「漫」写江之满，「透」写水之清，碧水澄澈见底，而百舸争相竞发，静水中起动态。四个短语两两对偶，「红遍」对「碧透」，浓烈与澄澈相映成趣，色彩的饱和度为古典词中罕见。更妙在景中含情：深秋本是萧瑟之季，词人笔下却无一丝悲秋之气，反而万山红、层林染、百舸争——一派生机蓬勃、奋发向上的气象，正暗合大革命时代工农运动高涨的形势。写景不是客观描摹，而是革命者心境的投射，「一切景语皆情语」，此之谓也。

The red hills. See: ten thousand hills are red, layered forests all dyed; the river runs clear green, a hundred boats racing. The red hills and the dyed forests and the clear green racing boats are the painting. To have dyed the forests red would be a dyeing; the see-ten-thousand-hills-are-red-layered-forests-all-dyed-the-river-runs-clear-green-a-hundred-boats-racing is the dyeing.

鹰击长空，鱼翔浅底，万类霜天竞自由。

Eagles beat the long sky; fish glide in the shallow water; all things under the frosty sky compete for freedom.

雄鹰搏击长空，鱼儿在清澈浅水中翱翔，世间万物都在寒秋霜天里竞逐自由。

Eagles strike the long sky, fish glide the shallows; all things in the frosty sky compete for freedom.

此三句是上阕写景的高潮与升华，由具体景物推出哲理境界。「鹰击长空」仰视：一个「击」字，写鹰隼搏击苍天，如战斗者奋击，力量感喷薄而出；「鱼翔浅底」俯察：鱼游本用「游」，词人用「翔」，以鸟飞之姿写鱼游之态，极言水之清澈（浅底）与鱼之自在，举重若轻。「击」「翔」二字是炼字典范，一刚健一轻灵，把天地间两种自由的生命形态写得淋漓尽致。继而「万类霜天竞自由」一笔总收：「万类」囊括天地万物，「霜天」点出严酷的环境，「竞自由」三字是词眼——万物在寒秋肃杀中竞逐自由，正是对生命意志的最高礼赞，也暗喻被压迫者挣脱枷锁、争取解放的时代精神。三句由分到总、由景入理，把写景推向哲理的高度，为下文「怅寥廓」的宇宙之问作了雄浑的铺垫，自由的主题自此贯穿全词。

The freedom. Eagles strike the long sky, fish glide the shallows; all things in the frosty sky compete for freedom. The striking eagles and gliding fish and the all-things-competing-for-freedom are the elevation. To have struck the long sky would be a striking; the eagles-strike-the-long-sky-fish-glide-the-shallows-all-things-in-the-frosty-sky-compete-for-freedom is the striking.

怅寥廓，问苍茫大地，谁主沉浮？

Empty and measureless, I ask of the vast earth — who governs the rise and fall of things?

面对辽阔的宇宙，我惆怅而问：这苍茫大地，究竟由谁来主宰它的沉浮？

Lost in the vastness, I ask this boundless earth: who commands its rise and fall?

三句是上阕的收束，也是全词思想的高峰，由写景陡然转入宇宙人生之问。「怅寥廓」之「怅」非惆怅失意，而是面对宇宙无穷而生发的深沉思虑——登高望远，天地苍茫，人生有限而事业无限，志士于此最能生出大悲悯与大担当。「问苍茫大地」直承《楚辞·天问》的叩问传统，却将屈原对自然的追问翻转为对人间政权归属的追问：「谁主沉浮」四字是全词之眼，字字千钧——当时中国军阀混战，神州陆沉，究竟谁来做历史的主人？这一问，既是对黑暗现实的诘问，也是革命者改造世界的宣言。在章法上，此句由写景转到议论，由「看」转到「问」，是上下阕之间的枢纽：下阕「携来百侣曾游」的忆旧与结句「浪遏飞舟」的豪情，都是对这一问的响亮回答。问得苍茫，答得豪迈，全词的壮阔与深邃尽在此一问。

The question. Lost in the vastness, I ask this boundless earth: who commands its rise and fall? The vastness and the who-commands-rise-and-fall question are the core. To have asked who commands would be a question; the lost-in-the-vastness-i-ask-this-boundless-earth-who-commands-its-rise-and-fall is the question.

曾记否，到中流击水，浪遏飞舟？

Can you remember, in the middle of the current, striking the water — the waves holding back the flying boat?

还记得吗？当年我们到江心水深流急处游泳击浪，激起的浪花几乎遏止了飞驰的舟船。

Do you remember, when we struck the midstream waves and our spray held back the flying boats?

结句以设问收束全词，是全篇情感的最高潮，也是「谁主沉浮」的最强回答。「曾记否」三字唤起：以反问的语气邀约战友共忆峥嵘岁月，亲切中见豪迈，仿佛当年并肩击水的少年仍在眼前。「到中流击水」化用《庄子》大鹏「水击三千里」与祖逖「中流击楫」之典，写青年在湘江深处搏浪击水——「中流」既是江心，也是时代潮流的中心，革命者不随波逐流，偏到中流击水，以天下为己任的担当毕现。「浪遏飞舟」以夸张之笔写游泳激起的水浪竟能遏止飞驰的舟船——人的力量大于自然，青年的力量足以改变历史，这一意象把「谁主沉浮」的回答写得惊心动魄：主沉浮者，正是这到中流击水、浪遏飞舟的一代新人。三句一问一答，由忆旧到言志，与开篇「独立寒秋」遥相呼应，首尾环合，壮怀激烈，余响不绝。

The spray. Do you remember, when we struck the midstream waves and our spray held back the flying boats? The midstream striking and the spray holding back the flying boats are the close. To have held back the flying boats would be a holding; the do-you-remember-when-we-struck-the-midstream-waves-and-our-spray-held-back-the-flying-boats is the holding.

Study

Word focus

竞自由 Compete for freedom (竞自由). Three words that give the whole stanza its direction: nothing in the view is passive, and every creature is fighting for the thing it must have. Because of the date, readers hear in them the Chinese people's hunger for release, and they are the sentence that turns a landscape into an argument about who rules. 「万类霜天竞自由」之「竞自由」三字，是全词写景升华出的词眼，也是毛泽东早期思想的诗意结晶。「竞」字写出万物争逐的蓬勃动态——万山红、百舸争、鹰击、鱼翔，一切生命都在为生存与自由而奋争；「自由」二字更点破全词的灵魂：深秋霜天的肃杀没有扼杀生命，反而激发出万物竞逐自由的意志，这是对生命本能的最高礼赞。此三字之所以深刻，在于它不止于写景：当时中国正处于军阀割据、列强环伺的黑暗年代，人民如霜天中的万类，渴望自由解放——「竞自由」正是被压迫者争取解放的时代强音，是「谁主沉浮」之问的思想伏笔。从哲学看，它体现了青年毛泽东「与天奋斗，其乐无穷；与地奋斗，其乐无穷；与人奋斗，其乐无穷」的斗争哲学：自由不是天赐，而是「竞」来的。三字以白话入词而意境全出，是旧体诗词融铸新思想、新词汇的典范。

击、翔 Strike (击) and glide (翔). Both are verbs moved out of their ordinary place: the eagle does not fly but strikes, and the fish does not swim but glides, as a bird does. Between them they give the poem its two poles — violence and ease — and both are chosen rather than the plainer words available. 「鹰击长空，鱼翔浅底」中的「击」「翔」二字，是毛泽东炼字的著名范例，一字之易，境界顿开。「击」本指搏击、敲击，此处写鹰——不说「鹰飞长空」而说「鹰击长空」，「击」字写出鹰隼振翅搏云的猛烈姿态，如战斗者奋击强敌，力量感、速度感喷薄而出，天高任我搏的气概跃然纸上；「翔」本指鸟盘旋飞翔，此处写鱼——不说「鱼游浅底」而说「鱼翔浅底」，「翔」字以飞鸟之姿写游鱼之态，极言水之清可见底、鱼之自在如意，举重若轻。两字一刚一柔、一猛一逸，恰好构成对照：搏击者是斗争的姿态，翱翔者是自由的姿态，而两者统一于「竞自由」的主题。古人有「鹰击」「鱼翔」之语（如宋玉「鹰隼横击」、古诗「鱼翔」），毛泽东化用之而赋予革命斗争的新内涵，是「炼字」以「炼意」的典范。

粪土 Treat as refuse (粪土). Normally a noun meaning dung or dirt, here used as a verb with an object: to look at the lords of the world as filth. The use of the plainest possible word for contempt, and the names of those lords, give the line the force of a refusal rather than a boast. 「粪土当年万户侯」之「粪土」二字，以名词意动用法写尽对权贵的蔑视，是全词最具锋芒的表达。「粪土」本指秽土，此处作意动词——「把当年的万户侯看作粪土」，一个词把千百年来中国人顶礼膜拜的权势、富贵、功名踩在脚下，痛快淋漓。「万户侯」指汉代食邑万户的列侯，是中国传统社会中功名利禄的最高象征，词人却视之如粪土，这份蔑视不是文人的清高（如李白「安能摧眉折腰事权贵」），而是革命者的阶级自觉——无产阶级革命者的使命是推翻整个旧秩序，而非在此秩序内博取功名。此句置于「指点江山，激扬文字」之后，先写青年革命者的豪情壮举，再写其对旧世界的根本否定，一扬一抑，气魄极大。柳亚子评毛词「推翻历史三千载，自铸雄奇瑰丽词」，「粪土」二字正是这「自铸」的锋芒所在，其冲击力穿越时代，至今读来犹觉虎虎生风。