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水调歌头·重上井冈山

Shui Diao Ge Tou: Ascending Jinggang Mountain Again

毛泽东

Mao Zedong

革命豪情Revolutionary passion 重游故地Revisiting an old haunt 今昔对照Then-and-now contrast

久有凌云志,重上井冈山。
千里来寻故地,旧貌变新颜。
到处莺歌燕舞,更有潺潺流水,高路入云端。
过了黄洋界,险处不须看。
风樯动,旌旗奋,是人寰。
三十八年过去,弹指一挥间。
可上九天揽月,可下五洋捉鳖,谈笑凯歌还。
世上无难事,只要肯登攀。

An ambition long held to ride the cloud has now brought me back to Jinggang Mountain: a thousand li to seek out the old ground, and the old face has become a new one. Everywhere orioles sing and swallows fly, and over it all a streamrunson; the high road enters the clouds. Past the Huangyangjie pass, the dangerous places need no longer be looked at.
Now masts stir in the wind, banners rise, and such is this world of men. Thirty-eight years have gone by, as short as the snap of a finger. We can scale the nine heavens for the moon, we can fish the five oceans for the turtle, and come home singing to the tune of victory. Nothing under heaven is beyond our reached-for hands, if only we will climb.
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Meaning

Returning in 1965 to the mountain he first climbed in 1927, Mao Zedong sets the new landscape against the old and finds the change almost too fast to contain. The poem reviews thirty-eight years of revolution in a gesture and then declares, in the highest possible register, that no obstacle remains. Its last line turns the boast into a rule for ordinary effort.

早就怀着凌云壮志,如今重新登上井冈山。千里迢迢来寻找当年的根据地,旧时的面貌已变成了新颜。到处是黄莺歌唱、燕子飞舞,更有潺潺的流水,高高的公路直入云端。过了黄洋界哨口,险要之处已不必再看。(放眼望去)风帆在江上鼓动,旌旗在风中奋扬,这就是人间的巨变。三十八年过去了,只是弹指一挥的瞬间。可以上九重天去揽取明月,可以下五大洋去捉拿鳖鱼,谈笑之间唱着凯歌回还。世上没有难做的事,只要肯努力登攀。

Appreciation

[Structure] The upper stanza visits, the lower stanza recalls and then vows; the two meet in the computed span of thirty-eight years. [Opening] The two opening words carry the poem: a ambition long held, and now coming back. [Imagery] The three pictures in the middle of the upper stanza build outward from the ground — orioles and swallows, the running water, the road into the clouds — so that the mountain is shown to be easy now. [Contrast] The couplet about Huangyangjie is the quietest line in the poem: the most famous and most contested position on the mountain, where a company of red holds held off four regiments in 1928, is now something one walks past. [Cadence] The lower stanza accelerates; three short lines in a row then a lap of time measured against a snap of the fingers, and the poem climbs from there to the moon and the ocean. [Close] The last four words are the poem’s real subject, and it keeps them for last.

【白话串讲】 毛泽东写《水调歌头·重上井冈山》:“久有凌云志,重上井冈山”。“三十八年过去,弹指一挥间”——“到处莺歌燕舞,更有潺潺流水,高路入云端”——“可上九天揽月,可下五洋捉鳖”——“世上无难事,只要肯登攀”——他重访井冈山的豪情。 【意象与手法】今昔对照、虚实相生;革命现实主义(新貌、高路)与革命浪漫主义(九天揽月、五洋捉鳖)相结合;化用李白诗句与民间俗语,大词小用、点铁成金;上阕写景从容,下阕言志飞动,章法严整而气韵雄放。 【情感与主旨】借重访革命圣地,回顾三十八年的革命征程,抒发「继续革命」「人定胜天」的凌云壮志与革命乐观主义精神,将个人壮志融入时代巨变。 【名句点睛】常考「可上九天揽月,可下五洋捉鳖」的浪漫想象(化用李白「欲上青天揽明月」)与「世上无难事,只要肯登攀」的哲理名句。

Background

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) led the autumn harvest uprising of 1927 and led his troops onto Jinggang Mountain, where he established China’s first rural revolutionary base; the defence of Huangyangjie pass the following year, when fewer than one battalion held four regiments at bay, became the mountain’s signature victory. Thirty-eight years later, in May 1965, he travelled south, visited Ciping and Huangyangjie, and wrote this poem. Sixteen years of socialist construction had gone past, the international position had deteriorated, and the Sino-Soviet dispute and the war in Vietnam were both under way; the visit was as much a reaffirmation as a memory. This is one of the largest of his late lyrics and the one on which the reputation of his old-style verse mainly rests.

毛泽东(1893—1976),字润之,湖南湘潭人,中国共产党的主要领导人、政治家、军事家、诗人,其诗词是革命现实主义与革命浪漫主义相结合的典范。此词写于1965年5月,时毛泽东七十二岁。1927年秋收起义后,毛泽东率部上井冈山,创建了中国第一个农村革命根据地,开辟「农村包围城市」的革命道路;1928年的黄洋界保卫战,红军以不足一营的兵力击退敌军四个团的进攻,成为井冈山斗争的标志性胜利。三十八年后,1965年5月下旬,毛泽东在巡视大江南北途中重上井冈山,先后访问茨坪、黄洋界等地,抚今追昔,感慨万千,写下这首《水调歌头》。彼时新中国已建立十六年,社会主义建设全面展开,国际形势复杂(中苏论战、越南战争),毛泽东此次重访,既是对革命历史的重温,更意在重申「继续革命」的信念。词中「三十八年过去,弹指一挥间」正指1927年至1965年这三十八年的沧桑巨变。此词与1956年的《水调歌头·游泳》同调同格,同以雄浑豪迈之笔写时代风云,是毛泽东晚年词作中气魄最宏大的篇章之一,1965年首次公开发表后即传诵全国。

Art

The poem works by setting up two orders of time and letting them run against each other. The upper stanza is a landscape, but every element in it is a record: the road into the clouds is 1927 made concrete, the swallows are the same mountain in a different year. The couplet about the pass is the hinge, and its understatement is the most deliberate thing in the poem — not a word about the battle, and the understatement does the arguing. The lower stanza then changes the tense of the whole piece from what is to what can be: the three short lines lift it into public motion, the thirty-eight years compress it, and the two lines about the moon and the ocean take it out of the mountain altogether. The closing couplet brings it back down to an injunction about climbing, and the poem’s last three syllables carry all of the weight that the mythology above them generates.

此词的艺术特色,可括为「今昔对照立骨、浪漫想象生翼、章法上下呼应」。上阕写重游故地所见:以「久有凌云志,重上井冈山」破题,「久有」与「重上」对举,点出夙愿与践行;「千里来寻故地,旧貌变新颜」总写今昔之变;「到处莺歌燕舞,更有潺潺流水,高路入云端」以三个镜头铺写新貌——莺歌燕舞写生机,潺潺流水写清景,高路入云写建设,由地面而云端,视野渐次开阔;「过了黄洋界,险处不须看」以当年最险的哨口如今轻松越过,暗写今日之强大,举重若轻。下阕转写回望与言志:「风樯动,旌旗奋,是人寰」以三组短句写时代风云激荡,节奏陡然加快;「三十八年过去,弹指一挥间」以极短之时间写极巨之变化,时空对照,气势磅礴;「可上九天揽月,可下五洋捉鳖,谈笑凯歌还」以神话般的夸张写豪情,「九天」「五洋」极言空间之广,「谈笑凯歌」极言气度之闲;结句「世上无难事,只要肯登攀」以哲理收束,由豪情上升为信念。全词上实下虚、上景下情,而以「凌云志」起、以「肯登攀」结,首尾呼应,章法浑成。

Allusions

The moon in the ninth heaven reworks the line in which Li Bai says he wants to seize the moon out of the blue sky, and the change of subject turns the poet’s flight into an engineer’s promise. The turtle in the five oceans magnifies a proverb about catching a turtle in a jar until it means the wholeipelagic world; the proverb is enlarged in exactly the direction the poem needs. Huangyangjie brings back the mountain defence he had sung in a poem of 1928, so that the image of the pass answers its own earlier self, and the thirty-eight years are counted so precisely because they make the compression credible. The snap of a finger comes from the Buddhist chronology of short and long aeons and turns thirty-eight years into a continental blink.

此词的用典化用,熔铸古典而归于时代精神。「可上九天揽月」化用李白《宣州谢朓楼饯别校书叔云》「俱怀逸兴壮思飞,欲上青天揽明月」——李白以「揽月」写逸兴壮思的浪漫,毛泽东移以写革命者的凌云之志,赋予古典诗句以改天换地的时代内涵;「可下五洋捉鳖」则由民间「瓮中捉鳖」的俗语放大而来,「瓮」扩为「五洋」,由小空间到大空间,由守成之语变为进取之词,点铁成金。「黄洋界」是井冈山五大哨口中最险者,1928年红军在此以少胜多,毛泽东1928年所作《西江月·井冈山》「黄洋界上炮声隆,报道敌军宵遁」已咏其事,此词重提「过了黄洋界」,是同一意象的隔代回响,暗含「昔日之险已为今日之坦途」的今昔之思。「三十八年」亦有深意:1927年上井冈山至1965年重访,恰三十八年,与词人《七律·到韶山》「别梦依稀咒逝川,故园三十二年前」的纪年方式一脉相承,以数字的精确写岁月的沧桑。「弹指一挥间」化用佛典「弹指」之喻(《法苑珠林》),以刹那写长久,倍增时间之慨。全词用典化古而不见斧凿,古典意象与革命情怀水乳交融,正是毛词「旧瓶装新酒」的典范。

Commentary

The poem is the best known of the late lyrics and for a long time the most quoted. Its line about thirty-eight years passed in a snap of the finger became the standard summary of a whole revolution, and the two lines about the moon and the turtle were set to music and sung for decades. Literary history has treated it as the proof that the old regulated lyric could be carried into the modern era: here is a cipai of the northern Song writing about a mountain base in Jiangxi, and there is not one foreign word in it. Critics of the poem have usually objected to its certainties rather than its workmanship; the qualities most readers respond to are its pace and its refusal to linger on the past it has left behind.

《水调歌头·重上井冈山》是毛泽东晚年词作的代表,也是现当代词坛写「重游故地」的压卷之作。从思想史看,此词以「凌云志」与「肯登攀」为骨架,浓缩了中国共产党人从井冈山到全国胜利的奋斗历程,「三十八年过去,弹指一挥间」遂成为概括革命沧桑的经典表述;而「可上九天揽月,可下五洋捉鳖」更成为时代精神的符号,1960—1970年代被亿万群众传诵、谱曲,鼓舞了一代人的建设热情,其「世上无难事,只要肯登攀」的哲理,至今仍是激励进取的格言。从文学史看,毛泽东以旧体词写现代生活与革命理想,实现了古典词牌与时代内容的成功嫁接:此词上承苏轼、辛弃疾的豪放词风,而气势之雄、境界之阔过之,下启当代「红色诗词」的创作范式,被誉为「旧体诗词现代化的里程碑」。从艺术史看,全词现实与浪漫交织、古典与民间并用,意象明丽(莺歌燕舞、潺潺流水)而不失刚健,语言口语化(不须看、只要肯登攀)而不失典重,雅俗共赏,足见毛词「刚健含婀娜」的独特美学。作为文学与历史的双重见证,此词的价值历久弥新。

Prosody

Form A cipai, Shui Diao Ge Tou; a double stanza of ninety-five words, the upper with nine lines in four level rhymes, the lower with ten词(水调歌头,双调九十五字,上阕九句四平韵、下阕十句四平韵)
Rhyme The whole poem rhymes in one open level rhyme — shan, yan, duan, kan, huan, jian, huan, pan — with no change of branch. Every vowel is open and nasal, so the sound stays bright and wide from the first line to the last, and the unbroken chain suits a poem built on one uninterrupted climb.全词押平声「删寒」韵(山、颜、端、看、寰、间、还、攀),一韵到底,韵脚疏朗开阔,正合登高望远之气象;上下阕句式长短交错(五、五、六、五;三、三、五、六),节奏由从容而紧凑,末句「只要肯登攀」以三字收束,斩截有力。
Tone pattern The upper stanza begins on five-character lines of calm declamation, the lower breaks into three character lines that arrive like drumbeats, and the long lines that follow give the poem its momentum. The closing line sets a five-character line against a three-character close, and the short end falls hard.上阕以五言句起,语气从容沉雄,如登临远眺;「过了黄洋界,险处不须看」转轻快,举重若轻;下阕「风樯动,旌旗奋」以三字短句连续迸出,节奏骤紧,如战鼓催发;「弹指一挥间」「谈笑凯歌还」复归舒展;结句口语入词,语重心长,一唱三叹。
Reading note The prosody of the tune is doing the same work as the argument. Because the rhyme never changes, there is no place in the poem where the voice can turn aside; the reader is held in one direction from shallow scenery to the moon and back down to the mountaineer’s last step. The three-character lines in the lower stanza are the only breaking of the pattern, and they break it once, to mark the moment when the poem stops describing and begins to vow. The final three syllables, three different tones in a row, land like a foot settling on a step.此词声律严整而气韵飞动,是「以词牌为筋骨、以气概为魂魄」的典范。《水调歌头》本为双调长词,句式以五、六、七言相间,毛词严守词律:上阕「久有凌云志,重上井冈山」五五对起,音节齐整;「千里来寻故地,旧貌变新颜」六五相承,平仄相谐;「高路入云端」「险处不须看」五字作结,一平一仄,收放自如。下阕「风樯动,旌旗奋」以两个三字句连排,如异峰突起,是全词节奏的转换点——前此尚在从容写景,至此骤变为激越抒情;「三十八年过去,弹指一挥间」以六字领起、五字收束,中间「弹指一挥间」五字一气呵成,音节如珠走盘;至「可上九天揽月,可下五洋捉鳖,谈笑凯歌还」,三句一长一长一短,气势步步拔高,至「谈笑凯歌还」而如凯旋之号;结句「世上无难事,只要肯登攀」以五五收束,末三字「肯登攀」仄仄平,落音铿锵,如登山者踏定最后一级台阶。全词一韵到底(山、颜、端、看、寰、间、还、攀),韵脚皆开口呼,音色洪亮开阔,正与「登高望远」的词境相合。诵读此词,如登井冈之巅,长风满襟,其声情之美与辞情之壮,堪称双绝。

Line by line

久有凌云志,重上井冈山。千里来寻故地,旧貌变新颜。

An ambition long held to ride the cloud has now brought me back to Jinggang Mountain: a thousand li to seek out the old ground, and the old face has become a new one.

早就怀着凌云壮志,如今重新登上井冈山。千里迢迢来寻找当年的根据地,旧时的面貌已经变成了崭新的容颜。

Long have I held the cloud-soaring will; now I climb Jinggang Mountain again. A thousand li I seek the old ground; the old look has turned to new.

上阕开篇四句破题立骨,写重游故地的缘由与初见,今昔对照之纲已定。「久有凌云志」先写志向——「凌云」本指高入云霄,暗用《史记·司马相如传》「飘飘有凌云之气」之典,写超越常人的远大抱负,「久有」二字点出此志非一时之兴,而是数十年的宿愿;「重上井冈山」写行动——「重上」与「久有」呼应,夙愿既久,践之今日,一虚一实,大开大合。三四句「千里来寻故地,旧貌变新颜」承转:千里写空间之远,见其诚;故地写情感之深,见其念;「旧貌变新颜」以「变」字总括时代巨变,是上阕之纲、全词之眼——旧与新、往与今,四字道尽三十八年的沧桑。四句由志而行、由行而见、由见而叹,层递而下,气势沉雄而不迫,为下阕「弹指一挥间」的感慨与「可上九天揽月」的豪情预蓄声势。

The return. Long have I held the cloud-soaring will; now I climb Jinggang Mountain again. A thousand li I seek the old ground; the old look has turned to new. The cloud-soaring will and the re-climbed Jinggang and the old-become-new are the opening. To have climbed again would be a climbing; the long-have-i-held-the-cloud-soaring-will-now-i-climb-jinggang-mountain-again-a-thousand-li-i-seek-the-old-ground-the-old-look-has-turned-to-new is the climbing.

可上九天揽月,可下五洋捉鳖,谈笑凯歌还。

We can scale the nine heavens for the moon, we can fish the five oceans for the turtle, and come home singing to the tune of victory.

可以上九重天去揽取明月,可以下五大洋去捉拿鳖鱼,谈笑之间唱着凯歌归来。

We may climb the ninth heaven to pluck the moon, may dive the five oceans to seize the turtle; laughing and talking, we return in triumph.

此三句是下阕的高潮,以神话般的夸张写出革命者的凌云壮志与必胜信念,是全词最著名的浪漫之笔。「九天揽月」化用李白「欲上青天揽明月」,以登天取月写志向之高之远;「五洋捉鳖」由俗语「瓮中捉鳖」放大而来,以入海擒鳖写气魄之雄之大——九天与五洋对举,上穷碧落、下尽黄泉,空间之广无远弗届,把「人定胜天」的信念推到极致。「可上」「可下」两个「可」字,语气斩截,写志之必能、事之必成,豪情中透着从容;「谈笑凯歌还」更以「谈笑」写举重若轻的闲定,仿佛揽月捉鳖不过谈笑间事,而「凯歌还」点出胜利的必然。三句以空间之极限写信心之无限,是革命浪漫主义的极致表达;其句式三、三、五字,由短促而舒展,音节铿锵,如战鼓擂响,正与「风樯动,旌旗奋」的时代风云相接,读之令人心潮澎湃。

The moon. We may climb the ninth heaven to pluck the moon, may dive the five oceans to seize the turtle; laughing and talking, we return in triumph. The ninth-heaven moon and the five-ocean turtle and the triumphant return are the climax. To have plucked the moon would be a plucking; the we-may-climb-the-ninth-heaven-to-pluck-the-moon-may-dive-the-five-oceans-to-seize-the-turtle-laughing-and-talking-we-return-in-triumph is the plucking.

世上无难事,只要肯登攀。

Nothing under heaven is beyond our reached-for hands, if only we will climb.

世上没有难做的事情,只要肯努力登攀。

No difficulty in the world is beyond those who are willing to climb.

结句以哲理收束全词,由豪情升华为信念,是此词传诵最广的名句,也是全词思想的结晶。语本俗谚「世上无难事,只怕有心人」,毛泽东易「有心人」为「肯登攀」,点铁成金——「有心」只是意愿,「登攀」则是行动,一字之易,由愿望进于实践,更与词题「重上井冈山」的登山之行、与「过了黄洋界」的攀越之实天然契合,使抽象的哲理有了具体的着落:井冈山是攀上去的,革命是攀上去的,一切难事都须以「登攀」的姿态去攻克。「只要肯」三字以最朴素的语气道出最坚定的信念,不作豪言壮语,反觉千钧之力;而「登攀」一词亦暗合全词「凌云志」的意象脉络——志在凌云,行在登攀,志行合一。此句一出,前文九天揽月、五洋捉鳖的浪漫想象便落实为脚踏实地的奋斗哲学,全词由雄放归于笃定,余响不绝,正合「卒章显志」的章法。

The climb. No difficulty in the world is beyond those who are willing to climb. The no-difficulty and the willing-to-climb are the close. To have willed to climb would be a climbing; the no-difficulty-in-the-world-is-beyond-those-who-are-willing-to-climb is the climbing.

Study

Word focus

凌云志 An ambition to ride the cloud — the aspiration to attain the highest. The phrase brings with it the memory of the Han historian’s account of a writer whose spirit rose like cloud, and here it names a vow that predates the visit, kept for thirty-eight years. 「凌云志」三字是上阕破题的词眼,奠定全词豪迈的基调。「凌云」即高入云霄,语出《史记·司马相如列传》「相如既奏《大人之颂》,天子大说,飘飘有凌云之气,似游天地之间意」,本写汉武帝读赋时的飘飘欲仙之感,后人遂以「凌云」状志气之高、才气之盛;「志」字直揭抱负,而冠以「凌云」,则此志之高远已不可限量。三字连读,音节铿锵(凌云志,阳平、阳平、去声),气势如虹。妙在「久有」二字与它配合:「久有凌云志」不是临事而起的豪语,而是数十年前上井冈山时便已立下的宿愿——1927年秋收起义失败后上井冈山,正是这「凌云志」的第一次践行;三十八年后重来,志非但未磨,反而弥坚。故「凌云志」既是全词的纲领(后文九天揽月、肯登攀皆其注脚),也是词人革命一生精神面貌的浓缩,堪称一字千钧。
弹指一挥间 In the snap of a finger — the Buddhist measure of an almost indivisible instant, used here to swallow thirty-eight years. The words are colloquial, and the colloquialism is what makes the inverse proportion land: the moment is tiny, the history is enormous. 「三十八年过去,弹指一挥间」的「弹指一挥间」五字,是全词时间感慨的凝结点,妙在以极短写极长。「弹指」本为佛家计时之喻,谓极短之刹那(《法苑珠林》:「二十念为一瞬,二十瞬为一弹指」);「一挥」更添洒脱,如挥袖拂尘,轻轻一拂便过了——三十八年的沧桑巨变,在历史长河中不过弹指一瞬。这五个字有三重意蕴:其一,写时间之速,三十八年于个体人生已是大半,于革命事业不过「弹指」,以轻写重,倍增历史感;其二,写态度之豪,功业已成而回顾从容,「弹指一挥」见其举重若轻的统帅气度;其三,写感慨之深,「过去」二字轻轻带过,而其中多少牺牲、奋斗、转折,尽在不言中——1927年上井冈山时红军不足千人,1965年重访时新中国已巍然屹立,此中巨变,唯以「弹指」状之,愈见其重。五字口语化而极富表现力,是毛词「以俗为雅」的典范。
莺歌燕舞 Orioles singing and swallows flying — the old Spring Court phrase for a beautiful season, reused here for a rebuilt country. The familiar words are what let the poem say something new without straining, and its music supplies the poem’s gentler register. 「到处莺歌燕舞,更有潺潺流水」中的「莺歌燕舞」,是上阕写「新貌」的生机之笔,其妙在古词新用。「莺歌燕舞」本为古典诗词写春日欢愉的熟语(如宋词「莺歌燕舞」屡见),毛泽东移以写社会主义建设的蓬勃景象,使旧意象获得新时代的内涵——莺燕不是自然之禽,而是「到处」可见的新生气象的化身:莺歌写其声,燕舞写其态,声色并作,一片欢腾。尤为匠心的是与下句「更有潺潺流水」的搭配:莺歌燕舞是动,潺潺流水是静;一闹一幽,一上一下,画面层次分明,而「更有」二字以递进语气写出景物的丰富。旧词入新境而不觉其旧,反觉贴切自然,正因毛词能「以古典意象写现代生活」——莺歌燕舞的不仅是自然春天,更是「旧貌变新颜」的人间春天。此四字一出,上阕的明丽基调立定,与下阕「风樯动,旌旗奋」的雄健遥相呼应,一张一弛,尽显词人笔力。

Related Reading

水调歌头·游泳 Shui Diao Ge Tou: Swimming 毛泽东 · 同为毛泽东水调歌头词牌之作,时代风云与革命豪情的姊妹篇 The same tune and the same hand, nine years apart: one poem on the river, one on the mountain, and a pair that shows the range of his late lyric.

The earlier poem is about today’s work on a great river; this one is about yesterday’s history on a mountain. Where the former ends by startling a goddess, the latter ends by advising a reader. Both keep one rhyme through both stanzas, both let prose syntax into the longer lines, and both close on a colloquial four-character phrase. Read together they are the fullest statement of his late manner: what he could do with the old forms, and how much his thinking had moved between a bridge and a battlefield.

毛泽东《水调歌头·游泳》(1956年)与《重上井冈山》(1965年)同调同格,一写长江横渡、一写故地重游,皆以雄浑之笔写社会主义建设的气象。《游泳》中「不管风吹浪打,胜似闲庭信步」「一桥飞架南北,天堑变通途」写征服自然的从容与建设的伟力;《重上井冈山》中「可上九天揽月,可下五洋捉鳖」「世上无难事,只要肯登攀」写超越极限的壮志与必胜的信念。两词同押平声韵、同以口语入词、同以古典意象写现代理想,而《游泳》重在「今天」的建设,《重上井冈山》重在「今昔」的对照,一横渡、一登攀,恰成毛词水调歌头一体的双璧,合观可见其晚年词风由雄放趋于深沉再归于雄放的轨迹。

沁园春·长沙 Qinyuan Chun: Changsha 毛泽东 · 同为重游故地、今昔对照的抒怀之作,青年与晚年的隔代呼应 Related reading

Compare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.

《沁园春·长沙》(1925年)与《水调歌头·重上井冈山》(1965年)是毛泽东两首「重游故地」词:前者重游长沙橘子洲,后者重上井冈山;前者写于革命初始,后者写于革命胜利之后。两词结构相通——皆以「××(独立寒秋/久有凌云志)……重游(故地)」起,皆以今昔对照为骨,皆以豪情收束(「问苍茫大地,谁主沉浮」「世上无难事,只要肯登攀」)。相异在情调:《长沙》写青年词人「粪土当年万户侯」的激越与「谁主沉浮」的叩问,是少年意气、未定之局;《井冈山》写暮年词人「谈笑凯歌还」的从容与「肯登攀」的笃定,是功成回首、信念弥坚。一为革命前夜的壮志宣言,一为革命胜利后的精神遗嘱,前后呼应,恰是毛泽东一生「从长沙到井冈山」的完整回环,合观之,可见一个革命者精神世界的前后一贯。

水调歌头·明月几时有 Shui Diao Ge Tou: How Rarely, O Bright Moon 苏轼 · 同调同牌而风格迥异,豪放词一古一今的双峰 The same tune, the same enlarged manner, and two entirely different answers to what a life of public service can be worth.

Su Shi asks the sky and is answered with the comfort that the moon has never favoured one person either; his grandeur ends in an invitation to share the light across distances. Mao Zedong asks the sky what is possible and answers with the moon and the turtle and then with an instruction about climbing; his grandeur ends in work. Both are at their best when they are at their most public, and both know that the lyric is the right size for the thought. Nine hundred years separate them and not one word of the form has to change.

苏轼《水调歌头·明月几时有》与毛泽东《水调歌头·重上井冈山》同用《水调歌头》词牌,同属豪放一格,而精神境界迥然有别。苏词「明月几时有,把酒问青天」「人有悲欢离合,月有阴晴圆缺,此事古难全」写个人在宇宙面前的豁达与怅惘,以「但愿人长久,千里共婵娟」的温情化解缺憾,是士大夫的超越之思;毛词「可上九天揽月,可下五洋捉鳖」「世上无难事,只要肯登攀」写人在天地之间的进取与必胜,以「谈笑凯歌还」的豪迈消解困难,是革命者的战斗哲学。苏词问天而归于人间温情,毛词问天而归于人间功业;苏词之豪是「看破」后的旷达,毛词之豪是「征服」中的雄壮。两词相隔九百年,一为古典豪放的巅峰,一为现代豪放的绝唱,同调而异趣,正见《水调歌头》词牌历千年而不衰的生命力,也见「豪放」精神在不同时代的不同内涵。