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先秦 Pre-Qin · 诗经 Classic of Poetry

蓼莪

Lu E (The Tall Plant)

诗经

Book of Songs

亲情/孝道family and filial piety 悼亡/怀人mourning and remembrance

蓼蓼者莪，匪莪伊蒿。
哀哀父母，生我劬劳。
蓼蓼者莪，匪莪伊蔚。
哀哀父母，生我劳瘁。
瓶之罄矣，维罍之耻。
鲜民之生，不如死之久矣。
无父何怙？
无母何恃？
出则衔恤，入则靡至。
父兮生我，母兮鞠我。
抚我畜我，长我育我，顾我复我，出入腹我。
欲报之德，昊天罔极！
南山烈烈，飘风发发。
民莫不穀，我独何害！
南山律律，飘风弗弗。
民莫不穀，我独不卒！

The tall, tall e plant, nay, it is the hao. Alas my father and mother, who gave me toil and pain.
The tall, tall e plant, nay, it is the wei. Alas my father and mother, who gave me toil and sickness.
The jar is empty, that is the vase's shame. The orphan's life, better had he died long since. Without a father, what to lean on? Without a mother, what to rely on? Abroad I hold grief; at home I find no place.
Father, you gave me life; mother, you nurtured me. You soothed me, cherished me, reared me, fed me, watched me, folded me, in and out you held me. I would repay this virtue, but Heaven has no bound!
The southern hill is steep; the whirling wind roars. None but I am at peace; alone, why this hurt?
The southern hill is high; the whirling wind whirs. None but I am at peace; alone, I cannot keep them to the end!

Listen

Meaning

The tall e plant, nay, it is the hao. Alas my father and mother, who bore me with such toil. The tall e plant, nay, it is the wei. Alas my father and mother, who wore themselves sick for me. The jar is empty, that is the vase's shame. The orphan's life, better he had died long ago. Without a father, what to lean on? Without a mother, what to rely on? Abroad I carry grief; at home I find no place. Father, you gave me life; mother, you nurtured me. You soothed me, cherished me, reared me, fed me, watched me, folded me, in and out you held me. I would repay this virtue, but Heaven's bound has no end! The southern hill is steep; the whirling wind roars. All men are at peace; alone, why this hurt? The southern hill is high; the whirling wind whirs. All men are at peace; alone, I cannot keep them to the end!

高高大的莪菜，不是莪是蒿。哀哀父母，生我多劳苦。高高大的莪菜，不是莪是蔚。哀哀父母，生我多憔悴。酒瓶空了，是酒罍的耻辱。孤儿的活，不如早死久矣。无父何所依？无母何所恃？出外含忧，入室无所至。父啊生我，母啊养我。抚我疼我，长我育我，顾我护我，出入抱我。想报答此德，苍天无极（难报）！南山烈烈，飘风发发。人莫不善，我独何害！南山律律，飘风弗弗。人莫不善，我独不得终养！

Appreciation

'Lu E' is a famous filial-poem (satirizing the neglect of support) from the 'Xiao Ya' section of the Book of Songs. The Mao preface says 'a satire of King You: the people toiled, and the filial son could not keep his parents to the end'. The poem arose against the late-Western-Zhou background of heavy corvee, where the conscripted served long and could not return, leaving parents to starve and the filial son unable to keep them. The poet uses the 'e' plant (the 'mother-hugging' hao) as xing, writing instead 'nay, it is the hao, wei', meaning he should have repaid his parents yet could not, the most heart-rending filial poem of the Songs, later an 'filial-classic' famous piece.

【白话串讲】 “蓼蓼者莪，匪莪伊蒿。哀哀父母，生我劬劳”——那植物像莪又不像，父母生我养我多辛苦。“父兮生我，母兮鞠我”——“欲报之德，昊天罔极”——想报答父母的恩，像天一样没有尽头。中国第一首悼念父母的诗，读一次哭一次。【意象与手法】诗前二章以“蓼蓼者莪，匪莪伊蒿/蔚”起兴，以“抱娘蒿”反衬“非莪”，喻己不得养亲之痛【情感与主旨】《蓼莪》为《诗经·小雅》中的著名悼亲（刺废养）之作。《毛序》谓“刺幽王也，民人劳苦，孝子不得终养” 【名句点睛】本诗为古诗鉴赏重点，考点：一、起兴——“莪/蒿/蔚”喻养亲与否；二、排比——“生我、鞠我、抚我…”层层垛叠养育恩

Background

《蓼莪》为《诗经·小雅》中的一篇，是写悼念父母、哀叹养育之恩的诗。全诗六章，首尾哀叹父母生我劬劳：蓼蓼者莪，匪莪伊蒿；哀哀父母，生我劬劳。蓼蓼者莪，匪莪伊蔚；哀哀父母，生我劳瘁。瓶之罄矣，维罍之耻；鲜民之生，不如死之久矣。无父何怙？无母何恃？出则衔恤，入则靡至。父兮生我，母兮鞠我。拊我畜我，长我育我，顾我复我，出入腹我。欲报之德，昊天罔极！南山烈烈，飘风发发。民莫不谷，我独何害！南山律律，飘风弗弗。民莫不谷，我独不卒！全诗写父母养育之恩与子女欲报无门之痛，是《诗经》中悼亲的名篇。

Art

The first two stanzas open with 'the tall, tall e plant, nay, it is the hao, wei' as xing, using the 'mother-hugging hao' against the 'not e', meaning his drifting, unable to keep his parents; stanzas three and four state outright 'alas my father and mother, who gave me toil' and the parallelism 'you soothed me, cherished me, reared me, fed me, watched me, folded me, in and out you held me', piling the parents' nurture layer by layer, then turn sharply with 'I would repay this virtue, but Heaven has no bound', the grace heavy yet the repayment cut, breaking the heart. The last two stanzas 'the southern hill is steep; the whirling wind roars' close with scene, the hill-wind's fierceness figuring his lone, unheard grief. The lines move from four-character into long-short; the feeling like a tide, hailed as 'the filial son's poem of a thousand ages'.

《蓼莪》艺术上以直抒的哀痛与回环的章法见长。全诗六章，层层写来：首二章写哀叹——“蓼蓼者莪，匪莪伊蒿”写以莪喻己，“哀哀父母，生我劬劳”写父母之劳；三四章写无依之痛——“瓶之罄矣，维罍之耻”写瓶罄罍耻，“无父何怙？无母何恃”写无依无恃，“出则衔恤，入则靡至”写出入之悲；五章写父母之恩——“父兮生我，母兮鞠我。拊我畜我，长我育我，顾我复我，出入腹我”写养育之恩，“欲报之德，昊天罔极”写欲报无门；末二章写悲叹——“南山烈烈，飘风发发”写南山飘风，“民莫不谷，我独何害”写独遭其害。全诗直抒哀痛，回环咏叹，正是《诗经》写悼亲的笔法。

Allusions

'E' is the 'mother-hugging hao' (wormwood), said to grow clustered about its root, so the ancients used it to figure the child clinging to the mother; the poem's 'nay, it is the hao, wei', the hao and wei both grow scattered, not hugging the root, figuring his drifting, unable to keep his parents, this is 'xing with bi'. 'The jar empty is the vase's shame' uses the small jar that draws water for the son, the great vase for the parents; the jar empty shames the vase, figuring that the son's failure to support his parents is their shame (or his own), a phrase from the Zuo Zhuan ('the jar is empty; it is the vase's shame'). 'Heaven has no bound' later became the idiom 'a parent's grace is like Heaven's, without bound'.

《蓼莪》用典在“莪”“蒿”“瓶”“罍”“昊天”。“蓼蓼者莪，匪莪伊蒿”写以莪（美菜）自比而实为蒿（贱草），喻己不能成才以报亲；“瓶之罄矣，维罍之耻”以瓶（小器）喻子、以罍（大器）喻父母，写瓶罄而罍耻；“昊天罔极”写苍天无穷，写欲报之德如天之大。全诗以这些比喻写父母之恩与欲报无门，用典贴切而哀痛深沉，正是《诗经》写悼亲的笔法。

Commentary

The Mao preface: 'a satire of King You: the people toiled, and the filial son could not keep his parents to the end.' Zhu Xi's Commentary: 'the people toiled, and the filial son, unable to keep them, made this poem.' The Jin man Wang Bao, reading this poem, 'wept at every reading', and his disciples therefore dropped the 'Tall Plant' piece (in the Book of Jin). The modern Cheng Junying, in Songs Translated, calls it 'the earliest and most moving poem of missing parents in our ancient literature'. Its phrase 'Heaven has no bound' entered the Classic of Filial Piety and has passed a thousand years.

《蓼莪》是《诗经·小雅》中的名篇，也是中国诗歌中写悼念父母、哀叹养育之恩的源头。此诗写父母之恩与欲报无门之痛，向为论者称道。论者多赏其“哀哀父母，生我劬劳”的哀叹——以“哀哀”写父母之劳，悼亲之痛尽在其中；“欲报之德，昊天罔极”写欲报无门，更见其痛。此诗直抒哀痛、回环咏叹，正是《诗经》写悼亲的代表作，为后世“蓼莪”之典所本。

Prosody

Form Book of Songs, Xiao Ya (mostly four-character, with long-short lines)四言诗（雅诗）

Rhyme Stanza 1: hao, toil (xiao group); stanza 2: wei, sickness (wu group); stanza 3: shame, long, rely, place (zhi group); stanza 4: me, feed, hold, bound (zhi through); stanza 5: steep, roar, hurt (yue group); stanza 6: high, whir, end (wu group)《蓼莪》为《诗经·小雅》中的四言诗，六章，每章四句，押韵。此诗用韵：蒿、劳（宵部）、蔚、瘁（月部）、耻、久、恃（之部）、母、畜、育、复、腹（职部）、德、极（职部）、烈、发、害（月部）、律、弗、卒（物部），各章换韵，音节哀痛。

Tone pattern Four-character, two-two; last stanzas into long-short《诗经》四言诗以音节短促、节奏鲜明见长。此诗六章，历写父母之恩与欲报无门之痛，音节哀痛而绵长。全诗以四言贯底，声调与悼亲哀痛的内容相合，是《诗经》雅诗中写悼亲的一路。

Reading note A famous filial-poem of missing parents; xing, bi, and parallelism combined; feeling intense.《蓼莪》为《诗经·小雅》中的四言诗，是写悼念父母、哀叹养育之恩的诗。全诗六章：以“蓼蓼者莪，匪莪伊蒿”喻己之不成材，以“哀哀父母，生我劬劳”写父母之劳，以“无父何怙？无母何恃”写无依之痛，以“拊我畜我”历写养育之恩，以“欲报之德，昊天罔极”写欲报无门。直抒哀痛、回环咏叹，为后世“蓼莪”之典所本，正是《诗经》写悼亲的代表作。

Line by line

蓼蓼者莪，匪莪伊蒿。哀哀父母，生我劬劳。

Tall grows the eulalia—no, it is mugwort. Pitiful my parents, how toiling they bore me.

高高长大的莪草，不是莪而是蒿。哀哀的父母，生我十分辛劳。

Tall grows the eulalia—no, it is the artemisia. Pitiful my parents, how toiling they bore me.

首章写哀叹父母之劳，是全诗悼亲之痛的起点。“蓼蓼者莪，匪莪伊蒿”写以莪喻己——“蓼蓼者莪”写高高的莪草，“匪莪伊蒿”写不是莪而是蒿——以莪（美菜）喻己，而实为蒿（贱草），喻己不能成才；“哀哀父母，生我劬劳”写父母之劳——“哀哀父母”写哀哀的父母，“生我劬劳”写生我辛劳。四句写哀叹父母：我本如莪而实为蒿，哀哀父母，生我劬劳。以“蓼蓼者莪，匪莪伊蒿”喻己之不成材，以“哀哀父母，生我劬劳”写父母之劳，正是《诗经》写悼亲的笔法——己不能报，父母已劳。

The eulalia. Tall grows the eulalia—no, it is mugwort. Pitiful my parents, how toiling they bore me. The tall-eulalia-no-mugwort and the pitiful-parents-how-toiling-bore-me are the opening. To have grown tall would be a growing; the tall-grows-the-eulalia-no-it-is-mugwort-pitiful-my-parents-how-toiling-they-bore-me is the growing.

无父何怙？无母何恃？出则衔恤，入则靡至。

Without a father, on what to lean? Without a mother, on what to rely? Going out, I carry grief; coming in, I seem nowhere to arrive.

没有父亲，依靠谁？没有母亲，仰仗谁？出门含悲，入门却像无处可归。

Without a father, on whom to lean? Without a mother, on whom to rely? Going out, I carry sorrow; coming in, I feel I have no home.

此章写无依之痛，是全诗悼亲之痛的加深。“无父何怙？无母何恃”写无依无恃——“无父何怙”写没有父亲依靠谁，“无母何恃”写没有母亲仰仗谁——无父无母，何怙何恃；“出则衔恤，入则靡至”写出入之悲——“出则衔恤”写出门含悲，“入则靡至”写入门却像无处可归——出门含悲，入门靡至。四句写无依之痛：无父何怙，无母何恃；出则衔恤，入则靡至。以“无父何怙？无母何恃”的反问写无依之痛，以“出则衔恤，入则靡至”写出入之悲，正是《诗经》写悼亲之痛的笔法——父母既亡，无依无恃。

The orphan. Without a father, on what to lean? Without a mother, on what to rely? Going out, I carry grief; coming in, I seem nowhere to arrive. The without-father-lean and the without-mother-rely and the going-out-carry-grief and the coming-in-nowhere-arrive are the desolation. To have leaned on nothing would be a leaning; the without-a-father-on-what-to-lean-without-a-mother-on-what-to-rely-going-out-i-carry-grief-coming-in-i-seem-nowhere-to-arrive is the leaning.

父兮生我，母兮鞠我。拊我畜我，长我育我，顾我复我，出入腹我。

Father, who begot me; Mother, who nursed me. Who petted me, fed me, raised me, reared me, watched over me, took me up and carried me.

父亲生我，母亲养我。抚摩我、疼爱我，使我长大、教育我，照顾我、反复看我，出入怀抱我。

Father, you begot me; Mother, you nursed me. You petted me, fed me, raised me, reared me, watched over me, took me up and carried me in and out.

此章历写父母养育之恩，是全诗感恩之情的核心。“父兮生我，母兮鞠我”写父母生养——“父兮生我”写父亲生我，“母兮鞠我”写母亲养我；“拊我畜我，长我育我，顾我复我，出入腹我”历写养育之细——“拊我”写抚摩我，“畜我”写疼爱我，“长我育我”写使我长大教育我，“顾我复我”写照顾我反复看我，“出入腹我”写出入怀抱我。六句写养育之恩：父生母鞠，拊畜长育，顾复腹我。以“父兮生我，母兮鞠我”写生养之恩，以“拊我畜我”等六句历写养育之细，正是《诗经》写感恩之情的笔法——养育之恩，历历在目。

The nurture. Father, who begot me; Mother, who nursed me. Who petted me, fed me, raised me, reared me, watched over me, took me up and carried me. The father-begot-me and the mother-nursed-me and the petted-fed-raised-reared-watched-carried are the litany. To have begotten me would be a begetting; the father-who-begot-me-mother-who-nursed-me-who-petted-me-fed-me-raised-me-reared-me-watched-over-me-took-me-up-and-carried-me is the begetting.

欲报之德，昊天罔极！

I would repay this virtue, but Heaven has no bound!

想要报答父母的恩德，苍天无穷，报之无门！

I would repay their kindness, but the great heaven is boundless!

此句写欲报无门，是全诗感恩之痛的归结。“欲报之德”写想要报恩——“欲报”写想要报答，“之德”写父母之恩德；“昊天罔极”写苍天无穷——“昊天”写苍天，“罔极”写无穷——想要报恩，而恩如天之大，报之无门。两句写欲报无门：欲报之德，昊天罔极。以“欲报之德”写报恩之愿，以“昊天罔极”写恩之无穷、报之无门，正是《诗经》写悼亲之痛的归结——父母之恩如天，欲报而不可及。这一悲叹，遂成千古悼亲之名句。

The boundless heaven. I would repay their kindness, but the great heaven is boundless! The would-repay-kindness and the great-heaven-boundless are the close. To have repaid the kindness would be a repaying; the i-would-repay-their-kindness-but-the-great-heaven-is-boundless is the repaying.

Study

Word focus

蓼蓼 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. “蓼蓼者莪”之“蓼蓼”，写莪草高大，是全诗以莪喻己的关键词。“蓼蓼”写高大——高高长大的莪草。这一词写莪之盛：不是矮小之草，而是蓼蓼；不是寻常之莪，而是高大之莪。以“蓼蓼”写莪，正是《诗经》以莪喻己的笔法——莪之蓼蓼，正为下文“匪莪伊蒿”作衬。

劬劳 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. “生我劬劳”之“劬劳”，写辛劳劳苦，是全诗写父母之恩的关键词。“劬劳”写劳苦——父母生我，十分辛劳。这一词写父母之劳：不是寻常之劳，而是劬劳；不是一时之累，而是生养之劳。以“劬劳”写父母之恩，正是《诗经》写养育之恩的笔法——生我劬劳，恩重如山。

怙 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. “无父何怙”之“怙”，写依靠，是全诗写无依之痛的关键词。“怙”写依靠、仰仗——没有父亲，依靠谁？这一词写对父亲的依赖：不是泛称之依，而是怙；不是可有之靠，而是生存之所恃。以“怙”“恃”写依恃，正是《诗经》写无依之痛的笔法——无父何怙，无母何恃。

昊天罔极 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. “昊天罔极”之“昊天罔极”，写苍天无穷，是全诗写欲报无门的关键词。“昊天”写苍天，“罔极”写无穷——苍天无穷，报之无门。这一词以天喻父母之恩：不是有限之恩，而是罔极；不是可以报尽，而是昊天之大。以“昊天罔极”写欲报无门，正是《诗经》写悼亲之痛的归结——父母之恩，昊天罔极。

蓼莪