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先秦 Pre-Qin · 诗经 Classic of Poetry

子衿

Your Collar

诗经

Book of Songs

爱情Love 相思Longing

青青子衿，悠悠我心。
纵我不往，子宁不嗣音？
青青子佩，悠悠我思。
纵我不往，子宁不来？
挑兮达兮，在城阙兮。
一日不见，如三月兮。

Blue, blue your collar;
Long, long my heart.
Even if I went not,
Why did you not send word?

Blue, blue your girdle-jade;
Long, long my thought.
Even if I went not,
Why did you not come?

I pace and wander
By the city tower.
One day not seen—
Is like three months.

Listen

Meaning

Blue is your collar; long is my longing. Even if I did not go to you, how could you cut off all word? Blue is your girdle-jade; long is my thought. Even if I did not go to you, how could you not come? I pace and wander by the city tower's gate. One day not seen—is like three months.

青青的是你的衣领，悠悠的是我的相思。纵然我不曾去找你，你难道就此断绝了音信？青青的是你的佩玉，悠悠的是我的情思。纵然我不曾去找你，你难道就不肯前来？我独自往来徘徊啊，在那高高的城楼阙门之上。一日不曾相见，竟像隔了三个月那样漫长。

Appreciation

This poem's wonder lies in metonymy and progression. The first two chapters use 'blue your collar' and 'blue your girdle-jade'—the collar and girdle-jade of an ancient reading youth—to stand for the person by his dress, avoiding direct address, implicit and deep in feeling; 'long, long my heart' and 'long, long my thought' stack the adjective, the longing endless. From 'heart' to 'thought', from 'send word' to 'come', the longing turns to a hope to see. The last chapter 'I pace and wander by the city tower' writes the anxiety in motion; 'one day not seen, is like three months' quantifies the longing in exaggeration, from inner feeling to outer trace, a strong close.

【白话串讲】 “青青子衿，悠悠我心”——你青色的衣领，牵动我的心。姑娘在城楼上等情郎：“一日不见，如三月兮”。这句“青青子衿”，后来被曹操化用，成了求贤的名句。【意象与手法】本诗艺术之妙在借代、层递与夸张的联用。前两章以「青青子衿」「青青子佩」借代所思念的人——衿是衣领，佩是佩玉，皆读书男子的标志性装束，以服饰代人，不直呼其人而其人宛然在目，含蓄而深情；「悠悠我心」「悠悠我思」以叠字写情思之绵长，复沓中见回环之美。两章结构相同而语意递进：由「子宁不嗣音」（不给我音信）到「子宁不来」（不肯前来），由盼信而盼人，思念一层深似一层，且以「纵我不往」先退一步，更衬出「子宁」的嗔怨——分明是女子情急，反怪对方无情，娇憨之态毕现。末章「挑兮达兮，在城阙兮」由心理写到动作，以城阙独步的焦灼形迹收束前两章的内心独白；「一日不见，如三月兮」以极度夸张量化相思，将心理时间与物理时间的反差放大到极致，遂成千古名句。【情感与主旨】《子衿》是《诗经·郑风》中的一篇相思情歌。《毛诗序》附会为「刺学校废也」，朱熹《诗集传》斥为「淫奔之诗」，今人多据其口吻与郑风情歌群的整体风格，定为女子思念情人之作。诗写女子久候情人不至，登城阙而望、往来徘徊，内心由深情的思念转为带嗔的怨望：前两章在「纵我不往」的退让中反诘「子宁不嗣音」「子宁不来」，嗔中含爱；末章以「一日不见，如三月兮」的夸张，把等待的焦灼与思念的深长推到极致。全诗没有一句直说「爱」字，而炽热的情感全在衣领、佩玉、城阙、一日三秋这些日常细节里，是《国风》相思诗的翘楚。【名句点睛】中高考常考「一日不见，如三月兮」：以极度夸张写相思之切，心理时间与物理时间的巨大反差，使抽象的思念变得可感可触，后世「一日三秋」成语即源于此。又常考「青青子衿，悠悠我心」：以衣领借代心上人，含蓄深情，后被曹操《短歌行》直接袭用以喻求贤，可见其影响之广。答题时注意把握前两章借代起兴、由盼信而盼人的层递，以及末章动作描写与夸张收束的章法。

Background

Zi Jin is a longing love-song in the 'Airs of the States · Zheng' of the Book of Songs. The Mao Preface attached to it 'satirizes the ruin of schools: in troubled times schools are not kept up, scholars scatter, so their disciples miss their teacher', taking 'blue your collar' as the scholar's robe; after the Song it was mostly scolded as 'licentious elopement'. Moderns, by the poem's tone and the whole Zheng love-song group's style, fix it as a woman missing her lover. The poem writes a woman long waiting for her lover who does not come, pacing alone by the city tower, eyes straining—arisen in the Zheng context where young men and women met freely yet were often kept apart by custom, a chief of the Airs' longing poems.

《子衿》是《诗经·郑风》中的一篇相思情歌。《毛诗序》附会为「刺学校废也，乱世则学校不修，学者分散，故其子弟思其师」，以「衿」为学子之服；郑玄《笺》申其说，谓「乱世而不修学业，子弟之志荒」；宋朱熹《诗集传》则斥为「淫奔之诗」；清方玉润《诗经原始》力驳旧说，以为「刺学校废，殊附会」。今人多据其口吻与郑风情歌群的整体风格，定为女子思念情人之作。郑国地处中原，商业发达，城邑繁华，青年男女交往较他国为自由，《郑风》中《将仲子》《静女》《溱洧》等篇皆写男女情事，正反映此一民间语境；诗中女子久候情人不至、登城阙而望、往来徘徊，正产生于这样的生活背景。周代设采诗之官，民间歌谣经采辑、整理而入乐，《子衿》遂以乐歌的形式流传，其重章叠句的结构正是歌唱的天然形态。孔子删诗时《郑风》多存男女之辞，《子衿》以短短三章写出相思的焦灼与嗔怨，是《国风》中艺术成就最高的情诗之一，其「一日不见，如三月兮」更凝为「一日三秋」的成语，影响绵延至今。

Art

本诗艺术之妙在借代、层递与夸张的联用。前两章以「青青子衿」「青青子佩」借代所思念的人——衿是衣领，佩是佩玉，皆读书男子的标志性装束，以服饰代人，不直呼其人而其人宛然在目，含蓄而深情；「悠悠我心」「悠悠我思」以叠字写情思之绵长，复沓中见回环之美。两章结构相同而语意递进：由「子宁不嗣音」（不给我音信）到「子宁不来」（不肯前来），由盼信而盼人，思念一层深似一层，且以「纵我不往」先退一步，更衬出「子宁」的嗔怨——分明是女子情急，反怪对方无情，娇憨之态毕现。动词与虚词的经营亦见功力：「纵」「宁」二字一退一进，顿挫生姿；「挑达」叠用，状往来不定之形，栩栩如生。末章「挑兮达兮，在城阙兮」由心理写到动作，以城阙独步的焦灼形迹收束前两章的内心独白，登临之高与等待之久相映成趣；「一日不见，如三月兮」以极度夸张量化相思，将心理时间与物理时间的反差放大到极致，遂成千古名句。三章由思而怨、由怨而叹，脉络分明，正是《诗经》「一唱三叹」章法之典范。

Allusions

The poem's 'blue your collar, long, long my heart' was later directly borrowed by Cao Cao's 'Short Song' ('blue your collar, long, long my heart; but for your sake, I hum it to this day')—from a love poem turned to a metaphor for seeking the worthy, a famous case of 'stealing the womb and changing the bone' in literary history. 'Your collar' originally means the blue-collar scholar's robe; 'city tower' is the two towers at a city gate, both everyday images not deep allusions; 'one day not seen, is like three months' condensed into the source of the idiom 'a day feels like three autumns', figuring the acuteness of longing, influencing six-dynasties yuefu and Tang poetry greatly.

本诗语浅情深，用典不多而影响极大。「青青子衿，悠悠我心」二句后被曹操《短歌行》直接袭用——「青青子衿，悠悠我心。但为君故，沉吟至今」，曹操将其由情诗转为求贤之喻，以衣领代指贤才，表达思贤若渴之心，是为文学史上著名的「夺胎换骨」之例，也使《子衿》得以在更广阔的语境中流传。「衿」本指衣领，古制学生服青领，「青青子衿」遂成为读书人（学子、士子）的固定代称，后世「青衿」一词即由此出，用以指称儒生。「城阙」指城门两旁的楼观，本为都城建制，诗中用作登高望远的约会守望之所，后世「城阙辅三秦，风烟望五津」等句沿用其意象，由约会之地转为都城、宫殿的代称，语源皆可溯于此。「一日不见，如三月兮」则凝为成语「一日三秋」，正是其语源，六朝乐府「一日不见，如三秋兮」、唐人「一日三秋」的用法皆由此出；「悠悠我心」之「悠悠」亦为《诗经》常用语，如《黍离》「悠悠苍天」，皆写深远绵长之意。可见此诗虽不用深典，却以自身的语言魅力反哺了后世千年。

Commentary

The Mao Preface says: 'Zi Jin satirizes the ruin of schools.' Zheng Xuan's commentary follows. Zhu Xi's Poetry Commentary says 'this too is a licentious elopement's poem'. Fang Yurun, in Origin of the Book of Songs, refutes the preface, saying 'satirizing the ruin of schools is quite forced'. Cao Cao's 'Short Song' cites 'blue your collar, long, long my heart' to voice seeking the worthy, opening a new face for this poem. Moderns mostly read it as a pure love-song, praising its 'few words, yet it writes longing to the full', language plain yet feeling lingering.

《毛诗序》曰：「《子衿》，刺学校废也。」郑玄笺从之，谓「乱世而不修学业，子弟之志荒」。朱熹《诗集传》则直斥「此亦淫奔之诗」，虽含贬义，却第一次认定了它的情歌性质。清方玉润《诗经原始》驳序说「刺学校废，殊附会」，指出此诗「虽属儿女私情，而其词缠绵悱恻，有不能自已者」；姚际恒《诗经通论》亦主情诗说，谓「『纵我不往，子宁不嗣音』等语，活画出一痴情女子」。今人论此诗，多赞其「寥寥数语，写尽相思」：前两章委婉，末章直捷，嗔中含爱、怨中见痴。其艺术地位在《郑风》乃至全部《国风》情诗中皆属上乘——以细节（衣领、佩玉）传神，以动作（城阙徘徊）传形，以夸张（一日三秋）传情，三章而百态俱备。历代选本无不收之，诗文评家亦屡加揄扬；曹操《短歌行》的袭用，更使它从一首民间情歌升格为中国文学中「思」的经典符号，闺怨、怀人诸题材皆奉之为祖。三千年后的今天，「一日不见，如隔三秋」仍活在日常口语之中，正是此诗生命力最有力的证明。

Prosody

Form Book of Songs · Airs of the States · Zheng (mostly four-character, last chapter mixed)《诗经》·国风·郑风，四言为主，末章缀「兮」字成杂言，重章叠句体

Rhyme Chapter one qin rhyme (collar, heart, word); chapter two zhi rhyme (girdle-jade, thought, come); chapter three yue rhyme (tower, months); rhyme shifts by chapter首章押「衿、心、音」（上古侵部），次章押「佩、思、来」（上古之部），末章押「阙、月」（上古月部），随章换韵，一章一韵

Tone pattern Four-character, two-two beat; the Book of Songs form does not mark level-oblique四言二二节拍，整齐匀称，不究平仄；前两章重章叠唱，回环往复，末章以「兮」字句舒缓语气、摇曳生姿

Reading note Metonymy subtle, exaggeration vivid; the acme of longing poems.《子衿》属《诗经》四言体，句式以四言为主，二二节拍，读来整齐匀称、一唱三叹。全诗三章，前两章结构完全相同，仅易「衿」为「佩」、「心」为「思」、「嗣音」为「来」，是《诗经》最典型的「重章叠句」形式——章句的回环正对应相思的反复，每唱一遍，情便深一层，这是民歌口耳相传的天然节奏，也是《诗经》音乐性的根本所在。用韵上三章各自为韵，一章一韵、随章换韵：首章侵部韵（衿、心、音）绵长低回，次章之部韵（佩、思、来）流转舒缓，末章月部韵（阙、月）短促有力，韵部的转换配合情感由思而怨、由怨而叹的推进，声情与辞情相合。末章「挑兮达兮，在城阙兮」「一日不见，如三月兮」两处「兮」字句打破四言定式，语气由陈述转为咏叹，把焦灼的独白化作悠长的叹息，正是《诗经》体「以声传情」的精妙所在。作为《郑风》名篇，其音韵和谐、琅琅上口，历代传诵不衰，与《关雎》《蒹葭》同为《诗经》中最富音乐美的篇章。

Line by line

青青子衿，悠悠我心

Blue, blue your collar; Long, long my heart.

青青的是你的衣领，悠悠的是我对你的相思。

Green, green is your collar; long, long is the longing in my heart.

开篇两句是全诗的起兴与点题。「衿」是衣领，古制学子服以青领为饰，「青青子衿」以最鲜明的衣色借代所思念的读书郎，不直呼其人而其人宛然在目，这是《诗经》「以物代人」的典型手法；「悠悠我心」以叠字写情思之绵长不绝，如丝如缕。「青青」是视觉的鲜明，「悠悠」是内心的绵长，一外一内、一色一情，起兴与抒情浑然一体。后曹操《短歌行》直接袭用此二句，化男女相思为思贤求才，可见其语感之凝练、意蕴之深厚，已足以负载千年后的再阐释。

The opening two lines rise on image and state the theme. Jin is the collar; in the old style, students wore a green collar, and green, green is your collar names the scholar she longs for by the brightest detail of dress, not naming the man, yet he stands before the eyes: the Shijing way of naming the person through a thing. Long, long is the longing in my heart uses reduplication to write the endless, threadlike feeling. Green, green is visual brightness; long, long is inner length; outer and inner, color and emotion, rising image and lyric fused. Later Cao Cao, in his Short Song, borrowed these two lines directly, turning lovers' longing into the seeking of worthies; their concentrated cadence and deep resonance were already enough to bear reinterpretation a millennium later.

纵我不往，子宁不嗣音？

Even if I do not go to you, must you cut off all word to me?

纵然我不曾去找你，你难道就断绝了给我的音信？

Though I do not go to you, can you really have stopped sending me news?

这是女子由思生怨的反诘，是全诗情感的转折点。「纵我不往」先退一步，承认自己也没有主动去找对方，随即以「子宁不嗣音」反戈相向——你不给我音信，难道是你就此忘了情分？退一步是为了进一步，语气嗔中含娇、怨中带爱，分明是情急而怪人，娇憨之态如见。这种「以退为进」的反诘笔法，比直说「我好想你」高明得多：它写出的是等待的焦灼与自尊的挣扎，也暗示双方本有相往之约，如今独守空约，方有此怨。后世闺怨诗词中「嗔怪」一路的情致，皆可溯源于此。

This is the woman's challenge, turning longing into grievance, the emotional turning point of the poem. Even if I do not go to you first yields a step, admitting that she has not gone to him; then must you cut off all word to me? strikes back: you send no word, have you then forgotten the bond? The retreat prepares the advance; the tone chides with softness, resents with love, plainly the pique of one made impatient by longing, her dainty petulance visible. This advancing-by-retreat challenge is far beyond a plain I miss you so: it writes the anxiety of waiting and the struggle of pride, and hints that they had a tryst between them, kept now only by her, hence the grievance. The whole later tradition of reproachful tenderness in boudoir poetry traces back here.

青青子佩，悠悠我思

Green, green is your jade pendant; long, long is my longing for you.

青青的是你的佩玉，悠悠的是我对你的情思。

Green, green is your pendant jade; long, long is the yearning in my thoughts.

次章与首章句式全同，仅易「衿」为「佩」、「心」为「思」，是《诗经》典型的「重章叠句」之法。佩是系于衣带的玉饰，「青青子佩」与「青青子衿」并举，衣领与佩玉都是那人身上最醒目的标记，反复以物写人，足见思念之深——连他的衣着佩饰都记得清清楚楚，其人可想见矣。「悠悠我思」与「悠悠我心」同字叠唱，回环往复，如低回叹息，把相思的绵长写得摇曳生姿。重章而略变，正是《诗经》「一唱三叹」的音乐性所在，也是民歌口耳相传的天然形态，两章并举，思念的浓度与广度都得到加强。

The second stanza repeats the first line for line, changing only collar to pendant and heart to thoughts, the typical Shijing refrain. The pendant is jade worn on the girdle; green, green is your pendant and green, green is your collar stand together: collar and pendant are the two most vivid marks of him, and writing the person again and again through things shows the depth of longing, she remembers his very dress and ornaments, and he can be imagined. Long, long is the yearning in my thoughts shares the words of long, long is the longing in my heart, circling and repeating, like a low sigh, rendering the length of love in swaying grace. The refrain with slight change is the musical soul of the Shijing's three sighs, and the natural form of oral folk song; the two stanzas together deepen both the intensity and the breadth of the longing.

挑兮达兮，在城阙兮

I pace and pace back and forth, here on the tower above the city gate.

我独自往来徘徊啊，就在那高高的城楼阙门之上。

I wander to and fro, restless, here on the high gate tower.

末章由前两章的内心独白转入动作描写，是全诗由「思」到「行」的关键。「挑」「达」皆训往来貌，两字叠用并缀以「兮」字，写女子在城阙上走来走去、坐立不安的焦灼情状——等人的那个人，把等待本身演成了一出无声的独角戏。「城阙」是城门两侧的楼观，登高可以望远，她站上城阙，正是为了看得更远、等得更切，然而望穿秋水，人终不至。以行动写心理，比直抒胸臆更见生动：那往复的脚步，就是辗转的心绪的外化。后世「独上高楼，望尽天涯路」的登楼怀远传统，于此已见端倪。

The last stanza turns from the inner monologue of the first two to action, the poem's turning from thinking to doing. Tiao and da both mean pacing to and fro; the doubled words, strung with xi, write the woman walking back and forth on the gate tower, restless, unable to sit or stand: the one who waits has turned the waiting itself into a silent one-person play. The gate tower is the watchtower flanking the city gate; height gives a farther look, and she climbs it precisely to see farther, to wait more eagerly, yet gazing till her eyes are spent, the man does not come. Writing psychology through action is more vivid than speaking it: the pacing feet are the outward form of the tossing mind. The later tradition of climbing a high tower to gaze toward the world's end already shows its first faint outline here.

一日不见，如三月兮

One day not seen— Is like three months.

一日不曾相见，竟像隔了三个月那样漫长。

One day without seeing you feels as long as three months.

结句以极度夸张收束全诗，是千古传诵的名句。「一日」是物理时间，短到不能再短；「三月」是心理时间，长到难以忍耐，二者并置，反差被放大到极致，抽象的「相思」由此变得可感可触——不是矫情，而是情到深处，时间真的会变慢。此句由《诗经》而下，凝为「一日三秋」的成语，六朝乐府「一日不见，如三秋兮」、后世诗词中的「一日三秋」之叹皆源于此，可见其概括力之强。作为收束，它把前两章的嗔怨、末章前两句的徘徊一并归结于最纯粹的思念本身，怨极而爱愈深，全诗遂在最高亢的情感点上戛然而止，余韵无穷。

The closing line gathers the poem in extreme exaggeration, an age-famed couplet. One day is physical time, shortest possible; three months is psychological time, longest endurable; set side by side, the contrast is magnified to the utmost, and abstract longing becomes palpable: not affectation, but when feeling is deep, time truly slows. From the Shijing, the line crystallized into the idiom one day, three autumns; the Six Dynasties yuefu's one day apart feels like three autumns, and all later sighs of one day, three autumns, descend from it, so great its power of generalization. As a close, it gathers the reproach of the first two stanzas and the pacing of the last into the purest longing itself; grievance at its height is love the deeper, and the poem stops short at the highest emotional pitch, endless aftertone.

Study

Word focus

青青 Bright blue. Evoking by the dress's colour, also faintly marking the loved one's scholar identity. 「青青子衿」「青青子佩」之「青青」，是全诗起兴的颜色词，写的是衣领与佩玉的青色。「青」在中国古代兼指蓝、绿、黑诸色，此处写学子衣领，当指鲜明的青色，视觉上醒目而年轻，正与思念对象的青春身份相合。叠用「青青」，音节轻快，如目光追随那青色衣领在人群中移动，情之专注自在其中。以颜色起兴，是《诗经》民歌的天然手法——不先说我爱你，先说你那青色的衣领我一眼就认得；颜色越鲜明，记得越真切，思念越深。后曹操《短歌行》袭用此句，正因「青青」二字自带清朗之气，可转用于贤才之喻。

悠悠 Long, endless. The reduplicative writes the longing's depth and length. 「悠悠我心」「悠悠我思」之「悠悠」，写情思之绵长无尽。此字本义为长远、遥远，可写空间（悠悠苍天）、可写时间（悠悠岁月），此处移以写心，将无形的相思化为有长度的东西——如丝缕般抽之不尽，如流水般绵绵不绝，既见其深，又见其久。叠用双声叠韵字，音节舒缓悠长，诵读时自有一种低回咏叹的声情，恰与「脉脉」「青青」等叠字共同构成《诗经》以声写情的音乐美。与「青青」相对，「青青」是外在的、鲜明的，「悠悠」是内在的、绵长的，一实一虚，色与情相映，起兴与抒情遂成一体。

宁 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 「子宁不嗣音」「子宁不来」之「宁」，意为难道、岂，是全诗反诘语气的核心字。一字之设，使整句由平叙变为质问：不是问「你为何不来」，而是问「你难道竟不肯来」——「宁」字里含着难以置信的委屈与不甘，也含着对双方情分的笃定：我料定你不会这样绝情，可你偏又这样，教我如何不怨。「宁」字的反诘，把女子的嗔、怨、盼、爱四种情绪压缩在一字之中，比任何直白的表白都更见神采。两章同用「宁」字，一问音信、一问人来，嗔怒逐层加深而情意逐层加浓，正是「怨之深正见爱之切」的注脚。

挑达 Pacing back and forth, writing the woman's lone walking by the city tower, her anxious waiting. 「挑兮达兮」之「挑达」（亦作「挑挞」），训往来貌，写女子在城阙上来回走动的样子。二字叠用并缀「兮」字，音形并见：读来如脚步声来回往复，视觉上则见其人坐立不安、望眼欲穿。这是全诗唯一写到动作的地方，妙在以形写心——等人的焦灼无法用语言直说，便让脚步替她说话：走来，是盼他来；走去，是怨他不来；复又来，仍是舍不下这盼望。两字把静止的等待写成动态的煎熬，与前后文的内心独白形成内外呼应。后世写「徘徊」「踟蹰」皆此遗法，而此二字简古拙朴，正是《诗经》本色。

子衿