羌村三首·其三

Meaning

Returning home to Qiang Village after the An Lushan rebellion, Du Fu describes a visit from his neighbours. The first half is comic and domestic — squawking chickens, a bramble gate, four or five old men bringing wine in shared flasks. The second half turns: the wine is thin because nobody has planted the millet, and every boy in the village has been conscripted to the east. Du Fu sings to repay their kindness and then breaks down, sharing the tears of his guests. The poem sets private neighbourly warmth against the public ruin of war.

群鸡正乱叫，客至鸡斗争。驱鸡上树木，始闻叩柴荆。父老四五人，问我久远行。手中各有携，倾榼浊复清。苦辞酒味薄，黍地无人耕。兵革既未息，儿童尽东征。请为父老歌，艰难愧深情。歌罢仰天叹，四座泪纵横。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Less than half the poem belongs to the everyday: chickens squawking, a gate knocked at, elders arriving with wine. Even the apology for thin wine is a piece of village news — the millet fields lie unploughed. Only after this domestic ground is prepared does the war arrive, in the two lines 'Weapons are still unsheathed, and every boy has been marched away to the east.' [Structure] The movement is from noise to quiet, then from quiet to grief. 'A flock of fowl is squawking in wild disorder' gives way to 'I drive the birds up into the trees,' and the scuffling outside is replaced by a single knock at the gate. By the end the whole room is one sound instead — weeping. [Imagery] Du Fu trusts the plainest possible imagery. Chickens, a bramble gate, a shared flask, fallen millet: nothing is lifted out of the ordinary, yet the last image — 'all who sit weep, tears crossing one another' — carries the weight of a whole battlefield. The beauty of the poem is its plainness.

【白话串讲】 杜甫写《羌村三首·其三》：“群鸡正乱叫，客至鸡斗争”——“父老四五人，问我久远行”——“手中各有携，倾榼浊复清”——“苦辞酒味薄，黍地无人耕”——“兵革既未息，儿童尽东征”——“请为父老歌，艰难愧深情”——他写乱后乡邻的探望。 【意象与手法】 此诗写羌村父老来访，以叙事写感慨，是杜甫的名篇。前四句写客至：「群鸡正乱叫，客至鸡斗争」写群鸡正乱叫、客至鸡斗争，「驱鸡上树木，始闻叩柴荆」写驱鸡上树木、始闻叩柴荆——写尽客至的场面；中四句写父老：「父老四五人，问我久远行」写父老四五人、问我久远行，「手中各有携，倾榼浊复清」写手中各有携、倾榼浊复清——写尽父老的携酒来访；后八句写感慨：「苦辞酒味薄，黍地无人耕」写苦辞酒味薄、黍地无人耕，「兵革既未息，儿童尽东征」写兵革既未息、儿童尽东征，「请为父老歌，艰难愧深情」写请为父老歌、艰难愧深情，「歌罢仰天叹，四座泪纵横」写歌罢仰天叹、四座泪纵横——写尽时事的感慨。全诗以叙事写感慨，写尽羌村父老来访的感慨，是杜甫的代表作。 【情感与主旨】 此诗写羌村父老来访，以叙事写感慨，是杜甫的名篇。此诗是杜甫《羌村三首》组诗之三，作于唐肃宗至德二载（757）闰八月，杜甫由凤翔回鄜州羌村（今陕西富县）省家时。此诗写客至：群鸡正乱叫，客至鸡斗争——写群鸡正乱叫、客至鸡斗争，写尽客至的喧闹；驱鸡上树木，始闻叩柴荆——写驱鸡上树木、始闻叩柴荆，写尽驱鸡迎客的忙碌；父老四五人，问我久远行——写父老四五人、问我久远行，写尽父老的慰问；手中各有携，倾榼浊复清——写手中各有携、倾榼浊复清，写尽父老携酒来访；苦辞酒味薄，黍地无人耕——写苦辞酒味薄、黍地无人耕，写尽酒薄的原因；兵革既未息，儿童尽东征——写兵革既未息、儿童尽东征，写尽战争的持续；请为父老歌，艰难愧深情——写请为父老歌、艰难愧深情，写尽杜甫的感愧；歌罢仰天叹，四座泪纵横——写歌罢仰天叹、四座泪纵横，写尽众人的感慨。全诗以叙事写感慨——那「兵革既未息，儿童尽东征」写尽战争的持续，「歌罢仰天叹，四座泪纵横」写尽时事的感慨，写尽羌村父老来访的感慨，是理解杜甫感时诗的重要篇章。 【名句点睛】 常考「群鸡正乱叫，客至鸡斗争」写客至的喧闹；「手中各有携，倾榼浊复清」写父老携酒来访；「苦辞酒味薄，黍地无人耕」写酒薄的原因；「歌罢仰天叹，四座泪纵横」写时事的感慨；以及全诗以叙事写感慨、以白描写场面的手法。

Allusions

Nothing here is a remote quotation; the poem works on the common stock of village and war. 'The bramble gate' (chai jing) is the poor man's threshold familiar from Tao Yuanming and from Du Fu's own 'Guest Who Came'. The flask (ke) is the plain drinking vessel of the countryside, and its being 'first murky and then clear' marks a household improvising what it can. 'Millet' is the staple of the northern fields and the wine of the north. The eastern campaign refers to the conscription of boys for the fighting in the east against the rebels. The closing gesture — singing, then weeping — recalls the classical ideal of the ode that ends in lament, where music and sorrow are one.

此诗的用语深植于村居与感时的传统。「群鸡正乱叫」令人想到「鸡」写鸡鸣的意象——「鸡鸣桑树颠」（陶渊明），也令人想到「乱叫」写乱叫的意象；「客至鸡斗争」令人想到「客至」写客至的意象——「花径不曾缘客扫，蓬门今始为君开」（杜甫《客至》），也令人想到「斗争」写鸡斗的意象；「驱鸡上树木」令人想到「驱鸡」写驱鸡的意象——村居驱鸡，也令人想到「上树木」写上树的意象；「始闻叩柴荆」令人想到「柴荆」写柴门的意象——「柴门不正逐江开」（杜甫），也令人想到「叩柴荆」写叩门的意象；「父老四五人」令人想到「父老」写父老的意象——「父老乡亲」，也令人想到「四五人」写四五人的意象；「问我久远行」令人想到「久远行」写久别远行的意象——「久客」，也令人想到「问我」写慰问的意象；「手中各有携」令人想到「各有携」写各有所携的意象——携酒而来，也令人想到「手中」写手中的意象；「倾榼浊复清」令人想到「榼」写酒器的意象——「倾榼」写倾酒，也令人想到「浊复清」写浊酒清酒的意象；「苦辞酒味薄」令人想到「酒味薄」写酒味淡薄的意象——酒薄见贫困，也令人想到「苦辞」写苦辞的意象；「黍地无人耕」令人想到「黍地」写黍田的意象——黍为酿酒之粮，也令人想到「无人耕」写无人耕种的意象；「兵革既未息」令人想到「兵革」写战乱的意象——「兵革未息」，也令人想到「未息」写未止的意象；「儿童尽东征」令人想到「东征」写东征的意象——「儿童尽东征」写尽征兵之广，也令人想到「尽东征」写尽皆东征的意象；「请为父老歌」令人想到「为父老歌」写为父老而歌的意象——「为我歌」，也令人想到「艰难愧深情」写艰难愧对深情的意象；「歌罢仰天叹」令人想到「仰天叹」写仰天长叹的意象——「长太息以掩涕兮」（屈原），也令人想到「四座泪纵横」写四座落泪的意象。全诗化用客至、柴荆、黍地、兵革的意象，以叙事写感慨，正是杜甫「沉郁顿挫」而善用白描、承村居感时传统写感慨的本领。

Commentary

This has long been counted among Du Fu's best narrative poems and as the conclusion of the Qiang Village trio. Later commentators praised its 'plainness that carries everything': the seemingly unpolished lines are said to gain force precisely by refusing rhetoric. Modern readers especially value the pair of lines on the thin wine and the unploughed millet, because they make an abstraction — war's damage — concrete in a single household's cup. Read beside the first poem of the set, 'My family wondered I was still alive, and only after the shock settled did they wipe their tears,' the two poems show the same homecoming from two angles: the household's shock and the neighbours' mourning, both the measure of what the rebellion took.

此诗历来被推为杜甫感时诗的名篇，也是《羌村三首》组诗的收束。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以叙事写感慨，深婉沉郁」；近人更指出「苦辞酒味薄，黍地无人耕」写战争的破坏，「歌罢仰天叹，四座泪纵横」写时事的感慨，是此诗的名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以十六句的长篇写尽羌村父老来访的感慨——那乱叫的群鸡，那斗争的鸡，那上树的鸡，那叩柴荆的声音，那四五人的父老，那久远行的慰问，那各有携的手，那浊复清的酒，那苦辞酒味薄的父老，那无人耕的黍地，那未息的兵革，那尽东征的儿童，那艰难愧深情的歌，那仰天的叹，那泪纵横的四座，都写尽了杜甫对时事的感慨；那「兵革既未息，儿童尽东征」更写尽战争的持续。此诗与《羌村三首》其一（「妻孥怪我在，惊定还拭泪」）其二（「娇儿不离膝，畏我复却去」）同为省家名篇，一写「夜阑更秉烛，相对如梦寐」的重逢，一写「四座泪纵横」的感慨；又与杜甫「感时花溅泪」的感时传统一脉相承，可见杜甫心系苍生的品格。对于今日读者，此诗是理解杜甫感时诗的窗口，也是中国诗写乱世村居的经典——那纵横的泪，穿越千年，仍在诉说着杜甫的感慨。

Prosody

Line by line

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