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清 Qing · 词 Ci lyric

贺新郎·赠苏昆生

He Xinlang · For Su Kunsheng

陈维崧

Chen Weisong

赠人To a Person 遗民之悲Lament of the Ming Survivor 家国兴亡Rise and Fall of Dynasty and Clan

吴苑春如绣。
笑野老、花颠酒恼，百无不有。
沦落半生知己少，除却吹箫屠狗。
算此外、谁欤吾友。
忽听一声《河满子》，也非关、泪湿青衫透。
是鹃血，凝罗袖。
武昌万叠戈船吼。
记当日、征帆一片，乱遮樊口。
隐隐柁楼歌吹响，月下六军搔首。
正乌鹊、南飞时候。
今日华清风景换，剩凄凉、鹤发开元叟。
我亦是，中年后。

The gardens of Wu are embroidered with spring.
I smile, an old rustic—mad over flowers, vexed by wine,
having in my life every kind of idleness.
Half a lifetime fallen, few are those who know me—
only the flute-player and the dog-butcher;
besides these, who could be called my friend?
Suddenly I hear one strain of “He Manzi”—
and it is not a matter of tears soaking the blue gown:
it is cuckoo’s blood, congealed on silken sleeves.

At Wuchang, layered warships roared like ten thousand waves.
I remember that day: a single stretch of sails
wildly screening the mouth of Fan.
Faintly from the helmsman’s tower came songs and pipes;
beneath the moon the six armies scratched their heads in sorrow,
just at the hour when the crows and magpies flew south.
Today the scenery of Huaqing has changed;
left in desolation is a white-haired elder of the Kaiyuan age.
I too am one—past middle years.

Listen

Meaning

The poet meets the famed singer Su Kunsheng in Suzhou and hears him sing a mournful air. Their shared half-lives of displacement and the memory of the Southern Ming fleet at Wuchang awaken grief for a lost dynasty; the poet closes by identifying himself with the aged singer as another survivor past middle age.

吴地园林春色如锦绣。笑我这村野老翁、为花而癫为酒而恼，百无聊赖无所不有。沦落半生知音稀少，除却那吹箫屠狗的奇士。算此外、谁是我的朋友。忽听一声《河满子》，也并非、因白居易听琵琶而青衫泪透。是杜鹃啼血，凝结在我的衣袖。武昌万叠战船怒吼。记得当日、征帆一片，乱遮樊口。隐隐约约舵楼歌吹响亮，月下六军挠首忧愁。正乌鹊、南飞的时候。今日华清宫般的风物已然更换，剩得凄凉、鹤发如开元遗老的衰叟。我也是，人到中年以后。

Appreciation

This lyric, written in 1674 when Chen Weisong met Su Kunsheng in Suzhou, is a masterpiece of the Yangxian school. The upper stanza begins with a mad old rustic’s laughter, then turns at the sound of “He Manzi” from personal loneliness to dynastic tears—explicitly distinguishing his tears from Bai Juyi’s wet gown. The lower stanza flashes back to the naval grandeur of Zuo Liangyu and the fall of the Southern Ming, then collapses into the present desolation of a white-haired survivor. The poet layers personal ruin, an artist’s fate, and the fall of a dynasty into one compressed form.

【白话串讲】陈维崧赠给明末清初的曲师苏昆生：“吴苑春如绣”。“沦落半生知己少，除却吹箫屠狗”——他叹知音难觅。“忽听一声《河满子》，也非关、泪湿青衫透”——苏昆生一开嗓，他泪湿衣襟。“武昌万叠戈船吼”——他们都有亡国之痛。【意象与手法】上片由“笑野老的佯狂”起笔，衬出沦落半生、知己惟在吹箫屠狗的寂寞；忽听《河满子》而入悲，却翻进一层，言此泪非同白居易青衫湿，乃是故国鹃血之痛。下片以倒叙追忆左良玉军容之盛、南明覆灭之恨，结以“华清风景换、鹤发开元叟”，将个人沦落与王朝兴亡叠印为一。【情感与主旨】赠著名南曲歌者苏昆生之作，以歌者之身世系一代之痛，沉郁苍凉，是阳羡词派家国词的代表，可与吴伟业《楚两生行》并读。【名句点睛】常考“忽听一声《河满子》，也非关、泪湿青衫透”以翻进写法写故国之痛；“沦落半生知己少，除却吹箫屠狗”以知己惟在屠狗写寂寞。

Background

Chen Weisong (1625–1682), courtesy name Qinian, style Jialing, was the son of the late-Ming patriot Chen Zhenhui and leader of the Yangxian school of ci. Su Kunsheng (originally Zhou Rusong) was a celebrated singer of southern drama, once a guest in the camp of Zuo Liangyu together with the storyteller Liu Jingting. After Zuo’s death, Su shaved his head and entered the Jiuhua mountains, eventually drifting to Suzhou and living by his art. In the thirteenth year of Kangxi (1674), Chen, then about fifty, met him in Suzhou. Thirty years after the Ming’s fall, such meetings between survivors stirred uncontrollable grief. The poem’s preface notes that Wu Weiye had already written “The Two Masters of Chu” for Su and Liu, marking Su as a living witness to the Southern Ming tragedy. Chen, as a scion of a fallen loyalist house, shared Su’s ruin and wrote this lyric to record the grief of an age.

陈维崧，字其年，号迦陵，宜兴人，明末四公子陈贞慧之子，清初阳羡词派领袖。苏昆生为明清之际著名歌唱家，河南固始人，南曲为当时第一，曾与说书家柳敬亭同客左良玉幕中，左死后又削发入九华山，终流落苏州以歌自活。康熙十三年，陈维崧年届五十，在苏州与苏昆生相遇，感其身世与国家兴亡相纠缠，遂赋此词。时距明亡已三十年，南明旧事如水逝云卷，而遗民故老每于相逢话旧时悲不自胜。词题下小注称苏固始人，南曲为当今第一，曾与柳敬亭同客左宁南幕下，梅村先生为赋《楚两生行》，正点明苏昆生乃一部南明痛史之活见证。陈维崧自身亦是故家子弟，国变后功名路断，其沦落之感与苏昆生异代同悲，此词即借赠人而写一代之痛。苏昆生姓名本作周如松，昆生其字，明亡后易名苏，隐于歌者。其嗓音苍凉，最宜乱离之曲，故梅村、迦陵皆借之以写亡国之痛。陈维崧此赠，非寻常应酬，乃两代遗民于升平表象下互认创伤之哭。词成，苏昆生或亦涕下，可想其沉哀。陈维崧以骈文与词并峙一代，其词豪宕处似苏辛，沉郁处近南宋，此篇以歌者之悲写亡国之痛，最见阳羡派以词存史之志。

Art

The art lies in inverted chronology and contrast. The upper stanza opens with the embroidered spring of Wu, but the smile is wry; the sudden turn at “He Manzi” rejects the conventional tear of “ever the outcast” and raises the feeling to cuckoo-blood grief for the fallen state. The lower stanza recalls the war-junks of Wuchang and the moonlit army, a majestic scene set against the desolate present. The closing line “I too am past middle years” fuses the singer’s fate and the poet’s own, ending on a quiet but heavy note. The lyric’s dense allusions and its movement from beauty to sorrow, from past grandeur to present ruin, are hallmarks of the Yangxian school.

此词章法之妙在于倒叙与对比。上片写眼前吴苑春绣中之相逢，以笑野老之佯狂包裹沦落之悲，笑字实为苦笑；忽听一声《河满子》急转，用非关青衫湿翻案，将寻常同是天涯沦落人之叹，提升至故国鹃血之恸，笔力陡健。下片则倒溯武昌戈船、樊口征帆、月下六军，以雄阔之景写当年军容，与今日鹤发凄凉形成巨幅反差。隐隐柁楼歌吹响、月下六军搔首，于壮阔中藏凄迷，是以乐景写哀的变格。结句我亦是、中年后，由苏之沦落收归自我，二人同悲，余味不尽。全词将个人命运、艺人遭际、王朝兴废三层叠合，气脉沉雄而情致婉曲，足称清初豪放词之佳构。其以长调写兴亡，较南宋姜夔、张炎一派更近苏辛沉郁，是阳羡派家国之词的范例。词之结构，上片收束于鹃血凝袖，下片发端于武昌戈船，由一己之泪折入天下之泪，叙事视角骤然放大。此种以艺人歌哭为引线、牵出整部南明兴废的章法，正是阳羡派家国词特长。看似赠人，实是代一代人立传，故能小中见大、个别中见普遍。上片之笑是佯狂，下片之忆是实录，笑与忆之间，藏着三十年兴废。以吴苑春绣起、以中年后收，乐哀相激，章法如草蛇灰线，耐人寻味。

Allusions

The allusions all revolve around loss and song. “He Manzi” was a tragic Tang tune; Zhang Hu’s poem says “A sound of He Manzi / makes tears fall before the lord.” “Tears soaking the blue gown” reverses Bai Juyi’s “Pipa Song,” where the Marshal of Jiangzhou weeps; the poet insists his tears are not such common exile tears but cuckoo blood—the myth of the Shu emperor Wangdi who became a cuckoo crying until it spat blood. “Blowing the flute and butchering dogs” refers to Wu Zixu begging in Wu and the assassin Jing Ke among the dog-butchers of Yan. “Huaqing’s changed scenery” evokes the Tang palace and the rise and fall of Xuanzong, while the “white-haired elder of Kaiyuan” recalls Du Fu’s Meeting Li Guinian in Jiangnan, comparing Su Kunsheng to a veteran of a fallen age. The allusions are dense yet coherent, all circling the fall of the Ming.

词中故实皆关兴亡与悲歌。《河满子》为唐代悲曲，张祜诗故国三千里，深宫二十年。一声何满子，双泪落君前，本写宫怨离国，此处借指苏昆生所唱哀音，暗喻故国之思。泪湿青衫透翻用白居易《琵琶行》座中泣下谁最多，江州司马青衫湿，词人却说非关此泪，意在区别同是天涯沦落人的身世之悲与亡天下之痛，翻案见深。鹃血用望帝化鹃、啼血乃止之典，象征故国遗恨。吹箫屠狗用伍子胥吹箫吴市、荆轲屠狗燕市之典，指代沦落市井的奇节之士。华清风景换化用杜牧《华清宫》与白居易《长恨歌》意象，以唐明皇盛衰喻南明兴灭；鹤发开元叟则以杜甫《江南逢李龟年》开元遗老自况，皆以唐事写明亡，是遗民词惯用的隐喻。其用典繁密而血脉贯通，最见迦陵腕力。河满子本唐宫人殉死之曲，张祜诗已极哀，至此更化为故国血泪之符；华清、开元皆唐祚盛衰之象，遗民借唐写明，遂成定式。吹箫屠狗、乌鹊南飞亦各有所指，或指奇士流落，或指乱世播迁。诸典错落，初看似碎，合观则皆绕一亡字旋转，章法密于无形。鹃血、河满、华清、开元，皆悲亡之符，而陈维崧信手拈来，各安其位；非徒隶事，乃以唐事为镜，照见南明之影，是遗民词共用的密码。

Commentary

The upper stanza’s “laughing old rustic” is a mask: beneath the wildness is the emptiness of displacement. “Few know me—except the flute-player and the dog-butcher” sums up a life reduced to bohemian society. When Su sings, the tears are not the ordinary tears of an outcast but congealed cuckoo blood, a startling image that turns personal sorrow into the grief of a vanished state. The lower stanza evokes the roaring war-junks of Zuo Liangyu, yet the moonlit army scratches its head—even at the height of power, unease prevailed. The return to present desolation, “white-haired elder of Kaiyuan,” and the poet’s own “past middle years” closes with a deliberate understatement that carries the whole weight of the age.

上片吴苑春如绣起笔极丽，春绣二字写尽苏州繁华，却正是用以反跌下文之悲。笑野老、花颠酒恼，百无不有，自嘲放浪，百无不有即百无聊赖，貌似洒脱而实为失路之态。沦落半生知己少，除却吹箫屠狗，写出知交零落、惟与市井奇士相期的孤高。算此外、谁欤吾友，以问句收束上片，引出苏昆生。忽听一声《河满子》，也非关、泪湿青衫透，是全词关捩：听曲落泪本寻常，词人却郑重分辨此泪非江州司马之泪，而是是鹃血、凝罗袖的故国血泪，境界顿升。下片武昌万叠戈船吼，转忆左良玉当年军威；记当日、征帆一片，乱遮樊口，写其水师之盛。隐隐柁楼歌吹响，月下六军搔首，于喧闹中见军心之愁。正乌鹊、南飞时候，用曹操短歌行点明乱世。今日华清风景换，剩凄凉、鹤发开元叟，陡回当下，以开元遗老比苏昆生，盛衰对照刺心。我亦是、中年后，以己之半生沦落与苏并悲，结得淡而沉。读此词当分两重：一重是苏昆生个人之沦落，一重是南明整个时代之沦落，二者叠印方尽其意。上片吴苑春绣是眼前，忽听河满是当下之悲；下片武昌戈船是往昔，华清风景换是今日之凉。由今溯古、由古回今，中间只以我亦是中年后轻轻一绾，便觉千钧重负尽付无言，是高手结法。词心在结处我亦是中年后五字：苏昆生之所以沦落，亦即词人之沦落；以一我收束全篇，使个人与时代重合。看似淡语，实则千回百转，最是迦陵本色。

Prosody

Reading note “He Xinlang” (also called “Jinlü Qu”) is a long tune of 116 characters, ten lines in each stanza, with six oblique rhymes. Chen uses one- or two-character lead-ins (e.g., 笑, 算, 记, 正) to drive the syntax and sustain momentum.《贺新郎》又名《金缕曲》《乳燕飞》，双调一百十六字，上下片各十句六仄韵，属长调激越之体。此词上片韵脚绣、有、狗、友、透、袖，下片韵脚吼、口、首、候、叟、后，皆押仄声，多上、去声交错，声响沉郁顿挫，与家国兴亡的苍凉主题相生。句式以领字带逗见长，如笑野老、除却、算此外、记当日、正乌鹊、剩凄凉，皆以一字或二字领起数句，使气脉流转而骨力不懈。上片由丽转悲，下片由盛转衰，声情随内容起伏。陈维崧为阳羡派宗主，最擅以豪放纵笔写沉哀，此词平仄妥帖而气势奔放，正是其长调典型面目，较南宋姜夔、张炎一派更近苏辛。

Line by line

忽听一声《河满子》，也非关、泪湿青衫透。是鹃血，凝罗袖。

Suddenly hearing the tragic tune “He Manzi,” he insists his tears are not the usual soaked-gown tears of a wanderer but the cuckoo’s blood of dynastic loss, congealed on silk sleeves.

Suddenly a strain of the Ho Man-tzu song; yet it is not, as in the old tale, tears that drench the blue robe through — it is cuckoo's blood, congealed on the silk sleeve.

这是全词最吃紧的翻案之笔。河满子本唐人悲曲，一声即催人泪下；词人却说也非关泪湿青衫透，明显针对白居易琵琶行江州司马青衫湿。其意在于：寻常沦落人之悲尚浅，苏昆生此曲所引之泪，非身世漂零之泪，而是是鹃血、凝罗袖的故国血泪。鹃血用望帝啼血典，凝罗袖三字把无形的亡国之痛化为衣袖上的殷红，意象奇绝而沉痛。四句由听曲到辨泪，由浅悲到深恸，把一首赠人之作从个人遭际擢升为时代哀歌，是全词精神所聚。

This is the most crucial reversal of the ci. The Ho Man-tzu is a mournful Tang air, one note enough to draw tears; yet the poet says it is not, as in the old tale, tears that drench the blue robe through — plainly aimed at Bai Juyi's pipe poem, the blue robe wet through of the Jiangzhou vice-regent. The meaning: the ordinary grief of a fallen man is shallow; the tears drawn by Su Kunsheng's song are not tears of a wandering life, but cuckoo's blood, congealed on the silk sleeve — the blood and tears for a lost country. Cuckoo's blood uses the allusion to King Wang of Shu who wept blood; the words congealed on the silk sleeve turn the intangible pain of a fallen country into the crimson on the sleeve, the image strange and terrible. Four lines, from hearing the air to distinguishing the tears, from shallow grief to deep anguish: a poem presented to a friend is raised from personal fortune to the elegy of an age, and this is where the spirit of the ci gathers.

今日华清风景换，剩凄凉、鹤发开元叟。

After half a life of ruin, he has few intimates—only the flute-player and the dog-butcher; besides these, who is his friend?

Today the Huaqing scene has changed; all that remains is desolation — a white-haired old man of the Kaiyuan days.

这两句以巨幅反差收束下片。华清风景换化用唐华清宫盛衰意象，暗喻南明弘光朝的倏兴倏灭；鹤发开元叟则以杜甫诗中亲历开元盛世而沦落江南的李龟年自比苏昆生，意谓当年亲见左宁南军容如开元盛景之人，如今只剩一头白发、满目凄凉。风景换三字轻而痛，写尽三十年沧桑；剩凄凉二字冷透纸背。苏昆生由盛时幕客到衰世歌翁的身世，正是南明一代兴亡的缩影，词人于此不着议论，只以两个意象对照，便胜过千言。

The two lines close the second stanza in a vast contrast. The Huaqing scene has changed transforms the rise and fall of the Huaqing Palace, secretly figureing the sudden rise and fall of the Hongguang court of the Southern Ming; a white-haired old man of the Kaiyuan days uses the Li Guinian of Du Fu's verse, who witnessed the Kaiyuan age and wandered in the south, as a figure for Su Kunsheng: the man who once saw Left Marshal Ning's armies as in the Kaiyuan splendor now has nothing left but white hair and a desolate gaze. The words scene has changed are light, yet painful, exhausting thirty years of vicissitude; all that remains is desolation chills through the paper. Su Kunsheng's lot, from a retainer in the age of plenty to a singing old man in the age of decline, is the very miniature of the rise and fall of the Southern Ming; the poet adds no argument, but sets two images against each other, and it is worth a thousand words.

我亦是，中年后。

Suddenly hearing the tragic tune “He Manzi,” he insists his tears are not the usual soaked-gown tears of a wanderer but the cuckoo’s blood of dynastic loss, congealed on silk sleeves.

I too am past middle age.

全词至此仅五字作结，却力重千钧。前面铺写苏昆生的沦落与故国之悲，结句忽然收归词人自身，说我也是到了中年以后、半生落拓的人啊。这一笔把苏之悲与己之悲叠印为一，二人皆乱世遗民、皆老大无成，相赠相慰而悲不可抑。中年后三字看似平淡，实含岁月蹉跎、恢复无望的沉哀，较之慷慨处更令人肠断。以散句淡语收长调，所谓不着一字、尽得风流，正是清初豪放词善于以收束见力量的体现。

The whole ci closes here in but five characters, yet the weight of a thousand jun. All before has laid out Su Kunsheng's fall and the grief for the lost country; the close suddenly gathers back to the poet himself: I too am past middle age, a man of half a life's frustrated wandering. This stroke prints Su's grief and his own on one plate: both are remnant subjects of a disordered age, both old and unfulfilled; presenting and consoling each other, yet grief beyond control. The three words past middle age seem plain, yet hold the somber sorrow of wasted years and of vanished hope for recovery; more heart-rending than any heroic passage. Closing a long tune in loose, plain words — the so-called not a word spoken, yet all the charm conveyed — is precisely how the bold ci of the early Qing draws its force from the close.

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鹃血 cuckoo’s blood; from the legend of Wangdi, emperor of Shu, whose soul became a cuckoo crying until it spat blood 鹃血即杜鹃啼血，本自望帝化鹃、啼血乃止的神话，自古为哀苦之极的意象。词人以此代指苏昆生歌声中所凝之泪，说它是鹃血、凝罗袖，把抽象的亡国之痛化为衣袖上可触的殷红，炼字奇警而沉痛。值得注意的是，词人特意先否青衫湿、再立鹃血，使这一意象区别于白居易式的个人沦落之悲，专属故国沦丧之恸。二字虽简，却统摄了全词由身世之悲向家国之悲的跃升，是遗民词中血泪书写的典型符号。

鹤发开元叟 white-haired elder of the Kaiyuan era; a veteran who witnessed the golden age and now survives into desolation, recalling Du Fu’s Li Guinian 鹤发开元叟以杜甫《江南逢李龟年》中亲历开元盛世、乱后流落江南的李龟年，比况苏昆生。开元为唐之全盛，叟则写其今之衰朽，鹤发更添苍凉。此词妙在以唐喻明：苏昆生曾亲历左良玉军幕之盛，正如李龟年曾侍玄宗繁华，而盛时难再、风景全非，二人皆是见证兴亡的活化石。四个字凝缩了三十年的时代落差与个人的全部沦落，既写苏，亦写一代遗民的共同命运，是用典而能化典为血的范例。