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清 Qing · 诗 Poem

送别·黄遵宪

Far Farewell: On Huang Zunxian's `Farewell'

黄遵宪

Huang Zunxian

远别离，古有皇英之二女，乃在洞庭之南，潇湘之浦。
海水直下万里深，谁人不言此离苦。
日惨惨兮云冥冥，猩猩啼烟兮鬼啸雨。
我纵言之将何补，皇穹窃恐不照余之忠诚。
雷冯冯兮欲吼怒，尧舜当之亦禅禹。
君失臣兮龙为鱼，权归臣兮鼠变虎。
或云尧幽囚，舜野死，九疑联緜皆相似，重瞳孤坟竟何是。
帝子泣兮绿云间，随风波兮去无还。
恸哭兮远望，见苍梧之深山。
苍梧山崩湘水绝，竹上之泪乃可灭。

A far farewell — of old there were two daughters of the Emperor,
In the south of Dongting Lake, on the shores of the Xiao and Xiang.
The sea water plunges down ten thousand fathoms;
Who does not speak of this pain of parting?
The sun dims, the clouds darken,
Gibbons wail in the mist, ghosts howl in the rain.
Even if I speak of it, what will it avail?
I fear that Heaven itself will not look upon my loyalty.
Thunder rumbles, and would growl;
Even Yao and Shun, thus placed, would yield to Yu.
When a ruler loses his minister, the dragon becomes a fish;
When power passes to the minister, the rat turns into a tiger.
Some say Yao was imprisoned, Shun died in the wild;
The nine hills of Jiuyi all look alike —
Where now is the lone tomb of the double pupil?
The imperial daughter weeps among the green clouds,
Carried on the wind and waves, away and returning no more.
Weeping, far off I look:
Deep mountains of Cangwu.
Should Cangwu's mountains crumble and the Xiang run dry,
Only then could the tears upon the bamboo be dried.

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Meaning

The poet takes up the ancient tale of the two daughters of Yao, Ehuang and Nüying, who followed Shun to the south and wept upon the bamboo until their tears made the speckled bamboo of the Xiang. Their lamentation becomes the measure of a far parting: the sea is ten thousand fathoms deep, the sky is dark, goblins howl in the rain, and the speaker, who would lay his loyalty before the throne, fears that Heaven will not see it. With the passage of the rulers Yao and Shun into the hands of others, the poem turns from a legend into a political complaint about a court where the ruler has lost his ministers and power has passed downward. It closes with the image of weeping without consolation: even if the mountains of Cangwu should fall and the Xiang run dry, the tears on the bamboo would not be dried.

远别离，远古有尧帝的两个女儿娥皇、女英，她们住在洞庭之南、潇湘之滨。海水直下万里之深，有谁不说到这离别的痛苦。白日惨惨兮阴云冥冥，猩猩在烟中啼叫兮鬼魅在雨中呼啸。我纵想说又有什么用，恐怕连苍天也不能照鉴我的一片忠诚。雷声隆隆兮像要怒吼，这情景便是尧舜当世也会把帝位禅让给禹。君失其臣兮龙变成鱼，权归于臣兮鼠变作虎。有人说尧被幽囚，舜野死苍梧，九疑山连绵相似，重瞳的舜帝孤坟究竟在哪里。帝女在绿云间哭泣，随着风波而去不再回还。恸哭兮远望，只见苍梧的深山。待到苍梧山崩、湘水断绝，那竹上的泪痕才会磨灭。

Appreciation

[Structure] The poem moves in three great movements — the legend and the sky, the historical complaint, and the return to the weeping daughters — and returns, at the close, to where it began. [Imagery] The images are chosen for strangeness rather than beauty: ten thousand fathoms of sea, dim sun, dark cloud, gibbons wailing in mist, ghosts howling in rain, thunder growling, a dragon changed into a fish, a rat changed into a tiger. [Technique] The poem relies on improbable metaphors and on the unanswered question — `where now is the lone tomb of the double pupil?' — rather than on description; its logic is associative, moving from one figure of ruin to another. [Mood] What holds the disparate pieces together is the intensifying of the same feeling: the distance of the parting, the uselessness of speech, the fear that loyalty is unseen, and finally tears that no extremity of nature can wipe away.

【白话串讲】黄遵宪写《送别》：“远别离，古有皇英之二女，乃在洞庭之南，潇湘之浦”——“海水直下万里深，谁人不言此离苦”——“日惨惨兮云冥冥”——他写远别离——谁人不言此离苦。【意象与手法】拟李白《远别离》之作，借娥皇、女英哭舜的古老传说写离别之悲；熔铸湘妃典故与尧舜幽囚的史影，层层铺写“离苦”之深、帝力之微；语势腾踔、意象诡奇。【情感与主旨】借古乐府杂言体写离别之悲与家国之忧，于苍茫神话中寄寓晚清时局的隐喻，是“诗界革命”领袖以旧体写新境界的代表作。【名句点睛】常考“海水直下万里深，谁人不言此离苦”以海水深写离苦；“日惨惨兮云冥冥”以惨日冥云写悲凉。

Background

Huang Zunxian (1848–1905), courtesy name Gongdu, was from Jiaying in Guangdong and is remembered as a great diplomat and as the pioneer of the `poetic revolution'. He served as counsellor in Japan, the United States and Britain and as consul-general in Singapore, and he witnessed every stage of the crisis that ended in the 1898 reform and the Boxer catastrophe. His own principle was `let my hand write what my mouth says': to fill old verse forms with new thought and new scene. This piece imitates Li Bai's `Far Farewell', an old yuefu song that tells of the same Ehuang and Nüying and of the fall of the court, and Huang turns it into a poem about his own country — about a ruler weakened, a ministry displaced, and the despair of a subject who cannot make his loyalty known. It belongs to his late years and stands as one of the manifest poems of the `poetic revolution'.

此诗为黄遵宪晚年拟李白《远别离》之作，收于《人境庐诗草》，约作于戊戌变法前后。黄遵宪（1848—1905），字公度，广东嘉应（今梅州）人，清末杰出外交家、诗人，「诗界革命」的先驱。他历任驻日、驻美、驻英参赞及新加坡总领事，亲历列强环伺、国势日危的晚清政局，主张「我手写吾口」，以旧体诗容纳新思想、新境界。李白《远别离》借娥皇女英哭舜的传说，写「君失臣兮龙为鱼」的忧思，实寓安史之乱前后的政治隐忧；黄遵宪拟作此诗，则寄寓了晚清国势倾颓、帝权旁落、变法受挫的深切忧虑。诗中「海水直下万里深」「日惨惨兮云冥冥」的苍茫气象，写尽国家危急存亡之秋的惶遽；「君失臣兮龙为鱼，权归臣兮鼠变虎」「尧幽囚，舜野死」诸语，直指君臣失序、权柄下移的危局，既是借古讽今，又暗含对戊戌政变、光绪被幽的影射。以湘妃之泪写家国之痛，以神话之远写现实之近，正见黄遵宪借古题抒今情的独特匠心。

Art

The poem's art is the management of a very long feeling through a series of sudden changes. Nothing is developed gently: each stanza turns a corner, so that the reader is always one step behind the argument and relies on the texture rather than on the sequence. The central device is metaphor of degradation — `when a ruler loses his minister, the dragon becomes a fish; when power passes to the minister, the rat becomes a tiger' — by which a political catastrophe is stated in the language of natural history, without comment and with terrible economy. The second device is the `xi' particle borrowed from the Chuci: `the sun dims, the clouds darken' becomes a ritual of lament rather than a description, and the lines that use it sway where the others march. The third is the closing image — mountains crumbling, rivers running dry — which is introduced only to be negated: the stronger the catastrophe imagined, the more convincing the claim that such tears cannot be dried. The whole poem is thus built on the principle that feeling is proved rather than described.

此诗艺术上最显著的特点是「取境于奇、运笔于腾」，把乐府古题的雄奇想象发挥到极致。全诗以「远别离」起唱，直入远古神话：「古有皇英之二女，乃在洞庭之南，潇湘之浦」，以舒缓的叙述铺开湘妃的地理背景，如远景推移；「海水直下万里深，谁人不言此离苦」忽然以大笔写海水之深、离苦之重，由景入情，气象陡峻；「日惨惨兮云冥冥，猩猩啼烟兮鬼啸雨」，连用叠字与怪诞意象，把离别的气氛渲染得凄厉恐怖，如入幽冥之境。中段转入议论与史影：「君失臣兮龙为鱼，权归臣兮鼠变虎」，以「龙为鱼」「鼠变虎」的奇喻写君臣易位、权纲失序，比喻峭拔，锋芒毕露；「或云尧幽囚，舜野死」「重瞳孤坟竟何是」，翻用史传疑案，把古帝之死写得扑朔迷离，暗寓当今之危。末段复归湘妃：「帝子泣兮绿云间，随风波兮去无还」，以绿云、风波写帝女之去，凄婉哀绝；结句「苍梧山崩湘水绝，竹上之泪乃可灭」，以山河崩绝反衬泪痕之不可磨灭，把离恨推到极致。全诗由景入情、由情入史、由史复归于景，奇崛与凄婉相间，腾踔跌宕，是拟古乐府中神采飞动之作。

Allusions

Every important element belongs to the older tradition. `The two daughters of the Emperor' are Ehuang and Nüying, daughters of Yao and ladies of Shun, who followed him south, wept upon the bamboo, and left the spotted bamboo (xiangfei zhu) of the Xiang — the source of the `tears on the bamboo' of the final couplet. The sea water ten thousand fathoms deep, and the lines about the dragon-ruler and the rat-minister, come straight from Li Bai's `Far Farewell', which is the poem being imitated. `Yao imprisoned, Shun dead in the wild' follows the Bamboo Annals, which record a disputed succession; `the double pupil' is Shun, said to have had two pupils in each eye. Green clouds, the wind and waves, and Cangwu are all parts of the same cycle of the southern Goddess of the Xiang. In imitating Li Bai, Huang in effect re-reads the whole tradition of the displaced loyalist, and the effect is to make the ancient legend function as a commentary on his own court.

此诗用典繁富而皆有所本，构成一个以湘妃传说为核心的象征体系。起笔「皇英之二女」「洞庭之南，潇湘之浦」即本《山海经》「洞庭之山，帝之二女居之」与《楚辞·九歌·湘夫人》「帝子降兮北渚」，娥皇、女英为尧之二女、舜之二妃，舜南巡死于苍梧，二妃追之不及，泪洒竹上成斑，是为湘妃竹（斑竹）之典。「海水直下万里深」化用李白《远别离》「海水直下万里深，谁人不言此离苦」原句，点明拟作所本；「雷冯冯兮欲吼怒」翻用《楚辞·九歌》「雷填填兮雨冥冥」句意，以雷声写天怒。「君失臣兮龙为鱼，权归臣兮鼠变虎」，语本李白《远别离》「君失臣兮龙为鱼，权归臣兮鼠变虎」，以龙鱼鼠虎之变写君臣易位，既是太白原意，又暗合晚清政局的现实。「尧幽囚，舜野死」用《竹书纪年》所载「尧囚于平阳」「舜卒于苍梧之野」之说，翻写古帝不得善终的传闻，以史影映照当下；「重瞳」指舜，古书谓舜目重瞳，此处以重瞳代指舜帝，写其孤坟难寻。「竹上之泪」则绾合湘妃斑竹之典，以泪痕之不可灭写离恨之无穷。诸典或以古证今、或以虚写实，层层叠架，构成一个幽冥奇幻而又切中时弊的象征世界。

Commentary

The poem is usually read as the strongest example of Huang Zunxian's practice — `matters in the poem, and the poet in the poem' — and of the way the old yuefu could be revived for new times. Earlier readers prized above all the sentence `I fear that Heaven itself will not look upon my loyalty', in which the mythical consort is replaced, in a single unannounced move, by the poet himself; it is the hinge on which the legendary becomes the personal. Commentators also note how the poem refuses relief: no image of restoration is offered, and the closing couplet imagines the end of the world only to say that the grief would outlast it. In this it stands with the best of the late Qing protest verse, which prefers to leave the wound unhealed. As an instance of the `poetic revolution', the poem shows the old forms still able to carry the heaviest modern content.

读此诗，最值得注意的是黄遵宪如何把一桩远古的神话，写成一部晚清王朝的挽歌。表面上看，这是湘妃哭舜的旧题，娥皇女英泣别苍梧，泪染斑竹，千年以来不知被多少诗人咏过；但黄遵宪在「我纵言之将何补，皇穹窃恐不照余之忠诚」一句中，忽然把自己放了进去——那担心忠言不被苍天照鉴的，不是神话中的湘妃，而是诗人自己，是晚清那一代欲挽危澜而不得的志士。于是「尧幽囚，舜野死」不再是古史传说，而成了对光绪被幽、国运衰微的影射；「君失臣兮龙为鱼」的感叹，也不再是泛泛的史论，而直指权臣当道、皇纲失坠的现实。全诗以神话写时局、以古喻今，其妙处正在于「借他人酒杯，浇自己块垒」——湘妃的泪是假的，诗人的忧是真的；苍梧的山水是远的，晚清的危局是近的。结句「苍梧山崩湘水绝，竹上之泪乃可灭」，山河崩绝尚且不能磨灭泪痕，正见这离恨之忧的深重无涯。作为「诗界革命」的旗手，黄遵宪此诗既有太白的奇崛，又有杜甫的沉郁，更添一分近代志士的家国悲慨，是古典乐府在晚清焕发新生命的力证。

Prosody

Form Yuefu song of mixed line-length (imitation of Li Bai's `Far Farewell')杂言乐府歌行（拟李白《远别离》体）

Rhyme A poem of uneven lines, rhyming in four roughly-defined groups. The first opens on the rounded vowels of `daughters ... shores': soft and distant, describing a place. The second moves to `deep ... pain', the heaviest pair in the poem, and the rhyme of `苦' gives the parting its weight. The third group, crossing into `dark ... rain', `loyalty', `growl', `tiger', `which', is short and abrupt, matching the political complaint, and the fourth, `between ... mountain ... dry ... dried', is long and drawn out for the lament. Changing the rhyme as the feeling changes is exactly the freedom of the yuefu form.此诗为杂言古体，换韵自由，韵脚大致分四组：「女」「浦」押上声七麌、七语韵，写湘妃居所，清婉；「深」「苦」押上声七麌韵，写离苦，沉痛；「冥」「雨」「诚」「禹」「虎」「是」转押平仄相间诸韵，写天昏地惨与君臣易位，急促凌厉；「间」「还」「山」「灭」再转，写帝子泣别与泪痕难灭，凄婉悠长。换韵随情移，声调随境转，正是乐府歌行自由用韵的特点，也使全诗在声音上呈现出波澜起伏的层次。

Tone pattern The line-lengths are unfixed, and the breathing follows that: the opening叙述 lines are long and calm, like a look out over the lake; the couplets with the `xi' particle sway and hesitate; the political lines come down squarely in seven characters, firm and hard; the close is even and slow. The effect is of a poem that never settles into a single metre, which is what makes it feel like a mind in motion.句式上，此诗以杂言为主，长短参差：「远别离，古有皇英之二女，乃在洞庭之南，潇湘之浦」以七言、九言舒缓起笔，如远望潇湘；「海水直下万里深，谁人不言此离苦」七言齐整，顿挫有力；「日惨惨兮云冥冥，猩猩啼烟兮鬼啸雨」以「兮」字句摇曳，如巫觋招魂；「君失臣兮龙为鱼，权归臣兮鼠变虎」复以「兮」字句对偶，凌厉峭拔；「苍梧山崩湘水绝，竹上之泪乃可灭」以七言对句收束，铿锵入韵。长短句的错落、兮字句的穿插，使全诗兼具乐府的恣肆与骚体的幽怨，声情并茂。

Reading note To imitate an old yuefu is to aim at the spirit of the model rather than its shape, and this poem does both: it keeps Li Bai's mixed metre and his strange images while replacing his historical alarm with late-Qing alarm. Prosodically the poem profits from the freedom of the form — irregular lines can hold a legend, a political argument and a lament in one breath, and the rhyme can be changed whenever the subject changes, so sound serves as a marker of the movement rather than as a decoration. The recurring `xi' particle should be heard as a survival of the Chuci `li-sao' lament, and the seven-character lines as the yuefu line that gives the poem its hard edge. The result is a hybrid voice — the song of the southern goddess and the complaint of a minister in the capital — and the mixture is the poem's whole effect, sound following sense at every step.拟古乐府，贵在得古人之神而不袭古人之貌。黄遵宪此诗拟李白《远别离》，既保留了太白乐府的雄奇想象与杂言句式，又注入晚清志士的家国悲慨，可称「借古人题，写今人怀」的成功之作。就声律而言，此诗充分发挥了杂言歌行自由驰骋的优势：长句短句参差互用，平仄不拘，换韵随心，恰宜容纳湘妃神话的缥缈与政治讽喻的峻切；「兮」字句的反复运用，上承《楚辞·九歌》的骚体传统，下启古乐府的奇崛音节，使全诗在声音上兼有骚体的哀怨与乐府的雄放。黄遵宪论诗主张「诗之外有事，诗之中有人」，此诗于苍茫神话与凄厉声调之中，处处可见诗人的影子——那担心「皇穹不照忠诚」的，正是诗人自己；那「竹上之泪不可灭」的，正是晚清一代志士心头郁结的忧愤。以古题新声写时代大变，是此诗在拟古诸作中独树一帜的根本所在。

Line by line

海水直下万里深，谁人不言此离苦。

The sea water plunges down ten thousand fathoms; who does not speak of this pain of parting?

海水直落而下，深达万里，世上有谁不说这离别的痛苦呢。

The sea plunges downward ten thousand li deep; who is there that does not speak of this parting's pain?

这两句直承李白的原句，却是全诗由神话转入人情的关键。「海水直下万里深」以海水之深写离愁之重，把无形的痛苦化为有形的深度，笔力雄健；「谁人不言此离苦」以反问出之，把一己之悲推广为普世之叹——离苦之深，人人知之，人人言之，而终究无可奈何。此句用「谁人」的泛问，扩大了离别的共鸣面：湘妃之泣是个体的，而离苦之深是普遍的，由神话的遥远拉回人间的切近，正见黄遵宪虽拟古题而自具怀抱。两句一喻一议，以实衬虚，为下文「日惨惨兮云冥冥」的凄厉渲染作了情绪上的准备，也是全诗由叙事转入抒情的过脉。

The two lines take up Li Bai's original, and are the key turn of the poem from myth to human feeling. The sea plunges downward ten thousand li deep writes the weight of parting through the depth of the sea, turning the intangible grief into tangible depth, the brush strong. Who is there that does not speak of this parting's pain? asks rhetorically, extending personal grief to a universal sigh — the depth of parting's pain, known by all, spoken by all, and beyond remedy. The who's broad question enlarges the resonance of parting: the Xiang consorts' weeping is individual, but the depth of parting's pain is universal; from the distance of myth back to the nearness of the human, showing Huang Zunxian's own heart beneath the old-style title. One metaphor and one argument, the real setting off the virtual, preparing the emotion for the mournful rendering of the next lines, the gloomy clouds and the sun grown dim, and the passage of the poem from narrative to lyric.

君失臣兮龙为鱼，权归臣兮鼠变虎。

When a ruler loses his minister, the dragon becomes a fish; when power passes to the minister, the rat becomes a tiger.

君主失去了臣子的辅佐，龙也会变成鱼；权柄归于臣下，老鼠也能变成老虎。

When the lord loses his ministers, the dragon becomes a fish; when power falls to the ministers, the rat becomes a tiger.

这两句是全诗批判锋芒最锐利之处，直承李白《远别离》的警示之言。「龙为鱼」「鼠变虎」以两个惊人的比喻写君臣易位、纲纪失序：龙本高踞九天，失臣则坠而为鱼；鼠本卑微卑贱，得权则雄而为虎。一升一降、一贵一贱的强烈反差，把「君失臣」「权归臣」的可怕后果写得触目惊心，而其中尤含对当权者失察、权臣弄权的痛切警示。黄遵宪身处晚清，眼见慈禧专权、光绪被幽、戊戌志士流血的现实，这两句已不止是泛泛的史论，而是切中时弊的讽喻。以古乐府的奇喻写当下的政治危局，奇而不诞、警而不诬，正是黄遵宪「以旧风格含新意境」主张的生动体现。

The two lines are the sharpest edge of the poem's critique, taking up Li Bai's warning words from Far Parting. The dragon becomes a fish and the rat becomes a tiger use two startling metaphors for the inversion of lord and minister, the collapse of order: the dragon, throned in the ninth heaven, without ministers falls and becomes a fish; the rat, base and mean, with power grows and becomes a tiger. The sharp rise-and-fall, noble-and-base contrast writes the terrible consequences of the lord's losing ministers and power's falling to them, and within lies the bitter warning against the ruler's misjudgment and the ministers' usurpation. Huang Zunxian, in the late Qing, saw Cixi's autocracy, Guangxu's imprisonment, and the blood of the Reform martyrs; the two lines are no vague history, but the satire aimed at the ills of the day. Writing the present political crisis through the strange metaphors of the old yuefu, strange yet not absurd, warning yet not false, is the living embodiment of his doctrine of old form with new mood.

苍梧山崩湘水绝，竹上之泪乃可灭。

Should the mountains of Cangwu crumble and the Xiang run dry, then could the tears upon the bamboo be dried.

除非苍梧山崩、湘水断绝，那竹上的泪痕才会磨灭。

Unless the Cangwu Mountains crumble and the Xiang River run dry, the tears upon the bamboo can never be wiped away.

结句以山河崩绝反衬泪痕不灭，是全诗离恨的顶点，也是「以不可能之事写情之至极」的经典笔法。苍梧山、湘水，正是湘妃哭舜之地——山可崩、水可绝，而竹上斑斑的泪痕永难磨灭，诗人以此写离恨之深、之久、之无可解脱。这泪痕既是湘妃的，也是诗人的：江山可以改易，时局可以更迭，而那浇在心头、洒在纸上的家国之痛、离别之悲，却如斑竹泪痕一般，任岁月冲刷而不去。全诗由「远别离」起，至此以「泪乃可灭」收，回环照应，把神话、史影、时局、身世绾为一缕，余韵苍茫，是拟古乐府中收束极有力的结尾，令人掩卷而犹闻湘水呜咽。

The close uses the mountains' crumbling and the river's drying as foil for the tears' indelibility, the peak of the poem's grief of parting, and the classic brush of writing the extreme of feeling through the impossible. The Cangwu Mountains and the Xiang River are precisely where the Xiang consorts wept for Shun: the mountain may crumble, the river may run dry, yet the tear-stains on the bamboo can never be wiped away; the poet writes through this the depth, the length, and the unresolvableness of the grief. These tears are at once the consorts' and the poet's: the land may change, the times may turn, yet the pain of country and parting poured in the heart and shed on the page, like the tears on the spotted bamboo, no washing of the ages can take away. The poem opens on Far Parting and closes on the tears' being wiped away, circling back, binding myth, history, the times, and his own lot into one thread, the aftertone vast; it is the most forceful close of a yuefu on an old theme, leaving the reader still hearing the Xiang's lament when the book is closed.

Study

Word focus

皇英 Ehuang and Nüying, the two daughters of Yao and wives of Shun, who followed him south and wept on the bamboo; the pair stands here for the weeping daughters of the legend, whose tears made the spotted bamboo of the Xiang. 「皇英」指尧之二女娥皇、女英，为舜之二妃，是湘妃传说的主人公。黄遵宪以「古有皇英之二女」起笔，不直称「娥皇女英」而用「皇英」之省称，音节古雅简净，正合乐府古题的庄重语气。「皇」取「娥皇」之皇，「英」取「女英」之英，以帝王之女的身份起笔，为后文「帝子泣兮绿云间」的凄婉埋下身份的伏线。二字一出，洞庭、潇湘、苍梧的古老传说便随之展开，仿佛是揭开一幅尘封的神话画卷，其简练典雅处，正是黄遵宪驾驭古题的精到。

帝子 Child of the Emperor, an honorific for a daughter of a ruler; here it addresses the weeping goddess, and through her the poet's own excluded and loyal self. 「帝子泣兮绿云间」之「帝子」，语出《楚辞·九歌·湘夫人》「帝子降兮北渚」，本指尧女即湘夫人。以「帝子」称娥皇女英，既点其帝王之女的高贵身份，又以「子」字带出亲昵与怜惜——尊贵的帝女，竟在绿云之间泣涕涟涟，愈显其悲的深重。「绿云」指碧绿的云霞，亦可解作湘水上的翠色烟霭，以「绿云间」写帝女飘渺的居处，凄清而空灵。帝女之泣、绿云之深、风波之去，三句连缀，写尽湘妃望舜不归的哀怨，是此词凄婉之音的集中呈现，也暗寓诗人对国运飘摇、君主失位的痛惜。

重瞳 Double pupil, the two pupils in one eye said to belong to Shun; the word stands for the emperor himself, and `the lone tomb of the double pupil' asks where the buried ruler lies. 「重瞳」谓目中有两个瞳仁，古书相传舜目重瞳，故后世以「重瞳」代指舜帝。此词见于「重瞳孤坟竟何是」一句，以舜帝的独特形貌代指其人，写其孤坟渺茫难寻，为「尧幽囚，舜野死」的史影作结。「重瞳」二字既切合舜帝的身份，又以其生理之异暗示其命途之奇——目有重瞳的圣帝，结局竟是野死苍梧、孤坟无寻，圣君之遭遇尚且如此，何况常人？此词于史影中透着苍凉的反讽，暗寓晚清君主失势、圣朝蒙尘的悲慨，是黄遵宪借古史旧典寄寓时局之痛的巧妙一笔。