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清 Qing · 诗 Poem

潼关

Tong Pass

谭嗣同

Tan Sitong

终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声。
河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平。

From of old the high clouds gather about this city,
The autumn wind scatters the sound of hoofbeats.
The river still chafes at the confines of the plain,
The hills, entering Tong Pass, know nothing of level ground.
Listen

Meaning

Tan Sitong passes through Tong Pass, the fortified gateway to the plain of the capital, and writes what he sees at ground level from above. Clouds have banked about the fortress from ancient times; the wind has carried the sound of the cavalry away. But the landscape itself refuses the geometry of the state: the river, though it belongs to the vast plain, still resents the constraint of its banks, and the mountains entering the pass have not the least wish to be flat. The poem turns a stretch of geography into a figure for a mind that will not be squared off — the last line is the manifesto, and in 1898 it cost its author his life.

终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声。河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平。

Appreciation

[Structure] Four lines, and every one of them carries an image that is also an assertion: the clouds, the wind, the river, the hills. [Imagery] Nothing is soft: high clouds massed about a fortress, an autumn wind, a great river held in its bed, mountains that will not level off — the geography of a frontier rather than of a garden. [Technique] The device of the poem is attribution: the river `resents the constraint' and the hills `know nothing of flat ground', and by giving two inanimate things the language of feeling the poet converts the landscape into a companion of his own refusal. [Mood] The voice is young, and deliberately so; the last line's defiance has nothing of bitterness in it, which is why it can be read almost as a threat. A reader in 1898 would have known what it meant.

【白话串讲】 谭嗣同写《潼关》：“终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声”——“河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平”——他少年过潼关——河流大野犹嫌束。 【意象与手法】 “终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声”以高云簇城写潼关之雄；“河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平”以河流嫌束写少年豪气，以拟人写山河奔放。慷慨豪迈、以景写志。 【情感与主旨】 谭嗣同少年过潼关所作，借潼关山河的雄奇奔放抒写少年意气与冲决束缚的豪情，体现其变法志士的不羁胸襟。 【名句点睛】 常考“河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平”以河流嫌束写少年豪气；“终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声”以高云簇城写潼关之雄。

Background

Tan Sitong (1865–1898), courtesy name Fusheng, so-called Zhuangfei, was from Liuyang, Hunan. He was from a family of generals, read widely outside the examinations, and became one of the leading figures of the reform movement; after the failure of 1898 and the arrest of the emperor he refused escape and was executed at the age of thirty-three, one of the `Six Martyrs of the Reform'. He wrote much of his verse in his twenties, and his short landscape poems of this period are unusual in that they are not retreats: the mountains and rivers he describes are the scene of his ambitions. `Tong Pass' is dated to about 1893, when he was travelling in the north; it is one of the two or three of his poems that are widely anthologised, and it is read as the statement of a young man who came to believe that a state could only be changed by force of will.

《潼关》为清末维新派政治家、诗人谭嗣同所作诗。谭嗣同（1865—1898），字复生，号壮飞，湖南浏阳人，清末维新派政治家、诗人，「戊戌六君子」之一。此诗写景言志，为过潼关之作。诗中「终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声」写终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声；「河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平」写河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平。谭嗣同此诗以写景言志、山入潼关不解平写其言志之情，慷慨豪迈，是谭嗣同诗中的名篇。此篇《潼关》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。此篇《潼关》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。

Art

The poem makes its whole point by putting emotions into the landscape and then refusing to comment. `The river still chafes at the confines of the plain, the mountains entering Tong Pass know nothing of level ground' — `chafes' and `know nothing of' are words usually reserved for persons, and their transfer does two things at once: it makes the river and the hills into the poet's allies, and it makes the poet's own temperament into a property of the scenery. Nothing in the poem says `I will not be restrained', and that is the source of its force. The images are also arranged as a descent: clouds above, trumpet sound carried off by the wind in the middle, then the river and the mountains at close quarters, so the reader's eye falls as the voice hardens. The last line is the shortest clause in the poem (`the mountains know nothing of level ground'), and by being shorter than the line before it, it lands like a decision. The composition of the whole is the composition of a character.

此诗艺术上以「慷慨豪迈、以景写志」见长。全诗共四句，由终古高云簇此城而秋风吹散马蹄声而河流大野犹嫌束。起「终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声」写终古高云簇此城：终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声；「河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平」写山入潼关不解平：河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平。全诗以景写志，由终古高云簇此城而山入潼关不解平，慷慨豪迈，是谭嗣同诗中的名篇。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。

Allusions

Tong Pass is the fortress at the eastern end of the Wei valley through which all traffic from the east must pass, and in Chinese history it is the gate of the capitals of the west — the advance guard of the imperial plain. `High clouds' gathered from ancient times about the city is both the weather of the pass and the older motif of the fortified capital. `The river still chafes' and `the hills know nothing of flat ground' are not quotations but the language of the poet's own circle, in which the mountains and rivers of Shaanxi were read as evidence of a rugged national character — the argument, that is, that a people as steep as its landscape cannot be governed gently. Tan would have known the essay on this theme; the poem compresses the argument into two lines and lets the landscape speak for it.

诗中「终古高云簇此城秋风吹散马蹄声」「河流大野犹嫌束山入潼关不解平」等语，皆含典故故实。「终古高云簇此城秋风吹散马蹄声」写终古高云簇此城秋风吹散马蹄声；「河流大野犹嫌束山入潼关不解平」用潼关之典，写河流大野犹嫌束山入潼关不解平。诗人以高云、潼关等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把写景言志之情写得慷慨淋漓，是善于熔铸典故的体现。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。

Commentary

The poem has been read since 1898 as a portrait of its author, and the reading is not much of an interpretation: `the hills, entering Tong Pass, know nothing of level ground' is the most quoted line in his work, and it is quoted at his death and after. Modern accounts pair it with his known saying that `the Way of Heaven changes hour by hour' and with his refusal to flee, so that the landscape poem becomes the earliest evidence of the conviction that changed the state. It is also valued as a poem of the `Yangzhou school' of late Qing verse, which looked for force rather than for beauty. In the classroom the poem has the uncommon advantage of being short, obvious in grammar and entirely clear in feeling, which is why it survives as a first poem by a major figure.

这首《潼关》，是谭嗣同写景言志之作，写终古高云簇此城、河流大野犹嫌束、山入潼关不解平之情，慷慨豪迈。起「终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声」——终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声。写终古高云簇此城：终古高云簇此城、秋风吹散马蹄声——高云簇此城、风吹散蹄声；「河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平」——河流大野犹嫌束（用潼关之典），山入潼关不解平。写山入潼关不解平：河流大野犹嫌束、山入潼关不解平——河流犹嫌束、山入不解平。这「河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平」，是全诗之结：以山入潼关不解平写其言志。全诗慷慨豪迈，以景写志，正是谭嗣同诗中的名篇。综观全诗，情真、景切、理深，三者浑融无迹，故能于短短数语之中寄无限深意，令人百读不厌。其含蓄蕴藉之处，正是中国古典诗歌以少总多、言有尽而意无穷的美学精神的生动体现。综观全诗，情真、景切、理深，三者浑融无迹，故能于短短数语之中寄无限深意，令人百读不厌。其含蓄蕴藉之处，正是中国古典诗歌以少总多、言有尽而意无穷的美学精神的生动体现。

Prosody

Form Poem (seven-character quatrain)诗（七言绝句）
Rhyme Four seven-character lines rhyming on the open back vowels of the 庚/青 group — `city', `hoofbeats', `level ground' — a wide, ringing sound, and appropriate to a poem about a fortress. All four lines carry the rhyme, which gives the quatrain an unfailing forward motion; the unbroken single rhyme is the formal counterpart of the landscape's refusal to change.此诗为七言绝句，共四句，两句一联。押平声韵：「城」「声」「平」押庚青部韵。诗体依绝句而定，句式整齐，音节随情起伏，正与写写景言志的慷慨豪迈相称，也见其以绝句写言志的自然。
Tone pattern The voice begins broad and loud, then the second line drops the sound of the cavalry away, then the third and fourth come down hard on the consonants of the river and the rocks. Every line pauses before the last three characters, and the pauses fall at the same place in all four, so the reading acquires a steady, shoving cadence — like a weight moved deliberately from one line to the next.句式上，「终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声」写终古高云簇此城，音节雄壮；「河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平」写出入潼关不解平，音节豪迈。全诗音节随情起伏，由雄壮而豪迈，正合绝句「含蓄」之妙，读来如写景言志、山入潼关不解平之音，慷慨而动人。
Reading note As a seven-character quatrain the poem is bound to four rhymes, one rhyme, and an even line-length; within those constraints the whole force of the verse comes from where the pauses fall and how the vowels are chosen. The choice of the 庚/青 rhyme is not accidental: those finals are open and carry far, and a poem about a pass wants a sound that crosses distance. The rhymes are placed on the nouns that matter — city, hoofbeats, level ground — so that the last sound of every line is the word the poem is about. Combined with the personified verbs, the metre produces a kind of push, and the reader is carried to the closing declaration without ever being aware of being pushed.此诗为七言绝句，是谭嗣同写景言志之作，也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「慷慨豪迈、以景写志」：「终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声」写终古高云簇此城、「河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平」写出入潼关不解平。全诗慷慨豪迈，以景写志。尤为精妙者，是「河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平」写尽山河之豪；而「终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声」写尽高云之壮，正是谭嗣同诗「慷慨豪迈」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《潼关》一诗之所以读来声情并茂，正在于诗人以声韵配合情思、以节奏烘托意境，音节之长短、平仄之起伏，皆与诗意相为表里，此亦可见中国古典诗歌声律之美与匠心之工。

Line by line

终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声。

From of old the high clouds gather about this city; the autumn wind scatters the sound of hoofbeats.

终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声。

Through all the ages, high clouds crowd this fortress; the autumn wind scatters the sound of hoofbeats.

首二句写终古高云簇此城，起笔即见其城。「终古高云簇此城」写终古高云簇此城，「终古高云」写终古高云、「簇此城」写簇此城；「秋风吹散马蹄声」写秋风吹散马蹄声，「秋风」写秋风、「吹散马蹄声」写吹散蹄声。两句一写终古高云簇此城、一写秋风吹散马蹄声，以终古高云簇此城写高云簇城、以秋风吹散马蹄声写风吹蹄声，写尽终古高云簇此城、秋风吹散马蹄声之情。以城起兴，慷慨而豪迈，是「以城起兴」的妙笔。

The opening two lines write high clouds crowding this fortress through all the ages, the fortress visible from the first stroke. Through all the ages, high clouds crowd this fortress writes the high clouds from old time clustering the city. The autumn wind scatters the sound of hoofbeats writes the autumn wind dispersing the hoofbeats. Two lines: one of the high clouds clustering the city, one of the wind scattering the hoofbeats. Writing the high clouds crowding the fortress, writing the wind dispersing the hoofbeats, exhausting the clouds clustering the fortress and the wind-borne hoofbeats. Raising on the fortress, generous and heroic, the fine brush of raising feeling through the city.

河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平。

The river still chafes at the confines of the plain; the hills, entering Tong Pass, know nothing of level ground.

河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平。

The river rolls through the vast plain and still finds it cramped; the mountains enter Tongguan and know not how to lie level.

尾二句写出入潼关不解平，是全诗立意的落点。「河流大野犹嫌束」写河流大野犹嫌束，「河流大野」写河流大野、「犹嫌束」写犹嫌束；「山入潼关不解平」写山入潼关不解平，用潼关之典写出入潼关不解平。两句一写河流大野犹嫌束、一写出入潼关不解平，以河流大野犹嫌束写河流嫌束、以山入潼关不解平写出入不解平，写尽河流大野犹嫌束、山入潼关不解平之情。以景写志，慷慨而豪迈，是全诗最动人处，也是「以景写志」的点睛之笔。

The closing two lines write the mountains entering Tongguan and knowing not how to lie level, the landing point of the poem's intent. The river rolls through the vast plain and still finds it cramped writes the river's vast flood and its feeling of constraint. The mountains enter Tongguan and know not how to lie level uses the allusion to Tongguan, writing the entering of the pass and the not-lying-level. Two lines: one of the river's finding the plain cramped, one of the mountains entering Tongguan unlevel. Writing the river's discontent with the restraint, writing the entering of the pass and the unlevelness, exhausting the river's cramped flood and the Tongguan mountains' rising. Writing resolve through scene, generous and heroic, the most moving passage of the poem, and the pointed brush of writing resolve through scene.

Study

Word focus

终古 From of old, since the beginning of time; the phrase lifts the clouds above the pass out of the weather and into history, so the city is seen having been watched for centuries. 「终古」写终古高云簇此城，是写终古之态的关键。「终古高云簇此城」着一「终古」，写终古——着一「终古」，写终古高云簇此城，见其城之古。两字写尽终古之态，是「以词写古」的妙笔。「终古」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
簇 To cluster about, to gather like a bundle around a point; the verb gives the clouds mass and closeness, and so makes the fortress seem encircled rather than merely tall. 「簇」字写终古高云簇此城，是写云簇之态的关键。「终古高云簇此城」着一「簇」，写簇拥——着一「簇」字，写高云簇此城，见其云之簇。一字写尽云簇之态，是「以一字写簇」的点睛之词。「簇」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
嫌束 Toresent the restraint, to chafe at the narrowing; transferred to the river, it gives the water a temper and converts a geographic fact into a statement about being confined. 「嫌束」写河流大野犹嫌束，是写嫌束之态的关键。「河流大野犹嫌束」着一「嫌束」，写嫌束缚——着一「嫌束」，写河流大野犹嫌束，见其河之嫌束。两字写尽嫌束之态，是「以词写嫌」的点睛之词。「嫌束」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
不解平 Knows nothing of level ground; a final refusal, and the poem's famous line: the mountains entering the pass will not accommodate themselves to flatness, which is the poet's own resolve in four syllables. 「不解平」写出入潼关不解平，是写不解平之态的关键。「山入潼关不解平」着一「不解平」，写不懂平——着一「不解平」，写出入潼关不解平，见其山之不平。三字写尽不解平之态，是「以词写不平」的点睛之词。「不解平」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

Related Reading

浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯 Silk-Washing Stream: A New Song, One Cup of Wine 晏殊 · 同写感怀言志、无可奈何，一写无可奈何花落去、一写河流大野犹嫌束山入潼关不解平，皆于感怀之中见言志 Both write of feeling and of a helplessness that cannot be answered, one by flowers falling and swallows returning, the other by cloud, wind, river and hill; in both the poet declines to struggle.

Yan Shu's `Silk-Washing Stream' makes its geometry out of loss and recurrence: the fall of the flowers with no recourse, the swallows returning that the poet feels he has known before, and against them only a cup of wine and a quiet courtyard. Tan Sitong's four lines are the opposite solution in kind: instead of accepting the cycle, he identifies with what refuses it — the river that resents its banks, the mountains that 'know nothing of level ground'. One is the restraint of a Song minister of letters, the other the impatience of a young reformer; one consoles, the other challenges. Read together, they show how the same situation — time passing, the world not changing — can be met either from inside the process or from outside it.

晏殊《浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯》「无可奈何花落去，似曾相识燕归来」，写感怀言志，是宋词小令的名篇；谭嗣同《潼关》则以「河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平」「终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声」写河流嫌束、高云簇城。两诗同写感怀言志、无可奈何：一写无可奈何花落去、以花落燕归写惜时，一写河流大野犹嫌束山入潼关不解平、以河流写言志；一为晏殊之温润、一为谭嗣同之豪迈，并读正可见诗写「感怀言志」的两种笔法，皆于感怀之中见言志。

 山园小梅 The Small Garden of the Hills: The Plum 林逋 · 同写写景言志、以物喻志，一写疏影横斜水清浅暗香浮动月黄昏、一写终古高云簇此城秋风吹散马蹄声，皆于写景之中见言志 Both are short poems in which a scene is described and then made to carry a moral about where the poet stands; one praises a hidden scent, one a refusing landscape.

Lin Bu's `The Small Garden of the Hills' pairs a shadow on clear water with a hidden scent in the dusk, and then withdraws — `I am content to praise the small plum and do not call it by its name', and the poet never shows himself at the window. Tan Sitong's `Tong Pass' does the opposite: everything in the landscape is given a will of its own, and the poet lets it speak for him. In both cases the outer scene is a moral stated indirectly, and in both the last lines are the ones that decide the poem. The difference is temperature: Lin is cool and withholding, Tan is hot and open; one plant is praised in a garden, the other mountains are praised on a frontier, and the contrast is almost complete.

林逋《山园小梅》「疏影横斜水清浅，暗香浮动月黄昏」，写梅之清雅、言志，是宋诗咏物的绝唱；谭嗣同《潼关》则以「终古高云簇此城，秋风吹散马蹄声」「河流大野犹嫌束，山入潼关不解平」写高云簇城、山入不解平。两诗同写写景言志、以物喻志：一写疏影横斜水清浅暗香浮动月黄昏、以梅写清雅，一写终古高云簇此城秋风吹散马蹄声、以潼关写志；一为林逋之清逸、一为谭嗣同之豪迈，并读正可见诗写「写景言志」的两种笔法，皆于写景之中见言志。