清 Qing · 诗 Poem
咏史·龚自珍
On History
金粉东南十五州，万重恩怨属名流。
牢盆狎客操全算，团扇才人踞上游。
避席畏闻文字狱，著书都为稻粱谋。
田横五百人安在，难道归来尽列侯。
The salt-trade parasites hold the whole scheme in their hands; the fan-holding wits sit high above.
Men rise from their seats for fear of hearing of literary inquisitions, and write books only to keep themselves in bread.
Where are the five hundred followers of Tian Heng? — could it be that, having come home, they were all made marquises?
Meaning
Written under the title 'On History', the poem reads the contemporary scene as history: the wealthy south is a field of private animosities, power lies with the tools of the salt traffickers and the coteries of the elite, scholars silence themselves out of fear of the literary inquisition and write only to make a living, and finally the old deaths of loyalty are mocked by a age that would grant titles to anyone who returned. The poem's bitterness is aimed at the whole official and literary establishment of the mid-Qing, and its final question is unfalsifiable and terrible.
金粉东南十五州，万重恩怨属名流。牢盆狎客操全算，团扇才人踞上游。避席畏闻文字狱，著书都为稻粱谋。田横五百人安在，难道归来尽列侯。
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] The first couplet fixes the scene, a South China rich with cosmetics and wealth where all the private hates and loves of the elite are played out. The second names the holders of power in two compressed pictures: the clients of the salt monopoly who decide everything, and the courtly wits who occupy the high ground. The third describes the intellectual consequences — self-censorship and writing for bread. The fourth closes with the historical riddle about Tian Heng. [Structure] A classic 起承转合: exposition, development, turn to the present, verdict. Each couplet supplies one image and one judgment. [Imagery] The images are all abbreviated and all hostile: 金粉 (gold and paint) for a corrupt prosperity, 牢盆 (the salt vat) for economic exploitation, 团扇 (the round fan) for the vanity of court favourites, 文字狱 for the terror, 稻粱谋 for literature degraded into sustenance. [Irony] The final couplet is the poem's heart: Tian Heng's five hundred followers, who killed themselves rather than serve Liu Bang, are asked where they are, and the implied answer is that they would have been given titles — a question so devastating that poetry has no answer to offer.
【白话串讲】 龚自珍写《咏史》：“金粉东南十五州，万重恩怨属名流”——“牢盆狎客操全算，团扇才人踞上游”——“避席畏闻文字狱，著书都为稻粱谋”——“田横五百人安在，难道归来尽列侯”——他咏史——著书都为稻粱谋。 【意象与手法】 “金粉东南十五州，万重恩怨属名流”以金粉东南写繁华名流；“牢盆狎客操全算，团扇才人踞上游”以牢盆狎客写权贵当道；“避席畏闻文字狱，著书都为稻粱谋”以避席畏闻写文网之酷；结以“田横五百人安在，难道归来尽列侯”以田横典刺变节。慷慨悲凉、讥时刺世。 【情感与主旨】 借咏史刺当世之作，揭露清中叶官场黑暗、文网森严与士人噤声的现实，以田横五百士的追问讽刺趋附权贵者，是龚自珍批判现实的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“避席畏闻文字狱，著书都为稻粱谋”以避席畏闻写文字狱之酷；“田横五百人安在，难道归来尽列侯”以田横典刺趋附变节。
Background
Gong Zizhen (1792–1841), courtesy name Seren, so Ding'an, was from Renhe in Zhejiang: a thinker, statesman, and the most assailable voice of his age. These lines are among his satirical 'On History' poems of the late 1820s, written when the empire was visibly weakening and the court was in the grip of the literary inquisitions of the Qianlong era that had by then become routine. The speaker is not a historian but a witness: salt monopoly, patron-client networks, fear of the inquisition and literature reduced to a livelihood were all features of the world he had just left.
《咏史》为清代思想家、文学家龚自珍所作诗。龚自珍（1792—1841），字璱人，号定盦，仁和（今浙江杭州）人，清代思想家、诗人、文学家。此诗写咏史感怀。诗中「金粉东南十五州，万重恩怨属名流」写金粉东南十五州，万重恩怨属名流；「牢盆狎客操全算，团扇才人踞上游」写牢盆狎客操全算，团扇才人踞上游；「避席畏闻文字狱，著书都为稻粱谋」写避席畏闻文字狱，著书都为稻粱谋；「田横五百人安在，难道归来尽列侯」写田横五百人安在，难道归来尽列侯。龚自珍此诗以咏史感怀、难道归来尽列侯写其感怀之情，慷慨悲凉，是龚自珍诗中的名篇。此篇《咏史·龚自珍》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《咏史·龚自珍》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 compresses an entire political diagnosis into fifty-six characters, and its main technique is the substantive-image: each couplet is built from two nouns or noun phrases that carry their judgment inside them. 金粉 denotes both cosmetic powder and a decaying adornment; 牢盆 is the salt vat, and by extension the whole monopoly; 团扇 is the round silk fan given to favourites, and by extension the coterie of court writers; 稻粱 is food, and 谋 is planning, so that 'planning for grain' means nothing more than providing for oneself. Each is a plain object serving as a verdict. The final couplet abandons this and asks a question in plain speech, so that the poem ends as a voice rather than a picture, and the abrupt drop in register is what makes the irony land.
此诗艺术上以「慷慨悲凉、以史写情」见长。全诗共四联八句，由金粉东南十五州、牢盆狎客操全算而避席畏闻文字狱、田横五百人安在。首联「金粉东南十五州，万重恩怨属名流」写金粉东南十五州：金粉东南十五州，万重恩怨属名流；颔联「牢盆狎客操全算，团扇才人踞上游」写牢盆狎客操全算：牢盆狎客操全算，团扇才人踞上游；颈联「避席畏闻文字狱，著书都为稻粱谋」写避席畏闻文字狱：避席畏闻文字狱，著书都为稻粱谋；尾联「田横五百人安在，难道归来尽列侯」写难道归来尽列侯：田横五百人安在，难道归来尽列侯。全诗以史写情，由金粉东南十五州而难道归来尽列侯，慷慨悲凉，是龚自珍诗中的名篇。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。
Allusions
Three classical references do the political work. 牢盆 refers to the salt-trade clientele of the Han, whose power came from the state monopoly; 团扇 points to the round fan of Ban Jieyu, celebrated in a poem of refusal — hither the image of the literary man kept at court by favour. 田横五百人 is the crucial one: the five hundred followers of Tian Heng, who after his death in 202 BC refused to serve the new Han emperor and took their own lives rather than acknowledge his authority. By asking where they are now, Gong turns a story of death into a question about survival, and the note of 难道 (could it be) supplies the sarcasm: after so many centuries, the only thing left of their resistance is a title.
诗中「金粉东南十五州万重恩怨属名流」「牢盆狎客操全算团扇才人踞上游」「避席畏闻文字狱著书都为稻粱谋」「田横五百人安在难道归来尽列侯」等语，皆含典故故实。「金粉东南十五州万重恩怨属名流」写金粉东南十五州万重恩怨属名流；「牢盆狎客操全算团扇才人踞上游」用牢盆、团扇之典（牢盆写煮盐之器、团扇写班婕妤团扇），写牢盆狎客操全算团扇才人踞上游；「避席畏闻文字狱著书都为稻粱谋」写避席畏闻文字狱著书都为稻粱谋；「田横五百人安在难道归来尽列侯」用田横之典（田横写田横五百士），写田横五百人安在难道归来尽列侯。诗人以牢盆、团扇、田横等典入诗，不着痕迹，而把咏史感怀之情写得慷慨淋漓，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。
Commentary
These 'On History' poems rapidly became the manifesto of a younger generation; they were reprinted and quoted in the 1830s and read as a prediction of the national crisis, and they helped make Gong's name a byword for critical eloquence. Modern scholarship reads the tercets as historical writing as well as poetry, noting how the couplet about literary inquisitions matches the known records of Qing censorship and of scholars who burned their manuscripts. The final couplet in particular is often quoted, since it is the poem's most compact piece of invective and its least answerable.
这首《咏史》，是龚自珍写咏史感怀之作，写金粉东南十五州、牢盆狎客操全算、避席畏闻文字狱、难道归来尽列侯之情，慷慨悲凉。首联「金粉东南十五州，万重恩怨属名流」——金粉东南十五州，万重恩怨属名流。写金粉东南十五州：金粉东南十五州、万重恩怨属名流——东南十五州、恩怨属名流；颔联「牢盆狎客操全算，团扇才人踞上游」——牢盆狎客操全算（用牢盆煮盐、团扇之典），团扇才人踞上游。写牢盆狎客操全算：牢盆狎客操全算、团扇才人踞上游——狎客操全算、才人踞上游；颈联「避席畏闻文字狱，著书都为稻粱谋」——避席畏闻文字狱，著书都为稻粱谋。写避席畏闻文字狱：避席畏闻文字狱、著书都为稻粱谋——畏闻文字狱、都为稻粱谋；尾联「田横五百人安在，难道归来尽列侯」——田横五百人安在（用田横五百士之典），难道归来尽列侯。写难道归来尽列侯：田横五百人安在、难道归来尽列侯——五百人安在、归来尽列侯。这「田横五百人安在，难道归来尽列侯」，是全诗之结：以难道归来尽列侯写其感怀。全诗慷慨悲凉，以史写情，正是龚自珍诗中的名篇。
Prosody
Line by line
金粉东南十五州，万重恩怨属名流。
In the southeast there are fifteen states powdered with gold and paint, and ten thousand folds of love and hatred all belong to the famous gentlemen.
金粉东南十五州，万重恩怨属名流。
The gilded southeast, fifteen provinces; ten thousand layers of love and hate belong to the celebrated names.
首联写金粉东南十五州，起笔即见其境。「金粉东南十五州」写金粉东南十五州，「金粉东南」写金粉东南、「十五州」写十五州；「万重恩怨属名流」写万重恩怨属名流，「万重恩怨」写万重恩怨、「属名流」写属名流。两句一写金粉东南十五州、一写万重恩怨属名流，以金粉东南十五州写东南十五州、以万重恩怨属名流写恩怨属名流，写尽金粉东南十五州、万重恩怨属名流之情。以景起兴，慷慨而悲凉，是「以景起兴」的妙笔。
The opening couplet writes the gilded southeast, the realm visible from the first stroke. The gilded southeast, fifteen provinces writes the gilded southeast and the fifteen provinces. Ten thousand layers of love and hate belong to the celebrated names writes the ten thousand weights of gratitude and grudges resting on the famous. Two lines: one of the gilded southeast's fifteen provinces, one of ten thousand grudges among the celebrated. Writing the southeast's fifteen provinces, writing the grudges that rest on the famous, exhausting the gilded southeast and the ten thousand layers of love and hate. Raising on scene, generous yet desolate, the fine brush of raising feeling through scene.
牢盆狎客操全算，团扇才人踞上游。
The salt-trade parasites hold the whole scheme in their hands; the fan-holding wits sit high above.
牢盆狎客操全算，团扇才人踞上游。
The salt-bureau favorites hold the whole reckoning; the fan-waving scholars squat the high ground.
此二句写牢盆狎客操全算，是全诗写时弊的关键。「牢盆狎客操全算」用牢盆之典写牢盆狎客操全算，「牢盆狎客」写牢盆狎客、「操全算」写操全算；「团扇才人踞上游」用团扇之典写团扇才人踞上游，「团扇才人」写团扇才人、「踞上游」写踞上游。两句一写牢盆狎客操全算、一写团扇才人踞上游，以牢盆狎客操全算写狎客操算、以团扇才人踞上游写才人踞上，写尽牢盆狎客操全算、团扇才人踞上游之情。以典写弊，慷慨而悲凉，是「以典写弊」的点睛之笔。
The two lines write the salt-bureau favorites holding the whole reckoning, the key to the poem's manner of the age's abuses. The salt-bureau favorites hold the whole reckoning uses the allusion to the salt bureau, writes the favorites' grip on the whole account. The fan-waving scholars squat the high ground uses the allusion to the round fan, writes the men of letters perched on high. Two lines: one of the favorites holding the reckoning, one of the scholars squatting the high ground. Writing the favorites' grip on the account, writing the scholars' squatting on high, exhausting the favorites' reckoning and the scholars' high seat. Writing the abuse through allusion, generous yet desolate, the pointed brush of writing the abuse through allusion.
避席畏闻文字狱，著书都为稻粱谋。
Men rise from their seats for fear of hearing of literary inquisitions, and write books only to keep themselves in bread.
避席畏闻文字狱，著书都为稻粱谋。
They withdraw from the mat in dread of the literary inquisition; writing books, all for the daily bread.
此二句写避席畏闻文字狱，是全诗写时势的关键。「避席畏闻文字狱」写避席畏闻文字狱，「避席畏闻」写避席畏闻、「文字狱」写文字狱；「著书都为稻粱谋」写著书都为稻粱谋，「著书」写著书、「都为稻粱谋」写都为稻粱谋。两句一写避席畏闻文字狱、一写著书都为稻粱谋，以避席畏闻文字狱写畏闻文字狱、以著书都为稻粱谋写著书谋稻粱，写尽避席畏闻文字狱、著书都为稻粱谋之情。以实写势，慷慨而悲凉，是「以实写势」的点睛之笔。
The two lines write withdrawing from the mat in dread of the literary inquisition, the key to the poem's manner of the times. They withdraw from the mat in dread of the literary inquisition writes the rising in fear at the word of the literary persecution. Writing books, all for the daily bread writes the writing of books for the rice and grain. Two lines: one of the rising in dread, one of the writing for bread. Writing the dread of the literary inquisition, writing the books written for sustenance, exhausting the mat-side dread and the bread-seeking pen. Writing the age through fact, generous yet desolate, the pointed brush of writing the times through fact.
田横五百人安在，难道归来尽列侯。
Where are the five hundred followers of Tian Heng? — could it be that, having come home, they were all made marquises?
田横五百人安在，难道归来尽列侯。
Where are Tian Heng's five hundred men? Can it be that returning they would all have been made marquises?
尾联写难道归来尽列侯，是全诗立意的落点。「田横五百人安在」用田横五百士之典写田横五百人安在，「田横五百人」写田横五百人、「安在」写安在；「难道归来尽列侯」写难道归来尽列侯，「难道归来」写难道归来、「尽列侯」写尽列侯。两句一写田横五百人安在、一写难道归来尽列侯，以田横五百人安在写五百人安在、以难道归来尽列侯写归来尽列侯，写尽田横五百人安在、难道归来尽列侯之情。以典写史，慷慨而悲凉，是全诗最动人处，也是「以典写史」的点睛之笔。
The closing couplet writes can it be that returning they would all have been made marquises, the landing point of the poem's intent. Where are Tian Heng's five hundred men? uses the allusion to Tian Heng's five hundred followers, writes the asking where the five hundred are. Can it be that returning they would all have been made marquises writes the doubt that the returnees were all enfeoffed. Two lines: one of asking where the five hundred are, one of doubting the enfeoffment of all. Writing the asking where the five hundred are, writing the doubt of the returned men's being made marquises, exhausting the five hundred's asking and the marquises' doubt. Writing history through allusion, generous yet desolate, the most moving passage of the poem, and the pointed brush of writing history through allusion.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Su Shi's long ci, written in the happiest of his years, reaches his masterpiece of self-transcendence: 'I would ride the wind home, but am afraid the jade pavilion and crystal palace are too high for me'. Gong Zizhen's 'On History' is the opposite of that gesture, and asks a lethal question in its place. Both poems are read as the voice of a generation looking on its age from outside; the difference is that Su Shi's age gave him the moon and his own exile, while Gong's gave him a monopoly and an inquisition, and he could respond only by satire.
苏轼《水调歌头·明月几时有》「我欲乘风归去，又恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒」，写登临感时、旷达豪迈，是宋词长调的名篇；龚自珍《咏史》则以「避席畏闻文字狱，著书都为稻粱谋」「田横五百人安在，难道归来尽列侯」写畏闻文字狱、归来尽列侯。两诗同写登临感时、慷慨豪迈：一写我欲乘风归去、以乘风写超然，一写避席畏闻文字狱著书都为稻粱谋、以文字狱写感时；一为苏轼之超然、一为龚自珍之悲凉，并读正可见诗写「感时豪迈」的两种笔法，皆于感时之中见豪迈。
八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Ba Sheng Gan Zhou · Over the Drizzling Rain Fells the Sky 柳永 · 同写登临感时、悲慨难胜，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写金粉东南十五州万重恩怨属名流，皆于登临之中见悲慨 Both write of the times from a place of sorrow, the one at 'the drizzling rain drenches sky and earth', the one at 'the fifteen states powdered with gold and paint' — both a heavy viewing from aboveLiu Yong's ci, written on a journey, opens with rain felling the whole sky and goes on to a landscape of ruined reds, which he takes as his own face in a mirror. Gong Zizhen's first couplet places the same kind of splendor — 金粉 — and then denies it, because the prosperity he sees is only恩怨 (private hates and love) among the elite. One poem weeps into the scenery, the other dissects it; the shared foundation is a poet who cannot look away from a decaying civilisation.
柳永《八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天》「对潇潇暮雨洒江天，一番洗清秋」，写登临感时、羁旅悲慨，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；龚自珍《咏史》则以「金粉东南十五州，万重恩怨属名流」「牢盆狎客操全算，团扇才人踞上游」写东南十五州、狎客操全算。两诗同写登临感时、悲慨难胜：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写金粉东南十五州万重恩怨属名流、以名流写感时；一为柳永之清丽、一为龚自珍之悲凉，并读正可见诗写「登临悲慨」的两种笔法，皆于登临之中见悲慨。