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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

秋浦歌·其十四

Songs of Qiupu, No. 14

李白

Li Bai

冶炼Smelting 民生Livelihood of the People

炉火照天地，红星乱紫烟。
赧郎明月夜，歌曲动寒川。

The furnace fire lights up heaven and earth;
Red sparks scatter through the purple smoke.
Ruddy-faced lads, on a bright moonlit night,
Their singing stirs the cold river.

Listen

Meaning

Li Bai describes a copper smelting works at Qiupu by night. The furnace blaze is so vast that it seems to illuminate sky and earth, and red sparks fly through purple vapour. The workers, their faces reddened by the glare, sing as they labour under a bright moon, and their song seems to set the cold river in motion. The poem is remarkable for its subject: rather than moonlit solitude, it gives the heat, noise and colour of industrial labour, and treats the smelters as heroic figures.

炉火照天地，红星乱紫烟。赧郎明月夜，歌曲动寒川。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] A furnace glows so fiercely that the night sky and the ground both burn with it. Sparks fly red through a violet haze. Men whose faces are flushed by the fire work and sing beneath a bright moon, and their voices seem to shake the cold river. [Structure] Two couplets, moving from fire to men. The first couplet is pure spectacle — scale, colour, motion; the second puts human beings inside that spectacle and ends with sound. [Imagery] Heat and cold are set against each other: the furnace and the flushed faces against the bright moon and the cold river, so that labour appears to warm the very landscape. The colour scheme, red sparks in purple smoke, is the poem's signature. [Significance] Classical Chinese poetry rarely depicts manual labour at all, and almost never industrial labour. Here the smelters are not pitied but celebrated, their singing the poem's final and largest claim.

【白话串讲】李白写《秋浦歌·其十四》：“炉火照天地，红星乱紫烟”——“赧郎明月夜，歌曲动寒川”——他写冶炼工人的劳动——炉火映红脸庞，歌声震动寒川。【意象与手法】此诗写冶炼，以劳动写冶炼，是李白的名篇。前二句写炉火：「炉火照天地，红星乱紫烟」写炉火照天地、红星乱紫烟——写尽炉火的壮丽；后二句写冶工：「赧郎明月夜，歌曲动寒川」写赧郎明月夜、歌曲动寒川——写尽冶工的豪迈。全诗以劳动写冶炼，写尽炉火的壮丽与冶工的豪迈，是李白的代表作。【情感与主旨】此诗写冶炼，以劳动写冶炼，是李白的名篇。此诗写李白在秋浦所见冶炼工场的热烈场面。秋浦（今安徽贵池）一带产铜，唐代设冶铸之所，李白游历至此，见炉火照天、冶工劳作，遂作此诗，是中国古典诗歌中极少见的写冶炼劳动的名篇。此诗写炉火：炉火照天地，红星乱紫烟——写炉火照天地、红星乱紫烟，写尽炉火的壮丽；赧郎明月夜，歌曲动寒川——写赧郎明月夜、歌曲动寒川，写尽冶工的豪迈。全诗以劳动写冶炼——那「炉火照天地」写尽炉火的壮丽，「歌曲动寒川」写尽冶工的豪迈，写尽炉火的壮丽与冶工的豪迈，是理解李白社会诗的重要篇章。【名句点睛】常考「炉火照天地，红星乱紫烟」写炉火的壮丽；「赧郎明月夜，歌曲动寒川」写冶工的豪迈；以及全诗以劳动写冶炼、以夸饰写炉火的手法。

Background

Li Bai (701-762), courtesy name Taibai, styled the Hermit of Qinglian, was born in Suiye and traced his family to Longxi; with Du Fu he forms the pairing Li and Du, and he is the great romantic poet of the Tang. Around 755 he travelled to Qiupu, in present-day Guichi in Anhui, a region rich in copper where the Tang state maintained smelting and casting works. He wrote seventeen Songs of Qiupu, mostly about local scenery and the melancholy of travel; this is the only one that looks directly at industrial labour. The 'ruddy lads' of the third line are the copper workers themselves, their faces lit by the furnaces, and the poem stands almost alone in the classical tradition for making such work its subject.

此诗写冶炼，以劳动写冶炼，是李白的名篇。李白（701—762），字太白，号青莲居士，祖籍陇西成纪（今甘肃秦安），生于碎叶，唐代诗人，与杜甫并称「李杜」，为浪漫主义诗人。此诗写李白在秋浦所见冶炼工场的热烈场面。秋浦（今安徽贵池）一带产铜，唐代设冶铸之所，李白游历至此，见炉火照天、冶工劳作，遂作此诗，是中国古典诗歌中极少见的写冶炼劳动的名篇。此诗写炉火：「炉火照天地，红星乱紫烟」写炉火照天地、红星乱紫烟——写尽炉火的壮丽（炉火照天地，红星乱紫烟）；「赧郎明月夜，歌曲动寒川」写赧郎明月夜、歌曲动寒川——写尽冶工的豪迈（赧郎明月夜，歌曲动寒川）。全诗以劳动写冶炼，写尽炉火的壮丽与冶工的豪迈，是理解李白社会诗的重要篇章。李白于天宝十四载（755）前后游历秋浦（今安徽贵池），此地唐代设银冶、铜冶之所，是当时著名的冶炼中心。李白在秋浦写有《秋浦歌》十七首，多写秋浦的风物与羁旅之思，而此首是其中唯一正面写冶炼劳动的一篇，笔下的「赧郎」即被炉火映红脸庞的冶铜工人。

Art

Four techniques dominate. First, hyperbole: the furnace lighting heaven and earth is an exaggeration typical of Li Bai, and it establishes the scene as sublime rather than merely busy. Second, the verb in the second line, which makes the sparks 'scatter' or 'confuse' the smoke, turns a static picture into turbulence; the choice of a word meaning to disorder is the poem's most admired stroke. Third, the naming of the workers: they are called by their colour, ruddy-faced, so that the fire is transferred onto human bodies and men and furnace become one image. Fourth, sound: the closing line converts singing into physical force that stirs a river, so that human energy is made to outweigh the coldness of the natural world. The colour pairing of red sparks against purple vapour gives the quatrain the intensity of a painting.

此诗的艺术特色可从四个方面解析。其一，以夸饰写炉火。「炉火照天地」以夸饰写炉火——那「照天地」写尽炉火的光焰，以夸饰写尽炉火的壮丽。其二，以动词写动感。「红星乱紫烟」以动词写动感——那「乱」字写尽红星的飞溅，以动词写尽炉火的动态。其三，以写人写冶工。「赧郎明月夜」以写人写冶工——那「赧郎」写尽被炉火映红的冶工，以写人写尽冶工的豪迈。其四，以声响写壮阔。「歌曲动寒川」以声响写壮阔——那「歌曲动」写尽歌声的激越，以声响写尽冶工的豪迈。此外，此诗前二句写炉火的壮丽，后二句写冶工的豪迈，由火及人，正是劳动诗「以火写人」的写法。四重手法，使此诗以劳动写冶炼，写尽炉火的壮丽与冶工的豪迈，是李白的代表作。此诗还善于以「红星乱紫烟」的色彩写炉火的绚烂——那「红星」是鲜红的火星，「紫烟」是紫青的烟雾，一红一紫，正是炉火颜色的对照，以色彩写尽冶炼场面的壮丽。又善以「赧郎」的命名写冶工的形象——「赧」本指因羞而脸红，此处写被炉火映红，正是以炉火之色写人之貌。

Allusions

The purple vapour recalls Li Bai's own line about sunlight on the incense burner producing purple smoke, showing a favourite colour vocabulary rather than a learned reference. The word 'ruddy' properly means blushing from shame, and using it for firelight on a worker's face is a witty transfer. The cold river belongs to the conventional imagery of chilly waters and reverses it: here the cold is not bleak but a foil to human heat. The furnace itself, with its suggestion of refinement, quietly connects craft and character. The whole belongs to the sparse tradition of poems about labour, alongside rural scenes of farmers returning with hoes on their shoulders.

此诗的用语深植于劳动与豪迈传统。「炉火」令人想到「炉火」写炉火的意象——也令人想到「炉火纯青」的意象；「照天地」令人想到「照天地」写光焰的意象——也令人想到「火树银花」的意象；「红星」令人想到「红星」写火星的意象——也令人想到「星火燎原」的意象；「紫烟」令人想到「紫烟」写紫烟的意象——也令人想到「日照香炉生紫烟」（李白）的意象；「赧郎」令人想到「赧郎」写脸红冶工的意象——赧为因羞而脸红，也令人想到「面赧」的意象；「寒川」令人想到「寒川」写寒江的意象——也令人想到「千山暮雪」的意象。全诗化用炉火、照天地、红星、紫烟、赧郎、寒川的意象，以劳动写冶炼，正是李白「豪放」而善夸饰、承劳动传统写壮阔之本领。「紫烟」令人想到李白《望庐山瀑布》「日照香炉生紫烟」之句，炉火之烟与香炉之烟同用「紫烟」，正是李白惯用的色彩语汇；「寒川」令人想到杜甫「门泊东吴万里船」之外的寒江意象，以「寒」与炉火之「热」相映衬，正是以寒衬热的反衬手法。

Commentary

The poem is ranked among Li Bai's finest social verses and is one of the very few classical Chinese poems to represent industrial labour directly. Qing critics called it ardent and heroic, and modern readers point to the opening couplet as the memorable lines. Its historical value lies precisely in its rarity: while most Tang verse treats work as backdrop, this quatrain makes it the subject and makes the workers grand. Read beside the fifteenth Song of Qiupu, with its white hair thirty thousand feet long, the two reveal opposite poles of the sequence — private despair and public energy. It also extends the tradition of writing about labour found in rural poems by Wang Wei and others.

此诗历来被推为李白社会诗的名篇，也是中国诗歌史上极少数正面写冶炼劳动的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以劳动写冶炼，热烈豪迈」；近人更指出「炉火照天地，红星乱紫烟」写炉火的壮丽，是此诗的名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以四句的绝句写尽炉火的壮丽与冶工的豪迈——那炉火，那照天地，那红星，那乱紫烟，那赧郎，那明月夜，那歌曲，那动寒川，都写尽了李白笔下的冶炼；那「歌曲动寒川」更以声响写尽冶工的豪迈。此诗与李白《秋浦歌·其十五》（「白发三千丈」）同为秋浦歌名篇，一写「缘愁似个长」的白发（其十五），一写「炉火照天地」的冶炼（其十四）；又与王维《渭川田家》「田夫荷锄至」的劳动传统一脉相承，可见中国诗写劳动的传统。对于今日读者，此诗是理解李白社会诗的窗口，也是中国诗写冶炼的经典——那炉火照天的秋浦，穿越千年，仍在诉说着冶工的豪迈。

Prosody

Form Five-character quatrain诗·五言绝句

Rhyme Lines two and four rhyme in a single level-tone rhyme.五绝，押「烟」「川」韵（下平一先），一韵到底，音节豪迈

Tone pattern A five-character quatrain in a level rhyme; the rhythm is bold and expansive, matching the heroic energy of the scene.此诗为五言绝句，押平声韵，一韵到底，音节豪迈，正合冶炼的豪迈。

Reading note The quatrain moves from fire to men in two couplets, with the third line breaking the rhyme to prepare the turn from sight to sound. Read the first couplet at full volume to convey scale, and let the closing line ring out, since the whole poem ends on the workers' voices.此诗为五言绝句，四句——「炉火照天地，红星乱紫烟。赧郎明月夜，歌曲动寒川」，押「先」韵（烟、川），一韵到底，音节豪迈。全诗以劳动写冶炼：前二句写炉火的壮丽（炉火照天地、红星乱紫烟），后二句写冶工的豪迈（赧郎明月夜、歌曲动寒川）。四句短章，前写炉火，后写冶工，以「歌曲动寒川」写尽冶工的豪迈，正见李白「豪放」的本色。诵读此诗，宜以豪迈的语调读「炉火照天地」的壮丽，以昂扬的语调读「歌曲动寒川」的豪迈，结句要读得豪迈而有余韵，方能传达出李白的热烈豪迈。李白绝句以「豪放」著称，此诗正是其社会诗（写劳动）的典范。

Line by line

炉火照天地，红星乱紫烟

The furnace fire lights up heaven and earth; red sparks scatter through the purple smoke.

炉火照天地，红星乱紫烟。

The furnace fire lights heaven and earth; red sparks dance amid the purple smoke.

此二句是全诗写炉火的核心，以炉火照天地写照天地，以红星乱紫烟写乱紫烟，写尽炉火的壮丽，是千古名句。「炉火照天地」写炉火照天地——那「炉火」写炉火，「照天地」写照天地，写尽炉火的光焰；「红星乱紫烟」写红星乱紫烟——那「红星」写红星，「乱紫烟」写乱紫烟，写尽红星的飞溅。这句的深意在于：它以「炉火照天地」的光焰与「红星乱紫烟」的飞溅，写尽炉火的壮丽——炉火照天地，那「炉火照天地」写尽炉火的光焰——炉火照天地，正是火光冲天的写照，那「照天地」写尽炉火的壮丽；红星乱紫烟，那「红星乱紫烟」写尽红星的飞溅——红星乱紫烟，正是火星迸溅的写照，那「乱」字写尽炉火的动态；那「炉火照天地」写尽炉火的光焰，那「红星乱紫烟」写尽红星的飞溅，一写光，一写火，写尽炉火的壮丽——炉火照天而红星乱烟，正是冶炼工场的写照；此二句以光焰、飞溅写尽炉火的壮丽，也为下文的赧郎作铺垫，也让此二句成为全诗写炉火的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「冶铁炉的火很大很红」，则失其壮阔；唯以「炉火照天地」写照天地、「红星乱紫烟」写乱紫烟，写尽炉火的壮丽，也让此二句成为全诗写炉火的核心。

The two lines are the core of the poem's furnace, writing the lighting of heaven and earth through the furnace fire lights heaven and earth and the dancing sparks through red sparks dance amid the purple smoke, exhausting the furnace's grandeur. The furnace fire lights heaven and earth is precisely the picture of the flames reaching the sky; red sparks dance amid the purple smoke precisely the picture of the spattering sparks; the word dance writes the motion of the fire. The deep meaning: the furnace lighting the sky and red sparks amid the purple smoke, precisely the picture of the smelter. One writes the light, one the fire, exhausting the grandeur. Were it said plainly the iron furnace fire is huge and red, the sweep would be lost; only through the lighting of heaven and earth and the dancing sparks is the furnace's grandeur exhausted, preparing the blushing lads below and making the lines the core of the poem.

赧郎明月夜，歌曲动寒川

Ruddy-faced lads, on a bright moonlit night, their singing stirs the cold river.

赧郎明月夜，歌曲动寒川。

The furnace-glow lads in the moonlit night; their songs move the cold river.

此二句是全诗写冶工的核心，以赧郎明月夜写赧郎，以歌曲动寒川写歌曲，写尽冶工的豪迈，是千古名句。「赧郎明月夜」写赧郎明月夜——那「赧郎」写赧郎，「明月夜」写明月夜，写尽赧郎的明月夜；「歌曲动寒川」写歌曲动寒川——那「歌曲」写歌曲，「动寒川」写动寒川，写尽歌曲的动川。这句的深意在于：它以「赧郎明月夜」的赧郎与「歌曲动寒川」的歌曲，写尽冶工的豪迈——赧郎明月夜，那「赧郎明月夜」写尽赧郎的明月夜——赧郎明月夜，正是炉火映面的写照，那「赧郎」写尽冶工的豪迈；歌曲动寒川，那「歌曲动寒川」写尽歌曲的动川——歌曲动寒川，正是歌声动川的写照，那「动寒川」写尽冶工的豪迈；那「赧郎明月夜」写尽赧郎的明月夜，那「歌曲动寒川」写尽歌曲的动川，一写人，一写歌，写尽冶工的豪迈——赧郎夜作而歌声动川，正是冶炼工场的写照；此二句以赧郎、歌曲写尽冶工的豪迈，也让此二句成为全诗写冶工的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「工人唱着歌干活」，则失其豪迈；唯以「赧郎明月夜」写赧郎、「歌曲动寒川」写歌曲，写尽冶工的豪迈，也让此二句成为全诗写冶工的核心。

The two lines are the core of the poem's smelters, writing the blushing lads through the furnace-glow lads in the moonlit night and the song through their songs move the cold river, exhausting the smelters' boldness. The furnace-glow lads in the moonlit night is precisely the picture of the furnace glow on their faces; their songs move the cold river precisely the picture of the songs stirring the stream. The deep meaning: the lads working by night and their songs moving the river, precisely the picture of the smelter. One writes the men, one the song, exhausting the boldness. Were it said plainly the workers sing as they work, the boldness would be lost; only through the blushing lads and the moving river is the smelters' boldness exhausted, making the lines the core of the poem.

Study

Word focus

乱 In 'red sparks scatter through the purple smoke,' this verb means to throw into disorder. It animates the whole scene: the sparks do not simply rise but churn the vapour, so that the smelting works become turbulent and alive rather than a static picture. 「红星乱紫烟」之「乱」字是写炉火的关键词，一个「乱」字写尽红星的飞溅。乱者，纷乱、纵横也。李白以「红星乱紫烟」写炉火，这个「乱」字至少有双重意味：其一，写火之乱——那「红星乱紫烟」写红星乱紫烟，那「乱」字写尽红星的飞溅——红星乱紫烟，正是火星迸溅的写照，那「乱」字写尽炉火的动态；其二，写景之盛——那「乱」字更是写盛——乱，正见炉火的盛大，那「乱」字写尽炉火的壮丽。以「乱」字写炉火，正是李白写冶炼的枢纽——若换作「飞」「舞」等字，则或失其与「红星」「紫烟」的配合，或失其写乱的意味；唯「乱」字，以红星乱紫烟写尽红星的飞溅与炉火的盛大，与「炉火照天地」的照天地相合，写尽炉火的壮丽，也让「红星乱紫烟」成为全诗写炉火的名句。

动 In 'their singing stirs the cold river,' the verb means to set in motion or shake. It turns sound into physical force, crediting human labour with enough energy to move the natural world and to overcome the river's coldness. 「歌曲动寒川」之「动」字是写冶工的关键词，一个「动」字写尽歌曲的动川。动者，震动、撼动也。李白以「歌曲动寒川」写冶工，这个「动」字至少有双重意味：其一，写歌之动——那「歌曲动寒川」写歌曲动寒川，那「动」字写尽歌曲的动川——歌曲动寒川，正是歌声震川的写照，那「动」字写尽冶工的豪迈；其二，写气之雄——那「动」字更是写雄——动，正见歌声的雄壮，那「动」字写尽冶工的壮阔。以「动」字写冶工，正是李白写冶炼的枢纽——若换作「震」「响」等字，则或失其与「歌曲」「寒川」的配合，或失其写动的意味；唯「动」字，以歌曲动寒川写尽歌曲的动川与歌声的雄壮，与「赧郎明月夜」的赧郎相合，写尽冶工的豪迈，也让「歌曲动寒川」成为全诗写冶工的名句。