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宋 Song · 文 Prose

记承天寺夜游

A Night Stroll at Chengtian Temple

苏轼

Su Shi

写景Scene 闲情Leisure 贬谪Exile 名篇Masterpiece

元丰六年十月十二日夜，解衣欲睡，月色入户，欣然起行。
念无与为乐者，遂至承天寺寻张怀民。
怀民亦未寝，相与步于中庭。
庭下如积水空明，水中藻、荇交横，盖竹柏影也。
何夜无月？
何处无竹柏？
但少闲人如吾两人者耳。

On the night of the twelfth day of the tenth month of the sixth year of Yuanfeng, I had taken off my clothes and was about to sleep, when the moonlight came in at the door; gladly I rose and walked out. Thinking that there was no one with whom to share the pleasure, I went to Chengtian Temple to find Zhang Huaimin. Huaimin too had not yet slept, and we walked together in the courtyard. Beneath the court it was like a pool of accumulated water, clear and bright; in the water the duckweed and the water-cress crossed and intertwined—these were the shadows of the bamboo and the cypress. What night has no moon? What place has no bamboo and cypress? Only that there are few who are free like the two of us.

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Meaning

Su Shi's masterpiece of the familiar essay, written in the sixth year of Yuanfeng (1083), when he had been demoted to Huangzhou for nearly four years after the Crow Terrace Poetry Case. On the night of the twelfth day of the tenth month, having taken off his clothes and about to sleep, the moonlight comes in at the door; gladly he rises and walks out. Thinking that there is no one with whom to share the pleasure, he goes to Chengtian Temple to find his friend Zhang Huaimin, also in exile; Huaimin too has not yet slept, and the two walk together in the courtyard. Beneath the court it is like a pool of accumulated water, clear and bright; the duckweed and the water-cress crossing in the water are the shadows of the bamboo and the cypress. And the reflection of the close: 'what night has no moon? what place has no bamboo and cypress? only that there are few who are free like the two of us'—the moon and the bamboo are everywhere, but the 'free' heart that can enjoy them is rare, the praise of the two friends' freedom of heart and the poet's self-consolation in the midst of the exile.

元丰六年十月十二日的夜里，我解开衣服准备睡觉，月光照进屋里，便高兴地起身出门。想到没有能一起游乐的人，就来到承天寺寻找张怀民。怀民也没有睡，我们便一起在庭院中散步。庭院中像积满了水一样空明澄澈，水中水藻、荇菜交错纵横，原来是竹子和柏树的影子。哪一个夜晚没有月亮？哪一处没有竹子和柏树？只是缺少像我们两个这样清闲的人罢了。

Appreciation

This is the peak of Su Shi's familiar essays. The form is a 'record,' yet it breaks the usual fullness of the Tang and Song record prose with its eighty-odd characters writing one night's stroll, a model of 'the many through the few.' In structure it has three layers: the first narrates, giving the time, the occasion, and the companion, the daily 'about to sleep' and the glad 'rising and walking out,' the loneliness of 'no one with whom to share the pleasure' and the joy of finding the friend who knows, rising and falling in a few words; the middle writes the scene, 'beneath the court it is like a pool of accumulated water, clear and bright; in the water the duckweed and the water-cress crossed and intertwined—these are the shadows of the bamboo and the cypress,' the three sentences the most famous scene-writing of the whole piece, first the 'pool of accumulated water' for the clarity of the moonlight, then the 'duckweed and water-cress' for the crossing of the bamboo and cypress shadows, and the 'these are the shadows' revealing the truth—the moonlight as the water, the shadows as the water-plants, the metaphor carried to the end, the clear and bright court written like a painting; the third reflects, 'what night has no moon? what place has no bamboo and cypress? only that there are few who are free like the two of us,' turning the scene into the reflection, the 'free' the eye of the whole piece—the moon and the bamboo are everywhere, but the heart free enough to enjoy them is rare, the two friends' freedom of heart in the midst of the exile, the whole piece's meaning gathered in the one word.

【白话串讲】苏轼在黄州，写《记承天寺夜游》：元丰六年十月十二日夜，“月色入户，欣然起行”。他去找张怀民，“怀民亦未寝”。“庭下如积水空明，水中藻、荇交横，盖竹柏影也”——“何夜无月？何处无竹柏？但少闲人如吾两人者耳”——他说自己是闲人。【意象与手法】全文仅八十余字，却以「月色」为眼，用「积水空明」喻月光、「藻荇交横」喻竹柏影，不着一「月」字而月色满纸；结构上由叙事而写景而议论，层层递进，最后以「闲人」二字点睛，言简而意丰【情感与主旨】苏轼因「乌台诗案」贬居黄州，本文于闲适赏月的表象下，暗含贬谪中的自嘲与自得：以「闲人」自居，既叹怀才不遇，又庆幸能在困厄中保有赏月的闲情与旷达的襟怀【名句点睛】「庭下如积水空明，水中藻、荇交横，盖竹柏影也」为写月名句，以影写光、以静写动；「何夜无月？何处无竹柏？但少闲人如吾两人者耳」则以议论收束，道出「闲」的审美哲学，千古传诵

Background

Su Shi (1037–1101), courtesy name Zizhan, hao Dongpo Hermit, a native of Meishan, Meizhou (in present-day Sichuan), was the leader of the Northern Song literary world, excelling in poetry, ci, prose, calligraphy, and painting. 'A Night Stroll at Chengtian Temple' was written in the sixth year of Yuanfeng (1083), when Su Shi, demoted to the position of vice military training commissioner of Huangzhou for the Crow Terrace Poetry Case, had been there for nearly four years. In the second year of Yuanfeng (1079), Su Shi was impeached and imprisoned for his poems and prose suspected of satirizing the new policies, nearly losing his life; released, he was banished to Huangzhou, nominally 'vice military training commissioner' but in fact 'not permitted to sign the official documents,' like one under supervision, in hard straits, farming the wasteland east of the city for his own support, whence the name 'East Slope.' The night of the twelfth day of the tenth month recorded in this piece, walking in the courtyard with his friend Zhang Huaimin (named Mengde, then also in exile in Huangzhou, lodging at Chengtian Temple), was an ordinary and quiet night of the life in exile. Zhang Huaimin came to Huangzhou in the sixth year of Yuanfeng, and Su Shi named the new pavilion he built the 'Pavilion of the Quick'; Su Zhe wrote the 'Record of the Pavilion of the Quick at Huangzhou,' a proof of their close friendship.

苏轼（1037—1101），字子瞻，号东坡居士，眉州眉山（今属四川）人，北宋文坛领袖，诗、词、文、书、画皆臻绝诣。《记承天寺夜游》写于元丰六年（1083），时苏轼因「乌台诗案」被贬为黄州团练副使已近四年。元丰二年（1079），苏轼因诗文涉嫌讥讽新政被弹劾下狱，几至丧命，获释后谪居黄州，名义上是「团练副使」，实则「不得签书公事」，形同编管，生活困顿，只得在城东荒地躬耕以自给，「东坡」之号即由此而来。本文所记十月十二夜与友人张怀民（名梦得，时亦谪居黄州，寓承天寺）步于中庭，正是贬谪生活中一个寻常而清寂的夜晚。张怀民元丰六年到黄州，苏轼曾为其新建之亭题名「快哉亭」，苏辙有《黄州快哉亭记》，可见二人过从之密、同病相怜。篇末「闲人」二字，既是对「不得签书公事」处境的自嘲，更是东坡超越苦难、以闲适自足的人格宣言，是理解苏轼黄州时期精神世界的一把钥匙。黄州四年，苏轼由「拣尽寒枝不肯栖」的孤愤，渐入「也无风雨也无晴」的旷达，此篇正是这一心路历程的见证。

Art

The art is 'the many through the few': eighty-odd characters write one night's stroll in three layers. The narration rises and falls in a few words, the daily and the glad, the lonely and the joyful; the scene, 'the pool of accumulated water, clear and bright,' 'the duckweed and the water-cress,' 'the shadows of the bamboo and the cypress,' carries the metaphor of the moonlight as the water to the end, the clear and bright court written like a painting; and the reflection turns the scene into the thought, the 'free' the eye of the whole piece. The whole, from the narration to the scene to the reflection, the few words the many meanings, the familiar essay of the leisure and the clarity in the midst of the exile.

本文是苏轼小品文的巅峰之作，文体属「记」，却打破唐宋记体散文铺叙排比、首尾俱全的常规，以八十余字写一夜之游，堪称「以少胜多」的典范。结构上分三层：首层叙事，交代时间、缘由与同行者，「解衣欲睡」的日常与「欣然起行」的兴致、以及「念无与为乐者」的寂寞与「寻张怀民」的知音之快，在寥寥数语间起伏跌宕；中层写景，「庭下如积水空明，水中藻、荇交横，盖竹柏影也」三句是全篇最著名的写景妙笔，先以「积水」喻月色之澄澈，再以「藻荇」喻竹柏影之交错，最后以「盖」字点破，由错觉入真相，虚实相生，不写月而月自明；末层议论，「何夜无月？何处无竹柏？」两个反问由眼前景推向普遍理，再以「但少闲人如吾两人者耳」收束，由景入情、由情入理。全篇白描如画，比喻奇警，情感含蓄，是苏轼「行云流水，初无定质」文论的完美实践。尤其「庭下如积水空明」数句，以比喻写月色而无一字及月，笔法之高，直追谢庄《月赋》而更见空灵，故前人称此篇为「月光小记」。

Allusions

Though short, the cultural import of the piece is deep. First, 'the moonlight comes in at the door' covertly inherits the tradition of the moon in Xie Zhuang's 'Rhapsody on the Moon'—'separated by a thousand li, sharing the bright moon'—and the moonlight of Su Shi's exile at Huangzhou, 'a thousand li sharing the round moon,' is often joined to the loneliness and the longing—the moon is shared by all the world, yet the 'free' heart to enjoy it is rare, the very mechanism of the whole piece. Second, the writing of the 'accumulated water, clear and bright' continues the Buddhist 'clear and bright' realm and the Zhuangzi's 'the empty chamber gives birth to the white' clarity—the clear and bright court beneath the moon is the objectification of the exile's clear heart, secretly carrying the 'heart free, the world free' of the self-consolation.

本文虽短，文化意蕴却极深。其一，「月色入户」暗承谢庄《月赋》「隔千里兮共明月」的咏月传统，而苏轼贬居黄州时「千里共婵娟」的月光，又常与孤独、思念相连——月是天下共有的，而赏月之「闲」却是难得的，这是全篇机锋所在。其二，「积水空明」的写法，上承佛教「空明」之境与庄子「虚室生白」的澄明之思，月下庭院之空明，正是贬谪者内心澄澈的物化，暗含「心闲则万物皆明」的禅意。其三，「闲人」一词更有深意：表面自嘲「闲散无用之人」，深层则是道家式的「闲者主人」——苏轼在《临皋闲题》中即言「江山风月，本无常主，闲者便是主人」，可见「闲」在他眼中不是废置，而是审美的资格、精神的自由。其四，承天寺本是黄州名刹，寺僧与文人交游为宋代常事，苏轼夜访张怀民于寺中，亦见宋代士人「寓禅于闲」的生活情调。寥寥八十余字，融儒之旷达、道之逍遥、禅之空明于一炉。佛道之思与文人闲趣交融，正是宋代士大夫「以禅悦为乐」风气的缩影。

Commentary

'A Night Stroll at Chengtian Temple' is a short piece that every anthology of the familiar essay includes, praised as 'the best of the familiar essays of a thousand years.' Its influence is in three aspects: first, in form, it opens the way of the lyric and the familiar for the 'record' with its most sparing strokes, directly inspiring the school of the native sensibility of the Ming (the Gongan and the Jingling) and the line of Zhang Dai's 'Watching the Snow at the Pavilion of the Lake's Heart'—Zhang Dai's most sparing scene-writing, 'the sky and the clouds and the mountains and the water, all one white above and below,' is the inheritance of this piece's 'accumulated water, clear and bright.' Second, in the mood, the 'free' of the two exiles in the midst of the hardship is the deepest face of the Dongpo spirit. Third, in the language, the plain and the bright have become the model of the Chinese familiar essay.

《记承天寺夜游》是历代小品文选本必收的短章，被誉为「千古小品之最」。其影响体现在三方面：其一，文体上，它以极简笔墨开创了「记」体的抒情化、小品化道路，直接启发了明代公安派、竟陵派及张岱《湖心亭看雪》一脉的性灵小品，张岱「天与云与山与水，上下一白」的极简写景，正是承本文「积水空明」的笔法而来；其二，思想上，「闲人」之论成为中国文人审美人格的经典表述，从苏轼到明清文人，「闲」作为摆脱功利、亲近自然的生命姿态，深刻塑造了士大夫的山水情怀；其三，情感上，它将贬谪的悲慨升华为旷达的审美，与《赤壁赋》《念奴娇·赤壁怀古》共同构成苏轼黄州时期「一蓑烟雨任平生」的精神图谱。今人读此文，仍能于清冷月色中感到东坡那颗「无往而不乐」的旷达之心，这也是其穿越千年而不衰的魅力所在。历代评家或以「闲」字为全篇之眼，或以「空明」为写月之绝，而皆叹其短章之中有无限烟波；今日读之，犹觉月下庭院如在目前，东坡襟怀可想。

Prosody

Form Classical prose familiar essay ('record'), mostly short sentences, the rhythm bright文言散文小品（记体），以短句为主，节奏明快

Rhyme Unrhymed, the typical loose familiar essay, yet the uneven length of the sentences has its own sound and feeling: the opening 'about to sleep, the moonlight comes in at the door, gladly rising and walking out' in three four-character phrases, short and forceful; the middle 'beneath the court it is like a pool of accumulated water' is easy and flowing; the close 'what night has no moon? what place has no bamboo and cypress?' in the two questions本文不押韵，是典型的散体小品，但句式的长短错落自有声情：首段「解衣欲睡，月色入户，欣然起行」三组四字句短促有力，如行云流水；中段「庭下如积水空明」七字句舒展，「水中藻、荇交横」顿挫，「盖竹柏影也」五字收束，节奏由疾转徐；末段两问一叹，「何夜无月？何处无竹柏？」急促上扬，「但少闲人如吾两人者耳」徐徐落下，抑扬顿挫，声情并茂。

Tone pattern The narration is bright and quick, the scene 'clear and bright' is still and clear, the two questions of the close turn, and the 'free' falls slow—the whole from the daily to the clear to the reflection, the leisure and the clarity carried by the rhythm全篇语调随内容流转：叙事处轻快从容，如「解衣欲睡，月色入户，欣然起行」，节奏明快，写出兴致的生发；写景处舒缓澄澈，「庭下如积水空明」语速放慢，营造静谧空灵之境；议论处先扬后抑，两个反问语气上扬，如叩问天地，末句「闲人」二字低回自嘲，余味悠长。短句居多，绝少长句堆叠，正合夜游之清寂与心境之澄明。

Reading note The bright short sentences of the opening, the clear and still scene, and the turning questions of the close carry the free heart of the two exiles.《记承天寺夜游》虽不足百字，却是古文声韵艺术的精品。其声韵之美不在押韵，而在「以句法之长短拟心境之起伏」。开篇「元丰六年十月十二日夜」以纪时开句，语速平缓如日记；随即「解衣欲睡，月色入户，欣然起行」连用四字短句，一字一顿，如镜头快切，写出从倦怠到兴奋的瞬间转折；「念无与为乐者，遂至承天寺寻张怀民」句式转长，语势稍缓，写寻友之思与行路之态；至「庭下如积水空明，水中藻、荇交横，盖竹柏影也」，长短句交错，如月光下的呼吸，静美悠远；末段「何夜无月？何处无竹柏？但少闲人如吾两人者耳」以两问一叹收束，问句急促如叩问，叹句绵长如低语，全篇声情于此处达到高潮又归于沉静。这种「以短句写闲情、以问答收远韵」的节奏设计，使文章读来如月下漫步，一步一景，余音不绝，是古文「声情并茂」的典范。

Line by line

元丰六年十月十二日夜，解衣欲睡，月色入户，欣然起行。

On the night of the twelfth day of the tenth month of the sixth year of Yuanfeng, I had taken off my clothes and was about to sleep, when the moonlight came in at the door; gladly I rose and walked out. (The narration: the time, the daily 'about to sleep,' the glad 'rising and walking out,' the joy of the moonlight in the few words.)

元丰六年十月十二日的夜里，我解开衣服准备睡觉，月光照进屋里，便高兴地起身出门。

On the night of the twelfth day of the tenth month, the sixth year of Yuanfeng, I undressed for sleep; the moonlight entered the door, and I rose up and walked out, delighted.

开篇以确切的年月日纪时，看似平常史笔，实则暗含深意：元丰六年是苏轼贬居黄州的第四个年头，这一具体日期愈精确，愈见贬谪岁月之漫长与平常，为「闲人」的自嘲埋下伏笔。「解衣欲睡」写一日将尽的倦怠，「月色入户」则陡起波澜——「入」字将月光拟人化，仿佛月光主动登门造访，是天地对未眠之人的邀约；「欣然起行」四字写尽由困倦到兴致的瞬间转换，「欣然」二字尤为传神，点出东坡随遇而安的性情。全句以「欲睡—入户—起行」三层转折推进，短短十九字完成从日常到诗意的跃迁，其节奏之明快、转换之自然，正是东坡散文「行云流水」风格的缩影，也为后文寻友、赏月、悟理层层蓄势。

The opening dates the year, month, and day with precision, seeming the plain historian's brush, and in truth carrying depth: the sixth year of Yuanfeng is the fourth year of Su Shi's exile in Huangzhou, the more precise the date, the longer and the more ordinary the exile's years, storing ground for the self-mockery of the idler. Undressed for sleep writes the day's weariness; the moonlight entered the door suddenly raises the wave — the word enter personifies the moonlight, as if it had come of itself to knock, heaven and earth's invitation to the unsleeping; rose up and walked out, delighted writes the instant turn from weariness to zest, the word delighted most telling, naming Su Shi's temper of taking things as they come. The line advances in the three turns of for-sleep, entered, walked out, completing the leap from the daily to the poetic in nineteen short characters, the rhythm's quickness and the turn's naturalness the miniature of Su Shi's prose style of the flowing cloud and the running water, storing force for the seeking of the friend, the moon-viewing, and the meditation below.

庭下如积水空明，水中藻、荇交横，盖竹柏影也。

Beneath the court it was like a pool of accumulated water, clear and bright; in the water the duckweed and the water-cress crossed and intertwined—these were the shadows of the bamboo and the cypress. (The scene: the moonlight as the pool of water, the shadows as the water-plants, the metaphor carried to the end, the 'these were the shadows' revealing the truth, the clear and bright court written like a painting.)

庭院中像积满了水一样空明澄澈，水中水藻、荇菜交错纵横，原来是竹子和柏树的影子。

The courtyard below was like standing water, empty and clear; in it the algae and duckweed lay crossing — it was the shadows of the bamboos and cypresses.

这是中国文学史上写月最著名的句子，妙在「不写月而月自在」。诗人不直言「月光皎洁」，而以「积水空明」为喻，写月光泻地如清泉盈庭，取其澄澈透明之感；又以「藻、荇交横」写竹柏投影之斑驳，仿佛真有水草在水中摇曳——这是视觉上的「错觉」，而「盖竹柏影也」的「盖」字轻轻点破，由幻返真，趣味横生。此句的艺术成就极高：一是比喻的连贯性，月光与水、树影与藻荇两两对应，构成完整的比喻系统；二是动静相生，积水是静的，藻荇「交横」是动的，静中有动，月夜之清幽如在目前；三是意境的空明澄澈，与贬谪者澄净的心境互为映照。仅二十二字，写尽月色的质感、光影的错落与心灵的清明。

This is the most famous sentence of moonlight in Chinese literature, its beauty in not writing the moon and the moon being there. The poet does not say plainly the moonlight is pure, but uses standing water, empty and clear for the metaphor, writing the moonlight pouring on the ground as the spring filling the court, taking the clarity and transparency; and the algae and duckweed crossing writes the dappled bamboo and cypress shadows, as if real water weeds swayed in the water — the optical illusion, and the word it was, gently breaking the spell, from the illusion back to the real, the charm abundant. The line's artistic achievement is high: first, the metaphor's continuity, moonlight and water, tree shadows and weeds matched pair by pair, composing a complete metaphor system; second, stillness and motion feeding each other, the standing water still, the crossing weeds moving, motion within stillness, the moonlit night's quiet as before the eyes; third, the realm's empty clarity, mirroring the exile's purified heart. Twenty-two characters, exhausting the moonlight's texture, the light and shadow's scattering, and the mind's clarity.

何夜无月？何处无竹柏？但少闲人如吾两人者耳。

What night has no moon? What place has no bamboo and cypress? Only that there are few who are free like the two of us. (The reflection: the moon and the bamboo are everywhere, but the 'free' heart that can enjoy them is rare—the praise of the two friends' freedom of heart and the self-consolation in the midst of the exile.)

哪一个夜晚没有月亮？哪一处没有竹子和柏树？只是缺少像我们两个这样清闲的人罢了。

What night has no moon? What place has no bamboos and cypresses? Only there are few idlers like us two, that is all.

这是全篇的点睛之笔，由写景陡转议论，境界顿开。前两个反问「何夜无月？何处无竹柏？」以否定之否定推出普遍之理：月色与竹柏本是天地间寻常之物，处处皆有、夜夜皆在；而真正稀缺的是「闲人」——懂得停下来欣赏的人。一个「但」字急转，「闲人」二字自嘲亦自得：自嘲者，贬谪黄州，「不得签书公事」，确乎「闲」得无奈；自得者，唯有闲者方能于寻常月色中识得天地之美，此「闲」正是精神的自由。全句由具体场景升华为人生哲理，把一次夜游写成一种生命态度的宣言，与《赤壁赋》「惟江上之清风，与山间之明月……是造物者之无尽藏也」异曲同工，是苏轼旷达人格最凝练的表达，也是「闲」的美学最经典的注脚。

This is the telling stroke of the whole, the sudden turn from scene to argument, the realm opening at once. The first two questions, what night has no moon? what place has no bamboos and cypresses? deduce the universal truth through the double negation: the moonlight and the cypresses by nature the common things of heaven and earth, everywhere present, every night there; and what is truly scarce is the idler — the man who knows how to stop and appreciate. The one word but turns sharply, the idler at once self-mockery and self-satisfaction: the mocked, exiled in Huangzhou, not permitted to sign the official papers, truly idle in helplessness; the satisfied, only the idle man can discern the beauty of heaven and earth in the ordinary moonlight, and this idleness is precisely spiritual freedom. The line rises from the concrete scene to the life philosophy, writing a night walk as the declaration of a life attitude, the same craft as the Red Cliff Rhapsody's the wind on the river and the moon over the hills are the creator's inexhaustible treasure, the most condensed expression of Su Shi's open character, and the classic note on the aesthetics of idleness.

Study

Word focus

空明 Clear and bright. The word of the scene: 'like a pool of accumulated water, clear and bright'—the clarity and the brightness of the moonlight like the water, the Buddhist 'clear and bright' realm, the clear heart of the exile objectified in the court. 「庭下如积水空明」之「空明」是全文写景的核心词，妙在以二字状月光之澄澈无尘。「空」写月色的透明质感，如水之无质而可感；「明」写其光华，如水之莹澈而发光。二字连用，既写月光如积水般铺满庭院、澄澈见底，又暗含「心空则明」的禅意——贬谪中的苏轼，恰是以空明之心观照空明之月，物我交融。在苏轼笔下，「空明」并非第一次出现，《赤壁赋》即有「击空明兮溯流光」之句，可见这是他写水月之境的惯用词，而本文将其用于月色本体，更见其炼字之精：不写「月明」，不写「光洁」，独取「空明」，一个「空」字便让月光有了水的质地与禅的空灵，是「以一字传神」的典范。

闲人 The free (leisured) one. The eye of the whole piece: 'few who are free like the two of us'—the heart free enough to enjoy the moon and the bamboo, the two exiles' freedom of heart in the midst of the hardship, the self-consolation and the pride in the one word. 「但少闲人如吾两人者耳」之「闲人」是全文的题眼，一词而兼多义，堪称「一字千金」。「闲人」表层义是「清闲无事之人」——苏轼被贬黄州，挂名团练副使而无实权，确属「闲」；张怀民亦谪居于此，同是天涯「闲」人。但深看下去，「闲人」实为「审美之人」：月色竹柏日日皆有，唯「闲」者能驻足凝望、识其空明之美，故「闲」非废置，而是摆脱功名利禄束缚后的精神自由，是「江山风月，本无常主，闲者便是主人」的写照。更深处，「闲人」还有自嘲的酸楚：一个曾经「致君尧舜」的士大夫，如今只能以赏月为业，这份「闲」里藏着多少无奈与不甘。一词三层，自嘲、自得、自怜交织，正是东坡人格复杂性的浓缩。

盖 These were (indeed). The word of the reveal: 'these were the shadows of the bamboo and the cypress'—the single word of the turn, the metaphor of the water-plants revealed as the shadows, the wonder of the scene-writing in the one word. 「盖竹柏影也」之「盖」字，是全文写景句中最见匠心的虚词，意为「原来是、大概是」。此字承前文「水中藻、荇交横」而来，承担着「由错觉转真相」的枢纽作用：先写庭下积水与水中藻荇，让读者与作者一同坠入「水中」的错觉，再以「盖」字轻轻点破——原来不是水，是月光；不是藻荇，是竹柏影。「盖」字一出，全句由实入虚、由幻返真，顿挫生姿，其妙正在「不说破而说破」：若直写「是竹柏影也」，便索然无味；加一「盖」字，既含恍然顿悟之态，又留含蓄回味之味，使描写有了推理的趣味与发现的欣喜。这个虚词的运用，体现了苏轼「行于所当行，止于不可不止」的语言功力，是虚词传神的绝佳范例。