宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric
陆游·诉衷情·当年万里觅封侯
Telling My Innermost Feelings - In Those Years I Rode Ten Thousand Li to Seek a Marquisate
诉衷情·当年万里觅封侯当年万里觅封侯，匹马戍梁州。
关河梦断何处，尘暗旧貂裘。
胡未灭，鬓先秋，泪空流。
此生谁料，心在天山，身老沧洲。
a lone horse standing guard at Liangzhou.
The dream of the passes and rivers is broken; where has it gone?
Dust has dulled the old sable coat.
The invader is not yet destroyed,
my temples have turned to autumn first,
my tears run down for nothing.
Who could have foretold this life:
my heart on the Tian Mountains,
my body growing old by the grey waterside.
Meaning
In those years he travelled ten thousand li in search of the merit that wins a marquisate, and stood guard alone on horseback at Liangzhou. Now that the dream of the frontier passes and rivers has broken, where is it to be found? Only the old sable coat remains, dulled and darkened with dust. The Jurchen invaders are not yet destroyed, his temples have already turned to autumn frost, and his hot tears run down for nothing. Who could ever have foretold that his heart would be at the Tian Mountains, fighting the enemy, while his body grew old and died by the grey waterside.
当年远赴万里觅求封侯功业，单枪匹马戍守梁州。关塞河山的梦醒后，更在何处追寻？只有旧时的貂裘积满尘土，暗淡无光。金人未灭，两鬓先已秋霜，热泪空自流淌。这一生谁曾料想，心在抗敌的天山，身却老死在沧洲。
Appreciation
The two opening lines look back: ten thousand li and a lone horse write the ambition and solitary courage of a young man, and then 'the dream of the passes and rivers is broken' drops abruptly into the present, where dust dulling the old sable coat borrows the tale of Su Qin's worn fur to say that a man long unused has let his ambition gather dust. The second stanza breaks into three-character lines, the invader not yet destroyed, the temples turned to autumn, the tears running for nothing, whose clipped rhythm has the sound of silk being torn and forces national wrong, personal age and useless grief out in a single burst. The close sets heart against body, the fighting front against retirement among rivers and lakes, and ten characters state the whole tearing apart of a man's will from his life. Written in the poet's old age at Shanyin, after a spell in 1172 on the Nanzheng front that was the closest he ever came to his hope of recovering the north, the piece is easy in its first half and urgent in its second, with feeling that pours like a river, sombre and tragically brave.
【白话串讲】 “当年万里觅封侯，匹马戍梁州”——陆游回忆当年匹马戍边的日子。“胡未灭，鬓先秋，泪空流”——胡人没灭，头发先白。“此生谁料，心在天山，身老沧洲”——心在天山，人却老在了家乡。 【意象与手法】 上片两句追昔，「万里」「匹马」极写少年壮志与孤勇；「关河梦断」陡转入今，「尘暗旧貂裘」以苏秦裘敝之典写壮志蒙尘。下片三三字短句「胡未灭，鬓先秋，泪空流」节奏紧促，如裂帛之音。结句「心在天山，身老沧洲」对举，十字写尽志与身的撕裂。全词上舒下促，情感如江河奔泻，沉郁悲壮。 【情感与主旨】 此词作于陆游晚年退居故乡山阴（今浙江绍兴）时，约在宁宗开禧前后，词人已年逾八旬。乾道八年（1172）陆游曾入四川宣抚使王炎幕，赴南郑（汉中，古梁州地）前线，亲历军旅，此词即追忆南郑从军、对比眼前「心在天山，身老沧洲」的落寞，浓缩了南宋志士报国无门的共同悲剧。 【名句点睛】 「此生谁料，心在天山，身老沧洲」为千古名句，以对举写出报国之心与衰老之身的撕裂；「觅」「暗」「空」三字的炼字之妙为常考要点。
Background
This lyric was written when Lu You had retired in old age to his native Shanyin, present-day Shaoxing in Zhejiang, around the Kaixi period of Emperor Ningzong, when he was already past eighty. In 1172 he had joined the staff of Wang Yan, pacification commissioner of Sichuan, and gone to the front at Nanzheng in Hanzhong, the old territory of Liangzhou, where he lived the life of the army; that was the time in all his life when he came closest to his ideal of recovering the central plains. Afterwards nothing was achieved, and he grew old in idleness. The lyric recalls that campaign and sets it against his present desolation, in which the heart is at the Tian Mountains while the body grows old by the grey waterside. It is the most searingly painful of his patriotic works, and it concentrates the shared tragedy of Southern Song men of purpose who had no way to serve their country.
此词作于陆游晚年退居故乡山阴（今浙江绍兴）时，约在宁宗开禧前后，词人已年逾八旬。陆游一生以收复中原为志，乾道八年（1172）春，他应四川宣抚使王炎之聘，入幕南郑（今陕西汉中，古梁州地），亲临抗金前线，参与军务，度过了他一生中最接近收复理想的时光。可惜好景不长，同年秋王炎被召还，幕府解散，陆游的从军生涯戛然而止，此后数十年，他宦海浮沉，屡遭罢黜，最终退居山阴老家，壮志难酬，抱恨而终。此词即作于这样的晚年：追忆当年南郑从军、匹马戍梁州的壮举，对比眼前身老沧洲、报国无门的落寞，将一生的理想与现实的巨大落差凝于短短四十四字之中，是陆游爱国词中沉痛淋漓的代表，浓缩了南宋志士共同的悲剧命运，也是理解陆游其人其志的钥匙。又，陆游自号「放翁」，然其「放」非放达不羁，实为抱负难伸之自嘲，观其一生，从「上马击狂胡，下马草军书」的壮怀，到「僵卧孤村不自哀，尚思为国戍轮台」的执着，其爱国之志至死未渝，此词正是这种执着在暮年的最后回响，其沉痛之情，实为时代悲剧在个人身上的缩影。
Art
The two opening lines look back: 'ten thousand li' and 'a lone horse' write a young man's great ambition and solitary courage; 'the dream of the passes and rivers is broken' drops abruptly into the present, and dust dulling the old sable coat borrows Su Qin's worn-fur tale to say a man long unused has let his ambition gather dust. The second stanza's clipped three-character lines — 'the invader not yet destroyed, the temples turned to autumn, the tears running for nothing' — come in a hurried rhythm like silk being torn, forcing national wrong, personal age and useless grief out in a single burst. The close sets heart against body, the fighting front against retirement among rivers and lakes, and ten characters state the whole tearing apart of a man's will from his life. The whole lyric eases above and tightens below, with feeling that pours like a river, sombre and tragically brave.
此词章法上舒下促，情感跌宕，是「以词写志」的典范。上片两句追昔：「当年万里觅封侯，匹马戍梁州」以「万里」「匹马」极写少年壮志与孤勇，气势豪迈；「关河梦断何处」陡转入今，一个「梦断」写出理想破灭的突然，「尘暗旧貂裘」以苏秦裘敝之典写久置不用、壮志蒙尘，由昔入今，转折有力。下片以三三字短句「胡未灭，鬓先秋，泪空流」连珠迸发，节奏紧促如裂帛之音，将国仇未报、身先衰老、热泪空流三层悲愤叠在一处，字字如锤。结句「此生谁料，心在天山，身老沧洲」以对举收束，天山与沧洲、心与身，十字写尽志与身的撕裂，沉痛无比。全词由豪迈而沉痛、由追忆而慨叹，情感如江河奔泻，一气贯注，是放翁词「沉郁悲壮」风格的极致。尤须注意词中的意象对照：上片「万里」「匹马」之壮与「尘暗」「旧」之衰，下片「胡未灭」之恨与「鬓先秋」之老，结句「天山」之远与「沧洲」之近，壮与衰、恨与老、远与近层层对照，而全词的情感正是在这多重对照中愈转愈深，直至「身老沧洲」的绝望，其章法之精密，直追杜甫「沉郁顿挫」之境。
Allusions
The line about dust dulling the old sable coat reworks the story from the Intrigues of the Warring States in which Su Qin, having failed to persuade the state of Qin, wore out his black sable robe; it stands for merit unachieved and ambition long cast aside, and it fits Lu You's own repeated demotions. Seeking a marquisate draws on Ban Chao, who threw down his writing brush for the army and won a title ten thousand li from home, and so conveys the martial ardour of a young patriot. The Tian Mountains stand for the northwestern front against the invader, a usage common since the Tang, while the grey waterside means a place of retirement by the water; the two set against each other are terse and full of pain. Every allusion is fitted to the poet's own life, none of it heaped up for display, and the sense is complete in itself.
词中用典贴切而皆切身世。「尘暗旧貂裘」化用《战国策·秦策》苏秦说秦失败、黑貂之裘敝的故事：苏秦游说秦王，十次上书不被采纳，黑貂裘穿破、资用耗尽，狼狈而归，后以此典喻功业未成、壮志受挫，陆游用之正合自身屡遭罢黜、壮志久被弃置的遭遇，一个「暗」字既写貂裘积尘之实，更喻壮志消磨之痛。「觅封侯」用东汉班超投笔从戎、万里封侯的典故，写少壮时主动请缨、报国求功的雄心。「天山」代指西北抗敌前线，唐以来诗多言天山戍边，此处暗指南郑前线；「沧洲」指水滨隐居之地，古来为隐者所居。两地一为报国前线、一为隐居江湖，对举而见志与身之乖违，凝练沉痛，用典皆贴合身世，不堆砌而意自足。另，「梁州」亦非泛言，南郑（今汉中）古属梁州，陆游《山南行》「地近函秦气俗豪」即写此地，此词以「戍梁州」实写当年的前线经历，非用典而是纪实；「关河」则承唐人边塞诗常用意象，王昌龄「关山万里远征人」之类皆以关河写边塞，此处「关河梦断」写梦中犹在关河、梦醒已失关河，虚实之间，悲愤自见。
Commentary
This lyric has always been taken as representative of Lu You's patriotic work, and modern readers describe it as a whole heart of loyal indignation bursting out at once. Liang Qichao declared that Lu You's lyrics have an air of grief and anger, unrestrained and free in movement, and treated this piece as the last great song of a hero grown old. Chen Tingzhuo, in Remarks on Lyrics from the White Rain Studio, judged that Lu You's lyrics hold purposes unfulfilled and a brooding sense of injustice, and this piece shows exactly the pain of a heart and a body pulled in opposite directions; it deserves to be read together with the lines in his Jiannan collection about the day the royal army settles the central plains in the north.
此词向为陆游爱国词的代表作，历代论者评价极高。近人谓其「一腔忠愤，喷薄而出」，以为放翁一生爱国之志尽在此词；梁启超称陆游词「悲愤之气，跌宕淋漓」，以此篇为「英雄老去」之绝唱，以为写尽志士暮年的苍凉与不甘。陈廷焯《白雨斋词话》评放翁词「有志未伸，郁郁不平」，此词正见其心身乖违之痛。此词的价值，一在它是陆游一生爱国理想的浓缩——从「匹马戍梁州」的壮年到「身老沧洲」的暮年，一个人、一个时代、一种悲剧，尽在四十四字之中；二在它以词这一文体写出了诗难以企及的沉痛节奏，「胡未灭，鬓先秋，泪空流」的短句如鼓点般敲击人心；三在它可与陆游《示儿》「王师北定中原日，家祭无忘告乃翁」等诗并读，共同构成这位爱国诗人完整的精神肖像。又，此词与辛弃疾「醉里挑灯看剑，梦回吹角连营」异曲同工，皆写志士暮年对往昔军旅的追忆与当下的无奈，然辛词豪中见悲，陆词悲中见烈，各极其致，可见南宋爱国词的两座高峰，并读更能体会那个时代志士们共同的悲剧命运，以及「有心杀贼，无力回天」的千古之痛。
Prosody
Line by line
当年万里觅封侯，匹马戍梁州
In those years he rode ten thousand li to seek a marquisate, standing guard alone on horseback at Liangzhou.
当年远赴万里觅求封侯功业，单枪匹马戍守梁州。
In those days, ten thousand li to seek the fief; on a lone horse I garrisoned Liangzhou.
起句追忆当年从军壮举，是全词豪迈之气的起点。「当年」二字将时间拉回乾道八年南郑从军之时；「万里」极言征途之远，「觅封侯」用班超投笔从戎、万里封侯的典故，写少壮时主动请缨、追求功名的雄心，「觅」字见其主动寻求的积极姿态；「匹马戍梁州」写单枪匹马戍守南郑前线，「匹马」极写孤勇，一人一骑独当一面，气势如虹，「梁州」点出汉中前线，是陆游一生最接近收复理想的地方。两句以「万里」对「匹马」，空间之阔与兵力之寡相映，愈见其豪迈与担当，少年意气扑面而来，为全词定下昂扬的基调，也为此后的理想破灭蓄足了反差。
The opening recalls the old army exploit, the starting point of the ci's heroic air. The two words those days pull the time back to the Qiandao eighth year's Nanzheng enlistment; the ten thousand li the road's far, the seek the fief uses Ban Chao's throwing the pen for the army and the ten-thousand-li fief allusion, writing the young man's volunteering and the ambition for rank, the word seek the active, seeking pose; on a lone horse I garrisoned Liangzhou writes the single horse at the Nanzheng front, the lone horse the extreme of the solitary courage, one man one horse holding a line, the momentum like a rainbow, Liangzhou naming the Hanzhong front, the place in Lu You's life nearest the recovery ideal. Two lines, the ten thousand li against the lone horse, the space's breadth and the force's smallness set off, the more the heroism and the taking of duty, the young spirit striking the face, setting the ci's high tone, and storing the contrast for the later ideal's ruin.
关河梦断何处，尘暗旧貂裘
The dream of the frontier passes and rivers is broken; where is it now? Only the old sable coat, dulled with gathered dust.
关塞河山的梦醒后，更在何处追寻？只有旧时的貂裘积满尘土，暗淡无光。
The mountain passes and rivers — the dream broken, where are they? Dust dulls the old sable coat.
此句陡转入今，是全词情感转折的枢纽。「关河」指关塞河山，即当年的抗敌前线，「梦断」二字写理想如梦幻般破灭，一个「断」字干脆利落，写出幕府解散、从军生涯戛然而止的突变；「何处」以问句写梦醒之后的茫然，故地何处？理想何处？前途何处？三问并作一问。「尘暗旧貂裘」化用苏秦说秦失败、黑貂裘敝的典故：当年那件随诗人戍守梁州的貂裘，如今积满尘土、暗淡无光，物犹如此，人何以堪。「尘暗」二字双关，既写貂裘蒙尘之实，更喻壮志消磨之痛，由昔入今，转折有力，全词的情感自此由豪迈跌入沉痛。
This line turns suddenly to the present, the ci's emotional hinge. The passes and rivers mean the border garrisons and mountains, i.e. the old anti-foe front, the dream broken writes the ideal shattered like a dream, the one word broken crisp, writing the sudden halt of the staff's dispersal and the enlistment's ending; where the question writing the blankness after the waking, the old place where? the ideal where? the road where? three questions as one. Dust dulls the old sable coat borrows Su Qin's failed persuasion of Qin and the worn black sable allusion: the old sable coat that followed the poet garrisoning Liangzhou, now layered with dust, dim, the thing so, and the man how. The two words dust-dull double: at once the coat's dust, and the will's wear, the turn from the past to the present, the turning forceful, the ci's emotion here falling from the heroic into the grief-stricken.
胡未灭，鬓先秋，泪空流
The invader is not yet destroyed, his temples have turned to autumn first, his tears run down for nothing.
金人未灭，两鬓先已秋霜，热泪空自流淌。
The foe not destroyed, the temples already autumn; tears flow in vain.
下片以三个三字短句连珠迸发，是全词悲愤的高潮。「胡未灭」写国仇未报、金人未灭，报国之志未酬；「鬓先秋」写两鬓先已白如秋霜，年华老去、时不我待；「泪空流」写热泪纵流亦无济于事，「空」字写尽徒劳与无奈。三句层层递进：国未报、身已老、泪徒流，将壮志难酬的三重悲哀叠在一处，短句短促，节奏如裂帛之音，一句一锤，锤锤见血。此三句全用仄声短句，音节紧促悲切，正是「字字如铁」的沉郁之笔。与上片「当年万里觅封侯」的豪迈形成强烈对比，当年越是豪迈，此刻越是悲愤，理想与现实的落差在这一连串短句中轰然炸开，是放翁词中情感最集中、最猛烈的爆发点。
The second stanza bursts in three three-character lines in sequence, the ci's grief peak. The foe not destroyed writes the national debt unpaid, the Jin not destroyed, the serving will unfulfilled; the temples already autumn writes the two temples already white as the autumn frost, the years aged, the time's flight; tears flow in vain writes the hot tears' flowing and yet useless, the word in vain exhausting the futility and the helplessness. Three lines advancing layer on layer: the country unrepaid, the body aged, the tears vain, the triple grief of the thwarted ambition folded in one place, the short lines terse, the rhythm like the ripping silk, one line one hammer, every hammer blood. These three lines all in the oblique short phrases, the syllables tight and grief-stricken, precisely the somber brush of every character like iron. The sharp contrast against the first stanza's those days, ten thousand li to seek the fief: the more heroic the old days, the more grief-stricken the present, the ideal-reality gap exploding in this run of short lines, the most concentrated, most violent emotional outbreak in Fang Weng's ci.
此生谁料，心在天山，身老沧洲
Who could have foretold that in this life the heart would be at the Tian Mountains and the body grow old by the grey waterside.
这一生谁曾料想，心在抗敌的天山，身却老死在沧洲。
Who would have foreseen this life: the heart at the Tianshan, the body aging by the misty shore.
结句以对举收束全词，是千古传诵的名句。「此生谁料」以反问写命运的不可逆料，一生理想竟落得如此下场，言下无限苍凉；「心在天山」写报国之心始终系于西北抗敌前线，至死不改；「身老沧洲」写衰老之身却终老于江湖隐居之地，无所作为。心与身、天山与沧洲，两组对举将「志与身的撕裂」写到极致：心驰万里之外，身困一隅之中，理想的炽热与现实的冰冷如冰炭同炉。十字之中，没有一句悲叹，而悲叹之深无出其右。此句与《示儿》「王师北定中原日，家祭无忘告乃翁」异曲同工，皆以极克制的语言写极深沉的悲慨，是放翁「至死不渝」的爱国精神的最后告白。
The close gathers the ci in the set contrast, the famous line through the ages. Who would have foreseen this life writes the fate's unforeseeability in the rhetorical question, the whole life's ideal ending so, the infinite bleakness between the lines; the heart at the Tianshan writes the serving heart always tied to the northwest front, unchanged to death; the body aging by the misty shore writes the aging body ending in the rivers-and-lakes retreat, doing nothing. Heart and body, Tianshan and the misty shore, two set contrasts writing the will-and-body's tearing to the extreme: the heart racing ten thousand li away, the body trapped in one corner, the ideal's heat and the reality's cold like ice and charcoal in one furnace. Within ten characters, not one word of sigh, and the sigh's depth unsurpassed. This line and the Instructing My Son's when the royal army north-settles the central plain day, the family sacrifice forget not to tell your father share the same art, both writing the deepest grief in the most restrained language, precisely the final confession of Fang Weng's unshakable-to-death patriotism.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Both write the will to serve the state and the grief of an ambition that cannot be fulfilled, and they allow comparison of how verse and lyric handle the same emotion.
陆游《关山月》「和戎诏下十五年，将军不战空临边。朱门沉沉按歌舞，厩马肥死弓断弦」与本词同写报国壮志与壮志难酬之悲，皆其爱国作品的代表作。差异在：关山月是七言古诗，以铺叙与对比写边关、将军、遗民三个群体的命运，揭露和戎政策的危害，叙事写实、笔锋辛辣；诉衷情是词，以追忆与对举写个人从军的壮举与暮年的落寞，抒情写心、沉痛淋漓。一写国家的悲剧、一写个人的悲剧，而个人悲剧正是国家悲剧的缩影，并读可见陆游以诗写史、以词写心的不同抒情方式，及其爱国精神的全貌。
陆游·示儿 To My Sons 陆游 · 同抒恢复中原之志，一为暮年词一为绝笔诗 Same (author / patriotism at the point of death)Both voice the resolve to recover the central plains, one as a lyric of old age and the other as a last poem, which allows comparison of indignation against hope.
陆游《示儿》「死去元知万事空，但悲不见九州同。王师北定中原日，家祭无忘告乃翁」与本词同抒恢复中原之志，是陆游爱国精神的一体两面。差异在：示儿作于临终之际，是绝笔之诗，以「死去元知万事空」的旷达反衬「但悲不见九州同」的执念，将遗憾托付给身后，悲中有盼；诉衷情作于退居暮年，以「心在天山，身老沧洲」的撕裂写活着的煎熬，将悲愤诉于当下，悲中无望。一写死前的嘱托、一写生时的煎熬，而「至死不渝」的爱国情怀则一脉相承，并读正见陆游从暮年到临终，其报国之心从未熄灭，是理解这位爱国诗人精神世界的完整材料。
陆游·钗头凤 Phoenix Hairpin 陆游 · 同为陆游沉痛代表作，一写国恨一写情伤 Different (the same author, one on love of country and one on love)Both are among Lu You's most painful works, one on the wrong done to his country and the other on a wound of the heart, which allows comparison of two kinds of feeling and of tragic awareness.
陆游《钗头凤》「红酥手，黄縢酒，满城春色宫墙柳」与本词同为陆游沉痛的代表作，皆以极沉痛的笔调写不可挽回的遗憾。差异在：钗头凤写与唐婉的爱情悲剧，「错、错、错」「莫、莫、莫」的叠字写情伤之深，是个人情感的沉痛；诉衷情写报国无门的壮志难酬，「心在天山，身老沧洲」写志与身的撕裂，是家国情怀的沉痛。一情一志、一私一公，而悲剧意识同样深重，可见陆游既能写刻骨铭心的爱情，也能写悲壮沉郁的家国之痛，其情感世界的丰富与深沉，正是其所以为「大家」的原因，并读更见放翁诗歌的多元面貌。