霓裳中序第一

Meaning

The poem is a traveler's song of longing for an absent beloved. Standing on a riverbank mound, the speaker is sick, weak, and unable to return home; the laid-aside fan and newly wrapped robe mark autumn's approach and the cooling of favor. Time races like a white colt through a crack, the swallows in the carved beams are mere guests, and in the cricket-chirring silence his sorrow is woven as tight as Yu Xin's. Remembering his wandering youth, he finds no word from the fallen blossoms; long rootless and stripped of all zest, he ends lying drunk beside a wine stall.

亭皋正望极。乱落江莲归未得。多病却无气力。况纨扇渐疏，罗衣初萦。流光过隙。叹杏梁、双燕如客。人何在，一帘淡月，仿佛照颜色。幽寂。乱蛩吟壁。动庾信、清愁似织。沈思年少浪迹。笛里关山，柳下坊陌。坠红无信息。漫暗水，涓涓溜碧。漂零久，而今何意，醉卧酒垆侧。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Standing on a riverbank mound, the speaker gazes to the horizon, where scattered lotus blossoms remind him he cannot return. Weak with illness, he feels autumn approach as the silk fan is set aside and the gauze robe wrapped against the cold. Time races past like a white colt through a crack; the swallows nesting in the carved beams of his lodging seem like passing guests. Where is his beloved? Only a curtain of pale moonlight seems to illumine her face. [Structure] The upper stanza moves from outward gaze to inward confession, the lower stanza from memory to dissolution: thoughts of youth's wanderings — mountain passes in the flute, willow lanes — end in a night of wine. [Imagery] Jiang Kui's images are cool and translucent — pale moon, dark water, crickets on the wall, petals without news — the classic qingkong (ethereal) texture, in which feeling is never stated directly but hovers in the light.

【白话串讲】 姜夔写《霓裳中序第一》：“亭皋正望极。乱落江莲归未得”——“多病却无气力。况纨扇渐疏，罗衣初萦”——“流光过隙。叹杏梁、双燕如客”——“人何在，一帘淡月，仿佛照颜色”——他写怀人——一帘淡月。 【意象与手法】 “亭皋正望极。乱落江莲归未得”写望归未得；“多病却无气力。况纨扇渐疏，罗衣初萦”写多病；“流光过隙。叹杏梁、双燕如客”以流光过隙写时光；“人何在，一帘淡月，仿佛照颜色”以淡月写怀人；结以“漂零久，而今何意，醉卧酒垆侧”写漂零。含蓄空灵。 【情感与主旨】 姜夔写羁旅怀人之作，写望归未得、多病漂零与对故人的思念，以“一帘淡月”写相思，是白石词中清空骚雅的代表。 【名句点睛】 常考“人何在，一帘淡月，仿佛照颜色”以淡月写怀人；“流光过隙。叹杏梁、双燕如客”以流光过隙写时光。

Allusions

The poem is dense with inherited echoes. 'The silk fan is gradually laid aside' recalls Ban Jieyu, the abandoned consort of Emperor Cheng of Han, whose 'Fan Poem' compared herself to a silk fan discarded in autumn. 'Time flows like a white colt through a crack' adapts the Zhuangzi: human life between heaven and earth is like a white colt passing a crevice. 'Apricot beams' quotes Sima Xiangru's 'Tall Gate Palace Fu,' which gilds apricot wood for its beams, here marking a borrowed lodging. 'Yu Xin's sorrow as if woven' invokes the sixth-century poet Yu Xin, detained in the north, whose 'Lament for the South' became the classic voice of exile sorrow. 'Lying drunk beside the wine stall' alludes to Ruan Ji, who slept drunk beside his neighbor's wine vat, and to Wang Rong's later visit to the old wine shop of Huang Gong, mourning lost friends. Jiang fuses these allusions so smoothly they read as natural speech.

词中「亭皋望极」「乱落江莲」「归未得」「多病却无气力」「纨扇渐疏」「罗衣初萦」「流光过隙」「杏梁」「双燕如客」「一帘淡月」「仿佛照颜色」「幽寂」「乱蛩吟壁」「庾信清愁似织」「沈思年少浪迹」「笛里关山」「柳下坊陌」「坠红无信息」「暗水涓涓溜碧」「漂零久」「醉卧酒垆侧」等语，皆含典故故实。「亭皋望极」写水边高地望尽（亭皋为水边高地）；「乱落江莲」写江莲乱落；「归未得」写不得归；「多病却无气力」写多病无力；「纨扇渐疏」用班婕妤团扇之典（纨扇秋来渐疏）；「罗衣初萦」写罗衣初萦；「流光过隙」用《庄子》「人生天地之间，若白驹之过隙」之意，写时光飞逝；「杏梁」用司马相如《长门赋》「饰文杏以为梁」之意，写杏梁；「双燕如客」写双燕如客；「一帘淡月」写一帘淡月；「仿佛照颜色」写仿佛照着其颜色；「幽寂」写幽寂；「乱蛩吟壁」写乱蛩吟壁；「庾信清愁似织」用庾信愁赋之典，写清愁如织；「沈思年少浪迹」写沉思年少浪迹；「笛里关山」用笛曲《关山月》之意，写笛里关山；「柳下坊陌」写柳下坊陌；「坠红无信息」写坠红无信息；「暗水涓涓溜碧」写暗水涓涓溜碧；「漂零久」写久经漂泊；「醉卧酒垆侧」用《世说新语》王戎「酒垆之侧」之典（兼用阮籍邻家酒垆醉卧之意），写醉卧酒垆侧。词人以团扇、白驹过隙、庾信愁赋、关山月、酒垆侧等典入词，不着痕迹，而把羁旅怀人之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。

Commentary

This is one of Jiang Kui's most admired lyrics, prized as a model of the qingkong manner. Critics have especially singled out 'Where is she now — through one curtain of pale moonlight her face seems still to shine,' where the beloved is present only as an effect of light, and the closing drunken collapse, whose apparent self-abandonment conceals the deepest attachment. The poem was preserved in Baishi Daoren Gequ and widely anthologized; with its rediscovered musical score it also offers rare evidence of Tang banquet music surviving into the Southern Song. Later critics of the elegant school, Zhang Yan and Zhou Mi, treated Jiang as their fountainhead, and Wang Guowei in Renjian Cihua ranked his lyrics for their ethereal texture. It remains a touchstone for reading the lyric as music of feeling rather than declaration.

这首《霓裳中序第一》，是姜夔写羁旅怀人之作，写亭皋望极、流光过隙、醉卧酒垆侧之情，含蓄空灵。上片写亭皋望极与流光过隙：「亭皋正望极。乱落江莲归未得」——亭皋正望极，乱落江莲归未得。写亭皋望极：亭皋正望极、乱落江莲归未得——亭皋望尽、江莲乱落而不得归；「多病却无气力。况纨扇渐疏，罗衣初萦」——多病却无气力，况纨扇渐疏，罗衣初萦。写纨扇罗衣：多病却无气力，况纨扇渐疏（用团扇之典）、罗衣初萦——多病无力、纨扇渐疏；「流光过隙。叹杏梁、双燕如客」——流光过隙，叹杏梁、双燕如客。写流光过隙：流光过隙（用白驹过隙之意）、叹杏梁双燕如客——流光过隙、叹双燕如客；「人何在，一帘淡月，仿佛照颜色」——人何在，一帘淡月，仿佛照颜色。写仿佛照颜色：人何在、一帘淡月，仿佛照颜色——人何在、一帘淡月仿佛照其颜色。下片写清愁似织与醉卧酒垆侧：「幽寂。乱蛩吟壁。动庾信、清愁似织」——幽寂，乱蛩吟壁，动庾信、清愁似织。写清愁似织：幽寂、乱蛩吟壁，动庾信清愁似织（用庾信愁赋之典）——幽寂蛩吟、清愁似织；「沈思年少浪迹。笛里关山，柳下坊陌」——沈思年少浪迹，笛里关山，柳下坊陌。写笛里关山：沈思年少浪迹、笛里关山，柳下坊陌——沉思年少浪迹、笛里关山、柳下坊陌；「坠红无信息。漫暗水，涓涓溜碧」——坠红无信息，漫暗水，涓涓溜碧。写坠红无信息：坠红无信息、漫暗水涓涓溜碧——坠红无信、暗水溜碧；「漂零久，而今何意，醉卧酒垆侧」——漂零久，而今何意，醉卧酒垆侧。写醉卧酒垆侧：漂零久、而今何意，醉卧酒垆侧（用酒垆之典）——漂零已久、醉卧酒垆侧。这「漂零久，而今何意，醉卧酒垆侧」，是全词之结：以醉卧酒垆侧写其漂泊之况。全词含蓄空灵，以景写情，正是姜夔词中的名篇。

Prosody

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