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宋 Song · 赋 Fu rhapsody

秋声赋·版本

The Sound of Autumn (Version)

欧阳修

Ouyang Xiu

文赋Prose Rhapsody 悲秋Grief of Autumn 哲理Philosophy

欧阳子方夜读书，闻有声自西南来者，悚然而听之，曰：异哉！
初淅沥以萧飒，忽奔腾而砰湃，如波涛夜惊。

Master Ouyang was reading at night, when he heard a sound coming from the southwest; startled, he listened to it, and said: 'How strange! At first it drips and sighs, then suddenly it gallops and crashes, like waves startling the night.'

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Meaning

The opening of Ouyang Xiu's 'The Sound of Autumn,' one of the twin masterpieces of the Song prose rhapsody with Su Shi's 'Red Cliff Rhapsody,' written in the fourth year of Jiayou (1059) when Ouyang Xiu was fifty-three. Master Ouyang, reading at night, hears a sound coming from the southwest; startled, he listens, and says: 'How strange!' The sound, first 'dripping and sighing,' then 'galloping and crashing, like waves startling the night,' is the sound of autumn. The passage, with its 'sound written by sound'—the rain, the wind, the waves compared layer on layer, from the fine to the great, from the near to the far, the invisible sound made audible and felt—opens the rhapsody's meditation on the killing power of autumn and the impermanence of life.

欧阳子正在夜里读书，听到有一种声音从西南方向传来，他惊惧地停下倾听，说道：奇怪啊！起初这声音像雨声风声一样淅淅沥沥、萧瑟飒飒，忽然变得奔腾澎湃，如同波涛在深夜里惊起。

Appreciation

This passage is the opening of 'The Sound of Autumn,' famed for 'the sound seizing the man first.' In structure it moves from the still to the moving: first the stillness of 'reading at night,' then the motion of 'hearing a sound,' the stillness and the motion, the sound of autumn breaking into the air. 'Startled, he listened to it' writes the shock of the author, 'and said: How strange!' points out the wonder in the soliloquy, and then three groups of comparisons write the shape of the sound of autumn: at first 'dripping and sighing' (like rain, like wind, fine and desolate), suddenly 'galloping and crashing' (like waves, like the sea, surging and roaring), and 'like waves startling the night' sums its force. The most wonderful stroke of the brush is 'writing the sound with the sound': it does not say directly what the sound of autumn is like, but uses the rain, the wind, and the waves in succession, advancing layer on layer, from the fine to the great, from the near to the far, the invisible sound made audible and felt; and it covertly uses the classical 'the autumn air' of Song Yu, the 'sound' that announces the killing of the myriad things.

【白话串讲】欧阳修写《秋声赋》：半夜读书，听见“淅沥萧飒”之声——“如波涛夜惊，风雨骤至”。童子出去看：“星月皎洁”。欧阳修叹道：“噫嘻悲哉！此秋声也”——“物既老而悲伤”，人也“渥然丹者为槁木，黟然黑者为星星”——他叹光阴把人催老。【意象与手法】以「先声夺人」著称：先写夜读之静，再写闻声之动，一静一动，秋声破空而入；「淅沥萧飒」「奔腾砰湃」连用拟声比喻，以声写声、由细而巨，将无形之秋声写得可闻可感，为全赋「以文为赋」的散体变革开篇。【情感与主旨】由闻秋声而感万物之衰、人生之短，寄寓欧阳修晚年历经宦海风波后对生命有限性的清醒认知与达观态度，是中国「悲秋」传统由个人感伤走向哲理思辨的里程碑。【名句点睛】「初淅沥以萧飒，忽奔腾而砰湃」成为历代写声的经典范式；「悚然而听之，曰：异哉！」以六字写尽闻声之惊，开篇即擒住读者。

Background

Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072), courtesy name Yongshu, hao Zuiweng and Liuyi Jushi, a native of Luling, was the leader of the Northern Song reform of poetry and prose, one of the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song. He rose to Vice Director of the Secretariat, and in his later years suffered repeated demotion and the attacks of political enemies, requesting a post outside the capital on the matter of the faction, his mood gradually turning to the tranquil. 'The Sound of Autumn' was written in the fourth year of Jiayou (1059), when Ouyang Xiu was fifty-three, living in the capital Bianjing. That autumn night, moved by the sound of autumn, he wrote this rhapsody. The 'Master Ouyang was reading at night' of the rhapsody, entering the subject with the self, marks the maturity of the Song prose rhapsody's 'writing the rhapsody as prose'—the rhapsody, from the lavishness of the Han great rhapsody, the ornament of the Six Dynasties parallel rhapsody, and the strictness of the Tang regulated rhapsody, here becomes the prosaic prose rhapsody, this work of Ouyang Xiu and Su Shi's 'Red Cliff Rhapsody' the twin masterpieces of the form. The background is also significant: since middle age Ouyang Xiu had suffered the full storms of official life, and his experience of the brevity of life and the killing air of autumn was deep; the dialogue of the boy and the argument that the grass and trees are without feeling while man has feeling are the self-confession of his late philosophy of life.

欧阳修（1007—1072），字永叔，号醉翁、六一居士，庐陵人，北宋诗文革新运动领袖，「唐宋八大家」之一。他官至参知政事，晚年屡遭贬谪与政敌攻讦，因朋党之议而自请外任，心境渐趋淡泊。《秋声赋》作于宋仁宗嘉祐四年（1059），时欧阳修五十三岁，居汴京。是年秋夜，他为秋声所感，遂作此赋。赋中「欧阳子方夜读书」以自我入题，标志着宋代文赋「以文为赋」的成熟——赋体自汉大赋的铺陈、六朝骈赋的绮丽、唐律赋的严整，至此一变而为散体化的文赋，欧阳修此作与苏轼《赤壁赋》并为此体双璧。其写作背景亦有深意：欧阳修自中年后历尽宦海风波，对人生易老、秋气肃杀体会极深，赋中童子问答、草木无情而人有情的议论，实为其晚年生命哲学的自我剖白。此赋为历代传诵的秋之名篇，入选历代文选，今仍为中学语文教材的必读篇目。历代文人品题不绝，王世贞、姚鼐皆以之为文赋正宗，其在赋体发展史上的枢纽地位已为学界共识。

Art

The art is 'the sound seizing the man first.' In structure it moves from the still to the moving: the stillness of 'reading at night,' the motion of 'hearing a sound,' the sound of autumn breaking into the air. 'Startled, he listened to it' writes the shock, 'and said: How strange!' points out the wonder, and the three groups of comparisons write the shape of the sound: 'dripping and sighing' fine and desolate, 'galloping and crashing' surging and roaring, 'like waves startling the night' summing its force. The most wonderful stroke is 'writing the sound with the sound': the rain, the wind, and the waves in succession, advancing layer on layer, from the fine to the great, the invisible sound made audible and felt; and the covert use of the classical 'the autumn air' of Song Yu, the sound that announces the killing of the myriad things.

此节是《秋声赋》的开篇，艺术上以「先声夺人」著称。章法上由静入动：先写「方夜读书」之静，再写「闻有声」之动，一静一动，秋声破空而入。「悚然而听之」写作者的惊觉，「曰：异哉！」以独白点出惊讶，接着以三组比喻铺写秋声之状：初则「淅沥以萧飒」（如雨如风，细密萧瑟），忽而「奔腾而砰湃」（如浪如涛，汹涌澎湃），「如波涛夜惊」总括其势。笔法上最妙在「以声写声」：不直说秋声何似，而连用雨声、风声、波涛声作比，层层推进，由细而巨、由近而远，将无形之声写得可闻可感；又暗用「通感」之法，以「奔腾」「砰湃」等视觉、触觉动词写听觉，声中有形、有势、有力。语言上骈散相间：「初淅沥以萧飒，忽奔腾而砰湃」以骈偶出之，音节铿锵；「如波涛夜惊」以散句收束，余音袅袅。此节为全赋之「眼」，下文「此秋声也」的辨析与「物既老而悲伤」的议论皆由此声生发，章法上可称「立声于前、发论于后」。尤妙在以童子「星月皎洁，明河在天」的实景反衬秋声之虚，虚实相映，更为下文的议论张本。

Allusions

The cultural import of the passage is deeply rooted in the Chinese 'grief of autumn' tradition. Song Yu's 'Nine Arguments'—'grievous is the breath of autumn! desolate, the grass and trees fall and wither'—opens the ancestral source of the Chinese literary grief of autumn, and thereafter 'the grief of autumn' has been one of the most important emotional motifs of the Chinese literati: Du Fu's 'ten thousand miles of the grief of autumn, a stranger long' and Liu Zongyuan's 'the sharp peaks by the sea like the points of swords, cutting the heart of the grief wherever autumn comes' all follow this vein. Ouyang Xiu's rhapsody directly inherits Song Yu's tradition and surpasses it: Song Yu's grief of autumn stops at the sigh of the scholar's disappointment, while Ouyang Xiu pushes from the grief of the sound of autumn to the decay of the myriad things and the brevity of life, and then to the argument of 'who is it that injures it, is it not the anger of the killing air of the time?'—from the sigh of the self to the reflection on the whole of life, the deepening of the motif of the grief of autumn.

此节的文化意蕴深植于中国「悲秋」传统。宋玉《九辩》「悲哉秋之为气也！萧瑟兮草木摇落而变衰」开中国文学悲秋之祖，此后「悲秋」成为中国文人最重要的情感母题之一：杜甫「万里悲秋常作客」、柳宗元「海畔尖山似剑芒，秋来处处割愁肠」皆循此脉。欧阳修此赋直接承宋玉传统而有所超越：宋玉悲秋止于「士不遇」之叹，欧阳修则由秋声之悲推及万物之衰、人生之短，进而以「念谁为之戕贼，亦何恨乎秋声」自我开解，将悲秋升华为对生命本质的哲思。「秋声」意象亦非首创——庾信《枯树赋》、潘岳《秋兴赋》皆以秋起兴，然以「声」为中心写秋者，欧阳修实为创格。其「闻声辨秋」的写法，与《礼记》「仲秋之月，雷始收声」及五行秋主金的观念暗合——秋属金，主肃杀，声亦凄厉，故秋声之听，实为天道肃杀之闻。此文遂成「悲秋」传统的集大成与新变者，上承宋玉、下启苏轼，在中国文人的时间意识与生命感怀中占据枢纽地位。

Commentary

'The Sound of Autumn' holds an eminent place in the history of Chinese prose and of the rhapsody. First, its contribution to the form: it is the mark of the maturity of the prose rhapsody, Ouyang Xiu writing the rhapsody in the prose manner, freeing it from the fetters of the parallel, the sentence-forms free and the argument sweeping; Su Shi's 'Red Cliff Rhapsody' inherits and enlarges this form, hence the literary history's pairing of 'the prose rhapsodies of Ou and Su.' Second, its artistic evaluation: the critics of every age have praised the wonder of its writing of the sound, the Ming Mao Kun praising 'the modeling of the sound of autumn, a stroke divine and wonderful,' the Qing Chu Xin saying 'the rhapsody of the sound of autumn reaches the extreme.' Its argument that the grass and trees are without feeling while man has feeling, and the sigh of the brevity of life, are the eternal meditation of the Chinese mind on autumn.

《秋声赋》在中国散文史、赋体史上地位卓著。其一，文体贡献：它是文赋（散文赋）成熟的标志，欧阳修以散文笔法写赋，摆脱骈俪束缚，句式自由、议论纵横，苏轼《赤壁赋》即承此体而光大之，故文学史称「欧苏文赋」并称。其二，艺术评价：历代评家盛赞其写声之妙，明代茅坤评「模写秋声，神妙之笔」，清代储欣谓「赋秋声而极于变化」，现代学者更以「中国文学写声第一文」称之，其「淅沥萧飒」「奔腾砰湃」的叠字与比喻，成为后世写声的经典范式。其三，思想价值：赋中「物既老而悲伤，物过盛而当杀」「念谁为之戕贼，亦何恨乎秋声」的议论，体现欧阳修晚年对人生有限性的清醒认知与达观态度，与苏轼「哀吾生之须臾，羡长江之无穷」的赤壁之叹并为中国士人面对时间的两种典型姿态。其四，传播影响：此赋自宋以来入选历代文选、蒙学读物，今仍为中学语文名篇，「秋声」一词亦因之成为文学语汇。欧阳修以一篇短赋，写尽了中国人对秋天、对时间、对生命的所有感怀。

Prosody

Form Prose rhapsody, loose and even intermingled, the loose governing the even文赋（散文赋），骈散相间、以散驭骈

Rhyme The excerpt does not rhyme (the rhapsody's rhyme is in the argumentative passage; this passage is mostly loose sentences for the sound), the onomatopoeic and reduplicated words making the effect of the sound: 'dripping and sighing,' 'galloping and crashing'—the four pairs of the alliterative and the reduplicated rolling on, the syllables from the light to the heavy, from the fine to the great节选段不押韵（赋体押韵在议论段，此节以散句摹声为主），以拟声叠字造成音韵效果：「淅沥」「萧飒」「奔腾」「砰湃」四组双声叠韵连绵而下，音节由轻而重，声情相生。

Tone pattern The stillness of 'reading at night' is quiet, the 'startled' turns abruptly, the 'dripping and sighing' is fine, the 'galloping and crashing' is great, and 'like waves startling the night' sums in a rush—the rhythm from the quiet to the start to the surge, the sound of autumn carried by the movement「初……以……，忽……而……」以骈偶句式铺写，音节铿锵、顿挫分明；「如波涛夜惊」以散句收束，余音袅袅；摹声词密布，形成由徐而疾、由细而巨的声感，与秋声本身的进程相应。

Reading note The onomatopoeic and reduplicated words of the passage, from the fine 'dripping and sighing' to the great 'galloping and crashing,' carry the invisible sound made audible.此节声情之美，在于以语言的音韵模拟自然的声音，是中国文学「以声写声」的巅峰。欧阳修连用四组双声叠韵词摹写秋声：「淅沥」轻细绵长，如细雨洒叶；「萧飒」清冷萧瑟，如秋风掠野；「奔腾」急促有力，如洪流骤至；「砰湃」铿锵震响，如巨浪拍岸——四词由轻到重、由徐到疾，正合秋声由细而巨、由远而近的进程，读者读之，如亲闻其声。句式上「初淅沥以萧飒，忽奔腾而砰湃」以骈偶出之，音节整齐而气势连贯，一「初」一「忽」写尽声之骤变；「如波涛夜惊」以散句收束，五字一顿，余韵悠长。这种「以音拟声、以句拟势」的写法，继承《诗经》「伐木丁丁」的拟声传统而更趋精工，开后世写声文学之先河。诵读此节，宜由轻读渐入重读，由缓语渐入急语，方能还原秋声自西南来、由细而巨、如波涛夜惊的完整进程。

Line by line

欧阳子方夜读书，闻有声自西南来者

Master Ouyang was reading at night, when he heard a sound coming from the southwest; (The stillness of the opening: 'reading at night,' the quiet scene, and the sound breaking in from the southwest, the movement from the still to the moving.)

欧阳子正在夜里读书，听到有一种声音从西南方向传来。

Master Ouyang was reading at night, when he heard a sound coming from the southwest.

开篇十字交代时间、地点、人物、事件，笔法极简而意境自出。「欧阳子」以第三人称自称，是文赋「以我入赋」的标记，欧阳修不称「余」而称「欧阳子」，既有自嘲的谐趣，又拉开一段审视的距离，为后文「此秋声也」的理性辨析预设视角。「方夜读书」四字写静：夜深人静、青灯黄卷，正是万物俱寂之时，一「方」字见其专注，专注愈深，则闻声愈惊。「闻有声自西南来者」写动：声音从西南方来，方位明确，如真有其事，又暗合秋声自西来、西方属金、金主肃杀的传统观念。全句由静入动、由专注入惊觉，静与动的转换在一「闻」字间完成，秋声未出而气势已至，为下文「悚然而听之」蓄足张力，正是「先声夺人」的起笔。

The opening ten characters set out the time, place, person, and event, the brush extremely brief and yet the mood self-born. Master Ouyang using the third-person self-address, the prose rhapsody's the-self-enters-the-rhapsody mark, Ouyang Xiu not calling himself I but Master Ouyang, at once the self-mockery's humor, and the drawing of a scrutinizing distance, storing the below's this-is-the-autumn-sound rational analysis viewpoint. Was reading at night four characters writing stillness: the deep night and the quiet, the green lamp and the yellow scroll, precisely the ten-thousand-things' silence time, the one word just seeing the concentration, the concentration the deeper, the hearing the more startled. Heard a sound coming from the southwest writing motion: the sound from the southwest, the direction clear, as if truly the thing, and secretly matching the autumn sound's westward coming and the west-belongs-to-metal and the metal-ruling-the-killing tradition. The whole line from stillness to motion, from concentration to alertness, the stillness-motion's turn completed within the one word heard, the autumn sound not yet out and the force already arrived, storing the tension for the below's startled listening, precisely the opening-commanding-through-sound opening.

悚然而听之，曰：异哉！

startled, he listened to it, and said: 'How strange!' (The shock of the author: 'startled' the sudden motion, 'How strange!' the wonder in the soliloquy, the sound of autumn seizing the man first.)

他心中一惊，神色悚然，连忙凝神细听，不禁脱口说道：真是奇怪啊！

He was startled and listened; then said: How strange!

此句写作者闻声后的反应，六个字写尽惊、听、叹三个层次。「悚然」状惊惧之貌，欧阳修身为饱经风浪的朝廷重臣，竟为此声而「悚然」，则此声之异、之奇、之摄人心魄，不言而喻；「而听之」写凝神谛听，惊惧之余不避反听，见其好奇与审慎；「曰：异哉！」以独白点题，一声「异哉」将内心的惊讶脱口道出，既是写实，亦是向读者发问——何声之异至于此？悬念由此提起。三字「异哉」短促有力，如惊鸿一瞥，是全节的「眼」，下文「初淅沥以萧飒，忽奔腾而砰湃」的铺写，正是对这一声「异哉」的回答。欧阳修于此以最经济的笔墨写最强烈的反应，夜读之静、闻声之惊、听声之疑、叹声之异，环环相扣，六字之间，读者的好奇心已被牢牢擒住。

This line writes the author's reaction after hearing the sound, six characters exhausting the fright, listening, and sigh three layers. The startled shaping the fright's look, Ouyang Xiu as the storm-tested court heavyweight, and yet for this sound startled, then this sound's strangeness, wonder, and soul-catching, self-evident; and listened writing the rapt listening, the fright's not-avoiding-and-yet-listening, seeing the curiosity and the caution; then said: How strange! using the monologue to name the theme, one how-strange uttering the inner surprise, at once the fact, and the question to the reader — what sound's strangeness to this degree? The suspense hence raised. The three characters how-strange short and forceful, like the startled swan's glance, the whole passage's eye, the below's the first pattering and the sudden surging's narrative, precisely the answer to this one how-strange. Ouyang Xiu here using the most economical brush for the strongest reaction, the night-reading stillness, the hearing fright, the listening doubt, the sigh of strangeness, linked ring by ring, within six characters, the reader's curiosity already firmly seized.

初淅沥以萧飒，忽奔腾而砰湃，如波涛夜惊

At first it drips and sighs, then suddenly it gallops and crashes, like waves startling the night. (The three groups of comparisons: the fine and desolate, the surging and roaring, the waves startling the night—the invisible sound made audible and felt, from the fine to the great.)

起初声音像雨声风声一样淅淅沥沥、萧瑟飒飒，忽然变得奔腾澎湃，如同波涛在深夜里惊起。

At first it patters, shrill and soughing; suddenly it surges and roars, like the waves startled at night.

此句是全节写声的核心，以三组比喻摹写秋声由细而巨的进程。「初淅沥以萧飒」写初起之状：如秋雨洒落、如秋风掠过，细密而萧瑟，声小而凄清；「忽奔腾而砰湃」写骤变之势：忽然间如洪流奔腾、如巨浪相激，声大而骇人，一「忽」字见其来势之疾、变化之骤；「如波涛夜惊」总括收束：夜静之时波涛惊起，声势之大、情境之怖，尽在此五字。三组比喻层层推进，由雨而风、由风而涛，由细而巨、由近而远，将无形之秋声写得如见其形、如闻其声；「淅沥」「萧飒」「奔腾」「砰湃」四组叠字连绵，音节铿锵，声情相生。此句既写秋声之「异」，更暗含肃杀之气——波涛夜惊，正是「秋为兵象」的传统意象。欧阳修以文赋之笔写声，骈散相间、虚实相生，为全赋定下「悲」与「惊」交织的基调。

This line is the whole passage's sound-writing core, in three groups of metaphors imitating the autumn sound's from-fine-to-vast process. At first it patters, shrill and soughing writes the first-rising state: like the autumn rain's falling and the autumn wind's passing, fine and bleak, the sound small and plaintive; suddenly it surges and roars writes the sudden-change force: suddenly like the flood's surging and the great waves' shock, the sound vast and terrifying, the one word suddenly seeing the coming's swiftness and the change's abruptness; like the waves startled at night summing the close: the night's stillness and the waves' sudden start, the sound's vastness and the scene's terror, all within these five characters. Three groups of metaphors advancing layer on layer, from rain to wind and wind to waves, from fine to vast and near to far, writing the invisible autumn sound as if its form seen and its sound heard; the pattering, soughing, surging, roaring four sets of repeated words continuous, the rhythm clanging, the sound-and-feeling mutually born. This line at once writing the autumn sound's strangeness, and secretly carrying the killing breath — the waves-startled-at-night, precisely the autumn-is-the-weapon-image traditional image. Ouyang Xiu using the prose rhapsody's brush for sound, the parallel and loose interwoven and the void-and-real mutually born, setting the whole rhapsody's grief-and-fright interwoven tone.

Study

Word focus

悚然 Startled. The word of the shock: 'startled, he listened to it'—the sudden motion of the author at the sound of autumn breaking into the night, the stillness and the motion in one, the sound seizing the man first. 「悚然而听之」之「悚然」二字，状惊惧之貌，是全节情绪的第一个爆发点。「悚」本义为恐惧，后加「然」字拟其情态，如「欣然」「茫然」之例，将抽象之惧化为可感之态。此词之妙，在于以「悚」写「异」：欧阳修闻声而悚，则此声必非寻常——夜读书斋，本属静境，忽闻异声，悚然惊觉，人之常情；而作者以此一字写自己的反应，实为秋声之「异」作势，读者尚未闻声，已觉其声之可怖。若用「惊」「骇」等字，只写一时之震，不及「悚然」之「战栗于内、惊觉于外」的持久寒意；若用「瞿然」「惕然」，又过于书面。且「悚然」与下句「异哉」呼应，一态一声，将惊觉之情写足；与下文「童子出」「星月皎洁」的平静对照，更见作者之悚出于心而非感于物，为「物既老而悲伤」的议论埋下心理伏笔。一字之择，牵动全赋情脉。

淅沥 Dripping and sighing. The first of the onomatopoeic pairs: the fine sound of the autumn, like the rain and the wind, fine and desolate—the sound of autumn first heard in its fineness. 「初淅沥以萧飒」之「淅沥」，本为拟声词，摹雨洒之声，此处移以写秋声初起之细密，是「以声写声」的关键字。「淅沥」双声叠韵，音韵轻细绵长，正合细雨洒叶之声，以此写秋声之初起，则其细、其密、其绵延不绝，皆在音中；后接「萧飒」拟风声，二字连用，雨声风声交织，秋声的初貌已现。此词之妙，在以最具体的声音（雨声）比喻最抽象的声音（秋声），使读者闻「淅沥」而知秋声之细；又以叠韵之音模拟叠音之象，声情相生。若用「飒飒」「簌簌」等词，或过于单调，或过于单薄，不及「淅沥」之「细而连绵」；若直写「雨声」「风声」，又失「秋声」之特异性。欧阳修以「淅沥」「萧飒」两组叠字摹声，为后世写声之典范，苏轼「大弦嘈嘈如急雨」、白居易「间关莺语花底滑」皆承此「以声写声」之法。

砰湃 Galloping and crashing. The second of the onomatopoeic pairs: the surging and roaring of the sound, like the waves and the sea, from the fine to the great—the force of the sound of autumn written in the crashing. 「忽奔腾而砰湃」之「砰湃」，拟波浪相激之声，与「淅沥」对举，写秋声由细而巨的骤变，是全节写声的峰点。「砰湃」声母皆为重唇音，读之铿锵震响，如闻巨浪拍岸、洪涛激石；前接「奔腾」以动词写其势，后以「砰湃」拟其声，一势一声，秋声之壮大如在目前。此词之妙，在以「砰湃」之巨声对「淅沥」之细声，一细一巨、一静一暴，秋声的戏剧性转变尽在其中，而「忽」字点出转变之骤，更添惊心动魄之感。若用「澎湃」虽同义，然「砰湃」双声，音节更重，更合「波涛夜惊」之势；且「砰湃」与「萧飒」对仗，同属双声叠韵，音节铿锵而工整。欧阳修以「淅沥萧飒」「奔腾砰湃」两组叠字写尽秋声之细与巨，后世称其「模写秋声，神妙之笔」，正由这些炼字而来。