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宋 Song · 诗 Poem

王安石·江上

On the River

王安石

Wang Anshi

山水landscape 哲理philosophy

江上江水漾西风，江花脱晚红。
离情被横笛，吹过乱山东。

The river water ripples with the west wind; the river flowers shed their late red.
Parting feeling is taken by the transverse flute, blown past the eastern side of the scattered hills.

Listen

Meaning

On a river at dusk, autumn ripples and fading blossoms stir parting grief, which the flute seems to carry far beyond the hills.

江面上荡漾着西风，江畔的落花褪去了傍晚的红晕。离别的情思被横笛声裹挟着，一直吹过乱山的东边，久久不散。

Appreciation

First two lines are real scene: west wind on the water, flowers shedding red, cold colors, an autumn hush. Last two lines make 'parting feeling' a thing the flute can carry—virtual and real intertwine.

【白话串讲】 “离情被横笛，吹过乱山东”——王安石在江上听笛声，离情被笛声吹过了重重乱山。二十个字，把离别写得又淡又远。【意象与手法】前两句实写：西风漾水、江花脱红，设色清冷，暮秋萧散之气扑面；后两句虚写，将「离情」拟人化、物态化——「被横笛」三字奇绝，使无形愁思似为笛声裹挟，「吹过乱山东」以空间的辽远写情思之悠长不绝。由景入情，虚实相生，二十字而尺幅千里，深得绝句以少胜多之妙。【情感与主旨】此诗约作于王安石罢相退居金陵时期。诗人晚年隐居钟山，与水光山色为侣，诗中「江上」「乱山」正金陵一带江景。一夕江头送别或忆远，触景生情，以二十字写尽离思，见其看似寻常最奇崛的炼句功力。【名句点睛】中高考常考「漾」「脱」二字炼字之妙，以及「离情被横笛，吹过乱山东」的奇思与化虚为实，答题须抓住由实入虚、以景结情的章法。

Background

Composed when Wang Anshi, retired after leaving the chancellorship, lived at Jinling (Nanjing). 'On the river, scattered hills' are that local scene. A riverside farewell or memory of someone far; in twenty words the whole parting is told, showing his 'seeming ordinary yet most strange' craft.

此诗约作于王安石罢相退居金陵（今南京）时期。王安石（1021—1086），字介甫，号半山，抚州临川人，北宋著名政治家、文学家。他主持熙宁变法，两度拜相，锐意改革，终因新旧党争激烈、变法受阻，于熙宁九年（1076）第二次罢相，退居金陵钟山，筑半山园，与山水为侣，自号半山老人，从此不复出仕。晚年诗风由早年的议论纵横、精悍峭拔转为含蓄深婉、洗练老成，世称半山体或荆公体，尤工绝句，黄庭坚谓荆公暮年小诗「雅丽精绝」。诗中「江上」「乱山」即金陵一带江景，钟山俯临长江，江流乱山皆其日日所见。一夕江头送别或忆远，触景生情，以二十字写尽离思。虽为题咏小景，而「离情被横笛」之句已见其「看似寻常最奇崛，成如容易却艰辛」的炼句功力。小诗有大手笔，正荆公晚年诗境之凝聚，也是宋人学唐而能自出的佳例。值得玩味的是，荆公晚年诗中的离情已非早年「春风又绿江南岸」那种明快舒展的情调，而是渗入了更多人生况味——变法失败、志业凋零之后，他对聚散离合的感受更深一层，此诗以淡笔写离愁，正是绚烂之极归于平淡的体现，与其《泊船瓜洲》的乡思、《北陂杏花》的孤芳一脉相通，皆是半山老人晚境心境的艺术投影。

Art

First two lines real: west wind ripples, flowers shed red, cold and autumn-loose; last two virtual: 'parting feeling' personified and made thing-like—'taken by the flute' is marvellous, 'blown past the hills' uses spatial distance for endless feeling. Scene to feeling, virtual-real, twenty words a thousand li.

前两句实写江景：西风漾水、江花脱红，设色清冷，暮秋萧散之气扑面而来。「漾」字写西风拂过江面、波光动荡的动态，「脱」字写江花褪去晚红、颜色消逝的过程，一「漾」一「脱」，皆以动词摄景，体物入微，于静景中写出时间的流动。后两句转虚写情：「离情被横笛」五字奇绝——将无形的离情拟人化、物态化，仿佛离情是被笛声裹挟、托载而去的实体，一个「被」字使抽象的愁思获得了可被承载的形态；「吹过乱山东」以空间的辽远写情思之悠长不绝，笛声越过重重乱山，愁思亦随之弥漫天涯。由景入情，虚实相生，二十字而尺幅千里，深得绝句以少胜多之妙。全诗章法为实实虚虚的推进：前二句造境，后二句抒情，末句以景语收束情语，含蓄不尽，回环往复。再细味其法，「离情被横笛」五字中，被字以虚字实用于句腰，是全句的枢纽；「吹过乱山东」五字则以「东」字收远，一虚一实、一近一远，章法上由江而花、由笛而山，视线层层推远，愁思亦随之层层展开，终归于苍茫的乱山之外。这种由近及远、由实入虚的推进，正是王安石晚年绝句「看似寻常最奇崛」的典型章法，小中见大，尺幅千里。

Allusions

This poem has no overt allusion; it wins through plain description and imagination, yet every image draws on poetic tradition. The 'horizontal flute' is a familiar figure in Tang farewell verse -- Li Bai's 'On Hearing a Flute One Spring Night in Luoyang' ('whose jade flute sends a dark note flying, scattered by spring wind over the city') uses the flute for homesickness, and Wang Zhihuan's 'Liangzhou Song' ('why should the Qiang flute resent the willows? the spring wind never crosses Yumen Pass') for the sorrows of garrison duty; Wang Anshi borrows the flute for parting feeling, and antiquity lives on without a trace of effort. 'The tangled hills' are likewise a stock image of blocked travel in Tang-Song verse; Ouyang Xiu's 'Treading on Grass' compares parting sorrow to endless spring water, while Wang Anshi lets tangled hills suggest the spreading of grief -- images differ, spirit is one. Though the whole poem uses no obscure allusion, its four image-groups -- west wind, falling blossoms, the flute, and tangled hills -- all condense the collective memory of classical poetry about farewell, light in touch yet rich in flavor. Not begging from old sources, antiquity nevertheless flows through it: this is the masterful economy of Wang Anshi's quatrains. The falling blossom should be further noted: it carries a deep tradition -- the Book of Songs' 'peach tree, young and gay' celebrates bloom, the Li Sao laments that 'the plants and trees are falling, and I fear the beauty will grow old,' and Tang-Song poets from Du Fu ('one blossom fallen lessens spring') onward write parting sorrow through withered flowers. Wang Anshi takes the falling blossom for late autumn, inheriting that tradition while adding a colder clarity, so that parting feeling and the withering scene mirror each other -- antiquity and present emotion fused into one.

本诗无明显用典，纯以白描与想象取胜，而意象皆承诗家传统。「横笛」为唐人送别诗中常见意象——李白《春夜洛城闻笛》「谁家玉笛暗飞声，散入春风满洛城」以笛声写乡思，王之涣《凉州词》「羌笛何须怨杨柳，春风不度玉门关」以笛声写征愁，王安石借笛声写离情，不着痕迹而古意自存。「乱山」亦唐宋诗中惯写羁旅阻隔之象，欧阳修《踏莎行》「离愁渐远渐无穷，迢迢不断如春水」以春水喻愁，荆公以乱山写愁之弥漫，意象各别而精神相通。全诗虽无僻典，而西风、落花、横笛、乱山四组意象皆凝结着古典诗歌关于离别的集体记忆，淡而有味。不乞灵于故实，而古意自然流注其间，是为高手——这正是荆公以少许胜人多许的绝句本色。更须申说者，「江花脱晚红」的落花意象亦有深远传统，《诗经》「桃之夭夭」写花开之盛，而《楚辞》「惟草木之零落兮，恐美人之迟暮」已开以花木凋零写时光流逝之端，唐宋诗人更以落花写离愁别绪，如杜甫「一片花飞减却春」，王安石取落花写暮秋，正是承此传统而更添清冷之色，使离情与凋零之景互为表里，古意与今情浑然一体。

Commentary

Wu Qiao (Qing) called Wang's late quatrains 'most skilled; the flute line is a craftsman's stroke.' Chen Yan ranked it 'in twenty words, river, hills, flute, feeling—inexhaustible.' It is a fine Song example of learning Tang yet standing free.

清人吴乔《围炉诗话》称荆公绝句「晚年最工」，其「离情被横笛」一联真化工之笔。近人陈衍《宋诗精华录》评此诗：「二十字中，有江有山有笛有情，此所谓含蓄不尽。」今人论宋诗，每以王安石晚绝与苏轼、黄庭坚并称，谓其半山体以深婉含蓄胜，此诗可追王维、李白唐绝，是宋人学唐而能自出的佳例。论者又谓荆公晚年诗「雅丽精绝，脱去流俗」，此诗「江水漾西风」二句写景清冷，「离情被横笛」二句构思奇崛，恰合其「看似寻常最奇崛」之自道。全诗二十字，无一字道破愁字，而离愁满纸，正是绝句以少总多、含不尽之意见于言外的典范，历来选本必录，宋诗话中屡见称引。此外，宋人论荆公绝句，每以其善用虚字为一大特色，如「北山输绿涨横陂」之「输」、「一水护田将绿绕」之「护」，皆以一字活全篇，此诗「被」字正是此法的极致；论者谓荆公晚年「诗律愈细，诗境愈老」，以此诗观之，诚非虚语，其以小诗写大情怀的功夫，实开后来杨万里、范成大清新一路的先声。

Prosody

Form Five-character quatrain五言绝句（平起首句入韵式）

Rhyme Pingshui rhyme, upper-level Dong (feng, hong, dong)平水韵·上平一东（风、红、东），一、二、四句押韵

Tone pattern First line enters rhyme; level-onset, first-line-enters mode首句「江水漾西风」平起平收，全诗平仄合律，音节清朗舒缓

Reading note Standard wujue; lines 1,2,4 rhyme on Dong; implied and lasting.此诗为五言绝句，平起首句入韵式：首句「江水漾西风」平平仄平平，二句「江花脱晚红」平平仄仄平，三句「离情被横笛」平平仄平仄，四句「吹过乱山东」平仄仄平平，一、二、四句押上平一东韵。东韵为洪亮之阳声韵，收音悠长，本宜写开阔明朗之境，王安石却以之写暮秋萧散与离愁绵长，洪韵写哀情，声情与辞情形成微妙张力，反增含蓄之致。全诗二十字五言短句，节奏短促凝练，而虚字「被」的插入使句式顿生波澜，于整齐中见变化。宋人绝句讲求以意取胜，此诗格律谨严而不露斧凿，音节清朗而情韵深长，正是半山体雅丽精绝在声律上的体现，诵读之间，江声笛韵仿佛在耳。

Line by line

江水漾西风，江花脱晚红

The river water ripples with the west wind; the river flowers shed their late red.

江面上荡漾着西风，江畔的落花褪去了傍晚的红晕。

River water ripples in the west wind; riverside flowers shed their evening red.

此联实写秋江晚景，十字而动静相生。「漾」字写西风拂水，江面波光动荡，是动态之景，然波漾水动之中，风之无形转为有形；「脱」字写江花褪红，颜色从浓到淡、从有到无，是消逝之态，仿佛花朵有意辞别晚景。一漾一脱，一水一花，一外一内，构成秋江萧散的底色。西风为秋令之风，落花为暮秋之象，二者并置，时序之感、凋零之意油然而生，为下联离情的出场营造了清冷的气氛。此联以景起，无一字及情，而情已在景中，正是绝句起笔含蓄的典范。

This couplet's real writing of the autumn-river evening scene, ten characters and yet the motion-and-stillness's mutual birth. The yang word writing the west wind's brushing the water, the river's wave-light's motion, the dynamic scene, and yet within the wave's motion, the wind's shapeless's turning shaped; the tuo word writing the riverside flower's red's fading, the color's from-thick-to-thin and from-being-to-nothing, the vanishing pose, as if the flower's intentional farewell to the evening scene. One yang one tuo, one water one flower, one outer one inner, forming the autumn-river's sparse dispossessed ground. The west wind the autumn-season wind, the fallen flower the late-autumn image, the two's juxtaposition, the season's sense and the withering's meaning's spontaneous birth, for the below's parting-feeling entrance's building the cold quiet atmosphere. This couplet's scene-opening, not one word touching the feeling, and yet the feeling's already within the scene, precisely the quatrain's opening's reserved model.

离情被横笛

The parting grief is borne on the transverse flute.

离别的情思被横笛声裹挟着。

The parting grief is carried on the transverse flute's notes.

五字奇绝，是全诗的诗眼。「离情」本为无形之情，诗人偏用「被」字使之被动化、物态化，仿佛离情是一样可以被笛声裹挟、托载而去的东西——笛声起，离情便被吹动、带走，愁思有了形体与动态。此句将抽象的离愁化为可吹可载之物，是典型的化虚为实，与李煜剪不断理还乱之写愁、贺铸一川烟草满城风絮之喻愁同工而异趣：李、贺以物喻愁，荆公则以被动句式使愁受役于笛声，更见其不由自主的无奈。横笛之音本为离声，此处不写笛声催愁，而写离情被笛吹动，主客倒置，奇想之中自见匠心。

Five characters' wondrous, the whole poem's poetic eye. The parting-grief originally the shapeless feeling, the poet's precisely using the bei word for its passivization-and-thing-ification, as if the parting grief's a thing's able to be the flute's borne and carried away — the flute's note arises, the parting grief's hence blown and carried, the sorrow's having the form and motion. This line's turning the abstract parting grief into the blowable-and-bearable thing, the typical void-to-solid, with Li Yu's cut-not-and-tangled-and-ordered grief-writing and He Zhu's one-stream-tobacco-and-city-full-willow-down's grief-metaphor's same craft-and-yet-different-charm: Li and He using the thing for the grief-metaphor, Wang Anshi and yet using the passive sentence for the grief's enslaved by the flute, the helplessness the clearer. The transverse flute's sound originally the parting sound, here not writing the flute's urging the grief, and yet writing the parting grief's flute-blown, the subject-object reversal, within the fancy's self-seeing craft.

吹过乱山东

Blown on, past the chaotic hills to the east.

一直吹过乱山的东边。

It is blown on, past the jumbled hills to the east.

「吹过乱山东」以空间的辽远收束全诗，将笛声与离情推向望不见的远方。乱山本已重重阻隔，离情却随笛声越过乱山，飘向山东之远，正见愁思之悠长不绝、不可阻挡。一个「东」字看似闲笔，实则点出离人远行的方向，暗写归途之遥；「乱」字状山势之参差，亦暗写心绪之纷乱，景语情语浑然一体。此句以景结情，不说愁有多深，而以愁被吹过乱山写出其弥漫之势，与开篇江水江花的实景遥相呼应，虚实回环，二十字中尺幅千里，为宋人绝句以少胜多的经典收束。

The blown-on-past-the-chaotic-hills-to-the-east using the space's far stretch for the whole poem's close, pushing the flute sound and parting grief to the sightless far. The jumbled hills' already heavy barrier, the parting grief's yet following the flute's crossing the jumbled hills, drifting to the east's far, precisely seeing the sorrow's long-unbroken and irresistible. The one dong word's seeming the idle brush, and yet actually pointing out the parted person's far-going direction, secretly writing the return-road's distance; the luan word describing the hills' jaggedness, and secretly the heart's confusion, the scene-words and feeling-words fused as one. This line using the scene for the feeling-close, not speaking the grief's depth, and yet on the grief's blown-past-the-chaotic-hills writing its diffusing momentum, with the opening's river-water-and-riverside-flower real scene's echo, the void-and-solid's circling, within twenty characters the small-frame-thousand-li, the Song quatrain's few-over-many classic close.

江水漾西风

River water ripples in the west wind.

江面上荡漾着西风。

River water ripples in the west wind.

单拈此句，可见「漾」字炼字之精。西风本无形可状，诗人以「漾」字写之，使风有了水的动态——仿佛西风如水波般在江面荡漾流动，视觉化的同时更添一层轻柔绵长的意味。若用「吹」「起」等字，则风是外来的动作，与江面判然为二；「漾」字则风与水交融为一，分不清是风动还是水动，正写出秋江傍晚风平浪静而微波荡漾的实感。此字又暗含情感的波动：西风漾水，恰如离情暗涌，以景语伏情语，为全诗定下清冷而含情的基调，是荆公体物入微、炼字精到的明证。

Single this line's taken, the yang word's character-refining fineness visible. The west wind originally shapeless, the poet's using the yang word for it, granting the wind the water's motion — as if the west wind's like the wave's rippling on the river, the visual-ization's and yet adding one layer of soft-and-long meaning. If using the chui or qi words, then the wind the external action, with the river's clearly divided; the yang word and yet the wind-and-water's fusion as one, not distinguishing the wind's motion or the water's motion, precisely writing the autumn-river evening's wind-calm-and-yet-microwave's real feeling. This word's again secretly carrying the emotion's ripple: the west wind's rippling the water, precisely like the parting grief's secret surge, using the scene-word's storing the feeling-word, for the whole poem's establishing the cold-quiet-and-feeling-laden tone, Wang Anshi's thing-depiction's fineness and character-refining's precision proof.

Study

Word focus

漾 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 「漾」字写西风拂水之态，是全诗第一处炼字。「漾」本指水波摇动、水面浮荡，诗人移以写风，使无形的秋风获得了水的质感与动态——风漾于水面，波光动荡，仿佛风与水融为一体，轻柔绵长。此字之妙有三：一曰化无形为有形，风本不可见，借水波而可视；二曰动静相生，江面为静，漾为动，静中见动，更显秋江之空旷寂寥；三曰暗伏情澜，风漾水动，恰如离情暗涌，为下联愁思的出场预埋伏笔。王安石晚年绝句以体物精微著称，漾字即其明证，一字之工，全句生色，所谓看似寻常最奇崛者也。

脱 the flowers 'shed' their late red, as if meaning to leave spring; hints the withering of deep autumn. 「脱」字写江花褪红之态，构思尤奇。花谢本言落、谢、残，诗人独用「脱」字，仿佛花朵有意脱去傍晚的红妆，如人卸衣，赋予落花以主动的意态与生命。「脱」字之妙在写出颜色消逝的过程性：晚红不是瞬间消失，而是如褪色般渐次淡去，时间感与凋零感俱在其中；又暗含一种决绝的告别意味——花脱红而去，正如人离去而别，物我之间悄然相通。此字与「漾」字相对：水以漾写其动，花以脱写其逝，一江一花，一动一逝，秋意萧散，为全诗离情营造了最相宜的背景，炼字之工，令人玩味不尽。

被 makes parting feeling passive, bearable—a strange, hard-won word that turns abstract sorrow into a thing; Wang Anshi's signature. 「被」字是全诗最奇崛的炼字，一个被动介词使全句意境全出。离情本是无形无质的主观情感，诗人用「被」字使之处于被动地位，仿佛离情是被横笛裹挟、托载而去的实体，可以吹、可以载、可以过山——抽象的愁思由此获得了形体与路径，化虚为实，奇想天成。此字之妙，在颠倒主客：不说笛声催起离情，而说离情被笛吹动，仿佛笛声一响，愁思便身不由己地被裹挟而去，正写出离人闻笛时愁绪翻涌、不可自主的心理真实。一个虚字盘活全句，使二十字的绝句顿生波澜，是王安石晚年炼句如却容易却艰辛的绝佳注脚，后世论者每以此字为荆公体奇崛之代表。