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宋 Song · 诗 Poem

文天祥·金陵驿·其一

Jinling Relay Station (I)

文天祥

Wen Tianxiang

爱国patriotism 伤乱grief at the upheaval

草合离宫转夕晖，孤云飘泊复何依。
山河风景元无异，城郭人民半已非。
满地芦花和我老，旧家燕子傍谁飞。
从今别却江南路，化作啼鹃带血归。

Weeds close o'er the deserted palace as the evening light turns; a lone cloud drifts, with nothing left to lean upon.
The hills and streams are no different from of old, yet the city walls and folk are more than half no more.
Reed-down fills the ground and ages with me; the swallows of the old home—beside whose roof do they fly?
Henceforth I part from the road of Jiangnan, to become a blood-weeping cuckoo bound for home.

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Meaning

Captured after the fall of the Southern Song and being taken north, Wen Tianxiang passed Jinling (Nanjing) and saw the overgrown palace and a changed city. He wrote this poem of farewell, grieving the lost state and vowing that even in death his soul would return home as a cuckoo.

荒草湮没了离宫，唯有夕阳余晖流转；一朵孤云漂泊无定，又能依傍什么。山河风景本来没有什么改变，城郭与人民却已大半不是旧时模样。满地芦花仿佛伴我一同老去，旧时屋檐下的燕子又傍着谁家飞翔。从今告别了江南的路，我愿化作啼血的杜鹃，魂魄也要归来。

Appreciation

A seven-character regulated verse of the late Song. The opening couplet uses the deserted palace at sunset and a drifting cloud as a self-image of rootlessness; the second contrasts an unchanged landscape with a halved people, quietly reversing the 'new pavilion tears' allusion; the third paints reed-down and swallows to show displacement; the close swears to return as a blood-weeping cuckoo. Scene and feeling merge in solemn, stirring grief.

【白话串讲】南宋灭亡，文天祥被押北上，路过金陵。“山河风景元无异，城郭人民半已非”——山河还是那个山河，人却已经换了一代。他说：“从今别却江南路，化作啼鹃带血归”——死了也要化作杜鹃飞回来。【意象与手法】首联「草合离宫转夕晖，孤云飘泊复何依」以荒宫夕照、孤云自喻，兴起飘零之悲：「合」字写宫苑湮没，「转」字写夕晖流转，一静一动之间，故国荒废之象如在目前；下句一问「复何依」，身世之孤直见纸背。颔联「山河风景元无异，城郭人民半已非」以景同人异作强烈对比，一「元」一「半」、一恒一变，暗中反用《世说新语》新亭对泣之典而翻出新意，不着悲字而亡国之痛毕见。颈联「满地芦花和我老，旧家燕子傍谁飞」以芦花、燕子衬物是人非，物我双关，对仗工切；尾联「化作啼鹃带血归」用望帝化鹃之典立必死归魂之誓，忠愤郁结，血泪收束。全诗情景交融，沉郁顿挫，炼字精严，用典自然，是宋末七律的典范。【情感与主旨】文天祥（文山）为南宋末抗元名相，祥兴二年（1279）崖山兵败被俘，次年押解北上大都，途经金陵驿馆作此组诗。全诗情感核心有三：一是亡国之痛——目击离宫荒草、城郭易主、人民流离，故国之思沉痛入骨；二是物是人非之慨——山河依旧而人事全非，芦花伴老、燕子失巢，皆寄兴亡之叹；三是誓死不屈之忠——「化作啼鹃带血归」以化鹃之誓明必死之志，魂魄亦当归故国，孤忠之志与身世之悲交融，垂范千古。【名句点睛】中高考常考：①情感——亡国之痛、物是人非之慨与誓死不屈之忠（「啼鹃带血归」）；②炼字——「元」「半」的对举反衬；③用典——新亭对泣之反用、乌衣巷燕子之化用、望帝啼鹃之誓；④与《过零丁洋》并读，见文山风骨。

Background

Wen Tianxiang (style Wenshan) was a chief minister of the fallen Southern Song who resisted the Yuan. After the 1279 defeat at Yaishan he was captured; in 1280, en route north to Dadu, he passed Jinling (Nanjing) and wrote this group of poems (this is the first). Lin'an had fallen and the Song was ending; seeing the overgrown palace and changed city, he voiced the sorrow of a lost realm, knowing the northward journey meant death—hence the many valedictory and loyal tones. It is a blood-and-tears work written before his imprisonment.

文天祥（1236—1283），字宋瑞，又字履善，号文山，吉州庐陵（今江西吉安）人，南宋末年著名的抗元名臣与爱国诗人。宋理宗宝祐四年（1256）状元及第，历官至右丞相兼枢密使。德祐二年（1276）临安陷落，文天祥奉诏出使元营被扣，后于镇江脱险南归，拥立端宗、帝昺，转战闽、粤、赣一带坚持抗元。祥兴二年（1279）崖山兵败，南宋灭亡，文天祥被俘；次年（1280，元世祖至元十七年）被押解北上大都（今北京），途经金陵（建康，今南京）驿馆，作此《金陵驿》组诗，本诗为其一（首章）。其时临安早已陷落，南宋江山尽归元人，诗人以囚徒之身路过六朝故都，目击离宫荒草、城郭易主、人民流离，触景生亡国之恸。金陵是六朝故都，历代咏怀之作甚多，而文天祥此诗之痛尤在个人身世与国运同尽：北行必死，生死已置之度外，故诗中充满诀别之音与孤忠之誓，被后人视为文山狱前血泪之作，与《过零丁洋》并为绝笔前代表作。组诗共二首，本诗为其一，另有一首以「万里金瓯失壮图」起笔，同写金陵之痛，二首合观更见诗人对故都的深情。

Art

The opening uses the deserted palace at sunset and a drifting cloud as a self-image of exile; the second couplet sets an unchanged scene against a changed people in sharp contrast, quietly inverting the 'new pavilion' lament; the third uses reed-down and swallows to show that things remain but people are gone, with tight antithesis; the close, with the cuckoo allusion, vows to return in death. Feeling and scene intermingle—grave, repressed, and unyielding.

此诗为七言律诗，章法谨严，起承转合分明，而沉郁顿挫之气一以贯之。首联「草合离宫转夕晖，孤云飘泊复何依」起笔写景即寓兴：「草合」写离宫荒废已久，丛草合拢、宫阙埋没，「转」字写夕阳余晖在荒草间流转，似有情而实无情，荒宫夕照的萧瑟图景扑面而来；下句以孤云自喻，漂泊无依，一问「复何依」直见身世之孤危，兴中含比，情景交融。颔联「山河风景元无异，城郭人民半已非」是全诗枢纽，以景同人异作强烈对比：「元无异」强调山河风景本来未变，而「半已非」点出城郭人民已大半非旧，一同一异、一恒一变，反差中见出朝代更迭的惨痛，暗中反用《世说新语》新亭对泣之典而翻出新意。颈联「满地芦花和我老，旧家燕子傍谁飞」转写眼前景物而物我双关：芦花与诗人同老，燕子失巢傍谁而飞，物是人非之慨层层递进，对仗工切，「满地」「旧家」尤见沉痛。尾联「从今别却江南路，化作啼鹃带血归」以望帝化鹃之典立誓，愿死后魂归故国，收束全诗，将亡国之痛升华为忠贞不渝的孤忠之誓。全诗由景入情、由情入志，情景交融，沉郁顿挫，炼字精严而用典自然，是宋末七律的典范之作。

Allusions

Dense, apt allusion: the 'hills and streams' line reverses the New Pavilion lament from Shishuo Xinyu ('the scene is not different, only the land and rivers are') by writing 'no different' and 'half gone'; 'old-home swallows' transforms Liu Yuxi's 'Wuyi Xiang' ('the swallows before the Wang and Xie halls') to mark dynastic change and a lost people; 'cuckoo' uses the tale of King Wang of Shu who became a bird weeping blood, swearing to return to his homeland. Allusions bind tightly to loyal grief over a lost state, deeply felt, never piled on.

此诗用典密集而贴切，皆紧扣亡国孤忠之主题，无堆砌之病。其一为新亭对泣之反用：颔联「山河风景元无异，城郭人民半已非」化自《世说新语·言语》所载东晋士人新亭饮宴，周顗叹曰「风景不殊，正自有山河之异」，众人相视流泪，王导励以克复神州。文天祥着「元无异」三字翻其原意：风景本无改变，而山河已易主，故「半已非」更见其痛——新亭诸公尚有南渡可凭，诗人则连半壁江山亦不可得，亡国之痛较东晋更深一层。其二为乌衣巷之化用：颈联「旧家燕子」化刘禹锡《乌衣巷》「旧时王谢堂前燕，飞入寻常百姓家」，刘诗写六朝门阀的兴衰，尚是旁观之叹，文天祥则亲历国破家亡，「傍谁飞」一问，燕子失主、人民流离之状如在目前，遗民之痛更甚于唐人。其三为望帝啼鹃之典：尾联「化作啼鹃带血归」用古蜀望帝杜宇失国后化鸟、啼血不止、其声若「不如归去」之典，诗人自誓身死之后，魂魄亦将化为啼血之鹃，飞回江南故土，将必死之志化为缠绵执着的归魂之誓，忠愤郁结，血泪交迸。数典皆经点化，旧典翻出新意，与眼前景、心中情水乳交融，正见文山用典之工。

Commentary

Wen's style is grave; later critics liken him to Du Fu. With 'Crossing the Lonely Ocean' this stands as a representative pre-execution masterpiece; Ming-Qing readers call it 'every character blood and tears.' Shen Deqian's Song Poetry Selection calls it 'mournful and desolate, worthy to be a poetic history.' Modern readers hold the 'old-home swallows' couplet adds a layer of exiled-subject grief beyond Liu Yuxi, crowning the late-Song poetic record.

文天祥诗风沉郁悲壮，后人常以之与杜甫并论。此诗写于被俘北上途中，是其绝笔前的重要作品，与《过零丁洋》并为后世传诵。明清论者多以此诗「字字血泪」，称其以诗存史、以诗明志；沈德潜《宋诗别裁》评其「悲愤苍凉，足当诗史」，谓文山诗如杜甫之沉郁而更带亡国之痛。近代以来，论者尤重「旧家燕子」一联，以为较刘禹锡《乌衣巷》原句更多一层亡国遗民之痛：刘禹锡尚是隔代凭吊，文天祥则是当身亲历，故「傍谁飞」之问更为痛彻，被誉为宋末诗史之冠。就文学史地位而言，文天祥诗是宋末爱国诗歌的顶峰，其忠贞气节与诗歌创作相互发明：人以诗传，诗以人重，《金陵驿》等作将个人的生死抉择与国家的存亡兴衰融为一体，思想价值与艺术价值并重。诗中「化作啼鹃带血归」一句，尤成为中华民族气节的象征，激励后世无数仁人志士。在教学与传播层面，此诗是古典诗歌鉴赏的常考篇目，重点考查亡国之痛、物是人非之慨与誓死不屈之忠三端，对理解宋末历史与文天祥人格均有重要意义。文天祥《过零丁洋》诗云「人生自古谁无死，留取丹心照汗青」，与此诗「啼鹃带血归」的誓言互为表里，一壮一悲、一明一暗，共同铸就了文山风骨，垂范千古。

Prosody

Form Seven-character regulated verse, late Song · Wen Tianxiang七言律诗，宋末·文天祥

Rhyme Pingshui rhyme, upper-level 微 (hui, yi, fei, fei, gui)平水韵·上平五微（晖、依、非、飞、归）

Tone pattern First line takes a rhyme; level-tone opening, level close; strict antithesis in the middle couplets首句入韵，平起平收；中二联对仗精严

Reading note A regulated verse of lost-state grief and loyal vow—grave, repressed, stirring, with dense allusion此诗为七言律诗，格律谨严。押平水韵上平五微韵，韵脚为晖、依、非、飞、归五字，一韵到底，声情沉郁。五微韵属微部，音色幽微低回，与全诗苍凉沉痛的基调相得益彰——微韵字多带「微」「非」「归」等低抑之音，诵之如闻叹息。首句「草合离宫转夕晖」入韵，平起平收；中二联「山河风景元无异，城郭人民半已非」「满地芦花和我老，旧家燕子傍谁飞」对仗精严工整，词性、结构一一相对，而毫无板滞之病。全诗平仄合律，音步铿锵，唯内容沉痛，故声情虽合律而不失顿挫。就格律与内容的关系而言，文天祥以严格的近体形式写亡国之痛，形式的整饬与情感的激越形成张力，愈见其情之郁结；五微韵的低回与「带血归」的誓言相配，收束处音调由高转低、由明转暗，正合「化作啼鹃带血归」的悲凉余韵。此诗格律之工、用韵之稳、声情之合，堪称宋末七律典范。

Line by line

草合离宫转夕晖，孤云飘泊复何依。

Grass has overgrown the abandoned palace, as the sunset glow turns; a lone cloud drifts on — what can it rely on?

荒草湮没了离宫，唯有夕阳余晖流转；一朵孤云漂泊无定，又能依傍什么。

Weeds have covered the temporary palace, where the setting sun's glow turns; a lone cloud drifts, and what can it rely on?

首联为全诗起兴，以荒宫夕照、孤云自喻，定下苍凉沉郁的基调。「合」字写宫苑湮没：昔日巍峨的离宫如今被丛生的荒草合拢覆盖，一个「合」字，既见荒废之久，又见荒废之深，宫阙与草木主客易位，亡国之象已在不言之中。「转」字写夕阳余晖在荒草离宫间流转移动，光色移动而宫阙无言，仿佛连夕阳也为之流连，实则写时光无情、故国难留。下句「孤云飘泊复何依」以孤云自喻，点明诗人被俘北行的身世：云本无根，飘泊无定，如今故国已亡，更复何依？一问之中，身世之孤、前途之茫、故国之思尽在其中。景与情融合无间，起笔即具大家气象。

The opening couplet is the whole poem's uprising, using the weed-overgrown-palace-sunset and lone-cloud's-self-metaphor, establishing the bleak somber tone. The he word writing the palace's engulfment: the once-lofty temporary palace's now the tangled weeds' closing-over, the one he word, at once seeing the abandonment's length and depth, the palace-and-plants' master-and-guest reversal, the subjugation image's already within the unsaid. The zhuan word writing the sunset glow's moving across the weed-overgrown palace, the light's moving and the palace's silent, as if even the sunset's lingering, actually writing the time's ruthlessness and the old country's no-keeping. The below's lone-cloud-drifts-on-what-can-it-rely-on using the lone cloud for the self-metaphor, pointing out the poet's captured-northward lot: the cloud's originally rootless, drifting and unsettled, now the old country's perished, what further reliance? Within one question, the lot's loneliness, the future's blur, and the old-country longing's all within. The scene-and-feeling's seamless fusion, the opening at once having the great-master air.

山河风景元无异，城郭人民半已非。

The mountains, rivers, and scenery are unchanged; the walls and the people are half altered.

山河风景本来没有什么改变，城郭与人民却已大半不是旧时模样。

The mountains, rivers, and scenery are as ever; the walls and the people are half no longer what they were.

颔联为全诗之枢纽，以「元无异」与「半已非」对举，构成景同人异的强烈对比。山河风景本无改变，依旧青山绿水、大江东去；而城郭易主、人民流离，已大半不是旧时模样。一「元」一「半」，一恒一变，以自然之永恒反衬人事之变迁，朝代更迭的惨痛在对比中毕现。此联暗中反用《世说新语》新亭对泣之典：东晋士人叹「风景不殊，正自有山河之异」，尚有南渡立足之地；文天祥着「元无异」三字翻出新意——风景非但「不殊」，且「元无异」，而山河已非赵宋所有，「半已非」三字更见凋残之惨。语极平实，情极沉痛，不着一个「悲」字而亡国之恸尽在其中，正是「沉郁顿挫」的典范笔法。

The middle couplet is the whole poem's hinge, using the originally-unchanged and half-altered parallel, forming the scene-same-and-person-different's strong contrast. The mountains-rivers-scenery originally unchanged, the green-hills-and-clear-water's as-ever, and the great river's east-flowing; and yet the walls' master-change and the people's displacement, already half-no-longer-the-old-look. One yuan one ban, one-constant-one-change, using the nature's eternity for the human-affair's change's setting-off, the dynasty's change's pain's within the contrast fully out. This couplet secretly reverse-using the New-Pavilion-weeping allusion from the New Account of the Tales of the World: the Eastern Jin scholars' sigh the scenery's-no-difference-and-yet-the-rivers-have-changed, and yet still had the south-crossing's foothold; Wen Tianxiang's landing the originally-unchanged three words' turning out the new meaning — the scenery's not only no-difference, and yet originally-unchanged, and yet the rivers already not Zhao-Song's, the half-altered three words' the more seeing the decay's misery. The words' extremely plain, the feeling's extremely grief-stricken, not landing one grief word and yet the subjugation's pain all within, precisely the somber-and-passionate model brush.

满地芦花和我老，旧家燕子傍谁飞。

Reed flowers cover the ground and age with me; the old home's swallows — whose eaves will they fly to?

满地芦花仿佛伴我一同老去，旧时屋檐下的燕子又傍着谁家飞翔。

The reed flowers cover the ground and grow old with me; the old house's swallows — to whose eaves will they fly?

颈联转写眼前景物，以物我双关写物是人非之慨。「满地芦花」写深秋芦花遍地、白如霜雪，与诗人鬓发同白、与诗人一同老去，芦花之老与诗人之老互为映衬，苍凉之气弥漫全篇。「旧家燕子」化刘禹锡《乌衣巷》「旧时王谢堂前燕」之句：燕子本巢于旧时人家屋檐，如今主人星散、屋宇易主，「傍谁飞」一问，写出燕子失巢无依的茫然，实为诗人与故国遗民的自况。刘禹锡写六朝兴衰尚是隔代凭吊，文天祥写亡宋之痛则是当身亲历，「傍谁飞」之问较唐人更多一层遗民之痛。对仗方面，「满地」对「旧家」，「芦花」对「燕子」，「和我老」对「傍谁飞」，工切自然而无斧凿之痕，情景交融，最为后人称道。

The neck couplet turns to the present scene, using the thing-and-self double meaning for the thing-same-and-person-different sigh. The reed-flowers-cover-the-ground writing the deep-autumn reed flowers' ground-covering, white like frost, with the poet's temples' same-white and with the poet's together-aging, the reed-flower's age and the poet's age's mutual setting-off, the bleakness's pervading the whole piece. The old-home's-swallows adapting Liu Yuxi's Black-Kitty-Lane's of-old-the-Wang-and-Xie-hall-front-swallows line: the swallows originally nested on the old household eaves, now the owners' scattered and the houses' master-changed, the whose-eaves-will-they-fly-to question, writing the swallow's nest-loss's blankness, actually the poet's and the old-subject's self-portrait. Liu Yuxi's writing the Six Dynasties' rise-and-fall's still the generation-dividing mourning, Wen Tianxiang's writing the fallen-Song pain's the personal experience, the whose-eaves question's more than the Tang poet's one layer of the old-subject pain. On the parallel, the ground-covering and old-home, the reed-flowers and swallows, the age-with-me and whose-eaves, the craft's natural and no-chisel-trace, the scene-and-feeling's fusion, the later-age's most praised.

Study

Word focus

元 'of old'—an adverb meaning 'originally'; it stresses that the scene is the same while people are utterly changed, sharpening the contrast with 'half gone,' a stroke of deep grief. 「山河风景元无异」之「元」字，副词，义为「本来」，是全联对比的枢纽。此字之妙有三：其一，强调山河风景本无改变，依旧是青山绿水、日月长存，与「半已非」的城郭人民形成强烈的对照，以自然之永恒反衬人事之变迁，朝代兴亡之痛在「元无异」的平静陈述中更显沉重。其二，暗翻《世说新语》新亭对泣「风景不殊，正自有山河之异」之典：东晋人尚言「不殊」（没有不同），文天祥更进一步言「元无异」（本来就没有不同），强调风景确实未变，则变化者惟在人事——城郭人民「半已非」，反跌下文，痛极而语极平。其三，「元」字与「半」字遥遥相对，一元一半、一恒一变，形成字面上的工对与意义上的反衬，炼字之精可见一斑。一字千金，正此之谓。

半 'half'—a rough number writing the misery of devastation; without harsh words it lays bare the pain of a lost state, utterly repressed. 「城郭人民半已非」之「半」字，约数也，写凋残之惨而不着厉色，最见沉郁。若直言「尽已非」「皆已非」，则语尽意尽，反失深味；着「半」字，言城郭人民已有一半不是旧时模样，则另一半犹存，正因犹存，方见对照之痛——同是一片金陵，半是旧观半是新主，半存半亡之间，亡国之惨更觉历历在目。「半」字之妙，一在含混：不确指多少，而凋残之状、流离之象皆在言外，以少总多，举重若轻；二在蓄势：为下联「满地芦花和我老」的苍凉、「旧家燕子傍谁飞」的茫然预留地步，全诗之悲由「半」字渐次展开，层层加深；三在翻典：新亭「风景不殊」而「山河之异」原已沉痛，文天祥更以「半已非」写出比新亭更惨的亡国实况——新亭尚有江山可图，诗人则城郭人民半属他人。着一「半」字而全联皆活，可谓字字血泪。

转 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 「草合离宫转夕晖」之「转」字，写夕阳余晖在荒宫之上流转移动，是全诗第一个点睛之字。「转」本写物之移动旋转，此处移以写光：夕阳西下，光影在离宫的荒草丛间缓缓移动，由明而暗，渐次沉没。着一「转」字，则夕阳不再是静态的背景，而是有情之物——它似在离宫之上流连徘徊，不忍遽去，实则是诗人不忍离去之情的投射；同时「转」字又暗写时光之流转：日影每转一分，故国便远一分，北行的路程便近一分，岁月无情、去日无多的况味尽在其中。若作「照夕晖」「映夕晖」则平，作「转」则动，化静为动，以动写悲，荒宫夕照的萧瑟之象如在目前，为全诗定下苍凉的基调。一字之工，起笔即见。