宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric
岳飞·小重山·昨夜寒蛩不住鸣
Small Hills · Last Night the Cold Cricket Cried and Would Not Cease
小重山·昨夜寒蛩不住鸣昨夜寒蛩不住鸣，惊回千里梦，已三更。
起来独自绕阶行，人悄悄，帘外月胧明。
白首为功名，旧山松竹老，阻归程。
欲将心事付瑶琴，知音少，弦断有谁听？
Startling me from a dream of a thousand li—already the third watch.
I rise and pace the steps alone;
All is still, the moon beyond the curtain dim and clear.
White-headed for a name of merit;
The old hills' pines and bamboos age, blocking my homeward road.
I would lay my heart's affair on the jade zither—
But few are the kindred ears; the string snaps—who is there to hear?
Meaning
Last night the cold autumn cricket cried and would not cease, starting me from a dream of a thousand li of campaign, and it was already the third watch. I rose and paced the steps alone; all around was quiet, and beyond the curtain the moon was dim yet clear. White hair comes from seeking a name of merit (recovering the rivers and hills); the old home's pines and bamboos have aged, blocking the homeward road. I would lay my full heart's affair on the jade zither, but alas few are the kindred ears—when the string snaps, who is there to hear?
昨夜寒秋的蟋蟀不住地啼鸣，把我从千里征战的梦中惊醒，已是三更时分。起来独自在阶前徘徊，四下悄然无人，帘外月色朦胧清明。 白发渐生，只为建功留名、收复河山，故乡的松竹早已老去，阻隔了归程。想把满腹心事托付瑶琴，无奈知音太少，琴弦弹断又有谁人听？
Appreciation
This lyric writes a loyal, angered heart in a graceful form, hardness and softness joined. The upper part is pure night scene: 'the cold cricket cried and would not cease' breaks the stillness with the insect's desolate sound; 'startling me from a dream of a thousand li' holds in five characters both ambition and its shattering. 'I rise and pace the steps alone; all is still, the moon beyond the curtain dim and clear' writes the solitude in motion and scene, the moon's 'dim and clear' like the heart's affair dim and unspoken. The lower part states directly: 'white-headed for a name of merit' is sombre; 'the old hills' pines and bamboos age, blocking my homeward road' bears the block in scene; 'I would lay my heart's affair on the jade zither—few are the kindred ears; the string snaps—who is there to hear' turns the Boya-Ziqi allusion, closing on a question, implicit yet tearing the heart. The whole uses no heroic language, yet the grief and indignation are deep—the extreme of its 'graceful face'.
【白话串讲】 “欲将心事付瑶琴，知音少，弦断有谁听”——岳飞这首词，没有《满江红》的激昂，却写尽了一个武将的孤独：他想收复河山，却没人懂他。弹断琴弦，也没人听。 【意象与手法】 此词以婉约之体写忠愤之质，刚柔相济。上片纯写夜境：「寒蛩不住鸣」以秋虫凄响破静，「惊回千里梦」五字包含壮志与幻灭；下片直抒，「欲将心事付瑶琴，知音少，弦断有谁听」用伯牙子期典翻出，以问句收束。 【情感与主旨】 岳飞此词约作于南宋绍兴年间其主持北伐、却屡受高宗与秦桧掣肘之时（一说作于被迫班师后）。「千里梦」乃恢复中原之梦，「知音少」暗喻朝廷求和、无人理解其北伐之志，与《满江红》一婉一豪，共构岳飞完整的爱国心灵图景。 【名句点睛】 中高考考点：一、「惊回千里梦」中「千里梦」的内涵（恢复中原之梦）与梦醒之悲；二、「知音少，弦断有谁听」用典与反问的抒情效果。
Background
This lyric was likely written in the Shaoxing years of Southern Song, when Yue Fei led the northern campaign yet was repeatedly thwarted by Emperor Gaozong and Qin Hui (some say after being forced to withdraw his army). Unlike the fierce 'Man Jiang Hong', this piece writes a hero at a lost road in deep, graceful strokes: the upper part's midnight waking, the 'dream of a thousand li' is the dream of recovering the Central Plain; the lower part's 'white-headed for a name of merit'—that 'merit' means recovering the rivers and hills and washing the national shame; 'the old hills' pines and bamboos age' sighs the old home (the Central Plain) long lost, the homeward road blocked. 'Few are the kindred ears; the string snaps—who is there to hear' hints the court seeks peace and none understands his will to campaign north, the grief plain. This lyric and 'Man Jiang Hong', one graceful one heroic, together build Yue Fei's complete patriotic mind; Ming man Xu Jie compiled 'Yue Wumu's Left Writings' including both.
岳飞（1103—1142），字鹏举，相州汤阴（今河南汤阴）人，南宋抗金名将、民族英雄。此词约作于南宋绍兴年间其主持北伐、却屡受高宗与秦桧掣肘之时，一说作于被迫班师之后。其时岳飞正当中年，转战南北，屡建奇功，然朝廷主和派当道，高宗深忌其「迎还二圣」之志，北伐大业屡遭阻挠，绍兴十年（1140）更以十二道金牌强令班师，十年之功毁于一旦。与《满江红》的壮怀激烈不同，此词以深婉之笔写英雄失路：上片夜半梦醒，「千里梦」乃恢复中原之梦，梦回沙场而骤醒于寒蛩声中；下片「白首为功名」的「功名」实指收复山河、洗雪国耻，「旧山松竹老」叹故乡（中原）久陷、归程受阻；「知音少，弦断有谁听」暗喻朝廷求和、无人理解其北伐之志，沉痛可知。明人徐阶辑《岳武穆遗文》并收二作，后人始见飞之刚柔两面。岳飞一生「尽忠报国」，其诗词传世虽少而皆见肝胆：与《满江红》「怒发冲冠」的壮怀不同，此词写夜半梦醒、心事难言的孤愤，正见其在战场之外、庙堂之上的另一重处境——既受制于朝廷和议，又孤掌难鸣，英雄之泪常流于无人知处，此词正是这种处境的真实写照。
Art
This lyric writes a loyal, angered heart in a graceful form, hardness and softness joined. The upper part is pure night scene: 'the cold cricket cried and would not cease' breaks the stillness with the insect's desolate cry; 'startling me from a dream of a thousand li' holds in five characters both the great ambition and its shattering; 'I rise and pace the steps alone; all is still, the moon beyond the curtain dim and clear' writes the solitude in action and scene, the moon's 'dim and clear' like the heart's affair dim and hard to speak. The lower part states directly: 'white-headed for a name of merit' is sombre; 'the old hills' pines and bamboos age, blocking my homeward road' bears the block in scene; 'I would lay my heart's affair on the jade zither—few are the kindred ears; the string snaps—who is there to hear' turns the Boya-Ziqi allusion, closing on a question, implicit yet tearing the heart. The whole borrows no heroic phrase, yet the grief and indignation are deep—the extreme of his 'graceful face'.
此词以婉约之体写忠愤之质，刚柔相济，是岳飞词的另一面。上片纯写夜境：「昨夜寒蛩不住鸣」以秋虫凄响破静，寒蛩之鸣写尽秋夜之凄清，也写尽英雄难眠的焦灼；「惊回千里梦，已三更」五字包含壮志与幻灭——千里之外是收复失地的战场，一梦惊回，只余三更寒夜；「起来独自绕阶行，人悄悄，帘外月胧明」以动作与景语写孤孑：绕阶独行见其心事重重、坐卧不宁，「人悄悄」写天地间唯余一人，而月之「胧明」恰似心事之朦胧难言。下片直抒胸臆：「白首为功名」五字沉郁顿挫，写毕生志业与岁月蹉跎；「旧山松竹老，阻归程」以景寓阻，故乡松竹已老而中原未复；结以「欲将心事付瑶琴，知音少，弦断有谁听」，用伯牙子期之典翻出，以问句收束，含蓄而撕心。全词不假豪放语，而悲慨自深，是其「婉约面」的极致。此外，全词以「梦—行—望—诉」为脉络：梦惊而起，起而行，行而望月，望而欲诉，一层层写出英雄由梦到醒、由醒到愁、由愁到愤的完整心路；上片以景写愁、下片以琴写愤，含蓄与直白相济，正是「婉约其表、忠愤其里」的典型。
Allusions
'The cold cricket' is the cricket, its autumn cry desolate, since old times a mournful insect (as Du Fu's 'the cricket is very small, how moving its sad sound'). 'The dream of a thousand li' faintly uses Fu Jian's 'casting whips to dam the river' type or broadly the campaign road, in truth writing the dream of recovery. 'The jade zither' and 'kindred ears' use Liezi · Tang Wen: Boya played, Ziqi heard well; when Ziqi died Boya broke his strings; here it reverses—not that there is no kindred ear but 'few are the kindred ears', the string snaps and none hears, figuring the court's not taking his will to campaign north. 'The old hills' pines and bamboos' transforms Tao Yuanming's 'the pines and chrysanthemums still remain', meaning the home garden; the word 'age' writes both the season and the faintness of the homeward date. The allusions all fit the man's lot, sorrowful yet leaving no trace.
「寒蛩」即蟋蟀，秋鸣凄清，自古为悲秋之虫，杜甫有「促织甚微细，哀音何动人」之句，岳飞以寒蛩破静起笔，秋意与愁思并生；「千里梦」暗写恢复中原之梦——千里之外是沦陷的故土与未竟的战事，梦回千里而身在三更，壮志与现实的落差尽在其中。「瑶琴」「知音」用《列子·汤问》伯牙鼓琴、钟子期善听，子期死则伯牙破琴绝弦之典；此处反其意而用之——并非无知音，而是「知音少」，且弦断无人听，以琴写北伐之志不为朝廷所纳、知音难觅的孤愤。「旧山松竹」化用陶渊明「三径就荒，松菊犹存」的田园意象，指故乡田园，「老」字兼写物候之衰与归期之渺。用典皆切合身世，沉痛而不露痕迹，是英雄词「以婉约写忠愤」的典范。「寒蛩」之鸣又暗合《诗经·豳风·七月》「十月蟋蟀入我床下」的时序之叹：蟋蟀鸣而岁将暮，岁暮而功未成，物候之警与功业之叹暗相呼应，秋虫之「不住鸣」正似英雄心头之「不住忧」，用典之妙，在于物我同感。
Commentary
Ming man Xu Jie's 'Yue Wumu's Left Writings' keeps both 'Man Jiang Hong' and this lyric, and later readers first saw Fei's hard and soft two faces. The modern Tang Guizhang, in A Brief Explication, says: 'this piece is sombre, different from the tragic-heroic of Man Jiang Hong, yet both show loyal devotion'. Xia Chengtao too said 'the turning of Xiao Chong Shan is exactly what the stirring of Man Jiang Hong cannot exhaust'. Though Qing critic Chen Tingzhuo did not specially praise it, his creed of 'sombre' fits the five words 'the string snaps—who is there to hear'. All value his writing a loyal, angered heart in graceful form, showing the hero's breast beyond the heroic.
明人徐阶《岳武穆遗文》并存《满江红》与此词，后人始见岳飞词的刚柔两面。近人唐圭璋《唐宋词简释》评：「此首沉郁，与《满江红》之悲壮不同，而皆见精忠。」夏承焘亦谓「《小重山》之宛转，正《满江红》之激昂所不能尽者」。清人陈廷焯论词主「沉郁」，此词「弦断有谁听」五字正合其旨。诸家皆重其以婉约写忠愤：不写金戈铁马，而写寒蛩孤月；不呼杀敌口号，而问弦断谁听，英雄之泪比英雄之吼更见沉痛。此词与《满江红》一婉一豪，恰成岳飞爱国心灵的一体两面，也说明豪放与婉约并非截然对立——真正伟大的爱国词，既可有「怒发冲冠」的壮烈，也可有「弦断有谁听」的悲凉，两者合观，方能见岳飞精神世界的完整与深沉。此词在文学史上的意义，在于拓展了爱国词的抒情维度：豪放如《满江红》写壮怀，婉约如《小重山》写孤愤，二者合观，方见岳飞精神世界的完整；后人文天祥「留取丹心照汗青」之志、陆游「心在天山，身老沧洲」之叹，皆可见此词「婉约写忠愤」传统的影响，英雄词之深情，正在于此。
Prosody
Line by line
昨夜寒蛩不住鸣，惊回千里梦，已三更
Last night the cold cricket cried and would not cease, Startling me from a dream of a thousand li—already the third watch.
昨夜寒秋的蟋蟀不住地啼鸣，把我从千里征战的梦中惊醒，已是三更时分。
Last night the autumn crickets never ceased their chirping, startling me awake from a dream of a thousand li; it was already the third watch.
起笔以寒蛩破静，五字写尽壮志与幻灭。「寒蛩不住鸣」写秋夜蟋蟀凄切地叫个不停，「寒」字既写秋夜之寒，也写心境之寒，「不住」更见其烦扰焦灼，正是英雄辗转难眠的写照；「惊回千里梦」是全词的关键：千里之外是沦陷的中原、未竟的北伐，梦中他或许正在沙场驰骋，而寒蛩一声，惊回现实——「千里」与「三更」对举，空间之远与时间之深相映，壮志之宏与处境之孤对照。梦醒而身在客舍、功业未成，这一「惊」字，既是惊于蛩声，更是惊于壮志成空、年华虚度，沉痛含蓄，为全词定下悲凉基调。
The opening breaks stillness with the autumn cricket, five phrases exhausting ambition and disillusion. 'The autumn crickets never ceased their chirping' writes the chill, incessant cry of autumn insects; 'chill' is both the cold of the autumn night and the cold within, and 'never ceased' shows fret and anxiety — the very picture of a hero tossing sleepless. 'Startling me awake from a dream of a thousand li' is the key: a thousand li away lies the fallen Central Plain, the unfinished northern expedition; in dream he may have been galloping the battlefield, and one cricket cry shocks him back to reality. 'A thousand li' and 'the third watch' set each other off — distance of space against depth of time, vast ambition against solitary plight. Waking in an inn, achievement unfulfilled: this 'startled' is startled by the cricket, and still more by ambition turned to nothing and years wasted. Restrained and bitter, it fixes the desolate keynote of the whole ci.
起来独自绕阶行，人悄悄，帘外月胧明
I rise and pace the steps alone; All is still, the moon beyond the curtain dim and clear.
起来独自在阶前徘徊，四下悄然无人，帘外月色朦胧清明。
I rose and walked alone around the steps; all was quiet, and beyond the curtain the moon glowed dim and bright.
以动作与景语写孤孑，月之「胧明」恰似心事之朦胧难言。梦既惊回，睡意全无，于是「起来独自绕阶行」——「独自」见其无人相伴、无人可语，「绕阶行」见其心事重重、坐卧不宁，一个「绕」字写出绕来绕去、走不出愁绪的动态；「人悄悄」写万籁俱寂，天地间仿佛只剩一人，其孤可知；「帘外月胧明」写月色朦胧，将明未明，正像他满腹心事，欲说还休、难以言明。此句不写愁而愁态毕现：独行是愁的动作，悄悄是愁的环境，胧月是愁的投影，三句层层递进，把英雄深夜独步、心事浩茫的意境写得如在目前，是上片由梦转醒、由醒转愁的完整收束。
It writes isolation through action and scenery; the moon's 'dim brightness' is like the haze of his thoughts, hard to tell. Dream shattered, sleep gone, he rises and walks alone around the steps: 'alone' shows no companion, no one to speak with; 'walk around the steps' shows a heart laden, unable to sit or lie; the word 'around' catches the motion of pacing to and fro, unable to escape his grief. 'All was quiet' writes the hush of all things, as if heaven and earth held only him — his solitude evident. 'Beyond the curtain the moon glowed dim and bright' writes the misty moon, half-lit, exactly like his thoughts, too full to speak, hard to make clear. It names no grief yet grief is everywhere: solitary pacing is grief's action, the quiet is grief's setting, the misty moon is grief's shadow; three phrases rising layer by layer paint the hero walking alone in the deep night, thoughts vast as if present before the eyes — the complete close of the upper stanza, moving from dream to waking and from waking to grief.
白首为功名，旧山松竹老，阻归程
White-headed for a name of merit; The old hills' pines and bamboos age, blocking my homeward road.
白发渐生，只为建功留名、收复河山，故乡的松竹早已老去，阻隔了归程。
My hair has turned white for fame and merit; the pines and bamboos of my old hills have grown old, blocking my way home.
下片直抒胸臆，五字写尽毕生志业与岁月蹉跎。「白首为功名」的「功名」非个人荣利，实指驱逐金人、恢复山河的毕生抱负——为国为民、白首不悔，一个「为」字见其执着，而「白首」又叹岁月流逝、功业未成，壮怀与悲慨并生；「旧山松竹老」写故乡的松竹已苍老——故乡即沦陷的中原，松竹之老既写物候变迁，也暗喻故国沦陷日久、父老凋零；「阻归程」三字最沉痛：不是不能归，而是失地未复、无颜归乡，亦无路可归。此句由己及乡、由乡及国，把个人功业与家国兴亡熔为一体，是英雄词「小我即大我」的典型。
The lower stanza speaks directly from the heart, five phrases exhausting a lifelong calling and wasted years. 'My hair has turned white for fame and merit' — here 'fame and merit' is not personal gain but the lifelong vow to drive out the Jin and recover the rivers and hills; for country and people, white-haired without regret, the word 'for' shows his fixation, while 'white-haired' sighs at years slipping and achievement unmet; bold resolve and sorrow rise together. 'The pines and bamboos of my old hills have grown old' — the pines and bamboo of his homeland, that is, the fallen Central Plain, have grown aged; their aging writes the change of seasons and shadows the long occupation, the elders thinning. 'Blocking my way home' is the most bitter: it is not that he cannot return, but that the lost land is unrecovered, and he has no face to go home, nor any road to go by. The line moves from himself to his home, from home to the nation, fusing personal achievement with the rise and fall of the country — a typical 'small self equals great self' of hero's ci.
欲将心事付瑶琴，知音少，弦断有谁听
I would lay my heart's affair on the jade zither— But few are the kindred ears; the string snaps—who is there to hear?
想把满腹心事托付瑶琴，无奈知音太少，琴弦弹断又有谁人听？
I would pour my heart into the jade lute, but few understand; if the strings break, who will listen?
用伯牙子期典翻出，以问句收束全词，报国无门之痛彻骨。「欲将心事付瑶琴」写想借琴声倾诉满腹心事，瑶琴本是知音相赏之器，心事付琴，正盼有人能解；而「知音少」三字陡然一转：满朝文武、庙堂之上，竟无一人真正理解他的北伐之志，主和之声甚嚣尘上，此「少」字何等沉痛；「弦断有谁听」更以反问收束：纵把琴弦弹断，又有谁来听呢？明知无人听而仍欲付琴，正是无可奈何中的执着。此句反用伯牙绝弦之典——伯牙失子期而绝弦，是知音已逝；岳飞有知音而不得，是朝中无人，以问句出之，把孤愤推向高潮，戛然而止，余悲不尽，是全词最撕心裂肺的一笔，也是岳飞「婉约写忠愤」的极致。
It turns the allusion of Boya and Zhongziqi inside out and closes in a question; the pain of serving a country that will not use him pierces the bone. 'I would pour my heart into the jade lute' — the jade lute was the instrument between soulmates, and entrusting one's heart to it hopes someone will understand. 'Few understand' turns abruptly: among the court's civil and military officials, not one truly grasps his northern expedition, while voices for peace drown all; how bitter this 'few.' 'If the strings break, who will listen?' closes in a rhetorical question: even if he snaps the strings, who is there to hear? Knowing no one listens yet still wishing to pour his heart into the lute is the fixation within helplessness. The line reverses the Boya allusion: Boya snapped his strings when Zhongziqi died — a soulmate gone; Yue Fei had a soulmate yet could not find one, for the court held none. Put as a question, it pushes isolated indignation to its height, stops short, and leaves sorrow endless — the most wrenching stroke of the ci, the height of Yue Fei 'writing loyal wrath through a restrained mode.'
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Both from Yue Fei's hand writing a traveller's hidden feeling; together prove his heroic and graceful two faces.
两作同出岳飞手笔而文体不同。《池州翠微亭》「经年尘土满征衣，特特寻芳上翠微」以诗写征战后偶游山水之趣，语言明快，尚存豪迈英气；《小重山》则以词写夜半梦醒、心事难言的孤愤，笔致幽婉，尽显英雄失路之悲。一诗一词，一豪一婉：诗中有征尘铁衣的壮色，词中有寒蛩孤月的愁影，恰成岳飞文学创作的一体两面。并读可见，岳飞既能以诗写戎马英姿，亦能以词写内心幽愤，其精神世界之丰富，远超一般武将，此正《岳武穆遗文》并收二作的价值所在。
贺铸·六州歌头·少年侠气 Song of the Six Prefectures · A Youth's Heroic Air 贺铸 · 同写报国无门、英雄失路，可比较将门与文人之愤 SameBoth write serving the state with no door open, a hero at a lost road; compare the general's and the man of letters' indignation.
两词同写英雄报国无门之愤而身份笔法有别。贺铸《六州歌头》「少年侠气，交结五都雄」写少年豪侠之气，下片陡转「思报国，无路请缨」的愤懑，以慷慨激越的长调写文人失路之悲，词风悲壮；岳飞《小重山》则以婉约小令写英雄夜半独步、弦断谁听的孤愤，沉郁低回。一为文人假想之侠愤，一为将帅亲历之真悲；一激昂一沉郁，同写「报国无门」而情味各异，并读正可见宋代爱国词由文人到将帅的不同声口，亦可见豪放与婉约皆可为爱国之情服务。
文天祥·扬子江 Yangzi River 文天祥 · 同怀恢复之志，一南渡一末世，可比较宋人爱国词之悲壮 SameBoth hold the will to recover; one Southern-Song one end-of-dynasty; compare the Song patriotic lyric's tragic-heroic note.
两作同怀恢复故国之志而时代处境不同。文天祥《扬子江》「臣心一片磁针石，不指南方不肯休」作于南宋将亡之际，以身许国、九死不悔，语气坚定决绝，是末世忠臣的绝唱；岳飞《小重山》作于南宋中兴之初，虽受掣肘而国势尚可为，其悲在「知音少」的孤愤。一在国亡之际言志，一在功败垂成时抒愤；一以明志为主、一以抒情为主。两作并读，可见南宋爱国文学从岳飞到文天祥的百年回响：收复之志、孤忠之心一脉相承，而时代愈危，其声愈烈，正是「孤臣孽子之心」在诗词中的永恒映照。