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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

三台春曲

Spring Song of the Three Terraces (Santai Chunqu)

许棐

Xu Fei

宋词Song Ci 六言Six-character 伤春Lamenting Spring 相思Longing 闺情Boudoir Feeling

春是人间过客，花随春不多时。
人比花尤易老，那堪终日相思。

Spring is the guest passing through the human world, and the flowers, with the spring, do not have much time.
Man, more than the flowers, is apt to grow old, how can one bear the whole-day longing?

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Meaning

A six-character short ci by Xu Fei, on the tune of the 'Three Terraces.' 'Spring is the guest passing through the human world, and the flowers, with the spring, do not have much time'—the spring is the guest passing through, the flowers following the spring do not last long, the shortness of the spring; 'man, more than the flowers, is apt to grow old, how can one bear the whole-day longing?'—man grows old more quickly than the flowers wither, and the whole-day longing the more unbearable, the progress from the spring to the flowers to man, the lament of the life and the longing in one. The whole ci of four lines, each line one meaning, and each meaning pressing on the other: from the spring to the flowers, from the flowers to man, from man to the longing, the lament of the life and the sorrow of the longing, the deep and the lingering of the four lines.

春天就像人世间一位匆匆来去的过路客人。花儿跟随着春天，也开不了多少时光。人的衰老比花儿凋谢还要来得更快。又怎么禁受得起整日里无休无止的相思之苦。

Appreciation

The subtlety of the art of the ci first in the 'the writing of the heavier and heavier sorrow with the layer-on-layer subtraction.' The whole ci of four lines, each line one meaning, and each meaning pressing on the other: the opening 'spring is the guest passing through the human world' makes the spring a 'guest passing through,' already containing the meaning of the coming and not the staying; the second 'the flowers, with the spring, do not have much time' from the spring to the flowers, the period of the flowers shorter than the spring, the recompression of the time; the third 'man, more than the flowers, is apt to grow old' from the thing to man, man growing old quicker than the flowers withering, the reversal of the level of the life; the last 'how can one bear the whole-day longing?' from the natural to the human feeling, the whole-day longing the more unbearable, the ultimate of the sorrow. The whole ci, from the spring to the flowers to man to the longing, the four subtractions, the four heavinesses, the sorrow of the life and the longing written with the concise and the deep, the clear and the graceful, the distant and the faint, the model of the six-character short ci.

【白话串讲】许棐写三台春曲：“春是人间过客，花随春不多时”。“人比花尤易老，那堪终日相思”——人比花更容易老，怎么经得起相思。【意象与手法】善用「随」「比」「尤」构成级联比较，把春短、花促、人老、情长压进六言四句。「过客」化用李白光阴之喻，以极简的篇幅写极深的感慨。【情感与主旨】表面伤春惜花，实则是生命易逝的焦虑与相思难遣之痛。宋末隐士不仕，春老花谢里也藏着故国难再的怅惘。【名句点睛】「人比花尤易老」翻用古人花人对照，把人置于花之下风，酸楚警策；「那堪终日相思」以虚字收束，将前面铺排尽化为主观之痛。

Background

Xu Fei, roughly of the time of Emperor Lizong of Song, courtesy name Chenfu, styled himself the Master of the Plum House, a native of Haiyan. According to the 'Records of the Poetry of the Song' and the citations of Li E, Xu Fei lived in seclusion by the Qin Stream, built the Plum House, amused himself with the poetry, did not serve the Yuan, and left the 'Draft of the Poetry of the Plum House' in four volumes and the 'Collected Works of the Plum House' to posterity. His poetry mostly writes the seclusion and the leisure, the lamenting the spring and grieving the autumn, the boudoir feeling and the parting thought, the style clear and shallow, graceful and soft, near to the River-Lake poetry school yet with its own distant and faint quality. This 'Spring Song of the Three Terraces' is a six-character short ci, on the tune of the 'Three Terraces,' filled by the Song men after the old tune of the Tang jiaofang. The 'Three Terraces' was originally the name of the Tang jiaofang tune, originating from the three terraces of the Ye (the Bronze Bird, the Golden Tiger, and the Ice Well), later a ci tune, the single-stanza twenty-four characters, four lines, six-character, the first and the third ending in the oblique tone, the second and the fourth in the level rhyme.

许棐，约当宋理宗时人，字忱夫，号梅屋，海盐人。据《宋诗纪事》及厉鹗所引,许棐隐居秦溪，筑梅屋，以诗自娱，不仕元，有《梅屋诗稿》四卷及《梅屋集》传世。其诗多写隐居闲适、伤春悲秋、闺情离思，风格清浅婉约，近江湖诗派而自有淡远之致。这首《三台春曲》是一首六言小令，调寄《三台》，属宋人依唐教坊旧曲填制者。《三台》本唐教坊曲名，源于邺中三台（铜雀、金虎、冰井），后为词牌，单调二十四字，四句，六言，一、三句仄收，二、四句平韵，句式整饬如六言绝句。许棐此词以春归、花落、人老、相思四层递转，将时序流转与生命忧惧绾合一体，是宋末伤春词中篇幅极短而感慨极深的一首。宋季国势飘摇，士人多有身世之嗟，许棐隐居不仕，其伤春之作往往不只是儿女之情，亦暗含对人事无常、盛世难再的怅惘。此词虽仅二十四字，却以「过客」「不多时」「尤易老」「终日相思」层层加码，把春之短暂、花之易谢、人之速老、情之难遣写得惊心动魄，是六言小令中以少总多的范例，可与李白《越女词》、王维六言绝句并读，而哀婉过之。

Art

The art is the 'the writing of the heavier and heavier sorrow with the layer-on-layer subtraction': the spring the guest passing, the flowers not having much time, man apt to grow old, and the whole-day longing, the four subtractions and the four heavinesses—from the spring to the flowers to man to the longing, the clear and the graceful, the distant and the faint, the model of the six-character short ci.

此词艺术之妙，首在「以层层递进之减法写层层加重之悲」。全词四句，句各一意，而意意相逼：首句「春是人间过客」将春拟为「过客」，已含去而不留之意；次句「花随春不多时」由春及花，花之期更短于春，是时间上的再压缩；三句「人比花尤易老」由物及人，人老又速于花谢，是生命层次的反转；末句「那堪终日相思」更由自然之代谢跳到人事之缠绵，把前三层客观的物理之悲收束为主观的心理之痛。这种「春→花→人→情」的递降结构，使篇幅虽短而纵深极大。其次，全词善用比较词「随」「比」「尤」，构成「花随春」「人比花」「尤易老」的级联比较，逻辑紧峭如算学，却以抒情出之，是理趣与情趣的融合。再次，用字极省而意象极密：「过客」用典于李白「夫天地者万物之逆旅也，光阴者百代之过客」，以旷达语写沉痛；「那堪」是唐人绝句惯用虚词（如「那堪弦管醉春风」），自带转折之力。整体看，此词以六言四句的极简形式，完成了一次从自然节律到生命焦虑的螺旋下降，是宋末小令「短而能深」的代表。

Allusions

The allusions of the ci, though faint, have several sources of the culture to trace. First, the image of the 'guest passing through' of the 'spring is the guest passing through the human world' directly inherits the famous metaphor of Li Bai's 'Preface to the Feast in the Peach and Plum Garden at Night'—'the heaven and the earth are the hostel of the ten thousand things, and the light and the shade are the guests passing through of the hundred generations'—viewing the spring as the traveler briefly staying in the heaven and the earth, transforming the solemn words into the mind of the ci. Second, 'the flowers, with the spring, do not have much time' covertly matches the tradition of the lamenting the spring and the cherishing the flowers of the classical poetry, the 'the falling flowers are speechless and the spring departs' of the Song ci; and the 'the flowers wither and the red flies' of the 'Butterflies Lingering over Flowers' of the lamenting the spring, the sentiment of the flourishing and the decay of the flowers, the eternal theme of the Chinese poetry.

此词用典虽淡，却有数处文化渊薮可溯。其一，「春是人间过客」之「过客」意象，直承李白《春夜宴桃李园序》「夫天地者，万物之逆旅也；光阴者，百代之过客也」的名喻，将春视为天地间短暂停留的旅人，化庄语为词心。其二，「花随春不多时」暗合古典文学「伤春」「惜花」母题，自《楚辞·招隐士》「攀援桂枝兮聊淹留」、古诗「常恐秋节至，焜黄华叶衰」，至李煜「林花谢了春红，太匆匆」，皆以花之易落喻美好之难持久，许棐以六言缩为一句，承绪显然。其三，「人比花尤易老」翻用民间与诗词中「人比黄花瘦」「人面不知何处去」一类因人及物的衰老书写，而反作「人比花尤易老」，把人置于花之下风，立意酸楚，与刘希夷《代悲白头翁》「年年岁岁花相似，岁岁年年人不同」同一机杼。其四，「那堪终日相思」之「那堪」为六朝隋唐诗中习语（庾信、李白多用），表「怎禁得起」之意，自带无可奈何的抒情张力。综上，此词虽短，却把从《庄子》《楚辞》到唐人绝句的伤逝传统，凝练于一二十四字的小令之中，是典故在极短篇幅中「举重若轻」的范例。

Commentary

Though short, this 'Spring Song of the Three Terraces' of Xu Fei has always been valued by the anthologists and the critics, regarded as the pure piece of the six-character short ci of the late Song. The 'Three Hundred Ci of the Song' compiled by the Qing men does not include Xu Fei, yet the modern scholars, in the reappraisal of the late Song River-Lake and reclusive poets, often single out the meaningfulness of his six-character short ci. Tang Guizhang's 'Complete Ci of the Song' records this ci according to the 'Compilation of the Ci of the Houses,' the appreciation of the ci mostly in its conciseness and its depth: the four lines, with the plain and the shallow, carrying the heavy sorrow of the spring and the longing, the 'the small see the great' of the six-character ci, and the 'man, more than the flowers, is apt to grow old' a famous line of the lamenting the life, the eternal feeling of the human world.

许棐此首《三台春曲》虽短，却历来为选家与论者所重，视作宋末六言小令的清品。清人所编《宋词三百首》未收许棐，然近代学者在重估宋末江湖、隐居诗人时，多拈出其六言小词之隽永。唐圭璋《全宋词》据《梅屋诗稿》辑许棐词，存其六言数阕，此首即在其中，唐先生于校记中虽未专评，而其收录本身已示其不废。今人论六言诗，每举王维《田园乐》「桃红复含宿雨」为极致，然王诗多写闲适，许棐此词则写哀婉，一闲一悲，正见六言一体可刚可柔的两面。学者叶嘉莹论小令，强调「在限制中见自由」，此词以二十四字写尽四时之悲与一生之怅，恰是「限制中见自由」的注脚。又，此词与许棐同集《喜春来》《三台》诸小令合观，可见其伤春主题的一贯；其不仕元的遗民身份，更使「春是过客」「人比花老」暗含故国不再、盛世难追的身世之痛，而非单纯的儿女相思。综上，诸家虽评说不多，而此词以极短篇幅承载极厚慨叹，足列宋末小令之林。

Prosody

Form Ci (Three Terraces, single-stanza short ci, six-character four lines)词（三台·单调小令，六言四句）

Rhyme Level rhymes of the zhi group (shi, si), the first and the third ending in the oblique tone (ke, lao)平韵支部（时、思），一三句仄收（客、老）

Tone pattern The 'spring is the guest passing through' is faint, the 'the flowers, with the spring' is light, the 'man, more than the flowers' is heavy, and the 'the whole-day longing' is deep—the whole from the spring to the longing, the four subtractions carried by the rhyme六言句式，一、三句仄声收，二、四句平声押韵，间以平仄

Reading note The level rhymes and the four lines pressing on each other carry the lament of the life and the sorrow of the longing, the distant and the faint.此词调寄《三台》，为唐教坊曲演化之词牌，单调二十四字，四句，每句六言，是宋人六言小令中体式最整饬者之一。其声律格局承自唐人《三台》旧格：第一、三句以仄声收束，不押韵（或押仄韵）；第二、四句押平声韵，一韵到底。本词第二句「花随春不多时」之「时」（平声支韵）、第四句「那堪终日相思」之「思」（平声支韵），同属平水韵上平四支，构成全词仅有的两处平韵，声情婉转，恰与伤春相思的柔情相称。第一句末字「客」（入声药韵，仄）、第三句末字「老」（上声皓韵，仄），皆为仄收，与二四句平韵形成「仄—平—仄—平」的间错节奏，读来有如叹息之起落的复沓，极肖人心摇荡之态。六言句本较五七言舒缓，许棐又于此加用「是」「随」「比」「那堪」等虚字，使句式更近散文，声气更为从容纡徐，恰合小令「短章贵纡徐」之旨。要之，此词虽仅二十四字，而平仄相济、虚实相生，声律与情韵浑然一体，是六言词中声情相称的清品。

Line by line

春是人间过客，

Spring is the guest passing through the human world, (The first: the spring the guest passing through, the coming and not the staying, the beginning of the lament of the spring.)

春天就像人世间一位匆匆来去的过路客人。

Spring is but a passing guest in the human world.

「春是人间过客」为全词起句，亦是其哲学基调的奠定。诗人不写「春去」「春归」等寻常字面，而径以「过客」拟春，把季节的轮转人格化为一位不作停留的旅人。这一比况渊源有自，上接李白《春夜宴桃李园序》「光阴者，百代之过客也」的旷达之叹，下启宋人「人生如寄」的永恒怅惘。妙在「人间」二字：春本属天，却偏说是「人间」的过客，暗含人世本短、春亦不肯久留的双重悲凉。此句以判断句式（「春是……」）出之，语气斩截，与一般伤春词的婉转呻吟不同，先声夺人地定下全词「以理制情」的调性。后世读者每于此句见出宋末士人面对时序与国运双重飘摇时的旷达与无奈，正因其用语朴素而意蕴渊深，故能于六言之中立起全篇的骨架。

The opening line fixes both the ci and its philosophical tone. The poet does not use the common phrases of spring departing or spring returning but straightway compares spring to a passing guest, personifying the turning of the seasons as a traveler who will not linger. The comparison has deep roots: it follows Li Bai lament that time is the passing guest of a hundred ages, and opens the Song sense that human life is but a sojourn. The word human world is the subtle stroke: spring belongs to heaven, yet is called a guest of the human world, holding a double pathos - human life is brief, and spring will not stay. The judgmental tone, spring is..., is categorical rather than the usual wistful moan of spring-sorrow, setting the ci key of mastering feeling through reason. Later readers have heard in this line the broad-minded helplessness of late Song scholars facing the double instability of the seasons and the dynasty; because its language is plain yet its meaning deep, it bears the whole six-character piece.

花随春不多时。

and the flowers, with the spring, do not have much time. (The second: from the spring to the flowers, the period of the flowers shorter than the spring, the recompression of the time.)

花儿跟随着春天，也开不了多少时光。

Flowers follow spring, yet bloom but a little while.

「花随春不多时」紧承首句，由春及花，构成时间上的二次压缩。一个「随」字极有分寸：花本依春而生，春在则花荣，春去则花谢，花之命运全系于春之去留，故曰「随」。这就把花置于比春更被动、更短暂的位置。继之以「不多时」三字，直白如话，却字字惊心——花之绚烂本就须臾，较之春之「过客」犹为短促。此句在章法上承上启下：上应「过客」之去而不留，下启「人比花尤易老」之反转。从意象传统看，惜花、伤花自《诗经》「桃之夭夭」、《楚辞》「及荣华之未落」已然，至李煜「林花谢了春红，太匆匆」而极哀；许棐以六言缩之，删尽形容，只留「随」「不多时」的冷峻判断，反得一种宋人特有的「以淡写浓」之力，是六言小令炼意不以炼字胜的典型。

The second line follows the first, passing from spring to flowers and compressing time a second time. The single word follow is measured: flowers live by spring - while spring stays they bloom, when spring goes they fall, and their fate hangs entirely on spring coming and going, hence follow. This places the flower still more passively and briefly than spring. Then not much time follows, plain as speech yet shocking word by word - the flower splendor is already momentary, shorter even than spring the passing guest. Structurally the line bridges: above it answers the guest that goes and never stays; below it prepares the reversal that people age even faster than flowers. In the tradition of flower-regret, from the Book of Songs peach blossoms to Li Yu forest flowers fallen, red of spring, how too hurried, Xu Fu compresses it into six characters, stripping away ornament and leaving only the cold judgments follow and not much time - a Song power of writing depth in plainness.

人比花尤易老，

Man, more than the flowers, is apt to grow old, (The third: from the thing to man, man growing old quicker than the flowers withering, the reversal of the level of the life.)

人的衰老比花儿凋谢还要来得更快。

People age even more quickly than the flowers fade.

「人比花尤易老」是全词的一大反转，也是情感由物及人的关键一跃。前两句写春、写花，毕竟还是自然景物，到此句忽然落到「人」身上，且以「比花尤易老」作比较，把人置于花之「下风」——花尚能「随春」而有其一时之荣，人却连花的那点须臾都未必及得上。一个「尤」字（「尤其」「更」）把递降逻辑推到极点：过客之春→不多时之花→尤易老之人，一层悲似一层。这与刘希夷「年年岁岁花相似，岁岁年年人不同」同一机杼，却更凝练酸楚。从生命哲学看，此句触及中国诗歌「草木零落、美人迟暮」的永恒主题（《楚辞·离骚》「惟草木之零落兮，恐美人之迟暮」），许棐将其压缩为六字判断，举重若轻。它也预示了末句由物理之悲转向心理之痛的必然，因为人既如此易老，则相思之不堪便不言可喻。

This line is the ci great reversal, the key leap from things to the person. The first two lines write spring and flowers, still natural scenery; here the subject suddenly falls on people, and the comparison ages even faster than the flower places man below the flower - the flower can at least follow spring and have its brief bloom, while man may not even match that moment. The single word especially, still more, drives the logic of decline to the limit: the guest spring, the brief flower, the still-faster-fading person, each layer sadder than the last. It works in the same way as Liu Xiyi year after year the flowers are alike, year after year the people are not, yet is more compressed and poignant. In the philosophy of life it touches the eternal theme of Chinese poetry - plants falling and the fair face growing old - from Li Sao only plants are falling, I fear the fair one grows old; Xu Fu compresses it into a six-character judgment, light as a feather for such weight. It also foretells the turn from physical grief to the pain of the heart in the final line, for if man ages so fast, how love-sickness must wear him.

那堪终日相思。

how can one bear the whole-day longing? (The last: from the natural to the human feeling, the whole-day longing the more unbearable, the ultimate of the sorrow.)

又怎么禁受得起整日里无休无止的相思之苦。

How can one bear endless lovesickness all the day?

「那堪终日相思」为全词收束，由前三句客观的物理之悲，陡然收束为主观的心理之痛，是「以情收理」的妙笔。「那堪」即「怎堪」「怎禁得起」，是六朝隋唐诗中极常见的抒情虚词（庾信「那堪回首望长安」、李白「那堪愁里听」皆其例），本身即携带无可奈何的转折张力。诗人前面已把春、花、人三层悲凉铺排殆尽，至此忽然点出这一切忧惧的根源——「终日相思」。原来伤春、惜花、嗟老，终不过是因为「相思」二字缠心不去；人易老而情难遣，这才是全词真正的诗眼。这一结法，使前二十一字的铺陈全成为末句的注脚，结构极似唐人绝句「铺垫—点题」之法（如「春风得意马蹄疾」前的压抑）。以六言小令而能于结尾翻出一层，把自然之悲与人事之痛绾合无间，足见许棐虽为隐居小诗人，腕下却有大家手段。

The closing gathers the ci, turning the objective physical grief of the first three lines sharply into the subjective pain of the heart - a fine instance of ending reason with feeling. How can one bear means how endure, a common lyrical particle of the Six Dynasties and Sui-Tang verse (Yu Xin how can I bear turning back to look at Chang an, Li Bai how can I bear listening amid sorrow), carrying the tension of helplessness. The poet has laid out the three griefs of spring, flower and person, and now suddenly names their source - endless lovesickness all day. It turns out that grieving spring, treasuring flowers, mourning age, all come from the single word lovesickness clinging to the heart; man ages easily yet feeling cannot be dismissed - this is the ci true eye. The ending makes all the foregoing the footnote to this one line, structured like a Tang quatrain buildup then point. A six-character short song that turns at the close, binding natural grief and human pain without a seam, shows that though Xu Fu was a reclusive minor poet, his hand had the power of a master.

Study

Word focus

过客 The guest passing through. The word of the spring: 'spring is the guest passing through the human world'—the spring the traveler briefly staying, inheriting Li Bai's 'the guests passing through of the hundred generations,' the shortness of the spring. 「过客」二字是全词立意的根柢，亦是其文化纵深所在。字面意为路过的客人，本属寻常语，但诗人用以拟「春」，便赋予春天以行色匆匆、不肯驻足的人格形象。其典源直溯李白《春夜宴桃李园序》「光阴者，百代之过客也」，李氏以「过客」喻光阴，发出世事如寄的旷达之慨；许棐移以写春，既承其「万物逆旅」的哲思，又将其收束为一年一度、更切己的伤逝体验。炼字之妙，在「过」字自带动态与短暂，「客」字自带疏离与无归属感——春于人间，本是「客」而非「主」，所以它不会留，也留不住。这与一般诗词写春「归」「去」不同：「归」「去」仍把春当作可来可往的主体，而「过客」则从根本上否定了春与人间的长久契约。一词之择，使全词从具体的伤春跃升为对时间本质的叩问，是「以一字立骨」的范例。

那堪 How can one bear. The word of the feeling: 'how can one bear the whole-day longing?'—the unbearable, the ultimate of the sorrow, from the natural to the human feeling, the whole-day longing the more unbearable. 「那堪」置于篇末，是全词抒情张力的总开关。「那」通「哪」，「堪」谓禁受、承受，「那堪」即「怎禁得起」「哪里承受得了」，是古典诗词中极富表现力的反诘式虚词。其渊源可上溯六朝，庾信《哀江南赋》虽未用此词，而唐人诗中「那堪」已屡见，如李白「那堪愁里听，更值夜猿悲」、王昌龄「那堪两处宿，共听一声猿」，皆用以表达于某种困境中再难承受额外打击的心理。许棐以此收束全词，妙在前三句已把春短、花促、人老的悲凉层层堆叠，至此以「那堪」一转，把物理之哀收束为「终日相思」这一心理重压——仿佛在说：春之过、花之谢、人之老，本已难堪，又怎禁得起这无日无之的相思？一个虚词，便把全词的势能导向顶点，是「以虚词结实处」的高手手段，亦见宋末小令善用唐人虚字以增婉转的风习。

尤 The more. The word of the progress: 'man, more than the flowers, is apt to grow old'—the more, man growing old quicker than the flowers withering, the reversal of the level of the life, the progress of the sorrow. 「尤」字见于第三句「人比花尤易老」，是全词递降逻辑中的关键副词，分量远胜其小。其本义为「更」「尤其」，在此承担把比较推向极致的功用：春是过客（短），花随春不多时（更短），人比花尤易老（最短）——「尤」字使这三层悲凉构成不可逆转的级联，每一层都比前一层更进一寸。炼字之妙，在它与「比」字的配合：「比花」是设定比较对象，「尤易老」是给出比较结论，二者叠加，便把人置于花之「下风」，使「人不如花」这一酸楚命题得以成立。这与刘希夷「岁岁年年人不同」暗合，而「尤」字以直白的强调，把这种「人更速朽」的痛感说得毫无回旋。一个寻常程度副词，在六言小令的极窄空间中，竟能撑起从自然到生命的转折枢纽，足见许棐驱遣虚字以成至境的腕力，亦是宋末小令「以虚字为骨」的典型。