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宋 Song · 诗 Poem

天圣中年尝有异梦熙宁癸丑退居南台聊记旧事

A Strange Dream of the Tiansheng Years, Recalled at Nantai in Retirement (Xining, Gui-Chou Year)

张方平

Zhang Fangping

记梦dream record 仙道Taoist transcendence 人生感怀reflections on life

凌空素阁彩霞鲜，旧侣相容见九玄。
上下登梯一童子，逡巡离座六灵仙。
跪瞻宝案凝神久，手纳金匙受记专。
病卧夜长思此境，忽惊四十有三年。

White pavilions float on high, bright with rosy clouds;
An old companion received me, and I beheld the Ninefold Mysteries.
A single boy climbed the stairs, up and down;
Six spirit immortals rose, hesitant, from their seats.
Kneeling, I gazed long at the jewelled altar, my spirit fixed;
I took the golden key in hand, granted the solemn charge.
Sick in bed through the long night, I mused on that realm;
Suddenly startled—forty-three years had gone by.

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Meaning

The poet recalls a strange dream from his youth, in which he was welcomed into a Taoist heaven, received by immortals and granted a sacred charge. Now old and bedridden, he is struck that forty-three years separate the dream from the present. The poem contrasts the radiant vision of the dream with the lonely reality of age and illness.

凌空的白色楼阁披着鲜丽的彩霞，旧日道友容纳我，见到了九重玄天。一个童子上上下下登着阶梯，六位灵仙迟疑着离开座位。我跪着瞻仰宝案凝神许久，手中接过金匙，受到专门的授记。病卧之中长夜思量此等境界，忽然惊觉已经过了四十三年。

Appreciation

Structurally the poem divides into a dream and its awakening: the first six lines build a lavish, ascending vision of the immortal realm, while the final couplet plunges back into the sickbed. The contrast between the solemn splendour of the dream and the stark passage of time gives the plain closing line its quiet power. Zhang writes the marvellous in restrained, clear language, characteristic of the introspective Song style.

【白话串讲】张方平回忆四十三年前的异梦：“凌空素阁彩霞鲜，旧侣相容见九玄”。“跪瞻宝案凝神久，手纳金匙受记专”——“病卧夜长思此境，忽惊四十有三年”——他晚年回忆当年的仙梦。【意象与手法】诗以记梦为体，前六句铺写梦境，末二句折回现实，形成「梦—觉」的对照结构。梦境全用道佛仙真的意象织成：素阁、彩霞、九玄、灵仙、宝案、金匙、受记，层层上升，由阁而天、由天而仙、由仙而受记，境界愈推愈高，庄重而缥缈。末句「忽惊四十有三年」陡然跌回病榻，以时间跨度之巨反衬梦境之幻。【情感与主旨】主旨在对一段久远的异梦作迟暮的回溯。张方平晚年病卧，退居南台，将中年一梦郑重记下，既有对仙真境界的向往，也有对流光迅疾、人生已老的深沉怅惘，寄寓了浮生若梦、仙缘难续的感慨。【名句点睛】「病卧夜长思此境，忽惊四十有三年」是全诗关键，前六句仙境的华美尽为此「忽惊」铺垫，一梦相隔四十三年，顿见人生之迅与梦之珍贵。

Background

Zhang Fangping, styled Andao and known as the Lequan Hermit, was a native of Songcheng in Yingtian Prefecture and a renowned statesman and man of letters of the mid-Northern Song, serving under the Renzong, Yingzong and Shenzong reigns. In the title, 'Tiansheng' is the reign period of Emperor Renzong (1023–1031), when Zhang was a young man in his twenties; 'Xining' is the reign period of Emperor Shenzong, and 'Gui-Chou' is the sixth year of Xining (1073), by which time Zhang was nearly seventy. 'Retired at Nantai' shows he had left the centre of power and lived in quiet illness. In his later years, at odds with Wang Anshi over policy and opposed to the New Laws, Zhang withdrew inward, often turning to Buddhism and Taoism. This poem records, from his sickbed, a strange dream of some forty years before; the great span of time between the dream and its recollection is itself the emotional tension of the poem.

张方平字安道，号乐全居士，应天府宋城人，是北宋中期著名政治家、文学家，历仕仁宗、英宗、神宗三朝。诗题中的「天圣」是宋仁宗年号，即公元一〇二三至一〇三一年，张方平此时年方弱冠，正值意气风发的青年时代；「熙宁」是宋神宗年号，「癸丑」即熙宁六年，公元一〇七三年，张方平已是年近古稀的老人。题中「退居南台」点明他此时已离开朝廷权力中心，闲居养病。张方平晚年与王安石政见不合，反对新法，遂渐次退避，心境趋于内敛，常寄情于佛道、参悟性命。此诗便是他在病榻之上，忽然记起约四十多年前的一个旧梦，遂以诗笔郑重追记。从中年到暮年，一梦隔了四十三年，这种超长的时间跨度本身便是诗的情感张力所在。所谓「异梦」，写的是仙真相迎、授记受命之事，透露出张方平早年即有慕道之心，而晚年病中重提，更多了一层对往昔精神理想的追怀与对人生迟暮的感喟。

Art

This is a heptasyllabic regulated verse (qiyan lüshi) of eight lines in four couplets, tightly ordered, belonging to the 'dream record' type. Its outstanding feature is the two-part 'dream versus awakening' structure. The first six lines devote themselves to the dream, laying out imagery in sequence: the opening couplet opens the dream's space with the floating white pavilion and rosy clouds; the second describes the boy on the stairs and the six immortals leaving their seats, the dream's figures in motion; the third depicts kneeling before the altar and receiving the golden key, the dream's climax and the source of the poem's solemnity. Together they form a rising passage from outer to inner, from below to above, from the mortal to the sacred, stately and luminous, with a ritual hush. The final couplet turns sharply: 'sick in bed through the long night' drags the reader from paradise to reality, and 'suddenly startled—forty-three years' closes on a huge temporal gap, a stark contrast of then and now. The poem uses no recondite words, yet its mood is ethereal and its resonance long; writing the marvellous in plain language is the very mark of the Song introspective manner.

此诗是七言律诗，八句四联，章法谨严，属「记梦」一类。艺术上最突出的是「梦—觉」二分的结构。前六句全力写梦境，意象依次铺陈：首联写凌空的素阁与彩霞，是梦境的空间展开；颔联写上下登梯的童子与离座的六灵仙，是梦境中的人物动态；颈联写跪瞻宝案、手纳金匙受记，是梦境的顶点，也是全诗庄严感的来源。三联合起来，构成一个由外而内、由下而上、由凡入圣的升腾过程，笔触雍容、设色清丽，有一种宗教仪式般的肃穆。末联笔锋陡转，「病卧夜长」四字把读者从仙境拉回现实，「忽惊四十有三年」以时间的巨大落差收束全篇，形成强烈的今昔对照。全诗不用艰深字面，而意境缥缈、余韵悠长，以平淡语写奇幻事，正是宋诗内敛风格的表现。此外，前六句的铺陈与末二句的收束之间，还构成一种「蓄势—跌宕」的节奏：梦境写得越华美、越庄重，梦醒后的失落便越沉痛，以盛衬衰、以幻衬真，正是宋人记梦诗于平淡中见深曲的独到之处。

Allusions

The poem's imagery draws on Taoist and Buddhist sources and must be read one by one. 'Ninefold Mysteries' (jiuxuan) is the ninefold dark heaven of Taoism, where the immortals dwell, here the highest immortal realm. 'Spirit immortals' are attained beings; 'six spirit immortals' evokes a full assembly of immortals. 'Jewelled altar' is the offering table before the gods, and kneeling to gaze at it is the gesture of worship in Taoist rites. The 'golden key' is the immortals' implement to open the mystic pass, a token of commission. 'Received the charge' (shouji) borrows from Buddhism—the Sanskrit vyakarana, a prophecy and confirmation by the Buddha that a disciple shall attain Buddhahood—here meaning the immortals' recognition and entrustment of Zhang. These terms come now from the Taoist canon, now from the Buddhist, woven by Zhang, who in late life blended the three teachings, into one luminous dream. The allusion is never obscure, yet every word is grounded, so the dream seems solemn and credible rather than absurd. 'Ninefold Mysteries' (Taoist) and 'received the charge' (Buddhist) sit side by side without conflict, a natural expression of his 'round fusion of the three teachings.'

诗中意象多有道佛渊源，须逐一辨析。「九玄」即九重玄天，道教以天有九重，神仙所居，此指极高的仙真境界。「灵仙」即得道仙人，「六灵仙」或指六位仙真列坐，营造仙班济济的场景。「宝案」是神仙案前的供案，跪瞻宝案是道教朝真科仪中的礼拜之姿。「金匙」是仙家开启玄关的钥匙，喻指受命的凭证。「受记」则取自佛家，梵语「授记」，谓佛对弟子将来成佛作预言印证，此借指仙真对张方平的认可与付嘱。这些语汇或出道典，或出释典，张方平晚年兼融三教，故能随手拈来，织成一片仙佛交辉的梦境。整首诗的用典不涉僻书，但字字有本，使梦境不流于荒诞而显得庄重可信，这是此诗用典的高明处。而「九玄」与「受记」，一属道教、一属佛家，张方平并置而不悖，恰是其「三教圆融」思想在文字上的自然流露；以典而不为典所缚，不堆砌、不炫博，正是此诗用典的另一长处，可谓精当而自然。

Commentary

Zhang Fangping was famed for statecraft and prose; Su Shi wrote the preface to his Collected Works of Lequan, praising his 'grand and towering opinions.' His poems are mostly stately and even, yet this dream-travel piece is of a different cast. The ancients wrote many dream poems—some for longing, like Du Fu's 'Dreaming of Li Bai'; some for mourning the dead, like Su Shi's 'To the Tune Jiangchengzi'; some for roaming the immortals, like Li Bai's 'Dreaming of the Tianmu Mountain' and Li He's 'Dreaming of Heaven.' Zhang's poem is neither mourning nor mere roaming; it is a retired man looking back on a middle-aged dream, its weight not in the dream's strangeness but in the sigh after it. This recollection of a youthful dream in old age resembles the spirit of Li Shangyin's 'The Zither' ('when shall this feeling be recalled?'), only Zhang is plainer and more solid. Later readers call it 'dream like the immortals, awake and sighing at age,' desolate within the plain. It shows that even a great Northern Song minister, in his late years, uses one dream to ask after life's origin and end.

张方平以政事与文章著称于世，苏轼为其撰写《乐全集》序，称其「议论伟然」，其诗则多典重平和之作，然此类记梦游仙之篇在其集中别具一格。古人记梦诗多矣，或借梦写相思，如杜甫《梦李白》；或借梦抒悼亡，如苏轼《江城子·乙卯正月二十日夜记梦》；或借梦骋游仙之想，如李白《梦游天姥吟留别》、李贺《梦天》。张方平此诗既非悼亡，亦非单纯的游仙之肆，而是以「退居」之身回溯「中年」旧梦，重心不在梦中之奇，而在梦后之叹。这种以老年追忆青年异梦的写法，与李商隐《锦瑟》「此情可待成追忆」的精神相通，只是张诗更淡、更实。后之读此诗者，多称其「梦如仙真，醒则叹老」，于平实中见苍凉。它让我们看到，即便是北宋的重臣，在迟暮之际，也会借一梦而追问生命的来处与归宿。此诗的价值，正在于它以最私人的「一梦」，写出了最普遍的人生之感，故能跨越千年而引人共鸣。

Prosody

Form Heptasyllabic regulated verse (qiyan lüshi, eight lines)七言律诗

Rhyme Rhymes in the level-tone xian (先) category; rhyme words are xian (鲜), xuan (玄), xian (仙), zhuan (专), nian (年), sustained throughout.押平声先韵，入韵字为鲜、玄、仙、专、年，一韵到底。

Tone pattern As a heptasyllabic regulated verse it follows the level and oblique tonal pattern with the first line taking a rhyme. The two middle couplets are neatly parallel: the second couplet opposes 'up and down' to 'hesitant', 'a single boy' to 'six spirit immortals'; the third opposes 'kneeling gaze' to 'hand receives', 'spirit fixed long' to 'charge received solely.'七言律诗依律调平仄，首句入韵。中二联对仗工整：颔联「上下登梯一童子，逡巡离座六灵仙」以「上下」对「逡巡」、「一童子」对「六灵仙」；颈联「跪瞻宝案凝神久，手纳金匙受记专」以「跪瞻」对「手纳」、「凝神久」对「受记专」，皆词性相侔、平仄相对。

Reading note The poem uses the level-tone xian category; xian belongs to the open fourth division of the shan rhyme group, its vowel fine and bright, most fit for writing the ethereal emptiness of the immortal realm. The five rhyme words—xian, xuan, xian, zhuan, nian—sound clear and far-carrying, answering exactly the luminous imagery of 'white pavilion,' 'rosy clouds,' 'Ninefold Mysteries,' 'spirit immortals,' and creating a transcendent, unworldly music. Especially clever is the echo of rhyme and content: the first three couplets' xian, xuan, xian are light and clear, suiting the dream's rising; at the last couplet the word nian turns heavier, matching the regret of 'suddenly startled.' The whole follows the tonal law with parallel middle couplets, yet never stiff, reading like flowing clouds. Zhang's poetry is known for stateliness; here he uses a clear empty rhyme for a marvellous dream, sound and image perfectly united, showing his metric skill bends to feeling rather than binding it.此诗用平声先韵，先韵属山摄开口四等，元音细而清亮，最宜写仙境的空灵与缥缈。五个人韵字鲜、玄、仙、专、年，读来清越悠扬，正与「素阁」「彩霞」「九玄」「灵仙」的清丽意象相应，营造出一种超凡脱俗的声情。尤为巧妙的是韵脚与内容的呼应：前三联的鲜、玄、仙，音色轻清，贴合梦境的升腾；至末联「年」字收束，音转而沉，与「忽惊」的怅惘相合。全诗平仄合律，中二联对仗，却绝无板滞之病，读来如行云流水。张方平诗本以典重见长，此篇却以清空之韵写奇幻之梦，声情与意象高度统一，可见其格律功力并非拘泥，而能随情转韵、以声传情。

Line by line

凌空素阁彩霞鲜，旧侣相容见九玄。

White pavilions float on high, bright with rosy clouds; an old companion received me, and I beheld the Ninefold Mysteries.

凌空的白色楼阁披着鲜丽的彩霞，旧日道友容纳我，见到了九重玄天。

A white pavilion hangs in the void, its rainbow mists fresh; my old companions received me, and I saw the ninefold mystery.

此联是梦境的展开，笔法先景后人。上句「凌空素阁彩霞鲜」写景，一座白色楼阁悬于半空，周遭彩霞明丽，一个「素」字与「彩」字相对，白阁素洁、霞色斑斓，冷暖相济，营造出仙家宫阙的缥缈气象。下句「旧侣相容见九玄」写人，「旧侣」二字透出这梦并非突兀，而是与旧日道友重逢，其中暗含一段早已种下的仙缘；「九玄」即九重玄天，是道教最高的仙真境界。由「旧侣相容」而得见「九玄」，写自己蒙道友接纳、被引上玄天，语气谦和而欣慰。这一联把梦的空间与人物的来由都交代清楚，是全篇的起点，也定下了整首诗清丽而庄重的基调。

This couplet unfolds the dream, the brush first scenery then people. The first, a white pavilion hangs in the void, its rainbow mists fresh, writes scenery: a white pavilion poised in mid-air, surrounded by fresh rainbow mists; the word white set against the word rainbow, the white pavilion's purity and the mists' splendor, cold and warm balanced, building the ethereal air of the immortal palace. The second, my old companions received me, and I saw the ninefold mystery, writes people: the words old companions reveal that this dream was not abrupt, but a reunion with old Daoist friends, secretly holding an immortal affinity long planted; the ninefold mystery is the ninefold dark heaven, the highest realm of Taoist immortals. From the old companions' receiving to seeing the ninefold mystery, writing one's being accepted by the friends and led up to the dark heaven, the tone modest yet grateful. This couplet makes clear both the dream's space and the people's source, the starting point of the whole, and fixes the clear yet solemn key of the whole poem.

跪瞻宝案凝神久，手纳金匙受记专。

Kneeling, I gazed long at the jewelled altar, my spirit fixed; I took the golden key in hand, granted the solemn charge.

我跪着瞻仰宝案凝神许久，手中接过金匙，受到专门的授记。

Kneeling, I gazed at the jeweled table, long holding my breath; my hand took the golden key, receiving a special prophecy.

此联写梦境的顶点，是全诗最庄严肃穆的两句。上句「跪瞻宝案凝神久」，一个「跪」字见礼敬之诚，「凝神久」三字写出瞻仰时的专注与虔诚，时间仿佛在那一刻凝固。下句「手纳金匙受记专」，「金匙」是仙家开启玄门的钥匙，「受记」取佛家授记之义，写自己郑重接过金匙、蒙仙真专门的付嘱，这是梦中得道的象征。两句一跪一受，动作庄重、节次分明，把寻常的记梦提升为一种近乎神圣的宗教体验。「专」字收得有力，说明这授记是独对一人的殊遇，愈显珍贵。此联的庄重，恰为末联「忽惊」的跌落积蓄了最大的势能。

This couplet writes the dream's climax, the poem's most solemn and dignified two lines. The first, kneeling, I gazed at the jeweled table, long holding my breath: the single word kneeling shows the sincerity of reverence, the three words long holding my breath write the concentration and devotion of the gaze, time as if frozen at that moment. The second, my hand took the golden key, receiving a special prophecy: the golden key is the immortal key opening the dark gate; receiving a prophecy takes the Buddhist meaning of the prediction of Buddhahood, writing one's solemnly taking the golden key and being entrusted by the immortals, the symbol of winning the Way in the dream. The two lines, one kneeling one receiving, the gestures solemn and the order clear, raising an ordinary dream-record to an almost sacred religious experience. The word special closes with force, showing this prophecy was a special grace to one man alone, the more precious. The solemnity of this couplet precisely gathers the greatest momentum for the closing's sudden start and fall.

病卧夜长思此境，忽惊四十有三年。

Sick in bed through the long night, I mused on that realm; suddenly startled—forty-three years had gone by.

病卧之中长夜思量此等境界，忽然惊觉已经过了四十三年。

Sick abed, through the long night I think of that realm; suddenly I start - it has been forty-three years.

此联折回现实，是全诗的结穴，也是情感的重心。上句「病卧夜长思此境」点明当下处境：年老、多病、夜不能寐，唯有在长夜中重温那段旧梦。一个「思」字，把读者从仙境的华美拉回到病榻的孤寂，冷暖对照鲜明。下句「忽惊四十有三年」是全诗最沉痛的一笔，「忽惊」二字写出恍然彻悟的瞬间震动，四十三年竟在弹指之间，梦犹在目，而人已垂老。前六句仙境的升腾，尽为此一句的时间落差所击碎，让人顿生浮生若梦、仙缘难再的苍凉。以平淡之语收束奇幻之梦，余韵悠长，正是宋诗以议论与感慨作结的典型笔法。

This couplet folds back to reality, the poem's knot and the center of its feeling. The first, sick abed, through the long night I think of that realm, points out the present lot: old, often ill, unable to sleep at night, only in the long night reliving that old dream. The single word think pulls the reader back from the splendor of the immortal realm to the loneliness of the sickbed, the contrast of warm and cold most clear. The second, suddenly I start - it has been forty-three years, is the whole poem's most grievous stroke: the two words suddenly start write the momentary shock of sudden awakening, and forty-three years have passed in a snap of the fingers, the dream still before the eyes while the man is already old. The ascent to the immortal realm in the first six lines is all shattered by this single line's time gap, making one feel the desolation that life is like a dream and the immortal affinity can never return. Closing the fantastic dream in plain words, the aftertone long, exactly the typical Song way of closing in argument and feeling.

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Word focus

九玄 'Ninefold Mysteries' (jiuxuan) is a Taoist term for the ninefold dark heaven where the immortals dwell, the highest realm. Zhang uses it to lift the dream at once to the supreme immortal world, more layered and solemn than a vague 'heaven.' Its power lies in its built-in religious depth: to see the Ninefold Mysteries is to see the Way and the true, the ultimate experience a cultivator longs for. Against it, the last couplet's 'sick in bed' and 'suddenly startled' are wholly human. One 'Ninefold Mysteries,' one 'sick in bed'—immortal versus mortal, high versus low—form the poem's strongest tension, and reveal Zhang's late-life turn to the Way. 「旧侣相容见九玄」之「九玄」，是道教词汇，指九重玄天，乃神仙所居的最高境界。道教以天有九重，层层而上，愈高愈玄，故称「九玄」。张方平用此二字，一举把梦境推向了至高的仙真世界，比泛言「天上」「仙界」更见层次与庄严。此词之妙，在于它自带宗教的纵深：见九玄，即见道、见真，是修行者梦寐以求的终极体验。与之相对，末联的「病卧」「忽惊」却是彻头彻尾的人间。一「九玄」一「病卧」，一仙一凡、一高一卑，构成了全诗最强烈的张力。二字虽简，却是理解全诗「仙凡对照」结构的钥匙，也透露出张方平晚年慕道、以玄远为精神寄托的内心。

受记 'Received the charge' (shouji), originally 'granted the charge' (shouji), is an important Buddhist term, a translation of the Sanskrit vyakarana, whereby the Buddha prophesies a cultivator's future enlightenment and gives confirmation. Zhang transfers this Buddhist term into a Taoist immortal dream, writing that he is solemnly confirmed and entrusted by the immortals. Its merit is twofold: it gives the dream a sacred certainty, a solemn recognition rather than a chance meeting, making the old dream weighty; and it embodies Zhang's fusion of the three teachings, using a Buddhist word for a Taoist event without strain. Had he written 'received the mandate' or 'received the seal,' the religious meaning would be lost; only 'received the charge' carries both Buddhist solemnity and Taoist immortal air, fit to uphold the hushed scene of kneeling at the altar. 「手纳金匙受记专」之「受记」，本作「授记」，是佛家的重要术语，梵语意译，谓佛对修行者预言其将来成佛、作印证付嘱。张方平将此佛家语移用于道教的仙梦之中，写自己蒙仙真专门的印证与付托。此词之妙有二：一是它赋予了梦境一种神圣的确定性，受记不同于寻常的邂逅，而是一种庄严的认定，使这个旧梦显得郑重而有分量；二是它体现了张方平三教圆融的思想，以佛语写仙事而浑然无碍。若易作「受命」「受印」，便失其宗教意蕴；唯「受记」二字，既有佛家的庄严，又含道家的仙气，恰能托起「跪瞻宝案」的肃穆场景，是全诗炼字中极见功力的一处。