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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

初发扬子寄元大校书

Setting Out from Yangzi, Sent to Collator Yuan

韦应物

Wei Yingwu

凄凄去亲爱，泛泛入烟雾。
归棹洛阳人，残钟广陵树。
今朝此为别，何处还相遇。
世事波上舟，沿洄安得住。

Sadly, sadly I leave those dear to me; drifting, drifting I enter the mist.
A homeward-bound boat, a man for Luoyang; the dying bell, the trees of Guangling.
Today we part here — in what place shall we meet again?
The world's affairs are a boat upon the waves: drifting with the current and swirling back, how can it ever stay?

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Meaning

Wei Yingwu leaves Yangzhou by boat and writes to the friend he has left behind. The opening shows him parting sorrowfully and the boat fading into mist; the second couplet looks back at the shore, where only the last strokes of a bell and the trees of Guangling remain. He wonders where they will ever meet again, and closes with a general reflection: human affairs are like a boat on the water, circling in the current, never able to come to rest.

凄凄然地离开亲爱的友人，船儿泛泛地驶入烟雾之中。我这归向洛阳的人，回望广陵，唯见残钟与树影。今朝在此一别，何处才能再相遇？世事本如波上的小舟，随流洄旋，哪里能停得住呢？

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Sorrowfully the poet takes leave of those he loves and drifts into the river mist. The boat carries a man bound for Luoyang, and looking back he finds only a failing bell and the trees of Guangling. Parting today, where will they ever meet again? And the world's business, he concludes, is a boat on the waves, swept along and swirling back, never able to hold still. [Structure] The poem moves through three distinct gestures: departure, looking back, and reflection. Each couplet has its own work to do, and the movement from the particular to the general is what makes the close feel earned rather than appended. [Imagery] The mist that swallows the boat and the bell that dies away are the same image in different senses — both are things receding beyond recovery. 'The dying bell, the trees of Guangling' is the poem's finest stroke: sound and sight joined in a single backward glance, with the adjective 'dying' doing the emotional work usually reserved for a whole line. [Tone] The feeling is quiet, restrained and deep. Wei Yingwu's characteristic manner is to understate, and here even the final philosophical statement is put as a question rather than a conclusion.

【白话串讲】韦应物写《初发扬子寄元大校书》：“凄凄去亲爱，泛泛入烟雾”——“归棹洛阳人，残钟广陵树”——“今朝此为别，何处还相遇”——“世事波上舟，沿洄安得住”——他离扬州寄友——残钟广陵树。【意象与手法】 “凄凄去亲爱，泛泛入烟雾”写别时之景与情；“归棹洛阳人，残钟广陵树”写回望之景；“今朝此为别，何处还相遇”写别离之怅惘；结以“世事波上舟，沿洄安得住”以波上舟写世事之无常。于别离中见深沉。【情感与主旨】韦应物初发扬州、寄赠友人元大之作，写别离之愁与世事之慨，以“残钟广陵树”写回望之景，是唐人送别寄赠诗中的名篇。【名句点睛】常考“归棹洛阳人，残钟广陵树”以残钟广陵树写回望；“世事波上舟，沿洄安得住”以波上舟写世事无常。

Background

Wei Yingwu (c. 737-c. 792) was a native of Chang'an who served as governor of Chuzhou, Jiangzhou and Suzhou and is often called Wei Suzhou. He belongs to the mid-Tang generation and is best known for landscape and retirement verse written in a plain, spare style. Yangzi here is Yangzijin, the crossing on the Yangtze near modern Yangzhou; Guangling is the old name for Yangzhou itself, so the poet is looking back at the city he is leaving. The recipient, 'Collator Yuan', was a friend in the collating office. Leaving by water from Yangzhou northward toward Luoyang, Wei Yingwu wrote a poem that treats a private farewell as an occasion for a larger thought about how little human life can be steered. His separation verses are prized for a quality Chinese critics call plainness with depth — few ornaments, much feeling.

《初发扬子寄元大校书》为中唐诗人韦应物所作五言律诗。韦应物（约737—约792），京兆长安人，中唐著名诗人，历任滁州、江州、苏州刺史，世称韦苏州。扬子即扬子津，在今江苏扬州附近长江边。元大校书即元姓校书郎，为韦应物之友。此诗写诗人初发扬州、离别友人元大、寄赠之作。诗中「凄凄去亲爱，泛泛入烟雾」写别时之景与情；「归棹洛阳人，残钟广陵树」写回望广陵之景；「今朝此为别，何处还相遇」写别离之怅惘；「世事波上舟，沿洄安得住」写世事之慨。韦应物一生多次行役于途、离别友人，其送别寄赠诗多写得冲淡而有深情。此诗于初发扬子之际，以烟雾、残钟写别离之景，以波上舟写世事之慨，是唐人送别寄赠诗中的名篇，也是韦应物「冲淡深挚」诗风的典型体现。此篇《初发扬子寄元大校书》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。

Art

The poem is built on receding and on the refusal to state emotion directly. The first couplet uses paired reduplicatives — 'sadly, sadly' and 'drifting, drifting' — so that feeling and motion are bound together from the start, and the boat's disappearance into mist gives the parting a physical form. The second couplet is the craftsman's centrepiece: two noun-phrases set side by side without a connecting verb, 'a homeward boat, a man for Luoyang' against 'the dying bell, the trees of Guangling', so that the traveller's forward motion and his backward glance occupy the same line. The third couplet asks the question the poem has been preparing. The close answers it by generalizing: the boat on the waves is both the literal vessel and the figure for a life that cannot be anchored. Because the metaphor grows out of the scene rather than being imposed on it, the ending carries conviction instead of sounding like a tag.

此诗艺术上以「即景抒情、由别入思」见长。全诗八句，前六句写别离之景与情，后两句写世事之慨。首联「凄凄去亲爱，泛泛入烟雾」写别时之景：凄凄然地离开亲爱的友人，船儿泛泛地驶入烟雾之中，「凄凄」写别时之愁，「泛泛」写船行之状，「入烟雾」写船渐远、没入烟雾。颔联「归棹洛阳人，残钟广陵树」写回望之景：我这归向洛阳的人，回望广陵，唯见残钟与树影，「归棹洛阳人」写己之归向洛阳，「残钟广陵树」写回望广陵所见之钟树。颈联「今朝此为别，何处还相遇」写别离之怅惘：今朝在此一别，何处才能再相遇，「今朝」「何处」写别离之今与重逢之渺。尾联「世事波上舟，沿洄安得住」写世事之慨：世事本如波上的小舟，随流洄旋，哪里能停得住呢，「波上舟」以舟喻世事，「沿洄安得住」写世事之无常难定。全诗由别时之景而回望、由回望而怅惘、由怅惘而世事之慨，即景抒情，由别入思，是唐人送别寄赠诗中的名篇。

Allusions

The figure of the boat upon the water runs through Chinese writing as an image of a life not under its own control; Zhuangzi uses the boat to describe the dependence of human existence on what carries it, and the old anonymous poems liken human life to a sojourner or to something adrift. Wei Yingwu's phrase 'drifting with the current and swirling back' takes up that tradition and adds the idea of circling — effort that leads nowhere. The 'dying bell' belongs to a related convention in which temple bells mark distance and the close of day, and in Tang poetry a half-heard bell usually signals a parting already accomplished. Even 'those dear to me' echoes the old phrasing of kinship and affection used in farewell verse since the Han. None of these is foregrounded; they give the poem depth without demanding to be noticed.

诗中「归棹」「残钟」「波上舟」等语，皆含意象与传统。「归棹」写归船，棹为船桨，以棹代船，「归棹洛阳人」写己乘归船归向洛阳；「残钟广陵树」写回望广陵，唯闻残钟之声、唯见树影，以残钟写别后之景，钟声残断，正是别离之境的写照；「世事波上舟」以舟行波上喻世事之无常，此为古代诗文常用之喻，《庄子》以舟喻人生，古诗十九首「人生忽如寄，寿无金石固」亦以行舟寄写人生之漂泊。韦应物「世事波上舟，沿洄安得住」，以波上之舟写世事之动荡难定，正是这一意象传统的运用。诗人以归棹、残钟、波上舟等意象入诗，不着痕迹，而把别离之愁与世事之慨写得真切可感，是善于熔铸意象传统的体现。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。

Commentary

Critics have generally treated this as one of the finest short farewell poems of the mid-Tang and as a hallmark of Wei Yingwu's plain manner. The line about the dying bell and the trees of Guangling is the one most often singled out, praised for doing with four nouns what lesser poets could not do with a couplet. Later commentary also remarks on the poem's structural patience: three couplets of scene and feeling, then a close that generalizes without lecturing. It is frequently paired with the more famous farewell verses of Wang Bo and Li Bo to show how the mid-Tang temperament differed — less confident, less consoling, more willing to leave the question open. The poem's endurance rests on that honesty: it offers no reassurance about reunion, only an image of a boat that cannot stop.

这首《初发扬子寄元大校书》，写的是初发扬州、离别友人的情景与世事之慨，冲淡而深沉。首联「凄凄去亲爱，泛泛入烟雾」，写别时之景：凄凄然地离开亲爱的友人，船儿泛泛地驶入烟雾之中。「凄凄」写别时之愁，愁绪满怀；「泛泛」写船行之状，小船悠悠；「入烟雾」写船渐行渐远，没入江上烟雾之中。一个凄凄别亲、泛泛入烟的离别场景，宛然在目。颔联「归棹洛阳人，残钟广陵树」，写回望之景：我这归向洛阳的人，回望广陵，唯见残钟与树影。「残钟」写别后钟声，残断隐约；「广陵树」写回望所见的扬州树影。船已远去，回望广陵，唯余残钟树影，别离的怅惘尽在其中。颈联「今朝此为别，何处还相遇」，写别离之怅惘：今朝在此一别，何处才能再相遇？「今朝」写别离之今，正在眼前；「何处」写重逢之渺，遥不可期。一问之间，把对友人的不舍与对重逢的渺茫一并写出。尾联「世事波上舟，沿洄安得住」，由别离生世事之慨：世事本如波上的小舟，随流洄旋，哪里能停得住呢？以波上之舟写世事之无常，人如舟行水上，随波洄旋，身不由己——别离如此，人生亦如此。这一结，把别离之愁提升到对世事无常的深沉感慨，正是韦应物「由别入思」的妙处。全诗由别时之景而回望、由回望而怅惘、由怅惘而世事之慨，冲淡深沉，正是中唐诗人写离别寄赠的典范，读之令人回味。

Prosody

Form Five-character regulated poem in the oblique-opening pattern五言律诗（近体，仄起式）

Rhyme An eight-line pentasyllabic regulated verse rhyming throughout in the level tone on 'mist', 'trees', 'meet' and 'stay', a set of rhymes whose dark, closed vowels suit the poem's low and brooding mood. The single rhyme runs from the first couplet to the last, and the final word 'stay' closes the piece on the very question the poem has been asking.全诗押平声韵「雾」「树」「遇」「住」，韵脚同属遇麌类（雾、树、遇、住），一韵到底，韵部宽舒而音调低沉。五律以平韵谐畅为常，此诗「雾」「树」「遇」「住」四韵音色沉郁，正与离别寄赠的沉挚情调相称；「住」字收束全篇，与「沿洄安得住」之问相映，韵脚亦含世事难定之意，声情与辞情相凑。

Tone pattern The first couplet opens in the oblique tone and closes on the rhyme word 'mist', giving a falling, hesitant start that matches the sadness of departure. The second couplet is the most strictly antithetical of the poem, its paired images balancing evenly and slowly. The third turns with a question, so the rhythm breaks and the level tone is suspended; the last couplet returns to a level close, and the mood settles from regret into a general, resigned reflection.句式上，首联「凄凄去亲爱，泛泛入烟雾」仄起，以「雾」收句，写别时之景，音节低回；颔联「归棹洛阳人，残钟广陵树」对仗工整，「归棹」「残钟」「洛阳人」「广陵树」相映，写回望之景，音节怅惘；颈联「今朝此为别，何处还相遇」以问句写别离之怅惘，音节顿挫；尾联「世事波上舟，沿洄安得住」以「住」字平收，以反问作结，音节转沉，情调由怅惘归于感慨。全诗平仄相间、音节随情起伏，读来如孤舟离岸、回望友人低语之音，低沉而深沉。

Reading note Formally this is a pentasyllabic regulated poem, and it observes the requirements of antithesis and tonal alternation without letting them show. What is distinctive is how the sound serves the argument: the rhyme words are heavy and closed, the opening is oblique and falling, and the closing rhyme-word 'stay' is the single idea the whole poem turns on. The middle couplet's perfect parallelism is the technical high point, but even there the craft is subordinated to the backward glance it describes. As a specimen of Wei Yingwu's manner, the poem shows how a strict form can be made to sound like unforced speech.此诗为五言律诗，是唐人送别寄赠诗中的名篇，也是韦应物「冲淡深挚」诗风的典型体现。全诗的艺术特色在于「即景抒情、由别入思」：首联「凄凄去亲爱，泛泛入烟雾」写别时之景与情，以「凄凄」「泛泛」写离愁与行景；颔联「归棹洛阳人，残钟广陵树」写回望之景，以残钟树影写别后怅惘；颈联「今朝此为别，何处还相遇」直写别离之怅惘；尾联「世事波上舟，沿洄安得住」由别离生世事之慨，以波上舟喻世事之无常。全诗由别时之景而回望、由回望而怅惘、由怅惘而世事之慨，即景抒情，由别入思。尤为精妙者，是「归棹洛阳人，残钟广陵树」一联，以残钟树影写尽回望之别后怅惘；而「世事波上舟，沿洄安得住」一结，把别离之愁提升到对世事无常的深沉感慨，正是韦应物「由别入思」的妙处，为历代选本所常收。

Line by line

凄凄去亲爱，泛泛入烟雾。

Sadly, sadly I leave those dear to me; drifting, drifting I enter the mist.

凄凄然地离开亲爱的友人，船儿泛泛地驶入烟雾之中。

Sorrowing, I leave my dear ones; drifting, I enter the mist and the fog.

首联写别时之景与情，起笔即见离愁。「凄凄去亲爱」写凄凄然地离开亲爱的友人，「凄凄」写别时之愁绪满怀，「亲爱」指亲爱的友人，见其情谊之深；「泛泛入烟雾」写船儿泛泛地驶入烟雾之中，「泛泛」写船行之状、悠悠而去，「入烟雾」写船渐行渐远，没入江上烟雾，一片苍茫。两句一写离愁、一写行景，以「凄凄」写情之愁、「泛泛」写舟之行，一个凄凄别亲、泛泛入烟的离别场景宛然在目，为全诗定下了离愁的基调。

The opening couplet writes the scenery and feeling of parting, the grief at once. Sorrowing, I leave my dear ones writes the sorrowful leaving of the dear friend; the word sorrowing writes the fullness of parting grief, dear ones the friend, showing the depth of the tie. Drifting, I enter the mist and the fog writes the boat drifting into the vapor; drifting writes the boat's slow course, enter the mist and fog the boat receding into the river's haze, a stretch of vastness. The two lines, one writing the parting grief, one writing the road scene, the word sorrowing writing the grief and drifting writing the boat's course, the parting scene of sorrowing departure and drifting into the mist as if before the eyes, fixing the whole's key of parting grief.

归棹洛阳人，残钟广陵树。

A homeward-bound boat, a man for Luoyang; the dying bell, the trees of Guangling.

我这归向洛阳的人，回望广陵，唯见残钟与树影。

I, the man bound for Luoyang, row home; the fading bell and the trees of Guangling.

颔联写回望之景，是全诗最见怅惘处。「归棹洛阳人」写我这归向洛阳的人，「归棹」写归船，「洛阳人」点明归向——诗人乘归船将归洛阳；「残钟广陵树」写回望广陵，唯见残钟与树影，「残钟」写别后钟声，残断隐约，「广陵树」写回望所见的扬州树影。两句一写己之归向、一写回望之景，船已远去，回望广陵，唯余残钟树影——钟声残断，树影依稀，正是别离后回望的怅惘之景。诗人不直写不舍，而以此残钟树影写之，含蓄蕴藉，是「以景写情」的典范之笔。

The jaw couplet writes the looking-back scenery, the place most showing the longing. I, the man bound for Luoyang, row home writes the self bound for Luoyang; the homeward boat writes the returning vessel, the man bound for Luoyang pointing the destination - the poet on the return boat to Luoyang. The fading bell and the trees of Guangling writes that, looking back at Guangling, only the fading bell and tree shadows are seen; the fading bell writes the post-parting bell, broken and faint, the trees of Guangling the Yangzhou trees seen as he looks back. The two lines, one writing his own destination, one writing the looked-back scene, the boat already far, looking back at Guangling, only the fading bell and tree shadows remain - the broken bell, the dim trees, exactly the longing scene of looking back after parting. The poet writes not the reluctance directly, but through this fading bell and tree shadow, reserved and pregnant, the model brush of writing feeling through scenery.

今朝此为别，何处还相遇。

Today we part here — in what place shall we meet again?

今朝在此一别，何处才能再相遇？

Today we part here; where shall we meet again?

颈联直写别离之怅惘，是全诗情感的直接流露。「今朝此为别」写今朝在此一别，「今朝」写别离之今，正在眼前，一个「别」字见其离别已成；「何处还相遇」写何处才能再相遇，「何处」以问句写重逢之渺茫、不可预期。两句一写别离之今、一写重逢之渺，以「今朝」与「何处」相对，把对友人的不舍与对重逢的渺茫一并写出。诗人不掩饰别离的怅惘，而以此直问写之，情真语挚，是承前两联写景之后的情感集中流露，也是「由景入情」的枢纽。

The neck couplet directly writes the longing of parting, the direct outpouring of the whole's feeling. Today we part here writes the present parting; today points the present of parting, before the eyes, the single word part showing the parting already made. Where shall we meet again? writes the unknown meeting; where, in a question, writes the reunion's dimness and unpredictability. The two lines, one writing the present parting, one writing the reunion's dimness, setting today against where, writing at once the reluctance and the reunion's uncertainty. The poet hides not the parting's longing, but writes it through this direct question, the feeling true and the words earnest, the concentrated outpouring after the first two couplets' scenery, and the hinge of moving from scenery to feeling.

世事波上舟，沿洄安得住。

The world's affairs are a boat upon the waves: drifting with the current and swirling back, how can it ever stay?

世事本如波上的小舟，随流洄旋，哪里能停得住呢？

The world's affairs are a boat on the waves; drifting downstream or swirling back, where can it stay?

尾联由别离生世事之慨，是全诗境界的提升。「世事波上舟」写世事本如波上的小舟，「波上舟」以舟行波上喻世事之无常，人如舟行水上，身不由己；「沿洄安得住」写随流洄旋，哪里能停得住呢，「沿洄」写舟之随波洄旋，「安得住」以反问写其无从停驻。两句以波上舟写世事之无常难定——别离如此，人生亦如此，人如波上之舟，随波洄旋，身不由己，哪里能停得住呢？这反问，把别离之愁提升到对世事无常的深沉感慨，以舟喻世，含蓄而深远，是全诗境界最高的收束之笔，也是韦应物「由别入思」的妙处。

The tail couplet raises from the parting to the sigh on worldly affairs, the elevation of the whole's realm. The world's affairs are a boat on the waves writes that affairs are originally like a boat on the waves; the boat on the waves meta-phors the impermanence of affairs, man like a boat on the water, self beyond his control. Drifting downstream or swirling back, where can it stay? writes the swirl of the current, the question asking how it can rest; swirling writes the boat's turning with the waves, where can it stay, in a rhetorical question, writing the impossibility of anchoring. The two lines use the boat on the waves to write affairs' uncertainty - parting thus, life also thus, man like a boat on the waves, swirling with the current, self beyond control, where can it stay? This question raises the parting's grief to the deep sigh on the world's impermanence, using the boat for the world, reserved and far-reaching, the highest closing brush of the whole, and Wei Yingwu's fine way of moving from parting to thought.

Study

Word focus

凄凄 The reduplicative for heartfelt sorrow, used here to set the emotional key of the whole poem. Its doubled sound is slow and heavy, so that the reader feels the reluctance of the departure before a single event has been described; it tells us that the parting is felt rather than merely performed. 「凄凄」写别时之愁绪满怀，是首联定调的关键。「凄凄去亲爱」着一「凄凄」，写离别友人时心中凄然、愁绪满怀——叠字写愁，音节亦觉凄恻，正与别离之情相合。着一「凄凄」，把别离的愁绪写得真切可感，为全诗定下了离愁的基调，是「以叠字写情」的妙笔。「凄凄」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

残 'Dying' or 'failing', the adjective applied to the bell and the most heavily loaded single word in the poem. It describes a sound heard at the very limit of hearing, and therefore measures distance: the bell is not simply ringing, it is receding, and with it the city and the friend left behind. 「残」字写别后钟声之残断，是写回望怅惘的关键。「残钟广陵树」着一「残」，写回望广陵所闻的钟声残断隐约——船已远去，钟声渐残，唯余依稀可闻。着一「残」字，既是写钟声之将尽，亦是写别离之后一切渐行渐远、终将消逝的怅惘，是「以一字写尽别后」的妙笔。「残」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

何处 'In what place', the question-word that turns the third couplet from statement into uncertainty. By asking where a meeting could ever happen rather than when, the poet refuses the consolation that farewell poems usually offer, and the openness of the question is what makes the close honest. 「何处」以问句写重逢之渺茫，是颈联写怅惘的关键。「何处还相遇」着一「何处」，写不知何处才能再相遇——一问之间，把对重逢的期盼与对重逢之渺茫的怅惘一并写出。着一「何处」，使别离的怅惘不限于眼前，而延伸到不知何日的将来，境界顿深，是「以问写情」的妙笔。「何处」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

沿洄 To follow the current and to swirl back, the two motions of a boat with no purchase on the water. Together they describe not merely travel but circling — movement without progress — and thus supply the exact figure the poem needs for a life that cannot be brought to rest. 「沿洄」写舟之随波洄旋，是尾联写世事无常的关键。「沿洄安得住」着一「沿洄」，写舟顺流而下、盘旋洄转，不能自主——以舟之沿洄写世事之动荡、人生之身不由己。两字写尽波上之舟的颠簸难定，也写尽世事人生的无常难料，是「以舟喻世」的点睛之词。「沿洄」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。