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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

春宫怨

A Spring Palace Grievance

杜荀鹤

Du Xunhe

宫怨palace grievance 五律five-character regulated verse 寄托symbolic expression

早被婵娟误，欲妆临镜慵。
承恩不在貌，教妾若为容。
风暖鸟声碎，日高花影重。
年年越溪女，相忆采芙蓉。

Early I was wronged by my beauty,
wishing to dress, before the mirror I am too weary.
Favor from the throne lies not in looks,
then how am I to make my face?
Wind warm, the birds' cries are fine and broken,
sun high, the flower-shadows lie heavy.
Year by year the girls of the Yue stream,
I recall gathering lotus with them.

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Meaning

A palace woman blames her own beauty for her lonely fate and asks how to adorn herself when favor depends on anything but looks. The poem uses her grievance to voice a frustrated scholar's complaint that talent alone wins no recognition.

早年就被自己的美貌所耽误，如今想要梳妆，对着镜子却懒得动手。承受君恩本来就不在于容貌，那教我该怎样打扮自己呢？春风和暖，鸟声细碎；日头高照，花影层层叠叠。年年想起从前在越溪一同采莲的女伴，那些日子真让人怀念。

Appreciation

The first four lines are pure monologue in the palace woman's voice, plain as talk yet every word is blood. 'Early wronged by my beauty' opens the door, calling beauty the root of disaster, overturning common sense in one line. The last four suddenly turn to scene and memory, no more pleading—because there is nothing left to say, only the full garden of spring and a far memory. Du Xunhe came from humble birth, failing exams again and again, not passing until age forty-six; all his life stuck. His writing of the palace woman's 'favor lies not in looks' is really the scholar's 'talent is not what gets you chosen.' Court selection like the exam hall never hinged on mere worth. So the poem is on the surface a palace grievance, at bone a grievance—the grievance of one confident in talent yet never recognized.

【白话串讲】 “早被婵娟误，欲妆临镜慵”——杜荀鹤写宫女：因为美貌被选进宫，如今却懒得化妆。“承恩不在貌，教妾若为容”——受宠不靠容貌，那我还打扮什么？“年年越溪女，相忆采芙蓉”——她羡慕当年在溪边采莲的日子。【意象与手法】此诗前四句纯用宫人的口吻自述，直白如话，却字字是血。“早被婵娟误”开门见山，把美貌说成祸根，一句便翻倒了世俗的常理。后四句忽然转为写景与追忆，不再申诉——因为已经无话可说，只剩下满园的春色和遥远的记忆。【情感与主旨】杜荀鹤出身寒微，屡试不第，四十六岁方登第，一生困顿。他写宫女“承恩不在貌”，其实是写士人“取士不在才”。宫廷选人如同科场取士，凭的从来不只是本事。所以这首诗表面是宫怨，骨子里是牢骚——一个自负才华却始终不被赏识的人的牢骚。【名句点睛】 “风暖鸟声碎，日高花影重”——十字之中，声、光、影俱全。“碎”写鸟声之细密，“重”写花影之层叠，两个字都极新鲜，历来被视为五律炼字的典范。

Background

Du Xunhe, late-Tang poet, style Yanzhi, from Shidai in Chizhou (today's Shitai, Anhui). Humble birth, he studied hard in youth, failing the exams again and again, not passing the jinshi until the second year of Dashun (891) at age forty-six, yet his career remained frustrated. 'Spring Palace Grievance' is his representative work; one account attributes it to Zhou Pu, yet since late Tang it has mostly been placed under Du Xunhe. In late Tang the exam hall ran on patronage, humble scholars could not rise; this poem vents unrecognized frustration through a palace grievance, its symbolic intent obvious.

杜荀鹤，晚唐诗人，字彦之，自号九华山人，池州石埭人。他出身寒微，早年苦学，久困场屋，屡试不第，直至唐昭宗大顺二年方中进士，其时已四十六岁，然登第之后仕途仍不得志，一生落拓，晚景凄凉。其诗多写民生疾苦与个人不遇，语言浅切通俗，自成一格，人称杜荀鹤体。此篇春宫怨为其代表作，一说本为周朴所作，然自唐末以来诗家多归于杜荀鹤名下。晚唐科场请托成风、门第与关系凌驾于才学之上，寒门士子纵有真才实学亦难以出头，杜荀鹤本人正是这一时代困境的亲历者。故此诗题为宫怨，写深宫失宠女子的哀怨，实则句句寄寓自身怀才不遇之慨：宫女之美貌见弃，一如寒士之才华见弃；承恩不在貌，一如取士不在才。借香草美人以抒不遇，是自屈原以来的比兴传统，杜荀鹤以宫怨写士怨，寄托极为明显，故此诗表面婉转缠绵，骨子里却是一个自负才华而始终不被赏识者的深长牢骚。

Art

In structure the first four lines express feeling, the last four write scene and memory—a regular variant of the five-character regulated verse. The first half brings argument into poetry without feeling dry, relying entirely on colloquial characters like 'wronged,' 'weary,' 'how am I to' to keep the figure's voice. The second half suddenly cuts the argument, turning to scene-language—the brighter the spring, the more it shows the deep-palace days cannot be got through; the two characters 'year by year' stretch this torment into an endless cycle. As for the word-forging of the third couplet, it has long been taken as a sample of late-Tang painful crafting: 'broken' and 'heavy' are not conventional collocations, yet precisely catch the density of sound and the thickness of light-shadow in late spring.

此诗结构上前四句抒情议论、后四句写景忆旧，是五律正格的变用，而变得极见匠心。前半以议论入诗而不觉枯燥，全靠误、慵、若为容等口语化字眼保持了人物的声口，使抽象的怨情落实为一个活生生的宫人自诉。首句早被婵娟误开门见山，把世人艳羡的美貌一口断为祸根，一句便翻倒了以貌为幸的世俗常理，立意奇警。承恩不在貌一联更由个人之怨升为普遍之理，既是宫廷的实情，又暗指科场取士的不公，寄托之意全从此透出。后半忽然截断议论，转以景语出之：风暖鸟声碎、日高花影重，纯写暮春宫苑的声色光影，不再申诉一字——因为话已说尽、无可再说，只剩满园的春光与遥远的记忆。以景语代情语的收束，正是五律的高级章法：春光愈盛，愈见深宫岁月之无聊难遣；年年二字更把这种煎熬拉成没有尽头的循环。至于颈联的炼字，则历来被视为晚唐苦吟的样本，碎与重皆非常规搭配，却精准地抓住了暮春时节声音的细密与光影的厚重，是全诗最见工力处。

Allusions

(1) 'Chanjuan' means lovely appearance, here standing for beauty. (2) 'Girls of the Yue stream' uses the Xi Shi tale: Xi Shi was a sha-silk girl of Yue, by the Ruoye stream, later chosen into the Wu palace; here the palace woman compares herself to Xi Shi, saying before entering the palace she too was a free lotus-gathering girl by the stream. (3) 'Gathering lotus' (cai furong) is common Jiangnan girls' work; the Nineteen Old Poems has 'wade the river to gather lotus,' also bearing the meaning of longing for someone.

此诗用典不多而字字有本。婵娟本指姿容美好、体态曼妙，古诗中常以婵娟代指美人或美貌，如但愿人长久、千里共婵娟即用以指月之美好，此处则直指宫女自身的美丽容颜，早被婵娟误即言早被这副好相貌所耽误。越溪女、采芙蓉二语暗用西施之典：西施本为越国苎萝村的浣纱女，于若耶溪边浣纱，天生丽质，后被越王勾践选送吴宫以行美人计。此处宫女自比西施，谓自己入宫之前也曾是溪边自由自在的采莲浣纱女子，如今幽闭深宫、恩宠断绝，遂追忆昔日的自由之乐，对照之下愈见今日之苦。采芙蓉即采莲，本是江南女子习见之事，《古诗十九首》有涉江采芙蓉、兰泽多芳草之句，采芙蓉又暗含采之欲遗谁、所思在远道的怀人之意，故此处结以相忆采芙蓉，既写对旧伴旧游的怀念，又隐隐透出所思不得、幽怨难解的深情，用典自然，融化无痕。

Commentary

The Song work Tiaoxi Yinsou Conversations records Du Xunhe's own pride in this poem, with the words 'wind warm, birds' cries broken; sun high, flower-shadows heavy—how can it compare to my lines, let you chant them a hundred years.' The Qing scholar Shen Deqian in his Tang Poems Selected and Cut said: 'Favor lies not in looks—the language is deeply painful, not merely a palace grievance.' Yu Bixia called the third couplet 'within ten characters there is sound and color, a fine realm of late Tang.'

此诗自宋以来即为宫怨诗中的名篇，杜荀鹤本人亦极自负此作。宋人胡仔《苕溪渔隐丛话》载杜荀鹤自矜风暖鸟声碎、日高花影重一联，有争如无我句、任汝百年吟之语，足见其对颈联炼字的得意。清人沈德潜《唐诗别裁》评承恩不在貌一句语极沉痛，非徒宫怨也，一语道破此诗借宫怨以寄士不遇之慨的深层寄托。近人俞陛云《诗境浅说》则称颈联十字中有声有色、写尽晚唐佳境，特赏其碎、重二字通感炼字之妙。综观诸家，或赏其立意之翻案，谓早被婵娟误一句颠覆常理、见识不凡；或赏其寄托之深远，谓承恩不在貌暗刺科场之不公、士林之不平；或赏其炼字之精工，谓鸟声碎、花影重为五律炼字之典范。三者合观，正见此诗以浅切之语写沉痛之情、以宫怨之表寄士怨之里，兼具情韵、见识与词采，故能在晚唐大量的宫怨之作中卓然特出，历久传诵。后世论者又每以此诗为晚唐寒士诗之代表，谓其怨而不怒、哀而不伤，于婉转绸缪处自见风骨，非徒儿女之情而已，足证杜荀鹤以宫怨写士怨一体两面，寄慨之深、用笔之妙，皆为唐末诗坛所仅见。

Prosody

Form Five-character regulated verse (oblique-beginning, first line not rhyming)五言律诗

Rhyme Rhymes with the Ping shui upper-level second Dong group: yong, rong, zhong, rong. The Dong rhyme is settled and reserved, read low and unassertive, fitting the palace woman's disheartened mood.押平水韵上平二冬韵，韵脚为慵、容、重、蓉，仄起首句不入韵，一韵到底

Tone pattern The first couplet 'wronged' 'weary' are departing and level tones interlaced, the tone checked like a sigh; the third couplet 'broken' is departing and urgent, 'heavy' is departing and sunk, one urgent one sunk, sound-feelings differ. The closing 'gather lotus' three characters all level, the tone far, like the length of memory.仄起首句不入韵式，中间颔联承恩不在貌、教妾若为容与颈联风暖鸟声碎、日高花影重两联对仗，颈联尤为工整精切

Reading note This poem argues in the first half and writes scene in the second, and the third couplet's exquisite scene precisely bears the function of 'saying no more'—the words are spent, only spring light remains. Ending with scene-language in place of feeling-language is the high craft of the five-character regulated verse.此诗为五言律诗，格律谨严而声情婉转。全篇仄起首句不入韵，偶句押上平二冬韵，慵、容、重、蓉四字收音沉着含蓄、略带低回，冬韵本以幽咽不扬见长，正与宫人心灰意懒、幽怨难伸的情绪相合，读来低回宛转，如叹息之声绵绵不绝。就对仗而言，颔联承恩不在貌对教妾若为容，以议论成对而流走自然，不为对仗所拘；颈联风暖鸟声碎对日高花影重，则对得极为工整精切：风暖对日高、鸟声对花影、碎对重，名词、动词、形容词一一相俪，而碎与重二字一写听觉之细密、一写视觉之厚重，通感炼字、新警绝伦，遂成五律炼字的典范。声调上，首联误、慵二字去声与平声相错，语气顿挫如叹息；颈联碎为去声而急促、重为去声而沉滞，一急一沉，声情各异；尾句采芙蓉三字连用平声，音调悠远绵长，如追忆之不尽。全诗以精工的对仗与含蓄的韵脚承载深婉的怨情，前半议论、后半写景而以景结情，章法高妙，是晚唐五律中情、景、律三者俱佳的名篇。

Line by line

早被婵娟误，欲妆临镜慵。

Long ago my beauty betrayed me; now, about to dress, I drowse before the mirror.

早年就被自己的美貌所耽误，如今想要梳妆，对着镜子却懒得动手。

Long ago my beauty undid me; now I would dress, yet idly I linger at the mirror.

首联开口便惊人。世人皆以美貌为幸，她偏说是被婵娟所误，一句翻案，全诗的怨气与见识由此立定：美貌本是入宫见弃的祸根，故所谓好相貌，实是一生不幸的开端。次句承之，写欲妆而慵。慵字写尽心死之态——不是不能妆，而是妆了也无用，君恩既断，纵有倾城之色又向谁施？故连对镜梳妆、举手描眉的气力都提不起来。一开篇即以翻案之语立骨、以慵懒之态传神，把一个心灰意懒、自伤自弃的失宠宫人写得入木三分，为通篇的怨情奠定了沉痛的基调。

The opening couplet is startling from the first word. The world counts beauty a blessing, yet she says she was betrayed by her beauty - one line of reversal, the whole's grievance and insight here established: beauty is originally the root of misfortune in entering the palace to be abandoned, so the so-called fair face is in truth the beginning of a lifelong sorrow. The second line follows, writing the will to dress and the lassitude. The word lassitude writes to the full the heart's deadness - not that she cannot dress, but that dressing is useless; the royal favor cut off, though she have a kingdom-felling face, to whom shall she show it? Hence she cannot even summon the strength to face the mirror and trace her brows. At once the opening establishes its bone in the word of reversal and conveys the spirit in the lolling posture, writing a disfavored palace woman, heart dead and self-pitying and self-forsaken, to the quick, fixing the whole's grief-stricken key.

承恩不在貌，教妾若为容。

The emperor's favor is not given for the face; how then should I dress up for him?

承受君恩本来就不在于容貌，那教我该怎样打扮自己呢？

Winning the royal favor is not a matter of looks; how then am I to adorn myself?

此联由个人之怨升为普遍之理，是全诗寄托的透出处。承恩不在貌一句，道破深宫承宠的真相——得幸与否从不取决于容貌美丑，而系于君心的莫测与际遇的无常。这句话在宫廷是血泪凝成的实情，在科场亦复如是：取士不在才，一如承恩不在貌，寒士的怀才不遇正与宫人的有貌见弃同一悲剧。下句教妾若为容以反问作答，无可奈何之至：既然承恩的标准根本不在容貌，那么一切梳妆修饰便都失去了意义，还教我如何打扮呢？一问之中，既是宫人的绝望，也是士子的牢骚，寄托遥深而语意浑成。

This couplet rises from personal grievance to a universal principle, the point where the whole's lodging shows through. The royal favor is not given for the face lays bare the truth of winning favor in the deep palace - being favored never depends on beauty, but on the sovereign's unfathomable heart and the chance encounter. This sentence, in the palace, is a truth coagulated of blood and tears; in the examination hall it is the same: selecting scholars is not by talent, as winning favor is not by looks, the poor scholar's unrecognized talent is the same tragedy as the palace woman's beauty met with rejection. The next line, how then should I dress up for him?, answers in a rhetorical question, the helplessness extreme: since the standard of favor is not in the face at all, then all dressing and adornment have lost their meaning; how, then, should I adorn myself? In the one question, at once the palace woman's despair and the scholar's complaint, the lodging far-reaching and the meaning fused.

风暖鸟声碎，日高花影重。

The wind is warm, the birdcalls are scattered; the sun stands high, the flower shadows are thick.

春风和暖，鸟声细碎；日头高照，花影层层叠叠。

The wind is warm and the birdcalls are fine and scattered; the sun is high and the flower shadows lie thick.

颈联陡然截断前半的议论，转以景语出之，是全诗最见工力、也最负盛名的一联。风暖写春意之融和，鸟声碎的碎字奇绝——鸟声本不可碎，此谓其细密琐屑、此起彼伏，如珠落玉盘，写出春日鸟语的稠密繁杂；日高写时序之推移，花影重的重字与碎字对举，一写听觉之密、一写视觉之厚，繁花密叠而影相重合，遂显出沉甸甸的质感。二句纯写暮春宫苑的声色光影，不著一个愁字，然春光愈盛、物态愈美，愈反衬出深宫岁月的空虚无聊、无可打发。以精工的景语承担不再言说的功能，话已说尽、只剩春光，正是五律以景结情的高妙章法。

The neck couplet abruptly cuts off the argument of the first half, turning to scenery, the couplet most showing the whole's craft and most renowned. The wind is warm writes the spring's softness; the birdcalls are scattered, the word scattered is wondrous - birdcalls cannot originally be scattered, but here meaning their fine and细碎 sound, rising and falling, like pearls falling on a jade plate, writing the dense and multitudinous spring birdcalls. The sun stands high writes the season's advance; the flower shadows are thick, the word thick set against the word scattered, one writing the density of hearing, one the weight of sight, the lush flowers layered and the shadows overlapping, producing a heavy texture. The two lines purely write the sound and color and light of the late-spring palace garden, not writing one word of grief; yet the more splendid the spring and the more beautiful the things, the more they set off the emptiness and tedium of the deep palace years, un-divertable. Wording the no-longer-speakable function through wrought scenery, the words said out and only the spring left, exactly the high art of the five-character regulated verse's closing feeling through scenery.

年年越溪女，相忆采芙蓉。

Year after year, I remember the girls of the Yue creek, gathering the lotus together.

年年想起从前在越溪一同采莲的女伴，那些日子真让人怀念。

Year after year I think of the girls by the Yue creek, when we gathered the hibiscus together.

尾联以追忆旧游作结，暗用西施浣纱的典故。越溪女谓自己入宫之前也曾是若耶溪边采莲浣纱的自由女子，如今幽闭深宫，遂年年追忆昔日与女伴同采芙蓉的欢乐时光。年年二字最苦：这份追忆并非偶一为之，而是岁岁重复、年复一年的功课，深宫漫长的时间就这样在一遍遍的怀旧中被消磨殆尽。诗人不写宫中之怨，只写宫外之乐；不诉眼前之苦，只忆往昔之欢，而今昔对照之下，怨已深不可言。以最平常的少女采莲生活收束一首宫怨诗，愈见其含蓄蕴藉、韵味悠长。

The tail couplet closes in recalling the old days, secretly using the Xishi washing-silk allusion. The girls of the Yue creek means herself, before entering the palace, also a free woman gathering lotus and washing silk by the Ruoye creek; now shut in the deep palace, she yearns year after year for the old happy time of gathering hibiscus with her companions. The two words year after year are the bitterest: this recollection is not occasional, but a task repeated year by year, the long time of the deep palace thus worn away in repeated nostalgia. The poet writes not the grievance within the palace, but only the joy without; not the present suffering, but only the past delight, and in the contrast of past and present the grievance is already deep beyond words. Closing a palace-grievance poem in the most ordinary girlhood lotus-gathering, the more it shows the reserved and pregnant charm, the long aftertaste.

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Word focus

碎 The 'broken' (sui) in 'birds' cries broken' is a famous case of late-Tang painful crafting. Birds' cries are hearing, no matter broken or not; the poet writes them 'broken'—one, writing the cries' fineness and density, rising and falling; two, writing the light, quick leaps of birds' talk in the warm spring wind; three, secretly matching the palace woman's scattered, unsettled mood. Using a word for solids to write sound is a clever synesthesia. 碎字见于风暖鸟声碎一句，是晚唐苦吟炼字的名例。鸟声本是听觉，无所谓碎与不碎；诗人偏以碎字状之，其妙有三：一写声音的细小繁密、此起彼伏，如珠玉零落、点点入耳；二写春日暖风中鸟语的轻快跳跃、活泼琐碎；三则暗合宫人心绪的零乱不整、百无聊赖。以形容固体破碎之词来写无形的声音，是通感手法的巧妙运用，化听觉为触觉、化连绵为破碎，遂令寻常的鸟鸣具有了新奇而丰富的质感。此字与下句的重字一轻一重、一声一影，对举成趣，历来被推为五律炼字的典范，杜荀鹤本人亦以此联自负。

重 The 'heavy' (zhong) in 'flower-shadows lie heavy' means the shadows' layered pressing. As the sun rises, flower-shadows should shorten, yet with dense blossoms overlapping, the shadows coincide and seem thick. This character accurately writes the fullness of late-spring flowering, and with its heavy quality secretly figures the palace woman's unshakable gloom; with the previous 'broken' one light one heavy, they match seamlessly. 重字见于日高花影重一句，指花影的层层叠压、厚重相合。按理日头升高、光线直射，花影本应收缩变短，然暮春繁花密叠、枝叶交错，花影遂相互重合而显得层层叠叠、沉甸甸如有重量。这个重字既准确地写出了暮春花事之盛、春意之浓，又以其沉重的质感暗喻宫人心头挥之不去、层层郁积的愁绪与苦闷。它与上句的碎字配合无间：碎写听觉之细密，重写视觉之厚重，一轻盈一沉滞，声色相映而各极其妙。以一个重字状光影而兼传心境，可见杜荀鹤炼字之精、体物之细，无怪其自矜此联、以为可敌百年之吟。

误 The 'wronged' (wu) in 'early I was wronged by my beauty' is the poem's founding idea. It judges the accepted good (beauty) a disaster, overturning common sense at a stroke. A layer deeper: not only the palace woman's beauty is wronged—the humble scholar's talent is the same: having talent yet not used, talent too becomes a source of pain. In one character, both layers cohere. 误字见于早被婵娟误一句，是全诗立意的所在。它把世人公认的幸事——貌美——一举判为祸端，翻倒常理，语出惊人。婵娟本足自喜，何以言误？只因深宫之中，美貌非但不能带来恩宠，反而是招致幽闭、耽误一生的根由，故曰误。深一层看，被误的又岂止是宫女的美貌——寒士的才华同样如此：有才而不见用，才华便也成了痛苦的来源，愈有才愈见弃，正与愈美貌愈见误同一机杼。一个误字之中，宫怨与士怨双层皆通：表层是失宠宫人对美貌的痛悔，深层是不遇文人对才华的自嘲，寄托遥深而下字精警，全诗的怨愤与见识皆由此一字生发。

春宫怨