PoemBridge
Sign in Browse poems
All poems

唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

春兴

Spring Stirrings

武元衡

Wu Yuanheng

杨柳阴阴细雨晴，残花落尽见流莺。
春风一枝吹香梦，梦逐春风到洛城。

The willows stand deep in shade, the fine rain has cleared,
The last petals have fallen, and a flitting oriole shows itself.
A branch of spring wind breathes upon my fragrant dream,
And the dream follows the spring wind to the city of Luo.
Listen

Meaning

On a washed late-spring day the poet watches willows deepen into shade and the last blossoms drop away, until a single gliding oriole catches his eye. The mild wind lulls him into a dream, and the dream carries him home to Luoyang. What the eye cannot reach in waking life, sleep and imagination supply; the whole poem turns a season of fading into a quiet vehicle for homesickness.

杨柳阴阴细雨晴，残花落尽见流莺。春风一枝吹香梦，梦逐春风到洛城。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] After a drizzle the willows have grown dark with leaf, the rain has stopped, the last flowers are gone, and through the bare branches a moving oriole can at last be seen. Then the spring wind comes: it breathes on the sleeper, and his dream rides that wind all the way to Luoyang. [Structure] The first couplet sets the scene entirely in the visible world; the second couplet abandons observation for the inner world. The turn is managed by one word, wind, which belongs to both halves: it stirs the willows, and it stirs the dream. [Imagery] Two images anchor the poem - the darkening willow and the falling flower - and both register loss rather than luxuriance, since spring is ending even as the wind grows warm. The oriole, glimpsed only because the flowers have fallen, is the poem's one sign of life. [Feeling] The closing conceit is unusually tender for a minister of state: the sleeper does not travel, does not even intend to travel; the dream itself does the travelling. Homesickness is thus presented not as a decision but as something that happens to a man, as helpless and as natural as the wind blowing eastward toward his old home.

【白话串讲】 武元衡写《春兴》：“杨柳阴阴细雨晴，残花落尽见流莺”——“春风一枝吹香梦，梦逐春风到洛城”——他写春梦——梦逐春风到洛城。 【意象与手法】 “杨柳阴阴细雨晴，残花落尽见流莺”写雨后春景；“春风一枝吹香梦”写春风入梦；结以“梦逐春风到洛城”写梦归洛城。婉丽思乡。 【情感与主旨】 武元衡写春思之作，写雨后春景与春风入梦、梦归洛城的乡思，是唐人思乡诗中的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“杨柳阴阴细雨晴，残花落尽见流莺”写雨后春景；“春风一枝吹香梦，梦逐春风到洛城”以梦逐春风写思乡。

Background

Wu Yuanheng (758-815), courtesy name Bocang, was a native of Goushi in present-day Yanshi, Henan. He was that rare mid-Tang figure who held high literary reputation and high office at once: he passed the metropolitan examination in the 780s, served in several central posts, and finally became chief minister under Emperor Xianzong, where he was closely associated with the court's campaign to reassert authority over the separatist military governors. In 815 he was assassinated in the street at dawn by agents of the Huaixi warlord, the first Tang chief minister to be killed in the capital. His poems, few of which survive, are prized for refinement and restraint; the gentle erotic-and-nostalgic manner of this piece belongs to the courtly taste of the Dali and Zhenyuan reigns. Luoyang, the eastern capital, was where many officials of his class had established family homes, so the city in the last line is at once a real destination and a standing emblem of home.

《春兴》为唐代诗人武元衡所作诗。武元衡（758—815），字伯苍，缑氏（今河南偃师）人，中唐诗人、政治家，官至宰相。此诗写景思乡，为春夜思乡之作。诗中「杨柳阴阴细雨晴，残花落尽见流莺」写杨柳阴阴细雨晴，残花落尽见流莺；「春风一枝吹香梦，梦逐春风到洛城」写春风一枝吹香梦，梦逐春风到洛城。武元衡此诗以写景思乡、梦逐春风到洛城写其思乡之情，婉丽思乡，是武元衡诗中的名篇。此篇《春兴》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。此篇《春兴》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。此篇《春兴》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 a seven-character quatrain built on a single hinge: the word wind, which appears at the start of the third line and again inside the fourth. The first two lines are pure description and contain no human being at all; the willow, the rain, the fallen petals and the oriole are set out like objects on a table. The density of the opening is remarkable - shade, clearing rain, spent flowers and a bird disclosed by their fall, all in fourteen syllables. The second half reverses this: there is no longer any visible object, only a dream in motion. The technique of letting the last word of one couplet become the engine of the next (the wind that blows the dream, the dream that chases the wind) is a classic quatrain device, and it gives twenty-eight characters the momentum of a much longer poem. The tonal balance is worth noting too: the factual calm of the opening makes the fantasy of the close credible, because the reader has been given a real, cool, rain-washed world for it to grow out of.

此诗艺术上以「婉丽思乡、以梦写情」见长。全诗共四句两联，由杨柳阴阴细雨晴而春风一枝吹香梦。起「杨柳阴阴细雨晴，残花落尽见流莺」写杨柳阴阴细雨晴：杨柳阴阴细雨晴，残花落尽见流莺；结「春风一枝吹香梦，梦逐春风到洛城」写春风一枝吹香梦：春风一枝吹香梦，梦逐春风到洛城。全诗以梦写情，由杨柳阴阴细雨晴而梦逐春风到洛城，婉丽思乡，是武元衡诗中的名篇。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。

Allusions

The willow is the oldest homesick image in Chinese poetry, partly because of the pun on willow and stay, and partly because of the custom of breaking a willow spray for a departing friend; here the darkened willow quietly signals that the speaker is the one who has been parted. The oriole, or flowing oriole, is conventional shorthand for late spring, since it sings most conspicuously when the blossoms are over. The fragrant dream is a standard trope of Tang love and longing poetry, but Wu Yuanheng makes it carry distance rather than desire. Luoyang is not merely a place name: as the long-standing eastern capital and the retirement city of the Tang elite, it stands for settled life, family and the official's other self. One textual point deserves mention - several editions read the third line as spring wind blowing through one whole night rather than on one branch; the received reading turns the wind into something that can be picked and held, which suits the poem's fragile, portable mood.

诗中「杨柳阴阴细雨晴残花落尽见流莺」「春风一枝吹香梦梦逐春风到洛城」等语，皆含典故故实。「杨柳阴阴细雨晴残花落尽见流莺」用流莺之典（流莺即黄莺），写杨柳阴阴细雨晴残花落尽见流莺；「春风一枝吹香梦梦逐春风到洛城」用洛城之典（洛城写故乡），写春风一枝吹香梦梦逐春风到洛城。诗人以流莺、洛城之典入诗，不着痕迹，而把写景思乡之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。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。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

Later readers have singled out this quatrain as the most attractive thing Wu Yuanheng left behind, precisely because it is unguarded. Mid-Tang officials wrote a great deal of polished occasional verse; this poem has none of the apparatus - no banquet, no official grievance, no historical reference - and yet it survives in anthology after anthology. Qing dynasty critics grouped it with the small body of Tang poems that achieve the so-called implied mood, in which the closing line refuses to state the emotion and instead exhibits it: the dream chasing the wind is homesickness made visible. Modern readers tend to admire the economy of the turn, noting that the poem spends exactly half its length on the outer world and half on the inner one, and that the boundary between them is crossed without a single explanatory word. Its popularity in school readers rests on that crossing: it is one of the shortest and clearest demonstrations of how a Chinese quatrain converts scenery into feeling.

这首《春兴》，是武元衡写写景思乡之作，写杨柳阴阴细雨晴、春风一枝吹香梦、梦逐春风到洛城之情，婉丽思乡。起「杨柳阴阴细雨晴，残花落尽见流莺」——杨柳阴阴细雨晴，残花落尽见流莺。写杨柳阴阴细雨晴：杨柳阴阴细雨晴、残花落尽见流莺——细雨晴、见流莺；结「春风一枝吹香梦，梦逐春风到洛城」——春风一枝吹香梦，梦逐春风到洛城。写春风一枝吹香梦：春风一枝吹香梦、梦逐春风到洛城——吹香梦、到洛城。这「春风一枝吹香梦，梦逐春风到洛城」，是全诗之结：以梦逐春风到洛城写其思乡。全诗婉丽思乡，以梦写情，正是武元衡诗中的名篇。综观全诗，情真、景切、理深，三者浑融无迹，故能于短短数语之中寄无限深意，令人百读不厌。其含蓄蕴藉之处，正是中国古典诗歌以少总多、言有尽而意无穷的美学精神的生动体现。综观全诗，情真、景切、理深，三者浑融无迹，故能于短短数语之中寄无限深意，令人百读不厌。其含蓄蕴藉之处，正是中国古典诗歌以少总多、言有尽而意无穷的美学精神的生动体现。

Prosody

Form A seven-character quatrain (qi yan jueju) in the regulated manner.诗（七言绝句）
Rhyme Four lines rhyming on the level tone: the oriole and the city name fall in the same geng-qing rhyme class. The rhyme is thus heard at the end of the second and fourth lines only, which is the normal pattern for a Tang quatrain and gives the poem a settled, symmetrical frame.此诗为七言绝句，共四句两联。押韵：「莺」「城」押庚青部韵。前两句起、后两句转合，平仄相间，正与写写景思乡的婉丽思乡相称，也见其以七绝写思乡的凝练。
Tone pattern Level and oblique tones alternate within each line according to the standard quatrain patterns, and the two couplets are properly contrasted against each other. The first couplet is descriptive and its rhythm is level and slow, matching the stillness after rain; the second couplet quickens as the repeated word wind and the repeated word dream pull the line forward into motion.句式上，「杨柳阴阴细雨晴，残花落尽见流莺」写杨柳阴阴细雨晴，音节婉丽；结「春风一枝吹香梦，梦逐春风到洛城」写春风一枝吹香梦，音节悠长。全诗音节随情起伏，由婉丽而悠长，正合七绝「凝练」之妙，读来如写景思乡、梦逐春风到洛城之音，婉丽而动人。
Reading note Form and feeling support each other here. The quatrain's brevity forces the poet to leave the turn unannounced; the rhyme on a broad, open vowel keeps the close from sounding abrupt; and the repeated characters in the last two lines create a chiasmus - wind, dream, dream, wind - that a longer form would only have diluted. The result is a small, perfectly balanced structure in which fourteen characters of scene are answered by fourteen characters of reverie.此诗为七言绝句，是武元衡写写景思乡之作，也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「婉丽思乡、以梦写情」：「杨柳阴阴细雨晴，残花落尽见流莺」写杨柳阴阴细雨晴、「春风一枝吹香梦，梦逐春风到洛城」写春风一枝吹香梦。全诗婉丽思乡，以梦写情。尤为精妙者，是「残花落尽见流莺」用流莺之典；而「梦逐春风到洛城」用洛城之典，正是武元衡诗「婉丽思乡」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《春兴》一诗之所以读来声情并茂，正在于诗人以声韵配合情思、以节奏烘托意境，音节之长短、平仄之起伏，皆与诗意相为表里，此亦可见中国古典诗歌声律之美与匠心之工。

Line by line

杨柳阴阴细雨晴，残花落尽见流莺。

The willows stand deep in shade, the fine rain has cleared; the last petals have fallen, and a flitting oriole shows itself.

杨柳阴阴细雨晴，残花落尽见流莺。

The willows are dark green after the fine rain clears; the last blossoms are gone, and the singing orioles appear.

起句写杨柳阴阴细雨晴，起笔即见其柳。「杨柳阴阴细雨晴」写杨柳阴阴细雨晴，「杨柳阴阴」写杨柳阴阴、「细雨晴」写细雨晴；「残花落尽见流莺」用流莺之典写残花落尽见流莺，「残花落尽」写残花落尽、「见流莺」写见流莺。一句写杨柳阴阴细雨晴残花落尽见流莺，以杨柳阴阴细雨晴写细雨晴、以残花落尽见流莺写见流莺，写尽杨柳阴阴细雨晴、残花落尽见流莺之情。以柳起兴，婉丽而思乡，是「以柳起兴」的妙笔。

The opening line writes the willows are dark green after the fine rain clears, the willow at once. The words the willows are dark green write the lush shade; after the fine rain clears the sky. The last blossoms are gone, and the singing orioles appear uses the oriole allusion. The line writes to the full the feeling of the dark willows after rain and the orioles when the blossoms are gone. Rising through the willow, graceful and homesick, the fine brush of rising through the willow.

春风一枝吹香梦，

A branch of spring wind breathes upon my fragrant dream,

春风一枝吹香梦，

The spring wind blows through a spray, stirring a fragrant dream,

此句写春风一枝吹香梦，是全诗写春风之态的关键。「春风一枝」写春风一枝，「春风」写春风、「一枝」写一枝；「吹香梦」写吹香梦，「吹香」写吹香、「梦」写梦。一句写春风一枝吹香梦，以春风一枝写一枝、以吹香梦写吹香梦，写尽春风一枝吹香梦之情。以风写情，婉丽而思乡，是「以风写情」的点睛之笔。此句以寥寥数语写尽深意，情韵兼胜，正是全诗点睛之笔。其于字句之间暗藏波澜，于平易之中寄寓曲折，尤当反复涵泳，方能得其三昧。

This line writes the spring wind blows through a spray, stirring a fragrant dream, the key of the whole's writing the spring wind. The words the spring wind write the breeze; a spray the branch. Stirring a fragrant dream writes the dream. The line writes to the full the feeling of the wind on the spray and the fragrant dream. Writing feeling through the wind, graceful and homesick, the eye-dotting brush. In a few words it writes to the full the deep meaning, feeling and rhyme both fine; hidden waves beneath the plain words, to be savored again and again.

梦逐春风到洛城。

And the dream follows the spring wind to the city of Luo.

梦逐春风到洛城。

and the dream follows the spring wind all the way to Luoyang.

结句写梦逐春风到洛城，是全诗立意的落点。「梦逐春风」写梦逐春风，「梦逐」写梦逐、「春风」写春风；「到洛城」用洛城之典写到洛城，「到」写到、「洛城」写洛城。一句写梦逐春风到洛城，以梦逐春风写逐春风、以到洛城写到洛城，写尽梦逐春风到洛城之情。以城写情，婉丽而思乡，是全诗最动人处，也是「以城写情」的点睛之笔。

The closing line writes the dream follows the spring wind all the way to Luoyang, the landing of the whole's bent. The words the dream follows the spring wind write the dream's pursuit; Luoyang uses the Luoyang allusion for the home. The line writes to the full the feeling of the dream following the wind to Luoyang. Writing feeling through the city, graceful and homesick, the most moving place of the whole and the eye-dotting brush.

Study

Word focus

杨柳 The willow, here darkened into full leaf by late spring. It carries the old association of parting and of home - willow sprays were broken for departing friends - so the image quietly announces a separation before any emotion is named. 「杨柳」写杨柳阴阴细雨晴，是写杨柳之态的关键。「杨柳阴阴细雨晴」着一「杨柳」，写杨柳——着一「杨柳」，写杨柳阴阴细雨晴，见其柳之杨。两字写尽杨柳之态，是「以词写柳」的妙笔。「杨柳」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。
流莺 The flowing oriole, a conventional name for the yellow oriole gliding between branches. It is the bird of fading spring, heard and seen most clearly once the blossoms have dropped, and here it is the single living thing in an otherwise emptying scene. 「流莺」写残花落尽见流莺，是写流莺之态的关键。「残花落尽见流莺」着一「流莺」，写流莺——着一「流莺」，写残花落尽见流莺，见其莺之流。两字写尽流莺之态，是「以词写莺」的点睛之词。「流莺」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。
香梦 Literally a fragrant dream, a set phrase of Tang poetry for a sweet or love-haunted sleep. Wu Yuanheng uses it geographially rather than romantically: the dream is fragrant because it is filled with the remembered spring of home. 「香梦」写春风一枝吹香梦，是写香梦之态的关键。「春风一枝吹香梦」着一「香梦」，写香梦——着一「香梦」，写春风一枝吹香梦，见其梦之香。两字写尽香梦之态，是「以词写梦」的点睛之词。「香梦」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。
洛城 The city of Luo, that is Luoyang, the Tang eastern capital and the city where many officials of the poet's rank maintained family houses. It stands here for home, settled life and everything the speaker is absent from. 「洛城」写梦逐春风到洛城，是写洛城之态的关键。「梦逐春风到洛城」着一「洛城」，写洛城——着一「洛城」，写梦逐春风到洛城，见其城之洛。两字写尽洛城之态，是「以词写城」的点睛之词。「洛城」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。

Related Reading

水调歌头·明月几时有 Song of the Water Melody: When Did the Bright Moon First Appear 苏轼 · 同写思乡感怀、婉丽旷达，一写但愿人长久、一写梦逐春风到洛城，皆于思乡之中见婉丽 Both treat longing at a distance and end by consoling themselves with an image; one offers a universal wish, the other a personal dream journey.

Su Shi's song lyric closes with the wish that men may live long and share the moon across a thousand miles, a resolution that is philosophical and inclusive. Wu Yuanheng's quatrain resolves nothing: it simply lets the dream run after the wind to Luoyang. Read together they show two temperaments facing the same emotion - the Song writer enlarging it into a general consolation, the Tang writer keeping it private, small and unargued.

苏轼《水调歌头·明月几时有》「但愿人长久，千里共婵娟」，写思乡感怀、婉丽旷达，是宋词长调的名篇；武元衡《春兴》则以「梦逐春风到洛城」「春风一枝吹香梦」写到洛城、吹香梦。两诗同写思乡感怀、婉丽旷达：一写但愿人长久、以千里共婵娟写思亲，一写梦逐春风到洛城、以春风写思乡；一为苏轼之旷达、一为武元衡之婉丽，并读正可见诗写「思乡感怀」的两种笔法，皆于思乡之中见婉丽。

 八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Eight Beats of Ganzhou: Facing the Evening Rain That Sweeps the River Sky 柳永 · 同写春夜凝望、婉丽清丽，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写杨柳阴阴细雨晴残花落尽见流莺，皆于春夜之中见凝望 Both open with rain-washed landscape and use it to carry an absent person's longing, but on very different scales.

Liu Yong builds a long, slow vista of river and sky and then turns it into explicit regret, his speaker standing and gazing. Wu Yuanheng does the opposite: he gives fourteen characters of rain-cleared garden and then abandons the outer world altogether for a dream. The contrast is between the Song lyric's descriptive patience and the Tang quatrain's compression, where everything beyond the last line must be supplied by the reader.

柳永《八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天》「对潇潇暮雨洒江天，一番洗清秋」，写春夜凝望、婉丽清丽，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；武元衡《春兴》则以「杨柳阴阴细雨晴，残花落尽见流莺」「春风一枝吹香梦」写细雨晴、吹香梦。两诗同写春夜凝望、婉丽清丽：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写杨柳阴阴细雨晴残花落尽见流莺、以流莺写思乡；一为柳永之清丽、一为武元衡之婉丽，并读正可见诗写「春夜凝望」的两种笔法，皆于春夜之中见凝望。