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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

堤上行

Song of Going Along the Embankment

刘禹锡

Liu Yuxi

酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼。
日暮行人争渡急，桨声幽轧满中流。

Wine-banners face one another at the head of the great dyke;
below the dyke, masts in a row; above the dyke, storied towers.
At sunset the travellers press to cross in eager haste,
and the creaking murmur of oars fills the midstream.
Listen

Meaning

The poem is a snapshot of a river embankment at dusk. Tavern flags, a row of moored masts and riverside towers sketch a thriving water town, while the closing couplet catches the evening rush of homeward travellers and the sound of oar-strokes filling the channel. Its theme is the unforced liveliness of southern river life: a scene observed closely and rendered without moral comment.

酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼。日暮行人争渡急，桨声幽轧满中流。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] At the crest of the great dyke tavern banners nod to one another across the way; beneath the dyke the moored boats stand mast to mast, and above it rise the towers of the town. When the sun goes down, everyone is in a hurry to get across, and the creak of oars fills the middle of the stream.
[Structure] The first couplet is pure static description: two horizontal bands of detail, the water-level band of masts and the upper band of towers, held together by the repeated word for dyke. The second couplet suddenly sets everything in motion. Stillness gives way to bustle, sight to sound, and the poem closes on an auditory image rather than a visual one.
[Imagery] The images are deliberately ordinary - a wine flag, a mast, a tower, an oar - and none of them is ornamented. Their force comes from accumulation: the repetition of the dyke word in the opening line makes the embankment itself the spine of the scene, and the final line lets the noise of rowing stand for the whole crowded ferry crossing.
[Mood] There is no sadness here and no explicit judgement. The poet simply records a busy, good-humoured moment, and the reader is left with the impression of a place that is alive and at ease with itself.

【白话串讲】 刘禹锡写《堤上行》：“酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼”——“日暮行人争渡急，桨声幽轧满中流”——他写江堤渡口——桨声幽轧满中流。 【意象与手法】 “酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼”写堤头酒旗桅樯；“日暮行人争渡急，桨声幽轧满中流”写争渡之景。清新自然。 【情感与主旨】 刘禹锡写江堤渡口之作，写堤上酒旗、堤下连樯与日暮行人争渡的热闹景象，展现江南水乡风情，是刘禹锡民歌风竹枝词的风格。 【名句点睛】 常考“酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼”写堤头景象；“日暮行人争渡急，桨声幽轧满中流”写争渡之景。

Background

Liu Yuxi (772-842), courtesy name Mengde, was a native of Luoyang and one of the most resilient figures of mid-Tang letters; later critics honoured him with the title Poet-Hero. After the failed Yongzhen reforms of 805 he spent more than twenty years in provincial exile in the south, at Langzhou, Lianzhou and elsewhere. Those years turned his attention to local life. He collected and imitated the folk songs of the region, and his Bamboo Branch songs made the riverbank, the ferry and the market town respectable material for court-trained poetry. This quatrain belongs to that side of his work: an embankment scene observed on the spot, in the plain, unbookish manner he learned from popular song.

《堤上行》为唐代诗人刘禹锡所作诗。刘禹锡（772—842），字梦得，洛阳（今河南洛阳）人，唐代诗人，「诗豪」之誉。此诗写景山水，为堤上之作。诗中「酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼」写酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼；「日暮行人争渡急，桨声幽轧满中流」写日暮行人争渡急，桨声幽轧满中流。刘禹锡此诗以写景山水、桨声幽轧满中流写其山水之情，清新自然，是刘禹锡诗中的名篇。此篇《堤上行》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《堤上行》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《堤上行》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 craft of the poem lies in economy and in the shift from sight to sound. Four lines, twenty-eight syllables, contain three registers of space: the dyke top with its wine flags, the dyke foot with its masts, and the midstream where the boats actually move. The poet uses the single word for dyke three times in the first couplet, so that the embankment becomes both the physical and structural centre of the scene. The second couplet abandons description for event: the word for pressing or vying conveys the crowding of the ferry, and the closing line abandons the visual altogether, ending on the rasping, half-musical noise of oars. This is the technique of using the smallest possible number of details to imply the largest possible picture. Nothing is explained, no emotion is named, and yet the temper of the place - industrious, crowded, cheerful - comes through intact.

此诗艺术上以「清新自然、以景写情」见长。全诗共四句，由酒旗相望大隄头而日暮行人争渡急。起「酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼」写酒旗相望大隄头：酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼；结「日暮行人争渡急，桨声幽轧满中流」写日暮行人争渡急：日暮行人争渡急，桨声幽轧满中流。全诗以景写情，由酒旗相望大隄头而桨声幽轧满中流，清新自然，是刘禹锡诗中的名篇。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 poem makes no learned display of quotation, but two of its images carry literary resonance. The great dyke with its wine banners recalls the old Southern dynasties songs grouped under the title of the Great Dyke, which celebrated the pleasure quarter and boat landings of Xiangyang; the tavern flag had long been a stock sign of a bustling river town in that tradition. The paired seabirds and moored boats of riverside verse form a second, quieter echo. Liu Yuxi's achievement is that he uses these conventional materials without any sense of padding: the allusive weight sits lightly, so that a reader who recognises the echo gains a depth of association while a reader who does not still sees a plain, vivid scene.

诗中「酒旗相望大隄头堤下连樯堤上楼」「日暮行人争渡急桨声幽轧满中流」等语，皆含典故故实。「酒旗相望大隄头堤下连樯堤上楼」写酒旗相望大隄头堤下连樯堤上楼；「日暮行人争渡急桨声幽轧满中流」写日暮行人争渡急桨声幽轧满中流。诗人以酒旗、桨声等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把写景山水之情写得真切可感，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 valued this quatrain precisely for what it does not do. It draws no moral, hints at no exile grief, and declines to turn a ferry crossing into an allegory. In a tradition where rivers usually carry the poet's sorrow southward, a river that merely carries people home is refreshing. Critics have linked the piece to Liu Yuxi's folk-song period and praised its unforced naturalness, noting that the sound-image in the last line does the work that argument would do in a lesser poem. Its inclusion in standard anthologies rests on that combination of plainness and exactness: every noun is ordinary, and yet the whole scene is unmistakably one particular evening at one particular crossing.

这首《堤上行》，是刘禹锡写写景山水之作，写酒旗相望大隄头、堤下连樯堤上楼、日暮行人争渡急、桨声幽轧满中流之情，清新自然。起「酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼」——酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼。写酒旗相望大隄头：酒旗相望大隄头、堤下连樯堤上楼——相望大隄头、连樯堤上楼；结「日暮行人争渡急，桨声幽轧满中流」——日暮行人争渡急，桨声幽轧满中流。写日暮行人争渡急：日暮行人争渡急、桨声幽轧满中流——争渡急、满中流。这「桨声幽轧满中流」，是全诗之结：以桨声幽轧满中流写其山水。全诗清新自然，以景写情，正是刘禹锡诗中的名篇。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 Seven-character quatrain (qi yan jue ju), a regulated short lyric in four lines of seven syllables each.诗（七言绝句）
Rhyme A single level-tone rhyme runs through the line-ending words tou, lou and liu, giving the quatrain one unbroken rhyme; the third line does not rhyme, which is the standard pattern and provides the turn before the close.此诗为七言绝句，共四句。押韵：「头」「楼」「流」押尤部韵。诗体依绝句而定，句式整齐，音节短促而清新，正与写写景山水的清新自然相称，也见其以绝句写山水的凝练。
Tone pattern The first couplet is bright and evenly paced, matching the ordered, sunlit scene; the second couplet quickens, with the clustered sounds of the rowing line producing a slower, heavier cadence. The movement from brisk to rolling mirrors the movement from a still picture to a crowded, noisy crossing.句式上，「酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼」写酒旗相望大隄头，音节明快；结「日暮行人争渡急，桨声幽轧满中流」写日暮行人争渡急，音节轻快。全诗音节由明快而轻快，正合绝句「凝练」之妙，读来如写景山水、桨声幽轧满中流之音，清新而动人。
Reading note As a quatrain the poem must complete its turn within four lines, and it does so by changing sensory register rather than by argument: the opening couplet presents two horizontal bands of sight, the closing couplet answers with one band of sound. The regular seven-syllable line and the sustained rhyme keep the scene disciplined, so that the bustle never becomes disorderly.此诗为七言绝句，是刘禹锡写写景山水之作，也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「清新自然、以景写情」：「酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼」写酒旗相望大隄头、「日暮行人争渡急，桨声幽轧满中流」写日暮行人争渡急。全诗清新自然，以景写情。尤为精妙者，是「堤下连樯堤上楼」写尽堤上之景；而「桨声幽轧满中流」写尽中流桨声，正是刘禹锡诗「清新自然」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《堤上行》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

酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼。

Wine-banners face one another at the head of the great dyke; below the dyke, masts stand in a row, and above the dyke rise storied towers.

酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼。

Wine flags face each other at the great dike's head; below the dike the masts stand rank on rank, above the dike the towers rise.

首句写酒旗相望大隄头，起笔即见其堤。「酒旗相望大隄头」写酒旗相望大隄头，「酒旗相望」写酒旗相望、「大隄头」写大隄头；「堤下连樯堤上楼」写堤下连樯堤上楼，「堤下连樯」写堤下连樯、「堤上楼」写堤上楼。两句一写酒旗相望大隄头、一写堤下连樯堤上楼，以酒旗相望大隄头写相望隄头、以堤下连樯堤上楼写连樯上楼，写尽酒旗相望大隄头、堤下连樯堤上楼之情。以堤起兴，清新而自然，是「以堤起兴」的妙笔。

The opening line writes wine flags face each other at the great dike's head, the dike at once. The words wine flags face each other write the signs; at the great dike's head the place. Below the dike the masts stand rank on rank, above the dike the towers rise writes the masts and towers. The two lines, one writing the wine flags at the dike's head, one writing the masts below and towers above, write to the full the feeling of the facing flags and the rank masts. Rising through the dike, fresh and natural, the fine brush of rising through the dike.

日暮行人争渡急，桨声幽轧满中流。

At sunset the travellers press to cross in eager haste, and the creaking murmur of oars fills the midstream.

日暮行人争渡急，桨声幽轧满中流。

At dusk the travelers hurry to cross, the oars' soft creak fills the midstream.

结句写日暮行人争渡急，是全诗立意的落点。「日暮行人争渡急」写日暮行人争渡急，「日暮行人」写日暮行人、「争渡急」写争渡急；「桨声幽轧满中流」写桨声幽轧满中流，「桨声幽轧」写桨声幽轧、「满中流」写满中流。两句一写日暮行人争渡急、一写桨声幽轧满中流，以日暮行人争渡急写争渡急、以桨声幽轧满中流写满中流，写尽日暮行人争渡急、桨声幽轧满中流之情。以桨写情，清新而自然，是全诗最动人处，也是「以桨写情」的点睛之笔。

The closing line writes at dusk the travelers hurry to cross, the landing of the whole's bent. The words at dusk the travelers write the hour and the people; hurry to cross the haste. The oars' soft creak fills the midstream writes the oar-sound. The two lines, one writing the dusk travelers' hurried crossing, one writing the oar-creak filling the stream, write to the full the feeling of the haste and the creak. Writing feeling through the oars, fresh and natural, the most moving place of the whole and the eye-dotting brush.

Study

Word focus

酒旗 The cloth sign hung outside a wine shop. Here it stands for the commerce and sociability of the embankment: banners in sight of one another imply a whole row of taverns and therefore a busy, prosperous town rather than a lonely stretch of riverbank. 「酒旗」写酒旗相望大隄头，是写酒旗之态的关键。「酒旗相望大隄头」着一「酒旗」，写酒旗——着一「酒旗」，写酒旗相望大隄头，见其旗之酒。两字写尽酒旗之态，是「以词写旗」的妙笔。「酒旗」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。
大隄头 The crest, or head, of the great dyke - the raised embankment that holds back the river and doubles as the town's main thoroughfare. Naming it at the very start fixes the viewpoint: the speaker stands on the dyke and looks both down to the water and up to the buildings. 「大隄头」写酒旗相望大隄头，是写隄头之态的关键。「酒旗相望大隄头」着一「大隄头」，写大隄头——着一「大隄头」，写酒旗相望大隄头，见其头之大隄。三字写尽大隄头之态，是「以词写隄」的点睛之词。「大隄头」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。
连樯 Masts standing so close together that they form a continuous line. The word conveys the number of moored boats without any counting, and by extension the volume of river traffic that the town depends upon. 「连樯」写堤下连樯堤上楼，是写连樯之态的关键。「堤下连樯堤上楼」着一「连樯」，写连樯——着一「连樯」，写堤下连樯堤上楼，见其樯之连。两字写尽连樯之态，是「以词写樯」的点睛之词。「连樯」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。
桨声 The sound of oars working against the water, rendered here as a low rasping creak. It is the poem's only auditory image and its closing one, carrying the crowded ferry crossing to the ear after the eye has taken in the scene. 「桨声」写桨声幽轧满中流，是写桨声之态的关键。「桨声幽轧满中流」着一「桨声」，写桨声——着一「桨声」，写桨声幽轧满中流，见其声之桨。两字写尽桨声之态，是「以词写声」的点睛之词。「桨声」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

八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Song lyric to the tune Ba sheng gan zhou: 'Against the whispering evening rain that sweeps the river sky' 柳永 · 同写江上凝望、清丽沉雄，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写酒旗相望大隄头堤下连樯堤上楼，皆于江上之中见凝望 Both works contemplate a river scene; one is a Northern Song lyric of travel-weariness, the other a Tang quatrain of riverside bustle.

Liu Yong's lyric opens on rain sweeping the river sky and washing the air clear of autumn, and the whole piece is spoken by a solitary traveller whose gaze travels homeward. Liu Yuxi's quatrain looks at the same kind of waterfront but from inside the crowd rather than outside it: where Liu Yong's river is cold and empty, his is thronged with masts and oars. Read together they show two temperaments facing a river - one turning the water into an image of estrangement, the other into an image of shared, ordinary life.

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」，写江上凝望、清丽沉雄，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；刘禹锡《堤上行》则以「酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼」「桨声幽轧满中流」写相望隄头、桨声满中流。两诗同写江上凝望、清丽沉雄：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写酒旗相望大隄头堤下连樯堤上楼、以堤景写山水；一为柳永之清丽、一为刘禹锡之清新，并读正可见诗写「江上凝望」的两种笔法，皆于江上之中见凝望。

 水调歌头·明月几时有 Song lyric to the tune Shui diao ge tou: 'The bright moon, when did it first appear?' 苏轼 · 同写山水感怀、旷达超然，一写我欲乘风归去、一写酒旗相望大隄头堤下连樯堤上楼，皆于山水之中见旷达 Both are short pieces that move from an observed scene to a philosophic close, though one concerns the moon and longing, the other a ferry crossing.

Su Shi's lyric rises from a moonlit night through doubt to a spacious consolation, its argument carried by the poet's own voice. Liu Yuxi's quatrain contains no such voice: it stays entirely with what can be seen and heard, and its meaning is delivered by arrangement rather than by statement. The contrast is instructive - one poet interprets the world, the other lets a well-chosen fragment of the world interpret itself.

苏轼《水调歌头·明月几时有》「我欲乘风归去，又恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒」，写山水感怀、旷达超然，是宋词长调的名篇；刘禹锡《堤上行》则以「酒旗相望大隄头，堤下连樯堤上楼」「日暮行人争渡急」写相望隄头、行人争渡急。两诗同写山水感怀、旷达超然：一写我欲乘风归去、以乘风写超然，一写酒旗相望大隄头堤下连樯堤上楼、以堤景写山水；一为苏轼之超然、一为刘禹锡之清新，并读正可见诗写「山水感怀」的两种笔法，皆于山水之中见旷达。