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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

渡浙江问舟中人

Crossing the Zhe River, Asking the Man in the Boat

孟浩然

Meng Haoran

潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同。
时时引领望天末，何处青山是越中。

The tide has ebbed, the river is level, there is no wind;
in this little boat we cross together, you and I.
Again and again I crane my neck toward the sky's far edge -
which of those blue hills is the land of Yue?
Listen

Meaning

Crossing the wide estuary of the Zhe River on a calm day, the speaker shares a small boat with a companion and keeps stretching his neck toward the horizon, asking which of the distant blue hills marks the ancient land of Yue. The poem is a picture of expectation rather than arrival: the water is placid, the crossing is easy, and all the energy goes into looking ahead. Its theme is the pleasure of approaching a place one has long wanted to see.

潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同。时时引领望天末，何处青山是越中。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The tide has gone down, the river lies flat, and there is no wind; you and I share this little boat and cross together. From time to time I stretch my neck and gaze at the far rim of the sky - which of those green mountains is the country of Yue?
[Structure] The first couplet establishes perfect conditions and a shared boat; the second turns entirely to the act of looking, and ends on a question addressed to the boatman. The poem is thus a movement from comfort to curiosity.
[Imagery] The images are deliberately few and plain: a level river, a small boat, a line of hills, a craned neck. The hills are not described, only counted, which is exactly how they appear to someone who does not yet know them.
[Mood] The mood is one of easy, friendly anticipation. The question is not anxious; it is the question of a traveller who is enjoying himself, and the shared boat makes even the asking sociable.

【白话串讲】 孟浩然写《渡浙江问舟中人》：“潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同”——“时时引领望天末，何处青山是越中”——他渡浙江——何处青山是越中。 【意象与手法】 “潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同”写潮平扁舟；“时时引领望天末”写引领望天末；结以“何处青山是越中”以问句写越中。清新自然。 【情感与主旨】 孟浩然写渡浙江之作，写潮落江平、扁舟共济与引领望越中的情景，是孟浩然山水诗中的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同”写潮平舟济；“时时引领望天末，何处青山是越中”以问句写越中。

Background

Meng Haoran (689-740), whose given name was Hao and whose courtesy name was Haoran, was a native of Xiangyang and the great representative of the landscape and farmstead school after his friend Wang Wei. He never held office for long and spent much of his life travelling the rivers of the south-east. The Zhe River is the present-day Qiantang below Hangzhou, famous for its tidal bore; the crossing was calm only at certain states of the tide, which is why the opening line notes that it has ebbed. The land of Yue, on the southern shore, was the old kingdom of Goujian and the region of Kuaiji, full of historical and legendary associations for a Tang traveller. The poem probably belongs to Meng Haoran's journeys in the lower Yangtze region in the 720s, when he was visiting the mountains and monasteries of the Yue country.

《渡浙江问舟中人》为唐代诗人孟浩然所作诗。孟浩然（689—740），名浩，字浩然，号孟山人，襄阳（今湖北襄阳）人，唐代诗人，山水田园诗派代表。此诗写景山水，为渡浙江之作。诗中「潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同」写潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同；「时时引领望天末，何处青山是越中」写时时引领望天末，何处青山是越中。孟浩然此诗以写景山水、何处青山是越中写其山水之情，清新自然，是孟浩然诗中的名篇。此篇《渡浙江问舟中人》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《渡浙江问舟中人》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 quatrain's art is one of withheld description. The speaker is approaching a famous landscape, and a lesser poet would have described it; Meng Haoran describes only his own impatience to see it. The first couplet's calm - tide down, river level, no wind - is not decorative but functional: it removes every obstacle except distance, and thereby isolates the one remaining tension, which is the traveller's eagerness. The second couplet is built on repetition: again and again he cranes his neck, which turns a single glance into a habit and makes the short journey feel long. The final question is the poem's whole point. By asking which hill is Yue, he tells us that the hills are still indistinguishable, that he has not yet arrived, and that his desire is running ahead of the boat. Nothing is concluded, and that openness is precisely the poem's charm.

此诗艺术上以「清新自然、以景写情」见长。全诗共四句，由潮落江平未有风而时时引领望天末。起「潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同」写潮落江平未有风：潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同；结「时时引领望天末，何处青山是越中」写时时引领望天末：时时引领望天末，何处青山是越中。全诗以景写情，由潮落江平未有风而何处青山是越中，清新自然，是孟浩然诗中的名篇。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 land of Yue carries a heavy historical charge. It was the state of King Goujian, who endured humiliation and then destroyed his enemy Wu, and the region of Kuaiji with its royal tombs and its association with the archer-god's mountain. For Tang readers the word conjured antiquity, revenge, endurance and a landscape of blue hills and clear water that had been celebrated since the Six Dynasties. The little boat also belongs to a long tradition: since the age of Fan Li, who was said to have drifted away on the lakes after his service to Yue, the small boat had been the conventional vehicle of freedom. Meng Haoran uses these associations lightly, as atmosphere rather than as argument.

诗中「潮落江平未有风扁舟共济与君同」「时时引领望天末何处青山是越中」等语，皆含典故故实。「潮落江平未有风扁舟共济与君同」写潮落江平未有风扁舟共济与君同；「时时引领望天末何处青山是越中」写时时引领望天末何处青山是越中。诗人以扁舟、青山等语入诗，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

Critics have valued this quatrain for its naturalness, the quality that Tang readers praised above all in Meng Haoran. Later commentators remarked that the whole poem is built on a single small action - craning the neck - and that this is what makes it feel overheard rather than composed. Others noted the felicity of the opening line, where three short observations in a row produce the sensation of perfect travelling weather without a single adjective of praise. The poem's place in anthologies also reflects its usefulness as a model: it demonstrates how a question can end a quatrain without leaving it unresolved, since the asking itself is the resolution. It remains one of the most frequently quoted short pieces about the anticipation of travel.

这首《渡浙江问舟中人》，是孟浩然写写景山水之作，写潮落江平未有风、扁舟共济与君同、时时引领望天末、何处青山是越中之情，清新自然。起「潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同」——潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同。写潮落江平未有风：潮落江平未有风、扁舟共济与君同——江平未有风、共济与君同；结「时时引领望天末，何处青山是越中」——时时引领望天末，何处青山是越中。写时时引领望天末：时时引领望天末、何处青山是越中——望天末、是越中。这「时时引领望天末，何处青山是越中」，是全诗之结：以何处青山是越中写其山水。全诗清新自然，以景写情，正是孟浩然诗中的名篇。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), four lines of seven syllables, in the regulated manner.诗（七言绝句）
Rhyme The second and fourth line-endings share a single level-tone rhyme, with the first line also joining it; the third line departs, as the form requires, and its departure is what makes the closing question feel like a question.此诗为七言绝句，共四句。押韵：「同」「中」押东部韵。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 Level and oblique syllables alternate regularly. The first couplet is brisk and even, matching a smooth, windless passage; the second is more drawn out, with the repeated adverb slowing the rhythm, and the closing line's level ending lets the question hang unresolved in the air.句式上，「潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同」写潮落江平未有风，音节明快；结「时时引领望天末，何处青山是越中」写时时引领望天末，音节悠长。全诗音节由明快而悠长，正合绝句「凝练」之妙，读来如写景山水、何处青山是越中之音，清新而动人。
Reading note The prosody mirrors the experience. A calm, unhurried opening carries the reader across the water; then the rhythm stretches as the gaze stretches, and the final line, rhymed and level, refuses to fall - exactly as the traveller's desire refuses to settle until the hills resolve into the land of Yue.此诗为七言绝句，是孟浩然写写景山水之作，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」：「潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同」写潮落江平未有风、「时时引领望天末，何处青山是越中」写时时引领望天末。全诗清新自然，以景写情。尤为精妙者，是「潮落江平未有风」写尽江平之景；而「时时引领望天末，何处青山是越中」写尽望越之情，正是孟浩然诗「清新自然」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《渡浙江问舟中人》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

潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同。

The tide has ebbed, the river is level, there is no wind; in this little boat we cross together, you and I.

潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同。

The tide is low, the river calm, no wind yet; in a small boat we cross together, you and I.

首句写潮落江平未有风，起笔即见其江。「潮落江平未有风」写潮落江平未有风，「潮落江平」写潮落江平、「未有风」写未有风；「扁舟共济与君同」写扁舟共济与君同，「扁舟共济」写扁舟共济、「与君同」写与君同。两句一写潮落江平未有风、一写扁舟共济与君同，以潮落江平未有风写江平未有风、以扁舟共济与君同写共济与君同，写尽潮落江平未有风、扁舟共济与君同之情。以江起兴，清新而自然，是「以江起兴」的妙笔。

The opening line writes the tide is low, the river calm, no wind yet, the river at once. The words the tide is low, the river calm write the water; no wind yet the calm. In a small boat we cross together, you and I writes the shared crossing. The two lines, one writing the low tide and calm river, one writing the small boat's shared crossing, write to the full the feeling of the calm river and the shared voyage. Rising through the river, fresh and natural, the fine brush of rising through the river.

时时引领望天末，何处青山是越中。

Again and again I crane my neck toward the sky's far edge - which of those blue hills is the land of Yue?

时时引领望天末，何处青山是越中。

Again and again I crane my neck toward the sky's edge; which green hill is Yuezhong?

结句写时时引领望天末，是全诗立意的落点。「时时引领望天末」写时时引领望天末，「时时引领」写时时引领、「望天末」写望天末；「何处青山是越中」写何处青山是越中，「何处青山」写何处青山、「是越中」写是越中。两句一写时时引领望天末、一写何处青山是越中，以时时引领望天末写望天末、以何处青山是越中写是越中，写尽时时引领望天末、何处青山是越中之情。以望写情，清新而自然，是全诗最动人处，也是「以望写情」的点睛之笔。

The closing line writes again and again I crane my neck toward the sky's edge, the landing of the whole's bent. The words again and again I crane my neck write the gazing; toward the sky's edge the far. Which green hill is Yuezhong? writes the question. The two lines, one writing the craning toward the sky's edge, one writing the question which green hill is Yuezhong, write to the full the feeling of the gazing and the question. Writing feeling through the gaze, fresh and natural, the most moving place of the whole and the eye-dotting brush.

Study

Word focus

潮落 The ebbing of the tide. On the Zhe estuary the tidal bore made crossings dangerous except at slack water, so this phrase is practical information as well as scenery, and it explains the calm of the rest of the line. 「潮落」写潮落江平未有风，是写潮落之态的关键。「潮落江平未有风」着一「潮落」，写潮落——着一「潮落」，写潮落江平未有风，见其潮之落。两字写尽潮落之态，是「以词写潮」的妙笔。「潮落」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。
扁舟 A small, flat, light boat. The word carries a long association with private, unofficial travel - the boat of the wanderer rather than of the official barge - and it makes the shared crossing feel intimate. 「扁舟」写扁舟共济与君同，是写扁舟之态的关键。「扁舟共济与君同」着一「扁舟」，写扁舟——着一「扁舟」，写扁舟共济与君同，见其舟之扁。两字写尽扁舟之态，是「以词写舟」的点睛之词。「扁舟」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。
引领 To stretch the neck, to crane forward. It is a purely physical detail, and that is its value: the speaker's longing is shown as a posture of the body rather than described as an emotion. 「引领」写时时引领望天末，是写引领之态的关键。「时时引领望天末」着一「引领」，写引领——着一「引领」，写时时引领望天末，见其颈之引。两字写尽引领之态，是「以词写望」的点睛之词。「引领」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。
天末 The far edge or rim of the sky, the horizon. It marks the limit of what can be seen, and therefore the boundary between the traveller's present position and the country he is straining to identify. 「天末」写时时引领望天末，是写天末之态的关键。「时时引领望天末」着一「天末」，写天末——着一「天末」，写时时引领望天末，见其末之天。两字写尽天末之态，是「以词写天」的点睛之词。「天末」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、清新悠远，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写潮落江平未有风扁舟共济与君同，皆于江上之中见凝望 Both works watch a river horizon, but one looks forward with pleasure and the other backward with regret.

Liu Yong's speaker scans the water for returning boats and is repeatedly disappointed; the horizon is where his hopes fail. Meng Haoran's speaker scans the same kind of distance and enjoys the not-knowing, because the place he seeks is still ahead of him. The comparison shows how the same act of gazing becomes despair or delight depending on whether what one wants lies behind or in front.

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、清新悠远，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；孟浩然《渡浙江问舟中人》则以「潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同」「时时引领望天末」写江平未有风、引领望天末。两诗同写江上凝望、清新悠远：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写潮落江平未有风扁舟共济与君同、以渡江写山水；一为柳永之清丽、一为孟浩然之清新，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、超然旷达，一写我欲乘风归去、一写潮落江平未有风扁舟共济与君同，皆于山水之中见旷达 Both are short pieces about distance and the desire to reach something, one across a river and one toward the sky.

Su Shi imagines riding the wind to the moon and then draws back from the cold heights; his longing is metaphysical and ends in acceptance. Meng Haoran's longing is entirely concrete - a few blue hills on the southern shore - and needs no resolution beyond the question. The two together illustrate how differently Tang and Song poets handle yearning: one keeps it attached to a boat and a riverbank, the other lifts it into argument.

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、超然旷达，是宋词长调的名篇；孟浩然《渡浙江问舟中人》则以「潮落江平未有风，扁舟共济与君同」「何处青山是越中」写江平未有风、青山是越中。两诗同写山水感怀、超然旷达：一写我欲乘风归去、以乘风写超然，一写潮落江平未有风扁舟共济与君同、以渡江写山水；一为苏轼之超然、一为孟浩然之清新，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。