All poems

唐 Tang · 赋 Fu rhapsody

阿房宫赋

Fu on the Epang Palace

杜牧

Du Mu

名篇masterpiece 赋fu 讽喻satire

六王毕，四海一，蜀山兀，阿房出。
覆压三百余里，隔离天日。
骊山北构而西折，直走咸阳。
二川溶溶，流入宫墙。
五步一楼，十步一阁；
廊腰缦回，檐牙高啄；
各抱地势，钩心斗角。

Six kings finished, the four seas one; Shu's hills bare, Epang arose. It overrode three hundred li and more, severing sky from sun. Built northward from the Li Hills then westward, straight to Xianyang. Two rivers wide and flowing entered the palace walls. A tower every five paces, a pavilion every ten; the corridor waists wind like silken bands, the eave-teeth tower to peck; each embraces the terrain, hooks at the heart and locks in angle.

Listen

Meaning

This celebrated opening of Du Mu's 'Fu on the Epang Palace' compresses the fall of the six states and the founding of Qin into twelve characters, then unfolds the palace's colossal scale. The six kings are extinguished and the realm unified; the hills of Shu are stripped bare so that Epang may rise. The palace sprawls over three hundred li, cutting off sky from sun, and runs from the Li Hills north then westward to Xianyang, with two broad rivers flowing into its walls. Towers rise every five paces and pavilions every ten; corridor waists wind like silken bands, eave-teeth lean down to peck, each structure embracing the terrain in interlocking angles. Behind this gorgeous description lies Du Mu's cold critique of Qin's extravagance and his warning to the late-Tang rulers—an overture to the famous lament that 'those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.'

六国灭亡了，天下归于统一，蜀地的山林被砍伐得光秃秃的，阿房宫才得以建成。宫殿覆盖方圆三百多里，高耸入云，遮蔽了天上的太阳。它从骊山北面开始构建，又向西折转，一直延伸到咸阳。渭水和樊川两条河缓缓流淌，流进宫墙之内。五步一座高楼，十步一座台阁；走廊的腰身像绸带一样曲折回环，屋檐的尖角像鸟嘴一样高高啄起；它们各自依凭地势而建，楼阁之间犬牙交错，彼此勾连、相互对峙。

Appreciation

Plain paraphrase: The opening four lines 'Six kings finished, the four seas one; Shu's hills bare, Epang arose'—twelve characters write the great change from the Warring States' fragmentation to the realm's unity: the six states fallen, the four seas unified, Shu's trees felled to the stump, Epang rising from the earth, every character weighty as a thousand jun. Then 'it overrode three hundred li and more, severing sky from sun' writes the palace's vastness and height; 'built northward from the Li Hills then westward, straight to Xianyang' gives its direction; 'two rivers wide and flowing entered the palace walls' writes the grandeur of hill-and-river drawn into the grounds. Finally 'a tower every five paces, a pavilion every ten' and below details the density of towers, the cleverness of eaves, the wonder of terrain, exhaustively laid out. Artistic features: This is a masterpiece of fu blending parallel and prose. The first half's exposition uses mainly four-character short lines, urgent and forceful like a string of pearls; the latter half's description unfolds in antithetical lines, with metaphor and personification together. The whole moves from general to particular, from far to near, from large to small, its composition orderly; 'hooks at the heart and locks in angle' writes confronting pavilions through warring blades, turning stillness to motion, especially showing the craft of forging. Feeling and theme: On the surface it writes Epang's splendor, but at its bone lies a cold critique of Qin's extravagance and tyranny. Du Mu's intent in writing this fu is to use the past to satirize the present—warning the late-Tang rulers with Qin's fall, building force for the later eternal sigh 'the men of Qin had no leisure to lament themselves, and later men lament them.' Famous lines: 'Six kings finished, the four seas one; Shu's hills bare, Epang arose'—four lines are the fu's prelude and eternal famous lines: short lines closed by three verbs write the thunderous momentum of dynastic change, towering above the ages.

【白话串讲】杜牧写《阿房宫赋》：“六王毕，四海一，蜀山兀，阿房出”。“覆压三百余里，隔离天日”——“五步一楼，十步一阁”——“秦人不暇自哀，而后人哀之；后人哀之而不鉴之，亦使后人而复哀后人也”——他讽当朝勿蹈秦辙。【意象与手法】这是一篇骈散结合的赋体杰作。前半铺陈以四言短句为主，急促有力，如连珠炮发；后半描绘则以对偶句层层展开，比喻拟人并举。全段由总到分、由远及近、由大到小，章法井然；「钩心斗角」以兵刃交争写楼阁相向，化静为动，尤见锤炼之功。【情感与主旨】表面上写阿房宫的壮丽，骨子里却埋着对秦朝穷奢极欲的冷峻批判。杜牧写此赋的用意在借古讽今——以秦之覆亡警示晚唐统治者，为后文「秦人不暇自哀，而后人哀之」的千古一叹蓄势。【名句点睛】「六王毕，四海一，蜀山兀，阿房出」四句是全文的引子，也是千古名句：以三个动词收束的短句写尽改朝换代的雷霆之势，雄视百代。

Background

Du Mu (803–c. 852), styled Mu-zhi, was a native of Jingzhao's Wan-nian (present Xi'an, Shaanxi), a renowned late-Tang poet and prose writer, paired with Li Shangyin as the 'Lesser Li and Du.' Born of a great clan—his grandfather Du You reached the post of prime minister and authored the 'Comprehensive Institutes' (Tongdian)—he had a deep family learning. Du Mu lived in the troubled late Tang: regional warlords, eunuch dominance, and the Niu-Li factional strife afflicted the state together, and after Emperor Jingzong Li Zhan ascended he undertook grand constructions, built palaces, and indulged in pleasure, the court growing corrupt. Grieved by the times, Du Mu composed 'Fu on the Epang Palace' around the first year of Baoli (825), using the rise and fall of Qin's Epang Palace as a mirror to satirize the present and warn the rulers not to repeat Qin's ruin. 'Fu on the Epang Palace' is a fu blending parallel and prose; the whole divides into two great parts: the first half exhaustively writes Epang's grandeur and the palace life's arrogance, the second turns to argument, revealing the lesson that Qin perished through tyranny and extravagance, culminating in the manifest theme—'it was not Qin that destroyed the six states, but the six states themselves; it was not the world that destroyed Qin, but Qin itself' and 'the men of Qin had no leisure to lament themselves, and later men lament them; if later men lament yet do not take warning, they too will make later men lament them'—a profound caution. This excerpt is the fu's opening passage, devoted to Epang's scale of construction and the beauty of its towers, preparing the later exposition of extravagance.

杜牧（803—约852），字牧之，京兆万年（今陕西西安）人，晚唐著名诗人、散文家，与李商隐并称「小李杜」。他出身世家，祖父杜佑官至宰相，著有《通典》，家学渊源深厚。杜牧生于晚唐多事之秋，藩镇割据、宦官专权、牛李党争交相为患，而唐敬宗李湛即位后大兴土木、广建宫室、纵情声色，朝政日趋腐败。杜牧感时伤世，遂于宝历元年（825）前后作《阿房宫赋》，以秦朝阿房宫的兴废为鉴，借古讽今，警告当朝统治者勿蹈秦亡覆辙。《阿房宫赋》是一篇骈散结合的赋体文章，全文分前后两大部分：前半极写阿房宫的宏伟壮丽与宫中生活的骄奢，后半转入议论，揭示秦因暴虐奢华而亡的教训，卒章显志，点出「灭六国者六国也，非秦也；族秦者秦也，非天下也」「秦人不暇自哀，而后人哀之；后人哀之而不鉴之，亦使后人而复哀后人也」的深长警示。本文所录为赋的开篇一段，专写阿房宫的营建规模与楼阁形胜，为后文的奢靡铺陈张本。

Art

This passage is a typical fu composition, uniting the orderliness of parallel prose with the flowing ease of prose; the opening passage especially shows Du Mu's command of language. In genre, fu prizes exposition and parallelism, depicting exhaustively; this passage is a model of that craft: first the four short lines 'Six kings finished, the four seas one; Shu's hills bare, Epang arose' write, from the two dimensions of time and space, the background of Epang's appearance; then 'it overrode three hundred li and more, severing sky from sun' exaggerates its bulk; then 'built northward from the Li Hills then westward, straight to Xianyang' gives its direction; 'two rivers wide and flowing entered the palace walls' writes the rivers-and-hills gathered into the grounds; finally it settles on the concrete forms of corridors and eaves, from general to particular, from far to near, from macro to micro, with extremely clear layers. In syntax, the passage is mainly four-character lines with varied length: the first four lines are all four characters, short and forceful like iron and horse; the lines describing towers—'a tower every five paces, a pavilion every ten,' 'the corridor waists wind like silken bands, the eave-teeth tower to peck,' 'each embraces the terrain, hooks at the heart and locks in angle'—show variation within antithesis, the rhythm shifting from rapid to slow, dense yet measured. In rhetoric, metaphor ('the corridor waists wind like silken bands, the eave-teeth tower to peck' likens forms to silk and bird beaks), personification ('each embraces the terrain'), and hyperbole ('severing sky from sun') are used together, turning stillness to motion, giving the palace a vital, tiger-like energy. This style of lavish yet precise writing is the supreme craft of late-Tang fu.

本文是一篇典型的赋体文章，兼具骈文的整饬与散文的疏宕，开篇一段尤其见出杜牧驾驭语言的功力。从文体看，赋讲究铺陈排比、穷形尽相，本段正是铺陈手法的典范：先以「六王毕，四海一，蜀山兀，阿房出」四个短句从时间与空间两个维度总写阿房宫出现的背景，继以「覆压三百余里，隔离天日」的夸张言其体量，再以「骊山北构而西折，直走咸阳」点其走向，以「二川溶溶，流入宫墙」写其环抱山河之势，最后落笔于楼阁廊檐的具体形态，由总到分、由远及近、由宏观到微观，层次极为分明。从句式看，全段以四言为主而长短相间：起首四句全是四字，短促有力，如金戈铁马；描绘楼阁的「五步一楼，十步一阁」「廊腰缦回，檐牙高啄」「各抱地势，钩心斗角」则在对偶中见参差，节奏由疾转徐，疏密有致。从修辞看，比喻（「廊腰缦回，檐牙高啄」以绸带、鸟喙拟形）、拟人（「各抱地势」）、夸张（「隔离天日」）并用，化静为动，把一座宫殿写得虎虎有生气。这种铺张扬厉而不失精约的笔法，正是晚唐赋的绝技。

Allusions

Though this passage is mainly expository scene-writing, its cultural depth is profound. Epang Palace was a huge palace complex Qin Shihuang built in the Shanglin Park south of the Wei; according to the 'Basic Annals of Qin Shihuang' in the Shiji, 'the front hall of Epang, east-west five hundred paces, north-south fifty fathoms, could seat ten thousand above,' its work begun in the thirty-fifth year (212 BCE), unfinished at Qin's fall, later burned by Xiang Yu—'a Chu man's torch,可怜 a stretch of scorched earth.' Du Mu's Epang is not a full historical restoration but a literary reconstruction blending imagination and hyperbole; 'overriding three hundred li' and 'severing sky from sun' write its vastness with extreme exaggeration, inheriting the Han-fu tradition of 'spreading and culling the patterns.' 'Built northward from the Li Hills then westward, straight to Xianyang' writes its geographic course: the Li Hills are where Qin Shihuang's tomb lies, Xianyang the Qin capital—one hill one city covertly holds the empire's map centered on Xianyang; 'two rivers wide and flowing entered the palace walls'—the two rivers generally refer to the Wei and the Fan, flowing near Xianyang, writing how two great rivers seem gathered by the grounds, using hill-and-river's grandeur to set off the palace's majesty. As for 'hooks at the heart and locks in angle,' originally it wrote how pavilions' centers hook together and eave-corners confront—later readers extended it to the idiom for intrigue and rivalry, a proof in itself of this writing's far influence. This manner of using history as bone and fu as flesh lays the groundwork for the later argument satirizing the present through the past.

此段虽以铺陈写景为主，文化内涵却极为深厚。阿房宫本是秦始皇于渭南上林苑中营建的巨大宫殿群，据《史记·秦始皇本纪》载，「前殿阿房，东西五百步，南北五十丈，上可以坐万人」，其工程始于始皇三十五年（前212），至秦亡尚未完工，后为项羽焚毁，「楚人一炬，可怜焦土」。杜牧笔下的阿房宫并非完全的史实复原，而是融入了想象与夸张的文学重构，「覆压三百余里」「隔离天日」皆以极度夸张写其雄阔，继承了汉赋「铺采摘文」的传统。「骊山北构而西折，直走咸阳」写其地理走向：骊山是秦始皇陵所在之地，咸阳是秦朝都城，一山一城，暗含秦朝以咸阳为中心的帝国版图；「二川溶溶，流入宫墙」中的二川，一般指流经咸阳附近的渭水与樊川，写两条大河仿佛为宫苑所收揽，以山河之壮衬宫殿之尊。至于「钩心斗角」一句，本写楼阁中心相钩连、檐角相争峙的形态，后人引申为明争暗斗的成语，词义流变本身即是此文影响深远的明证。这种以史为骨、以赋为肉的写法，为后文借古讽今的议论埋下伏笔。

Commentary

'Fu on the Epang Palace' is Du Mu's most celebrated essay and the summit of late-Tang fu prose, long valued by anthologists. Though the Ming critic Mao Kun's 'Eight Masters of the Tang and Song' did not include Du Mu, the Qing 'Guwen Guanzhi' still selected this piece, ranking it with 'On the Faults of Qin' and 'On the Six States' as famous works of using the past to satirize the present. The essay's most moving part is the argument where 'the manifest theme appears at the end': 'the men of Qin had no leisure to lament themselves, and later men lament them; if later men lament yet do not take warning, they too will make later men lament them'—from narration it suddenly turns to philosophical warning, like a blow to the head, laying bare the cyclic tragedy of dynastic rise and fall, a line passed down through the ages. Its influence is deep: in genre, it inherits Han-fu exposition and Six-Dynasties parallelism above, and opens the way for Song literary fu (such as Su Shi's 'Fu on the Red Cliff' with its prose quality) below—a key link in fu's turn from parallel to prose; in thought, its paradigm of using the past to mirror the present and taking history as warning is of one lineage with Jia Yi's 'On the Faults of Qin' and Su Xun's 'On the Six States,' a vital tradition of Chinese political literature. To this day 'hooks at the heart and locks in angle' has entered daily vocabulary, and Epang's lesson is written into textbooks as a historical mirror; its warning 'later men lament yet do not take warning' transcends the rise and fall of dynasties, an eternal admonition to all rulers.

《阿房宫赋》是杜牧最负盛名的文章，也是晚唐赋体散文的高峰，历来为选家所重。明代茅坤编《唐宋八大家文钞》虽未收杜牧，然清人编《古文观止》仍选录此文，与《过秦论》《六国论》并列为借古讽今的名篇。文章最动人处在「卒章显志」的议论部分：「秦人不暇自哀，而后人哀之；后人哀之而不鉴之，亦使后人而复哀后人也」，由叙事铺陈陡转哲理警策，如当头棒喝，道破历代兴亡的循环悲剧，成为千古传诵的名句。此文对后世影响深远：在文体上，它上承汉赋铺陈、六朝骈俪，下启宋代文赋（如苏轼《赤壁赋》的散文化），是赋体由骈入散转变中的关键一环；在思想上，其借古讽今、以史为鉴的写作范式，与贾谊《过秦论》、苏洵《六国论》一脉相承，成为中国古代政论文学的重要传统。时至今日，「钩心斗角」已进入日常语汇，阿房宫的教训亦作为历史镜鉴写入教材，其「后人哀之而不鉴之」的警句更超越了朝代兴亡，成为对一切当权者的永恒告诫。

Prosody

Form Fu (literary fu blending parallel and prose; the opening is four-character short lines and parallel exposition).赋（骈散结合的文赋，开篇为四言短句与骈偶铺陈）

Rhyme This passage's rhyme feet are relatively free, showing a 'dense front, sparse back' tendency: the opening 'finished, one, bare, arose' (毕, 一, 兀, 出) all end in the old entering tone, short and abrupt, like a string of pearls, momentum suddenly rising; afterward 'li, sun' (里, 日) are oblique endings, 'Xianyang, walls' (阳, 墙) rhyme with the yang group, the tone turning open and long; 'tower, pavilion' (楼, 阁), 'return, peck' (回, 啄), 'terrain, angle' (势, 角) form internal rhythm through antithesis, mostly oblique endings with few level, the whole read with short and long intermingled, sonorous and measured.本段韵脚较为自由，呈「前密后疏」之势：开篇「毕、一、兀、出」四字皆收古入声，音短气促，如连珠炮发，气势骤起；其后「里、日」为仄收、「阳、墙」押阳韵（咸阳、宫墙），声调转为舒长；「楼、阁」「回、啄」「势、角」等句以对偶形成句内节奏，句末仄收者多、平收者少，整段读来短促与舒徐相间，铿锵有节。

Tone pattern The syntax is mainly four-character lines with occasional six-character prose sentences; the short, pressing parallelisms create a step-by-step, advancing force; from the decisiveness of 'six kings finished' to the slowing of 'two rivers wide' to the cadence of 'hooks at the heart and locks in angle,' the tone first rapid then slow, advancing layer by layer, with irony covertly planted within the exposition.句式以四言为主、间以六言散句，短促排比造成步步紧逼之势；由「六王毕」的斩截到「二川溶溶」的舒缓再到「钩心斗角」的顿挫，语调先疾后徐、层层推进，铺陈之中暗藏讽意。

Reading note Fu is a Chinese genre between poetry and prose, prizing exposition, parallelism, and antithesis; this piece is a typical fu. Though this passage is prose-like exposition, it holds deep musical beauty: the opening four lines 'Six kings finished, the four seas one; Shu's hills bare, Epang arose' all use four-character short lines, their feet 'finished, one, bare, arose' all old entering-tone characters, read pressing and abrupt, like sudden rain or war drums, exactly matching the thunderous momentum of 'Qin uniting the six states'; from 'it overrode three hundred li' onward, sentences lengthen, 'Xianyang' and 'walls' rhyme with the yang group, the tone turning open and long, like a scroll slowly unfolding; the final 'a tower every five paces, a pavilion every ten' and so on are pairwise antitheses, four characters in couples, the beat orderly, read sonorous. The whole moves from urgent to slow, from pressing to open; the change of rhythm exactly synchronizes with the content's layering from general situation to detailed towers. This manner of using sound-rhythm to match content and rhythm to convey momentum is the model of fu's 'seeking the breath through sound' tradition, and best shows Du Mu's command of language.赋是中国古代介于诗与文之间的文体，讲究铺陈排比、骈偶对仗，本文即典型的赋体之作。此段虽为散文式的铺陈，却深具音韵之美：开篇四句「六王毕，四海一，蜀山兀，阿房出」全用四字短句，句末「毕、一、兀、出」皆古入声字，读来促迫短促，如骤雨初落、战鼓骤起，恰与「秦并六国」的雷霆之势相合；至「覆压三百余里」以下，句子渐长，「咸阳」「宫墙」以阳韵相押，声调转为开阔悠长，如画卷徐展；末段「五步一楼，十步一阁」等句两两对偶，四字成双，节拍整齐，读来琅琅上口。全段由急而缓、由促而舒，节奏的变化恰与内容由总写大势到细写楼阁的层次同步。这种以声韵配合内容、以节奏传达气势的写法，是赋体「因声求气」传统的典范，也最能见出杜牧驾驭语言的功力。

Line by line

六王毕，四海一，蜀山兀，阿房出。

This is the fu's opening and its prelude, twelve characters writing the thunderous momentum of dynastic change. The four short lines in turn relate four events: 'six kings finished' writes the end of the seven warring states; 'four seas one' writes Qin uniting the realm; 'Shu's hills bare' writes the enormous cost of building Epang—even Shu's hills were felled bare; 'Epang arose' writes the palace's final completion. The four verbs 'finished, one, bare, arose' close each line, every character weighty as a thousand jun, each line pressing, like a string of pearls, read with the force of toppling mountains and seas. The wonder lies especially in the character 'bare' (wu): rather than say how much timber was cut, it says Shu's hills became bare, implying the project's vastness and the people's exhaustion through the hills' desolation, planting the groundwork for the later critique of Qin's tyranny. The four lines move from time (the six states' fall) to space (the four seas), to resource (Shu's hills), to result (Epang arose)—opening, continuing, turning, closing, naturally whole; long praised as a model of 'using the brief to command the complex.'

六国灭亡，天下统一；蜀山的树木被砍伐殆尽，阿房宫才得以拔地而起。

The six kings are done, the four seas are one; the Shu hills are stripped bare, and Epang rises.

这是全赋的开篇，也是全文的引子，十二个字写尽改朝换代的雷霆之势。四个短句依次交代四件事：六王毕，写战国七雄的终结；四海一，写秦统一天下；蜀山兀，写建造阿房宫的巨大耗费——把蜀山都砍秃了；阿房出，写宫殿最终落成。「毕」「一」「兀」「出」四个动词收束句尾，字字千钧，句句短促，如连珠炮发，读来有排山倒海之势。妙处尤在「兀」字：不说砍了多少木材，而说蜀山变得光秃，以山的荒芜暗示工程之浩大、民力之凋敝，为后文批判秦之暴政埋下伏笔。四句以时间（六国覆灭）起、以空间（四海）承、以资源（蜀山）转、以结果（阿房）合，起承转合浑然天成，历来被誉为「以简驭繁」的典范。

This is the rhapsody's opening, and the essay's introduction, twelve characters writing to the full the thunder of the dynastic change. Four short lines tell four things in turn: the six kings are done writes the end of the seven warring states; the four seas are one writes Qin's unification; the Shu hills are stripped bare writes the great cost of building Epang - stripping the Shu hills bare; and Epang rises writes the palace's completion. The four verbs done, one, bare, and close the lines, every word a thousand catties, every line short, like a linked cannonade, reading with the force of a mountain's overturning. The beauty especially lies in the word bare: not saying how much timber was cut, but saying the Shu hills turned bald, using the hills' barrenness to hint the work's vastness and the people's drained strength, laying a ground for the later critique of Qin's tyranny. The four lines rise in time (the six states' fall), carry in space (the four seas), turn in resources (the Shu hills), and close in result (Epang), rise-carry-turn-close fused by nature, always hailed as the model of controlling the complex through the simple.

覆压三百余里，隔离天日。骊山北构而西折，直走咸阳。二川溶溶，流入宫墙。

This passage turns from general writing to a positional exposition, writing Epang's enormous scale and towering momentum. 'It overrode three hundred li and more' writes its breadth, 'severing sky from sun' its height—two phrases, one vertical one horizontal, first give the reader a stunning overall impression; 'built northward from the Li Hills then westward, straight to Xianyang' gives the palace's direction in spatial terms, from the Li Hills all the way to Xianyang, like a giant dragon coiled, taking two hundred-odd li of hill-and-river as the palace grounds' background; 'two rivers wide and flowing entered the palace walls' uses the two great rivers' softness to set off the palace's majesty—the rivers, free-flowing, now seem gathered into the walls, hill-and-river submitting. Three groups of sentences move from far to near, from high to low, from hill to water, with clear layers. The two characters 'wide and flowing' (rongrong) write the rippling water, their tone gentle, forming a rhythmic contrast with the preceding 'override' and 'sever'—heavy and pressing—showing Du Mu's precision in diction.

宫殿覆盖方圆三百多里，高得遮蔽了天日；它从骊山北面建起，向西折转，一直延伸到咸阳；渭水、樊川两条河缓缓流进宫墙之内。

It covers more than three hundred li, shutting out the sky and sun. From the north side of Mount Li it is built and turns west, running straight to Xianyang. The two rivers, gently flowing, enter the palace walls.

这一段由总写转入方位铺陈，极言阿房宫规模之巨、气势之雄。「覆压三百余里」言其广，「隔离天日」言其高，两个短语一纵一横，先给读者一个震撼的总体印象；「骊山北构而西折，直走咸阳」则以空间方位交代宫殿的走向，从骊山一直连到咸阳，如巨龙盘踞，把两百余里山河收作宫苑的背景；「二川溶溶，流入宫墙」更以两条大河的柔婉反衬宫殿的雄壮——河水本是自由奔流的，此刻却仿佛被宫墙揽入怀中，山河为之臣服。三组句子由远及近、由高到低、由山到水，层次井然。「溶溶」二字写水波荡漾之态，音调轻柔，与前面「覆压」「隔离」的沉重短促形成节奏上的对比，张弛有度，可见杜牧遣词之精。

This passage turns from the general to the directional unfolding, writing to the utmost Epang's vast scale and grand air. It covers more than three hundred li writes its breadth, shutting out the sky and sun its height, the two phrases one vertical one horizontal, first giving the reader a staggering total impression. From the north side of Mount Li it is built and turns west, running straight to Xianyang tells the palace's direction in space, from Mount Li straight to Xianyang, like a great dragon coiled, taking two hundred li of hills and rivers as the palace garden's background. The two rivers, gently flowing, enter the palace walls further uses the two great rivers' soft grace to set off the palace's grandeur - the rivers originally flowing free, yet now as if drawn into the palace walls' embrace, the hills and rivers submitting. The three groups of lines from far to near, from high to low, from hill to water, the layers orderly. The word gently writes the rippling water, the tone soft, forming a rhythmic contrast with the preceding heavy and short covers and shutting out, the tension and release well judged, showing Du Mu's choice of words.

五步一楼，十步一阁；廊腰缦回，檐牙高啄；各抱地势，钩心斗角。

This is the passage's most ingenious detailed description, showing the density of towers and the cleverness of construction through dense imagery. 'A tower every five paces, a pavilion every ten' uses numerical antithesis to write the high density of building, like a checkerboard; 'the corridor waists wind like silken bands' compares the winding corridor to a soft silken band, 'the eave-teeth tower to peck' compares the upturned eaves to a bird's raised beak—two metaphors turn stillness to motion, giving the architecture life and posture; 'each embraces the terrain' writes the pavilions following the land, rising and falling in disorder, 'hooks at the heart and locks in angle' writes how pavilion centers hook together and eave-corners confront, using the image of blades crossing to write the confronting beauty of architecture, a strangely lofty conception. The whole group is orderly in syntax, pairwise antithetical, read sonorous. Notably, the author writes the palace's splendor precisely to contrast, later, its being burned and Qin's perishing through extravagance—'tripods treated as utensils, jade and stone indistinguishable' matches the towering mansions here; at the extreme of beauty lies the beginning of destruction.

五步一座高楼，十步一座台阁；走廊的腰身如绸带般曲折回环，屋檐的尖角如鸟嘴般高高翘起；楼阁各依地势而建，彼此勾连、檐角相争。

Every five steps a tower, every ten steps a pavilion; the covered galleries wind like a sash, the upturned eaves peck like birds; each grasps the ground's lay, each corner locking and contending.

这是全段最见工巧的细节描写，以密集的意象展现楼阁之繁、建筑之巧。「五步一楼，十步一阁」以数字对举写建筑密度之高，如棋盘密布；「廊腰缦回」把回廊比作柔曲的绸带，「檐牙高啄」把翘起的屋檐比作仰啄的鸟喙，两个比喻化静为动，赋予建筑以生命与姿态；「各抱地势」写楼阁顺应地形、高低错落，「钩心斗角」则写楼心相钩连、檐角相争峙，以兵刃交错的意象写建筑的对峙之美，构思奇崛。整组句子句式整饬、两两对偶，读来琅琅上口。值得注意的是，作者极写宫殿之华美，正是为后文写其被付之一炬、秦因奢靡而亡作反衬——「鼎铛玉石，金块珠砾」的暴殄天物，与这里的琼楼玉宇恰成对照，美的极盛处，恰是毁灭的开始。

This is the passage's most cunning detail, using dense images to show the pavilions' abundance and the architecture's craft. Every five steps a tower, every ten steps a pavilion uses the numbered opposition to write the density, thick as a chessboard. The covered galleries wind like a sash compares the winding corridor to a soft sash, the upturned eaves peck like birds compares the jutting eaves to an upward-pecking beak, the two similes turning stillness to motion, giving the architecture life and gesture. Each grasps the ground's lay writes the pavilions following the terrain, high and low; each corner locking and contending writes the towers' hearts linked and the eaves' corners contending, using the image of crossed weapons to write the architecture's对峙 beauty, the conception wondrous. The whole set of lines is orderly and paired, reading aloud with a lilt. It is to note that the author writing the palace's beauty to the utmost is precisely to set off its being given to the torch and Qin's ruin through luxury - the recklessness of the cauldrons as pans and jade as pebbles contrasting the jade towers here, the peak of beauty exactly the start of ruin.

Study

Word focus

兀 The character 兀 (wu, bare) in 'Shu's hills bare' is the finest forged character of this passage and a key to understanding the whole's critical stance. Wu originally means towering and prominent (as in 'suddenly towering'), extended to bare and lone. Here writing Shu's hills, rather than 'Shu's hills exhausted' or 'Shu's hills empty,' he uses one 'bare'—it both writes the hills' treeless, lone form after the trees were felled, and covertly implies the shocking 'high hills turned bare'—Shu's rich forests all devoured by Epang. This one character compresses the project's vastness, the resources' exhaustion, and the people's depletion, using the hills' desolation to set off the palace's luxury, writing human affairs through scene, meaningful and lingering. More subtle is 'bare' set against 'arose' (chu): 'Shu's hills bare' writes the hills emptied, 'Epang arose' writes the palace rising from the earth—one loss one gain, one decrease one increase, the contrast already speaks Qin's tyranny without words. Du Mu's character-forging often hides critical edge within a single character; this is one such example. 「蜀山兀」之「兀」字，是全段炼字最精处，也是理解全文批判立场的一把钥匙。「兀」本义为高耸突出（如「突兀」），引申为光秃、孤高。此处写蜀山，不说「蜀山尽」「蜀山空」，而用一个「兀」字，既写出树木被砍伐殆尽后山体光秃秃、孤零零的形态，又暗含「高山变秃」的触目惊心——蜀地山林之富，尽被阿房宫吞噬。这一个字把工程的浩大、资源的耗尽、民力的凋敝全部浓缩在内，以山的荒芜反衬宫殿的奢华，以景语写人事，意味深长。更妙的是「兀」与「出」字相对：「蜀山兀」写山被掏空，「阿房出」写宫拔地而起，一损一荣、一减一增，两相对照，秦之暴虐已在不言中。杜牧炼字，常于一字之中藏批判锋芒，此即一例。

缦回 The 'silken bands winding' (man hui) in 'the corridor waists wind like silken bands'—man originally a noun, unpatterned silk (Shuowen: 'man, plain silk without design'), here used as an adverbial, describing the corridor as winding like a silken band; 'return' (hui) writes the winding, recurring motion. The combination writes the static corridor as soft and lively—the corridor, originally lifeless timber, once touched by 'silken bands winding,' becomes like a fluttering ribbon, like flowing water, gaining the texture and rhythm of silk. Set against the lower line's 'the eave-teeth tower to peck' with its vigorous uprightness: 'silken bands winding' writes the soft, 'tower to peck' the firm; 'silken bands' writes the building's horizontal extension, 'peck' its vertical rising—one soft one firm, one horizontal one vertical, writing the aesthetic of Chinese classical architecture's flying eaves and linked corridors, form and spirit together. This phrase later became a classic vocabulary for describing winding corridors, showing its artistic vitality. 「廊腰缦回」之「缦」字，本是名词，指没有花纹的丝织品（《说文》：「缦，缯无文也」），此处用作状语，形容回廊如丝带般曲折缠绕；「回」写回环往复之态。两个字的组合，把静态的回廊写得柔媚灵动——廊本是无生命的土木结构，一经「缦回」点染，便如绸带飘扬、如水流宛转，有了绸缎般的质感与韵律。与下句「檐牙高啄」的刚健挺拔相对：「缦回」写柔，「高啄」写刚；「缦」写建筑的水平延展，「啄」写建筑的垂直耸起，一柔一刚、一横一纵，把中国古典建筑飞檐翘角、廊庑勾连的美学特征写得形神兼备。这个短语后来成为描写回廊建筑的经典语汇，可见其艺术生命力。

钩心斗角 The four characters 'hooks at the heart and locks in angle' (gou xin dou jiao) are the most famous idiom Du Mu's 'Fu on the Epang Palace' contributed to Chinese, and its shift in meaning is itself a micro-history of culture. The original meaning wrote the density of Epang's pavilions: each pavilion's center hooks together (hooks at the heart), the eave-corners confront each other (locks in angle), using the image of blades meeting to depict the interlocking, jagged form of architecture, strangely lofty and vivid. This metaphor writes the timber architecture as if two armies arrayed, dragons and tigers fighting, with motion fully present—an excellent footnote to Du Mu's imagination. In later ages the meaning of 'hooks at the heart and locks in angle' shifted, extended to mean scheming and contending openly and covertly, synonymous with 'open strife and secret contest' and 'each other's wiles,' becoming a common idiom for interpersonal intrigue. From architectural term to human satire, this one word's change exactly shows how widely and deeply this writing spread—the birth of an idiom is often direct proof of a literary work's influence. 「钩心斗角」四字，是《阿房宫赋》为汉语贡献的最著名成语，其词义流变本身就是一篇微型文化史。本义是写阿房宫楼阁之密集：各座楼阁的中心相互钩连（钩心），屋檐的棱角彼此争峙（斗角），以兵刃相接的意象状建筑犬牙交错之形，奇崛而传神。这一比喻把土木建筑写得如两军对阵、龙争虎斗，动态毕现，是杜牧想象力的绝佳注脚。到了后世，「钩心斗角」的词义发生转移，引申为明里暗里互相争斗、用尽心机，与「明争暗斗」「尔虞我诈」同义，成为描写人际倾轧的常用成语。从建筑术语到人性讽喻，一词之变，正说明此文流传之广、影响之深——一个成语的诞生，往往是一部文学作品影响力的直接证明。