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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

焚书坑

The Pit for Burning Books

章碣

Zhang Jie

竹帛烟销帝业虚，关河空锁祖龙居。
坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书。

The smoke of the bamboo and silk has cleared, and the imperial enterprise is empty; the passes and the river lock in vain the dwelling of the First Emperor.
The ashes in the pit were not yet cold when the lands east of the mountains rose; the founders of the succeeding houses, it turns out, never read books.
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Meaning

The poem visits the site associated with the burning of the books and draws a bitter conclusion. The smoke of the destroyed writings has dispersed and the dynasty that ordered the burning is gone; even the natural fortifications that were supposed to protect the emperor guarded nothing. The ashes of the fire were still warm when rebellion broke out, and the men who overthrew the regime were precisely people who had never been scholars.

竹帛烟销帝业虚，关河空锁祖龙居。坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The smoke of the bamboo-slip and silk books has dispersed and the empire has come to nothing; mountain passes and river enclose the First Emperor's seat in vain. The ash of the pit had not cooled before revolt broke out east of the mountains, and the men who brought the dynasty down were, as it happens, no readers. [Structure] The quatrain falls into two halves. The first states the outcome - smoke gone, empire emptied, fortifications useless - in three parallel judgments. The second supplies the ironic proof: the interval between the burning and the uprising is a single line, and the identity of the rebels is the sting. [Imagery] Smoke that clears and ash that has not cooled are two measures of time, the first of an ending, the second of a speed that makes the policy ridiculous. The locked passes and river stand for force misapplied. [Effect] The tone is cold, compressed and devastatingly logical.

【白话串讲】 章碣写《焚书坑》：“竹帛烟销帝业虚，关河空锁祖龙居”——“坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书”——他写焚书坑——刘项原来不读书。 【意象与手法】 “竹帛烟销帝业虚，关河空锁祖龙居”写焚书烟销、帝业成虚；“坑灰未冷山东乱”写坑灰未冷而乱起；结以“刘项原来不读书”以刘项不读书写焚书之愚。冷峻深刻。 【情感与主旨】 章碣写咏史哲理之作，写秦始皇焚书而帝业成虚、坑灰未冷而山东已乱，以“刘项原来不读书”讽刺焚书的徒劳，是咏史诗中冷峻深刻的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“竹帛烟销帝业虚，关河空锁祖龙居”写焚书帝业虚；“坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书”以刘项不读书讽焚书。

Background

Zhang Jie (about 836 - about 905), courtesy name Lishan, was a native of Tonglu in present-day Zhejiang and a poet of the late Tang, a period when the dynasty itself was failing and poets turned increasingly to history for judgment. The burning of the books was ordered in 213 BC by the First Emperor of Qin on the advice of his minister Li Si, in order to silence criticism and unify thought; scholars were also buried alive. Within a few years the dynasty collapsed, and the rebels who destroyed it included Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, neither of whom was a man of letters. The site became a standard place for later poets to reflect on censorship and on the vanity of force. Zhang Jie's quatrain is the most famous of these visits, and the closing line is among the most frequently quoted satiric lines in Chinese.

《焚书坑》为唐代诗人章碣所作诗。章碣（约836—约905），字丽山，桐庐（今浙江桐庐）人，唐代诗人。此诗写咏史哲理，为咏焚书坑之作。诗中「竹帛烟销帝业虚，关河空锁祖龙居」写竹帛烟销帝业虚，关河空锁祖龙居；「坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书」写坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书。章碣此诗以咏史哲理、刘项原来不读书写其咏史之情，冷峻深刻，是章碣诗中的名篇。此篇《焚书坑》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《焚书坑》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《焚书坑》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

Everything is built on a single ironic calculation. The first line links two events by juxtaposition rather than argument: the smoke clearing and the empire emptying are given the same grammatical weight, so that the reader performs the causal inference. The second line extends the irony from policy to geography - the passes and the river are the empire's famous defences, and even they lock nothing, so no amount of force can substitute for legitimacy. The third line is the poem's hinge: by measuring the interval in the temperature of ash rather than in years, the poet makes the retribution almost instantaneous. The last line lands the whole structure with a colloquial word for as it turns out, and with the flat, factual statement that the destroyers were not readers. There is no moral attached; the facts are the moral.

此诗艺术上以「冷峻深刻、以史写理」见长。全诗共四句，由竹帛烟销帝业虚而关河空锁祖龙居而坑灰未冷山东乱。起「竹帛烟销帝业虚，关河空锁祖龙居」写竹帛烟销帝业虚：竹帛烟销帝业虚，关河空锁祖龙居；「坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书」写坑灰未冷山东乱：坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书。全诗以史写理，由竹帛烟销帝业虚而刘项原来不读书，冷峻深刻，是章碣诗中的名篇。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 is dense with historical reference compressed into epithets. Bamboo and silk are the two writing materials of antiquity, so the phrase stands for all the destroyed literature. The First Emperor is named by his legendary title, the Ancestral Dragon, a term from the chronicle tradition that both exalts and monstrosities him. The lands east of the mountains are the old warring states, the region where rebellion against Qin began. The two names in the last line are Liu Bang, founder of the Han, a man of humble and unruly origins, and Xiang Yu, the aristocratic warlord who broke the Qin armies. Neither was known for learning, which is exactly the point: the books were burned to disarm the learned, and the dynasty was destroyed by the unlearned.

诗中「竹帛烟销帝业虚关河空锁祖龙居」「坑灰未冷山东乱刘项原来不读书」等语，皆含典故故实。「竹帛烟销帝业虚关河空锁祖龙居」用祖龙之典（祖龙为秦始皇之讳称），写竹帛烟销帝业虚关河空锁祖龙居；「坑灰未冷山东乱刘项原来不读书」用刘项之典（刘写刘邦、项写项羽），写坑灰未冷山东乱刘项原来不读书。诗人以祖龙、刘项等典入诗，不着痕迹，而把咏史哲理之情写得真切可感，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

The quatrain has been prized for its coldness. Critics contrast it with the more mournful treatment of the same subject by other poets, and remark that Zhang Jie wastes no sympathy on the tyrant and no rhetoric on indignation; he simply draws the conclusion that the burning was both wicked and useless. The last line has entered common speech as a wry observation about the futility of suppressing ideas and about the unpredictability of who will inherit power. Some readers have seen in it a late Tang anxiety of its own, an oblique comment on a dynasty that mistrusted its own officials. It remains the classic Chinese statement that historical judgment is executed by irony rather than by decree.

这首《焚书坑》，是章碣写咏史哲理之作，写竹帛烟销帝业虚、关河空锁祖龙居、刘项原来不读书之情，冷峻深刻。起「竹帛烟销帝业虚，关河空锁祖龙居」——竹帛烟销帝业虚，关河空锁祖龙居（用祖龙之典）。写竹帛烟销帝业虚：竹帛烟销帝业虚、关河空锁祖龙居——竹帛烟销、空锁祖龙居；「坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书」——坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项（用刘项之典）原来不读书。写坑灰未冷山东乱：坑灰未冷山东乱、刘项原来不读书——坑灰未冷、原来不读书。这「坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书」，是全诗之结：以刘项原来不读书写其咏史。全诗冷峻深刻，以史写理，正是章碣诗中的名篇。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 Poem, a seven-character quatrain (qiyan jueju) in the regulated manner, four lines in two couplets.诗（七言绝句）
Rhyme The first, second and fourth lines rhyme in the level tone, sharing a close rounded final found in the words for empty, dwelling and books. The compact, slightly closed sound gives the quatrain the clipped quality of an epigram.此诗为七言绝句，共四句，两句一联。押平声韵：「虚」「居」「书」押鱼部韵。诗体依绝句而定，句式整齐，音节随情起伏，正与写咏史哲理的冷峻深刻相称，也见其以绝句写咏史的自然。
Tone pattern Level and oblique tones alternate in the standard pattern, with the two-beat plus three-beat division of each line. The first couplet is level and judicial in sound; the second tightens, and the closing line ends flatly, as a verdict should.句式上，「竹帛烟销帝业虚，关河空锁祖龙居」写竹帛烟销帝业虚，音节冷峻；「坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书」写坑灰未冷山东乱，音节深刻。全诗音节随情起伏，由冷峻而深刻，正合绝句「含蓄」之妙，读来如咏史哲理、刘项原来不读书之音，冷峻而动人。
Reading note The prosody serves the argument. Because the quatrain form is so brief and so regular, each line can carry one stage of the reasoning, and the turn at the third line - the conventional point where a quatrain changes direction - coincides exactly with the move from outcome to ironic proof. The rhyme on the word for books in the last line ties the destroyers back to the writings they never read.此诗为七言绝句，是章碣写咏史哲理之作，也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「冷峻深刻、以史写理」：「竹帛烟销帝业虚，关河空锁祖龙居」写竹帛烟销帝业虚、「坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书」写坑灰未冷山东乱。全诗冷峻深刻，以史写理。尤为精妙者，是「关河空锁祖龙居」用祖龙之典；而「坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书」用刘项之典，正是章碣诗「冷峻深刻」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《焚书坑》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

竹帛烟销帝业虚，关河空锁祖龙居。

The smoke of the bamboo and silk has cleared and the imperial enterprise is empty; the passes and the river lock the dwelling of the Ancestral Dragon in vain.

竹帛烟销帝业虚，关河空锁祖龙居。

When the smoke of burning books and bamboo scrolls had cleared, the empire was already hollow; the mountain passes and the Yellow River guarded in vain the First Emperor's seat.

首二句写竹帛烟销帝业虚，起笔即见其理。「竹帛烟销帝业虚」写竹帛烟销帝业虚，「竹帛烟销」写竹帛烟销、「帝业虚」写帝业虚；「关河空锁祖龙居」用祖龙之典写关河空锁祖龙居，「关河空锁」写关河空锁、「祖龙居」写祖龙居。两句一写竹帛烟销帝业虚、一写关河空锁祖龙居，以竹帛烟销帝业虚写竹帛烟销、以关河空锁祖龙居写空锁祖龙居，写尽竹帛烟销帝业虚、关河空锁祖龙居之情。以史起兴，冷峻而深刻，是「以史起兴」的妙笔。

The opening couplet states the poem's thesis from the very first line. 'When the smoke of burning scrolls cleared, the imperial enterprise turned hollow' sets book-burning against the vanity of tyranny, while 'the passes and the long river locked in vain the dwelling of the First Ancestor' invokes the title zulong, the Qin emperor, to show that natural barriers were useless once the mind of the realm was lost. The two lines move from the burning to the guarded fortress, pairing intellectual destruction with military futility. Beginning with history, the poet strikes a cold and profound note, a masterly opening that uses the past as a spring of argument.

坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书。

The ashes in the pit were not yet cold when the lands east of the mountains rose in revolt; the founders of the succeeding houses, as it turns out, never read books.

坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书。

Before the ashes in the pit had grown cold, the east of the mountains rose in revolt; Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, after all, were never readers.

尾二句写坑灰未冷山东乱，是全诗立意的落点。「坑灰未冷山东乱」写坑灰未冷山东乱，「坑灰未冷」写坑灰未冷、「山东乱」写山东乱；「刘项原来不读书」用刘项之典写刘项原来不读书，「刘项原来」写刘项原来、「不读书」写不读书。两句一写坑灰未冷山东乱、一写刘项原来不读书，以坑灰未冷山东乱写坑灰未冷、以刘项原来不读书写不读书，写尽坑灰未冷山东乱、刘项原来不读书之情。以史写理，冷峻而深刻，是全诗最动人处，也是「以史写理」的点睛之笔。

The closing couplet lands the poem's central judgment. 'Before the pit's ashes cooled, the lands east of the mountains were in uproar' shows how swiftly repression failed, and 'Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, after all, never read books' turns the rebellion into an epitaph on Qin policy: the two men who overthrew the dynasty were precisely the illiterate warriors the book-burning had never reckoned with. History is pressed into argument here, cold and incisive, and becomes the poem's most telling stroke — tyranny burned the scholars, yet the unlettered upstarts were the ones who undid it.

Study

Word focus

竹帛 Bamboo slips and silk, the two writing materials of antiquity, used together to mean all books and records. By naming the physical materials the poet makes the loss concrete, and the smoke that rises from them becomes the visible sign of a whole culture consumed. 「竹帛」写竹帛烟销帝业虚，是写竹帛之态的关键。「竹帛烟销帝业虚」着一「竹帛」，写竹帛——着一「竹帛」，写竹帛烟销帝业虚，见其书之竹帛。两字写尽竹帛之态，是「以词写书」的妙笔。「竹帛」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。
祖龙 The Ancestral Dragon, the title by which chronicle tradition named the First Emperor of Qin. It honours him as the founder of a line while suggesting something monstrous, and its use here keeps the poem's cold distance from its subject. 「祖龙」写关河空锁祖龙居，是写祖龙之态的关键。「关河空锁祖龙居」着一「祖龙」，写祖龙——着一「祖龙」，写关河空锁祖龙居，见其帝之祖龙。两字写尽祖龙之态，是「以词写帝」的点睛之词。「祖龙」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。
坑灰 The ash of the pit. A measure of time rather than a description of a place: while the ash still held heat the rebellion began, so the phrase turns a physical detail into a devastating historical clock. 「坑灰」写坑灰未冷山东乱，是写坑灰之态的关键。「坑灰未冷山东乱」着一「坑灰」，写坑灰——着一「坑灰」，写坑灰未冷山东乱，见其灰之坑。两字写尽坑灰之态，是「以词写灰」的点睛之词。「坑灰」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。
刘项 The two names stand for Liu Bang, founder of the Han, and Xiang Yu, the warlord who broke the Qin armies. Neither was a scholar, which is the poem's final irony: the books were destroyed to disarm learning, and the dynasty was destroyed by men who had none. 「刘项」写刘项原来不读书，是写刘项之态的关键。「刘项原来不读书」着一「刘项」，写刘项——着一「刘项」，写刘项原来不读书，见其人之刘项。两字写尽刘项之态，是「以词写人」的点睛之词。「刘项」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 Shuidiao Getou: How Long Has the Bright Moon Been 苏轼 · 同写感怀咏史、超然旷达，一写人有悲欢离合、一写坑灰未冷山东乱刘项原来不读书，皆于感怀之中见咏史 Both reflect on impermanence. One answers the instability of human affairs with the acceptance that sorrow and parting have always been, the other with the ironic finding that empire and censorship come to nothing. Reflection and judgment meet across the historical theme.

Su Shi's lyric consoles: it admits loss and then rests in the shared condition of mankind. Zhang Jie's quatrain refuses consolation and instead indicts. Comparing them shows how the same awareness of transience can produce lyric serenity in one poet and cold historical wit in another.

苏轼《水调歌头·明月几时有》「人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全」，写感怀旷达，是宋词长调的名篇；章碣《焚书坑》则以「坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书」「竹帛烟销帝业虚，关河空锁祖龙居」写坑灰未冷、空锁祖龙居。两诗同写感怀咏史、超然旷达：一写人有悲欢离合、以悲欢写离合，一写坑灰未冷山东乱刘项原来不读书、以焚书写咏史；一为苏轼之超然、一为章碣之冷峻，并读正可见诗写「感怀咏史」的两种笔法，皆于感怀之中见咏史。

 八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Basheng Ganzhou: Down the Evening Rain that Sweeps the River Sky 柳永 · 同写登临咏史、凝望天涯，一写误几回天际识归舟、一写关河空锁祖龙居，皆于登临之中见咏史 Both lament what cannot be held. One watches a river sky in rain and grieves over separation; the other watches a landscape that locked a dynasty in vain. Personal loss and historical loss answer each other.

Liu Yong's lyric is soaked in immediate feeling, its rain falling on one traveller's regret, while Zhang Jie uses landscape as evidence in an argument. The contrast is instructive: the same image of a great prospect under rain becomes either an instrument of mood or an instrument of judgment.

柳永《八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天》「想佳人妆楼颙望，误几回、天际识归舟」，写登临咏史、凝望天涯，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；章碣《焚书坑》则以「关河空锁祖龙居」「坑灰未冷山东乱，刘项原来不读书」写空锁祖龙居、刘项不读书。两诗同写登临咏史、凝望天涯：一写误几回天际识归舟、以凝望写思归，一写关河空锁祖龙居、以关河写咏史；一为柳永之清丽、一为章碣之冷峻，并读正可见诗写「登临咏史」的两种笔法，皆于登临之中见咏史。