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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

关山月

Moon over the Mountain Pass

李白

Li Bai

边塞frontier 明月bright moon

明月出天山，苍茫云海间。
长风几万里，吹度玉门关。
汉下白登道，胡窥青海湾。
由来征战地，不见有人还。
戍客望边邑，思归多苦颜。
高楼当此夜，叹息未应闲。

From Heaven's Peak the moon rises bright,
Over a boundless sea of cloud.
Winds blow for miles with main and might
Past the Jade Gate which stands so proud.
Our warriors march down the frontier
While Tartars peer across Blue Bays.
From the battlefield stretches off here,
None have come back since olden days.
Guards look towards the border town,
With wistful eyes they think of home.
Tonight by the tower their wives frown
On the same moon, alas, they groan.

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Meaning

The poem begins with a bright moon rising over the Tianshan Mountains, drifting among vast clouds. A long wind blows thousands of miles across the Yumen Pass. It recalls historical battles at White Deng Mountain and Qinghai Bay, where no one ever returned. Soldiers on the frontier look toward home with sorrowful faces, while their wives on high towers sigh under the same moon, unable to find peace.

一轮明月从天山升起，浮沉出没于苍茫的云海之间。浩荡长风掠过几万里，吹度玉门关外。汉军曾兵下白登古道，胡骑窥伺青海湾边。这里自来便是征战之地，从不见有人生还。戍边的将士眺望故乡的边城，思归的愁苦写满容颜。今夜高楼上的妻子，也该在倚楼长叹，难以安眠。

Appreciation

Li Bai uses the moon as a unifying image, stretching from the Tianshan clouds to the Yumen Pass, then to the battlefield and finally to the wives at home. The first four lines create a vast, desolate frontier atmosphere; the middle four lament the endless wars; the last four contrast the soldiers' longing with their wives' sighs, forming a poignant spatial and emotional dialogue. The poem is majestic yet deeply melancholy, a masterpiece of Tang frontier poetry.

【白话串讲】 “明月出天山，苍茫云海间。长风几万里，吹度玉门关”——李白写边关的月光，照着万里戍边的人。“由来征战地，不见有人还”——战争最残酷的真相，被他写进了月光里。【意象与手法】全诗以月为贯串意象，由天山云海远景推至玉门关、白登道、青海湾实景，再收束于戍客与高楼两地相思。景大开大合，情沉郁悲凉；对仗工稳而气势流转，由来二句以议论点题，高楼句以虚实对照收束，余味不尽，气象雄阔。【情感与主旨】此诗约作于李白开元中后期漫游河西、陇右一带时。天宝以前边事频仍，朝廷屡派兵戍守西北，征人久役不归。诗人借明月长风起兴，将戍客思归与闺中望月叠合，既寄寓对穷兵黩武开边政策的隐忧，也抒发对征人命运的深切悲悯，是盛唐边塞乐府的代表作。【名句点睛】常考意象作用：明月、长风如何奠定苍凉基调；末二句高楼与戍客的对照手法；炼字如度、望的情感内涵；由来征战地一句以议论点题的沉痛力度。

Background

Li Bai composed this poem during his travels in the Hexi and Longyou regions around the mid-740s. During that time, frequent frontier conflicts led to prolonged military campaigns, and many soldiers never returned. Inspired by the moon and wind, the poet merges the soldiers' homesickness with the wives' moonlit longing, expressing implicit criticism of expansionist policies and deep sympathy for the soldiers. It is a representative yuefu poem of the High Tang.

李白（701—762），字太白，号青莲居士，盛唐最伟大的浪漫主义诗人。《关山月》是乐府旧题，属《横吹曲辞》，古辞多写征戍离别之苦，李白此篇为拟古乐府中的压卷之作。此诗约作于唐玄宗开元年间（一说天宝初），李白青年出蜀后漫游西北，足迹及于河西、陇右一带，亲见边塞风物，故诗中天山、玉门关、青海诸地名皆非虚设。其时唐与吐蕃、突厥战事频仍，朝廷屡兴边功，大量征人远戍西北，久役不归，而朝中穷兵黩武之风渐起。李白虽未从军，却以诗人敏锐的感触，将乐府传统中的征人思妇主题与亲历的边地景象相融合，借明月长风起兴，既寄寓对无休止开边战争的隐忧，也抒发对征人命运的深切悲悯。全诗以月贯串，由万里空间写到千年历史，再落到两地相思，境界之阔大、感慨之深沉，为盛唐边塞诗树立了典范，也可见李白乐府借古题写己怀的创作特色。李白尝言兴寄深微，五言不如四言，然其乐府拟古却能自铸伟辞，此篇正其一例：诗中苍茫云海、长风万里的景象，既有亲历边地的写实，亦有凌云健笔的想象，虚实之间，盛唐气象尽出，故后人每以此诗为太白乐府雄浑一路之代表。

Art

The moon runs through the entire poem as a central image. The perspective shifts from the distant Tianshan clouds to the concrete landmarks of Yumen Pass, Baideng Road, and Qinghai Bay, then narrows to the soldiers and their wives. The scenery is grand and open, while the emotion is somber and tragic. The couplets are balanced yet flowing; the line 'From the battlefield stretches off here, none have come back since olden days' delivers a pointed critique. The final couplet uses a virtual- real contrast to create lingering resonance.

全诗十二句，章法严整而气势流转，可析为四层。第一层（前四句）写景：明月出天山、苍茫云海，长风万里、吹度玉门关，以月与风两个宏大意象铺开万里边塞空间，起笔即气象雄阔；第二层（五六句）怀古：汉下白登道、胡窥青海湾，以汉朝白登之围与今日青海湾的胡骑窥伺对举，将眼前战事放入千年历史之中；第三层（七八句）议论：由来征战地、不见有人还，以沉痛之笔点破征战之地的悲剧本质，是题旨所在；第四层（后四句）抒情：戍客望边邑、思归多苦颜，高楼当此夜、叹息未应闲，由边塞将士写到万里之外高楼上思妇的想象，虚实相生。手法上，对仗工稳（汉下白登道对胡窥青海湾）、空间大开大合、以乐景写哀（明月长风之美反衬征人无还之悲）、虚实对照（戍客实写、高楼虚写）兼而有之，景、史、议、情四者浑融，一气贯注，如大河奔流，正是李白乐府以气驭篇、以情贯境的本色。

Allusions

Baideng refers to the Han Emperor Gaozu being besieged by Xiongnu at Baideng Mountain (near modern Datong) for seven days, as recorded in the Records of the Grand Historian. Yumen Pass was a key frontier fortress in the Han and Tang dynasties. These allusions are seamlessly woven into the narrative, adding historical depth to the contemporary scene and accentuating the tragic cycle of warfare.

此诗用典不着痕迹，而历史纵深自现。白登用汉高祖刘邦被匈奴围困于白登山（今山西大同东北）七日方解的史实，见《史记·匈奴列传》，极言边患古已有之；青海湾指青海湖一带，唐与吐蕃于此连年争战，天宝年间哥舒翰曾筑城青海，是当时边防前线，李白以胡窥二字写吐蕃觊觎，切合时事；玉门关为汉唐西北边防要隘，出使西域、征人戍边必经之地，代指绝域，王之涣春风不度玉门关同用此意象；天山即祁连山（一说今新疆天山），明月出天山将月与边山组合，形成苍茫壮阔的画面。至于高楼当此夜一句，则承古诗中高楼望月、思妇怀远的传统——曹植《七哀》明月照高楼，流光正徘徊、张若虚《春江花月夜》何处相思明月楼皆是其例，李白以征人望边与高楼叹息对写，正是这一传统的延续与升华。全诗熔史实、地名、乐府传统于一炉，而浑化无迹，最见李白用典举重若轻的本领。

Commentary

Hu Yinglin praised Li Bai's yuefu as 'the genius of Li Bai sweeps across nine continents.' Shen Deqian in Tang Poems A Selection commented that 'the whole poem flows with one breath like a great river.' Modern critics regard the opening lines as among the most magnificent in Tang frontier poetry, matching the grandeur of 'The Yellow River falls from heaven and goes to the Eastern Sea.'

此诗历代评价极高，被视为唐人《关山月》乐府之压卷。明人胡应麟《诗薮》推许李白乐府青莲才笔九州横，正可移评此篇；清人沈德潜《唐诗别裁》称其一气贯注，如大河奔流，道出全诗气势之雄浑连贯。就艺术造诣言，明月出天山，苍茫云海间两句起笔即拓开万里空间，与黄河落天走东海（《赠裴十四》）并称李白写景阔大之最；由来征战地，不见有人还以议论入诗而沉痛弥深，开杜甫边庭流血成海水一类反战之声的先声。就文学史价值言，此诗是盛唐边塞诗的代表作之一，它将乐府旧题、边地实景、历史反思与征人思妇之情融为一体，既有盛唐诗歌雄浑阔大的气象，又含对穷兵黩武的隐忧，境界高出一般征戍之作。其影响亦远，南宋陆游同题《关山月》和戎诏下十五年即承此母题而写国耻，可见关山月这一乐府题目在李白手中定下的苍凉悲壮基调，垂范后世近千年。

Prosody

Form Yuefu (Music Bureau) - Horizontal Flute Tune (Guan Shan Yue)乐府·横吹曲辞旧题（五言古诗）

Rhyme Pingshui rhyme scheme: shan, jian, guan, wan, huan, yan, xian (mountain, cloud, pass, bay, return, face, idle)押平水韵上平十五删：山、间、关、湾、还、颜、闲，首句即入韵，一韵到底

Tone pattern Five-character old style poem, not following regulated verse tonal patterns五言古体，不依近体平仄，以古调行之；句式为五言二二一或二一二节奏，偶数句及首句押韵

Reading note A traditional yuefu topic used by Tang poets for frontier themes; Li Bai's version is considered the masterpiece.此诗为五言古诗，属乐府旧题《关山月》。《关山月》本为汉魏横吹曲之一，见郭茂倩《乐府诗集》所引《古今乐录》，言其出于西域，后多用于写征戍离别，李白此篇为最著名之作。就押韵而言，全诗十二句，山、间、关、湾、还、颜、闲七字一韵到底，皆属平水韵上平十五删，首句明月出天山即入韵，其后偶句皆押，密韵流走，声情与边塞苍茫之气相谐；删韵字多开口洪亮之音（如关、湾、还），诵之觉长风浩荡，正合诗境。就平仄而言，五言古诗不拘近体粘对，李白以古调行之，句中平仄参差自然，如明月出天山为平仄仄平平，苍茫云海间为平平平仄平，不避三平调（云海间三平收），正是古体本色。句式上五言为二二一（明月出天山）与二一二（长风几万里）交错，音节顿挫而流畅。全诗以乐府古题的苍凉基调，写盛唐边塞的雄浑气象，声、情、境三者合一，是古体边塞诗中声情并茂的典范，也是研究李白乐府音乐性与其雄浑诗风的重要文本。

Line by line

明月出天山，苍茫云海间。

The bright moon rises over Tian Shan, drifting in a boundless sea of clouds.

一轮明月从天山升起，浮沉出没于苍茫的云海之间。

A bright moon rises from the Tian Shan peaks, floating and sinking in a vast sea of clouds.

起笔两句为全诗定下苍茫壮阔的基调，是唐诗写月最有气象的开篇之一。明月出天山五字，月与山并举，明月本自东方升起，此处却言其出于天山，可见诗人立足边塞、向西眺望的视角——月从雪峰之巅涌出，山的高峻与月的皎洁相映；苍茫云海间再补一笔，明月浮沉于无边无际的云海之中，若隐若现，苍茫二字既写云海之辽阔，又暗含征人前路之渺茫。两句一写月出、一写月隐，一实一虚，空间由山而天、由天而云，层层推远，而苍茫一语又为全诗染上迷离悲凉的色调。此月非寻常望月，而是照临绝域的边月，它的升起既引出下文的万里长风，也引出戍客思归的愁绪，实为全诗之纲，月意象自此统摄全篇。

The opening two lines set the poem's boundless, majestic tone, among the grandest openings of Tang moon-poetry. 'The bright moon rises over Tian Shan' pairs moon and mountain — the moon properly rises in the east, yet here it rises over Tian Shan, showing the poet standing at the border looking west: the moon emerges from snow peaks, the height of the peaks set against the moon's clarity. 'In a boundless sea of clouds' adds that the moon drifts in endless cloud; 'boundless' writes both the clouds' reach and the soldiers' uncertain road. One line the moon rising, one line it hidden, the space pushed layer by layer from mountain to sky to cloud, and the word 'boundless' stains the whole poem with a hazy sorrow.

长风几万里，吹度玉门关。

The long wind has blown tens of thousands of li, crossing through Yumen Pass.

浩荡长风掠过几万里，吹度玉门关外。

The mighty long wind sweeps tens of thousands of li, blowing beyond Yumen Pass.

此联承接明月，转写长风，将视线由天山推向玉门关，空间再度拓展。几万里极言风力之远、地域之广，长风自遥远的故乡方向吹来，越过千山万水，吹到玉门关外——这风既是自然之风，也是征人思乡之风的象征；吹度之度字最为精妙，度有跨越之意，写风之劲健，仿佛不是风在吹，而是风在飞越关山，一个度字使无形的风有了穿越万里的力度与动势，也暗示征人从家乡到边关的路途正是如此之远。玉门关在河西走廊西端，是汉唐征戍的最前线，吹度玉门关既点明边塞之所在，又暗含春风不度、乡信难通的意味。两句以风为媒，把天上之月与人间之关连接起来，景物的空间感与征戍的遥远感交融为一，是全诗由景入史、由史入情的过渡枢纽。

This couplet takes up the moon and turns to the long wind, the gaze pushed from Tian Shan to Yumen Pass. 'Tens of thousands of li' measures the wind's reach and the breadth of the land; the long wind blows from the direction of the far home, crossing mountains and waters to Yumen Pass — wind of nature, and symbol of the soldier's homesickness. The word 'crosses' is the finest: to cross is to stride over, giving the intangible wind the force of flying ten thousand li, and hinting that the road from home to border is just so far. Yumen Pass is the western end of the Hexi Corridor, the frontier of Han and Tang; 'blowing beyond Yumen Pass' names the border and hints that spring's wind never crosses it, home letters never arrive.

由来征战地，不见有人还。

From of old, this has been a battlefield where no man is seen returning.

这里自来便是征战之地，从不见有人生还。

From old times this has been a place of war, where no man is seen coming home.

此联是全文题眼，以议论出之，沉痛至深。由来二字把眼前的白登道、青海湾拉入数千年的历史长河——征战之地从来如此，自古至今，循环不绝；不见有人还五字直截了当，不假雕饰，却字字千钧，写尽征人白骨无还的悲剧。这两句是盛唐边塞诗中罕见的冷峻之笔：盛唐诗人多写边塞之雄奇壮阔，李白却于此直揭战争的残酷本质，其反战思想溢于言表。从章法看，前此写景怀古，至此陡然收束为议论，如大河奔流至悬崖，一落千丈，形成全诗情感的第一个高潮；而不见有人还又为下文戍客望边邑的思归之愁作了最深沉的铺垫——明知无还而仍望归，正是戍边者最惨痛的心理。此联以虚（议论）写实（历史与现实的征战），力透纸背，是全诗由边地景史转向征人情怀的转折点。

This couplet is the poem's thematic eye, spoken in argument, deeply grief-struck. 'From of old' draws the present frontier into thousands of years of history — battlefields have always been thus, unceasing; 'no man is seen returning' is plain and unadorned, yet every word a thousand-weight, writing the tragedy of bones buried and never brought home. This is a rare cold stroke among High Tang frontier verse: where others wrote the border's grandeur, Li Bai here lays bare war's cruel essence, his anti-war feeling overflowing. Formally, the earlier scene and memory gather here into argument, like a great river rushing to a cliff and plunging; and 'no man returns' is the deepest setup for the homesickness below — knowing no return, yet still longing to come home, is the borderer's most bitter psychology.

高楼当此夜，叹息未应闲。

Tonight, in the high tower, she who sighs knows no rest.

今夜高楼上的妻子，也该在倚楼长叹，难以安眠。

Tonight, the wife in the high tower must be leaning on the rail and sighing, unable to sleep.

末联由边塞戍客一笔宕开，写到万里之外高楼上的思妇，是全诗情感的最高潮，也是虚实相生的典范手法。高楼当此夜——当此明月当空、长风萧瑟之夜，闺中的妻子也在高楼之上望月怀人，与戍客望边邑形成两地同时望月、相互思念的对称结构；叹息未应闲以想象之笔写思妇叹息不止、彻夜难眠，一个闲字以否定出之，反衬叹息之频仍无尽。这四句（戍客望边邑，思归多苦颜；高楼当此夜，叹息未应闲）由实入虚，由边塞实景转入闺中想象，将征人思妇两地的相思合写为同一轮明月下的共同叹息，既收束全篇，又余韵悠长。此联上承曹植明月照高楼的传统，下开杜甫今夜鄜州月，闺中只独看（《月夜》）的写法，两地望月、双写相思成为此后思乡怀人诗的基本模式，其影响极为深远。

The closing couplet sweeps from the border garrison to the wife in a high tower ten thousand li away, the poem's emotional peak, a model of the real and the imagined. 'Tonight, in the high tower' — on this moonlit, wind-sighing night, the wife in her chamber also watches the moon and thinks of him, a symmetrical pair: the borderer gazing at the frontier, the wife gazing from her tower, both watching the same moon. 'She who sighs knows no rest' writes, by imagination, her endless sighing through the night; the word 'no rest', in negation, sets off the sigh's frequency. Moving from the real border to the imagined chamber, it fuses the two places' longing into one sigh beneath one moon, gathering the poem yet leaving aftersound. It inherits Cao Zhi's 'bright moon over the high tower' and opens Du Fu's 'Tonight in Fuzhou, the moon — alone she watches'; two places watching the moon, writing twofold longing, became the basic mode of later homesick verse.

Study

Word focus

出 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 明月出天山之出字，是全诗第一个动词，亦是全篇气脉所系。月本升于东方，此处却写其自天山而出，一个出字将月与山的组合动态化：月不是悬在天上，而是从雪峰之巅冉冉升起，仿佛被高山托举而出，山之高峻、月之皎洁，皆由此一字而活。更妙的是，出字暗含视角的转换——诗人立足边地，向西而望，故见月出于天山之上，这一视角本身便奠定了全诗雄阔苍茫的基调，与一般闺阁望月的纤巧截然不同。后世写月多学此字，如张若虚海上明月共潮生之生字，实与出异曲同工，皆以动态写月之升起，赋予无情之月以生机。一字之出，而边塞的阔大、诗人的豪气尽在其中，是全诗意象链条的第一环。

度 cross - conveys the wind's force and spatial depth, implicitly suggesting the distance the soldiers have traveled. 吹度玉门关之度字，是炼字的又一妙笔。度有越过、飞越之意，此处写长风之吹，不着吹字之直，而以度字写风之跨越——风从几万里外吹来，越过玉门关，仿佛不是风在吹动，而是风在飞行，一个度字给无形的风赋予了穿越关山的力量与动势，空间感极强。同时，度字暗含征人从家乡到边关、从内地到绝域的漫长旅途，风能度关而人难归乡，物与人的对照中生出悲凉。此外，度字还使诗句音节沉实有力，吹度两个动词连用，一虚一实，顿挫有致。若以过、越等字代之，虽意相近，然度字兼有度过时日的绵长意味，更见边塞岁月之悠长与征戍之苦，故论者多拈此字为句眼，与明月出天山的出字同为全诗写景的筋骨。

望 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 戍客望边邑之望字，是全诗由景入情、由边塞转入思乡的关键动词，亦是征人形象的点睛之笔。望字写戍客伫立边关、极目远眺之态：眼前是边邑（边地城池），更远处是故乡的方向，然而望能望见边邑，却望不见万里之外的家乡，一个望字写尽可望而不可即的悲哀。此字承上启下：上文明月、长风、征战地皆是望中所见，下文思归多苦颜正是望而无果的结果——望之愈久，愁之愈深，故苦颜二字随之而出。同时，望字还与末联高楼当此夜的思妇遥相呼应：戍客望边，思妇望月，两地同一望字，而相思之苦相通，全诗的结构亦由此一字而浑然一体。一字而绾结全篇之景与情，正是李白炼字以少总多的明证。

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