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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

九月九日登玄武山旅眺

Gazing from Xuanwu Mountain on the Double Ninth Day, as a Traveler

卢照邻

Lu Zhaolin

九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟。
他乡共酌金花酒,万里同悲鸿雁天。

On the ninth day of the ninth month I gaze over mountains and streams;
my heart turns home, my gaze turns home, piling up wind and haze.
In a strange land we share the golden-flower wine;
for ten thousand li we mourn together beneath the wild-geese sky.
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Meaning

On the Double Ninth, far from home, the poet climbs Xuanwu Mountain and gazes toward his native place; but every road back is swallowed by wind and haze. Sharing the festival wine with fellow strangers only sharpens the loneliness, and beneath the autumn sky of south-flying geese — messengers that carry letters home — all exiles for ten thousand li share one grief. A four-line quatrain that compresses festival homesickness into its purest form.

九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟。他乡共酌金花酒,万里同悲鸿雁天。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The poem is complete in four lines: festival and place, the heart turned home, company in exile, and the universal sky. [Structure] The reduplication 'my heart turns home, my gaze turns home' doubles the pull of home from feeling to sight; 'accumulate' (ji) buries that longing in wind and haze, so the landscape itself becomes the sediment of separation. [Turn] The second couplet widens from the self to all exiles: 'in a strange land' to 'ten thousand li', 'drink together' to 'mourn together' — the festival wine, meant to sweeten the day, proves only that everyone present is equally far from home. [Imagery] The wild-geese sky closes the poem: geese flying south, bearers of letters home in the old legend, turn one man's loneliness into the shared condition of exiles everywhere.

【白话串讲】 卢照邻写《九月九日登玄武山旅眺》:“九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟”——“他乡共酌金花酒,万里同悲鸿雁天”——他重阳旅眺——万里同悲鸿雁天。 【意象与手法】 “九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟”写归心望风烟;“他乡共酌金花酒”写他乡共酌;结以“万里同悲鸿雁天”以鸿雁天写悲。悲慨深挚。 【情感与主旨】 卢照邻写重阳旅眺之作,写他乡共酌金花酒而万里同悲鸿雁天的思乡之情,是重阳思乡诗的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟”写归心望风烟;“他乡共酌金花酒,万里同悲鸿雁天”写重阳思乡。

Background

Lu Zhaolin (c. 635–c. 689), from Fanyang (modern Zhuozhou, Hebei), was one of the Four Talents of the Early Tang, famed for his ballad 'Chang'an: An Old Tale of Many Sorrows' and for a proud, restless temperament that ill suited official life. Serving far from home in the Shu region — Xuanwu Mountain is traditionally located there — he wrote this quatrain for the Double Ninth, the autumn festival of climbing and chrysanthemum wine. In later years crippled by illness, which darkened his last poems, he spent his final decade seeking cures before dying in obscurity; the traveler's clarity of this early poem makes a poignant contrast with the anguish of his late works.

《九月九日登玄武山旅眺》为唐代诗人卢照邻所作诗。卢照邻(约635—约689),字升之,号幽忧子,幽州范阳(今河北涿州)人,唐代诗人,「初唐四杰」之一。此诗写登高思乡,为重阳登玄武山之作。诗中「九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟」写九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟;「他乡共酌金花酒,万里同悲鸿雁天」写他乡共酌金花酒,万里同悲鸿雁天。卢照邻此诗以登高思乡、万里同悲鸿雁天写其思乡之情,悲慨深挚,是卢照邻诗中的名篇。此篇《九月九日登玄武山旅眺》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《九月九日登玄武山旅眺》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 depends on compression. The opening line states festival, act, and place, while the title's 'gazing as a traveler' colors every glance with exile. The second line's doubled phrase — heart turns home, gaze turns home — repeats one impulse twice, then buries it under 'accumulate wind and haze', making the landscape itself heavy with longing. The second couplet works by parallel expansion: 'strange land' against 'ten thousand li', 'share the drink' against 'share the grief' — company found and company proved insufficient in the same breath. The closing image of the wild-geese sky needs no commentary: geese flying south in formation, carrying letters home since the legend of Su Wu, say in one picture what a longer poem would weaken.

此诗艺术上以「悲慨深挚、以景写情」见长。全诗共四句,由九月九日眺山川而他乡共酌金花酒。起「九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟」写九月九日眺山川:九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟;结「他乡共酌金花酒,万里同悲鸿雁天」写他乡共酌金花酒:他乡共酌金花酒,万里同悲鸿雁天。全诗以景写情,由九月九日眺山川而万里同悲鸿雁天,悲慨深挚,是卢照邻诗中的名篇。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 Double Ninth customs frame the poem: climbing heights, drinking chrysanthemum wine, and wearing dogwood to drive off misfortune. 'Golden-flower wine' is the chrysanthemum wine of the festival, its golden warmth setting off the stranger's table. The wild geese are the poem's central figure: autumn migrants flying south, and since the Han tale of Su Wu, who tied a letter to a goose's leg to reach home, the bearers of messages to absent families. 'Ten thousand li, mourning together' gathers every exile under one sky — the festival, which should unite families, instead reveals a fellowship of the displaced.

诗中「九月九日眺山川归心归望积风烟」「他乡共酌金花酒万里同悲鸿雁天」等语,皆含典故故实。「九月九日眺山川归心归望积风烟」写九月九日眺山川归心归望积风烟;「他乡共酌金花酒万里同悲鸿雁天」用金花酒之典(金花酒为重阳饮菊花酒),写他乡共酌金花酒万里同悲鸿雁天。诗人以金花酒、鸿雁等语入诗,不着痕迹,而把登高思乡之情写得真切可感,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

One of the most quoted Double Ninth poems of the Early Tang, and a model of the quatrain's power to hold enormous feeling in twenty-eight characters. Anthologists prize the reduplicated 'heart turns home, gaze turns home' as the most concentrated expression of festival homesickness in the language, and the closing 'ten thousand li, mourning together beneath the wild-geese sky' as a line that turns private loneliness into a shared human condition. Set beside Wang Wei's Double Ninth masterpiece, it shows the Early Tang's preference for stark, direct feeling over elaborate construction — a poem read once and remembered whole.

这首《九月九日登玄武山旅眺》,是卢照邻写登高思乡之作,写九月九日眺山川、归心归望积风烟、他乡共酌金花酒、万里同悲鸿雁天之情,悲慨深挚。起「九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟」——九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟。写九月九日眺山川:九月九日眺山川、归心归望积风烟——眺山川、积风烟;结「他乡共酌金花酒,万里同悲鸿雁天」——他乡共酌金花酒(用金花酒之典),万里同悲鸿雁天。写他乡共酌金花酒:他乡共酌金花酒、万里同悲鸿雁天——酌金花酒、悲鸿雁天。这「万里同悲鸿雁天」,是全诗之结:以万里同悲鸿雁天写其思乡。全诗悲慨深挚,以景写情,正是卢照邻诗中的名篇。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 (qijue), four lines, twenty-eight characters.诗(七言绝句)
Rhyme Rhymes on the level-tone 'xian' group: yan 'haze', tian 'sky' — a clear, high, brief resonance that matches the traveler's concentrated grief.此诗为七言绝句,共四句。押韵:「烟」「天」押先部韵。诗体依绝句而定,句式整齐,音节短促而悲慨,正与写登高思乡的悲慨深挚相称,也见其以绝句写思乡的凝练。
Tone pattern Even syllable count and even rhythm; the reduplication 'heart turns home / gaze turns home' beats like a doubled pulse in line two. The final couplet contrasts 'strange land' with 'ten thousand li' and 'drink together' with 'mourn together' — company shared, grief shared, the quatrain's entire architecture in two pairs.句式上,「九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟」写九月九日眺山川,音节悲慨;结「他乡共酌金花酒,万里同悲鸿雁天」写他乡共酌金花酒,音节深挚。全诗音节由悲慨而深挚,正合绝句「凝练」之妙,读来如登高思乡、万里同悲鸿雁天之音,悲慨而动人。
Reading note A model of Early Tang compression: festival, place, longing, cosmos — all in twenty-eight characters. The thin, high rhyme (yan, tian) keeps the poem from sprawling into sentimentality. Read slowly, letting the doubled 'heart turns home, gaze turns home' sound like two beats of a single impulse before the geese appear.此诗为七言绝句,是卢照邻写登高思乡之作,也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「悲慨深挚、以景写情」:「九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟」写九月九日眺山川、「他乡共酌金花酒,万里同悲鸿雁天」写他乡共酌金花酒。全诗悲慨深挚,以景写情。尤为精妙者,是「归心归望积风烟」写尽归望之情;而「万里同悲鸿雁天」用金花酒之典写尽鸿雁之悲,正是卢照邻诗「悲慨深挚」的典范,为历代选本所常收。《九月九日登玄武山旅眺》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

九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟。

On the ninth day of the ninth month I gaze over mountains and streams; my heart turns home, my gaze turns home, piling up wind and haze.

九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟。

On the ninth day of the ninth month, I gaze at hills and rivers; my homeward heart, my homeward gaze, are piled in wind and mist.

首句写九月九日眺山川,起笔即见其眺。「九月九日眺山川」写九月九日眺山川,「九月九日」写九月九日、「眺山川」写眺山川;「归心归望积风烟」写归心归望积风烟,「归心归望」写归心归望、「积风烟」写积风烟。两句一写九月九日眺山川、一写归心归望积风烟,以九月九日眺山川写眺山川、以归心归望积风烟写积风烟,写尽九月九日眺山川、归心归望积风烟之情。以眺起兴,悲慨而深挚,是「以眺起兴」的妙笔。

The opening line writes gazing at hills and rivers on the Double Ninth, the start. 'On the ninth day of the ninth month, I gaze at hills and rivers' — the festival climb; 'my homeward heart, my homeward gaze, are piled in wind and mist' — the longing and the gaze tangled in the autumn haze. Rising through the gaze, sorrowful and deep, the start of the homesick scene.

他乡共酌金花酒,万里同悲鸿雁天。

In a strange land we share the golden-flower wine; for ten thousand li we mourn together beneath the wild-geese sky.

他乡共酌金花酒,万里同悲鸿雁天。

In a strange land we share the gold-flower wine; ten thousand li apart, we grieve together under the wild-goose sky.

结句写他乡共酌金花酒,是全诗立意的落点。「他乡共酌金花酒」用金花酒之典写他乡共酌金花酒,「他乡共酌」写他乡共酌、「金花酒」写金花酒;「万里同悲鸿雁天」写万里同悲鸿雁天,「万里同悲」写万里同悲、「鸿雁天」写鸿雁天。两句一写他乡共酌金花酒、一写万里同悲鸿雁天,以他乡共酌金花酒写酌金花酒、以万里同悲鸿雁天写悲鸿雁天,写尽他乡共酌金花酒、万里同悲鸿雁天之情。以雁写情,悲慨而深挚,是全诗最动人处,也是「以雁写情」的点睛之笔。

The closing line writes sharing the gold-flower wine in a strange land, the poem's landing. 'In a strange land we share the gold-flower wine' uses the allusion to the chrysanthemum wine of the festival; 'ten thousand li apart, we grieve together under the wild-goose sky' — under the same migrating geese, the grief shared across ten thousand li. Through the goose it writes the feeling, sorrowful and deep, the poem's most moving point: fellow exiles drinking together, yet the geese above fly home while they cannot.

Study

Word focus

山川 Mountains and streams: the wide prospect opened from the height — but for the traveler, every view toward home only measures the distance. 「山川」写九月九日眺山川,是写山川之态的关键。「九月九日眺山川」着一「山川」,写山川——着一「山川」,写九月九日眺山川,见其川之山。两字写尽山川之态,是「以词写川」的妙笔。「山川」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。
风烟 Wind and haze: the mist that veils the road home. 'Accumulate' (ji) turns the landscape into sediment of longing — the poet's homesickness settles into the very scenery he surveys. 「风烟」写归心归望积风烟,是写风烟之态的关键。「归心归望积风烟」着一「风烟」,写风烟——着一「风烟」,写归心归望积风烟,见其烟之积。两字写尽风烟之态,是「以词写烟」的点睛之词。「风烟」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。
金花酒 Golden-flower wine: the chrysanthemum wine of the Double Ninth. Its golden warmth makes the stranger's table festive; the brightness only sets off the homesickness it cannot cure. 「金花酒」写他乡共酌金花酒,是写金花酒之态的关键。「他乡共酌金花酒」着一「金花酒」,写金花酒——着一「金花酒」,写他乡共酌金花酒,见其酒之金花。三字写尽金花酒之态,是「以词写酒」的点睛之词。「金花酒」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。
鸿雁 Wild geese: autumn migrants flying south; since the tale of Su Wu's letter tied to a goose, they carry messages home. Under their sky, exiles 'ten thousand li' apart share one grief — the geese's homing is the poet's unfulfilled wish. 「鸿雁」写万里同悲鸿雁天,是写鸿雁之态的关键。「万里同悲鸿雁天」着一「鸿雁」,写鸿雁——着一「鸿雁」,写万里同悲鸿雁天,见其雁之鸿。两字写尽鸿雁之态,是「以词写雁」的点睛之词。「鸿雁」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 Eight Beats of the Ganzhou Song (to the tune 'Eight Sounds of Ganzhou') 柳永 · 同写登高思归、悲慨深挚,一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写九月九日眺山川归心归望积风烟,皆于登高之中见思归 Both write of gazing from a height and longing to return: Liu Yong's long song on evening rain over the river, Lu Zhaolin's quatrain on the Double Ninth.

Liu Yong's traveler, 'facing the pattering evening rain spilling over the river sky, one wash clears the autumn', unfolds homesickness over a long, winding melody; Lu Zhaolin's 'heart turns home, gaze turns home, piling up wind and haze' compresses it into a single line. Song lyric and Tang quatrain — two forms of the same exile's gaze.

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」,写登高思归、悲慨深挚,是宋词写羁旅的名篇;卢照邻《九月九日登玄武山旅眺》则以「九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟」「万里同悲鸿雁天」写眺山川积风烟、悲鸿雁天。两诗同写登高思归、悲慨深挚:一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋,一写九月九日眺山川归心归望积风烟、以重阳写思归;一为柳永之清丽、一为卢照邻之悲慨,并读正可见诗写「登高思归」的两种笔法,皆于登高之中见思归。

水调歌头·明月几时有 Water Melody Song (written at Mid-Autumn while drinking) 苏轼 · 同写思乡感怀、旷达超然,一写但愿人长久、一写九月九日眺山川归心归望积风烟,皆于思乡之中见感怀 Both are festival poems of longing: Su Shi rises from sorrow to consolation, Lu Zhaolin rests in shared grief.

Su Shi, far from his brother, ends 'may we live long, though a thousand li apart, sharing this moon'; Lu Zhaolin, far from home, ends 'ten thousand li, mourning together beneath the wild-geese sky'. The same festival sky and the same distance — Su Shi transcends, Lu Zhaolin empathizes: two answers to exile.

苏轼《水调歌头·明月几时有》「但愿人长久,千里共婵娟」,写思乡感怀、旷达超然,是宋词长调的名篇;卢照邻《九月九日登玄武山旅眺》则以「九月九日眺山川,归心归望积风烟」「万里同悲鸿雁天」写眺山川积风烟、悲鸿雁天。两诗同写思乡感怀、旷达超然:一写但愿人长久、以千里共婵娟写思亲,一写九月九日眺山川归心归望积风烟、以重阳写思归;一为苏轼之超然、一为卢照邻之悲慨,并读正可见诗写「思乡感怀」的两种笔法,皆于思乡之中见感怀。