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唐 Tang · 文 Prose

马说

On Horses

韩愈

Han Yu

名篇Masterpiece 托物言志Speaking Intent Through Objects 论说Discursive Writing 人才Talent

世有伯乐，然后有千里马。
千里马常有，而伯乐不常有。
故虽有名马，祇辱于奴隶人之手，骈死于槽枥之间，不以千里称也。
马之千里者，一食或尽粟一石。
食马者不知其能千里而食也。

Only when there is a Bo Le in the world will there be a thousand-li horse.
Thousand-li horses are common enough, but a Bo Le is not.
So even when there is a famous horse, it can only be humiliated in the hands of servants and grooms, and die side by side with ordinary horses in the stalls, never being known as a thousand-li horse.
A horse that can run a thousand li may eat a whole dan of grain at a single feeding; but the keeper, not knowing that it can run a thousand li, does not feed it as a thousand-li horse should be fed.

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Meaning

Recognizing talent depends on someone able to recognize it. Since thousand-li horses are common but judges of Bo Le's kind are rare, true ability is wasted in the hands of the unfit and dies unremarked among ordinary beasts. The essay is Han Yu's parable of the scholar of worth unrecognized by his age.

世上先有善于识别马的伯乐，然后才会有被发现的千里马。千里马是经常有的，可是伯乐却不常有。所以即使有了名贵的马，也只能在奴仆马夫的手里受到屈辱，和普通的马一同死在马槽之间，不能以日行千里而著称于世。能够日行千里的马，一顿有时能吃完一石粮食；喂马的人不懂得要根据它能日行千里的特点来喂养它，它又怎么能施展日行千里的本领呢？

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] A thousand-li horse exists only where there is a Bo Le to see it. Since horses are common and judges rare, even the finest steed is humiliated by grooms and dies in the stalls, uncelebrated. And a horse that eats a full dan of grain at a meal is never fed as a thousand-li horse should be fed, because its keeper does not know what it can do. [Structure] The essay argues in three moves: a thesis that recognition precedes worth, its consequence that worth is wasted among the mediocre, and a diagnosis that the keeper neither knows nor feeds. [Imagery] There is no landscape; the image is the horse itself, whose stall and feed trough mirror the court where talent starves. The compression is total: horses, keepers, and judges are a whole society in miniature.

【白话串讲】 “世有伯乐，然后有千里马”——韩愈写《马说》。“千里马常有，而伯乐不常有”——“食马者不知其能千里而食也”——“策之不以其道，食之不能尽其材，鸣之而不能通其意”——“其真无马邪？其真不知马也”——他借马写怀才不遇。【意象与手法】这是韩愈「杂说」体的典范：托物言志，借千里马的遭遇写人才的命运。全文以「伯乐—千里马—食马者」三组意象构成严密的论证结构，立论、反证、归因层层推进，语言峻峭，短短百字而章法完备。【情感与主旨】文章借马喻人，痛斥当权者「不识人才、不用人才、不养人才」，为怀才不遇之士一吐胸中之愤，也寄寓了作者自身三试不第、困顿长安的切肤之痛。【名句点睛】「世有伯乐，然后有千里马」是千古名句，道出识才之难；「千里马常有，而伯乐不常有」则把感叹推向更深一层——人才从不缺乏，缺乏的是发现人才的眼睛。

Background

Han Yu (768-824), courtesy name Tuizhi, was the leader of the Tang ancient-prose movement and first of the Eight Masters of Tang and Song. Orphaned young, he passed the jinshi examination in 792 but failed the erudite examination three times and spent nearly a decade in poverty in Chang'an, petitioning the chancellors in vain. On Horses, the fourth of his Miscellaneous Discourses, was written in these years of frustration, borrowing the ancient parable of Bo Le judging horses to speak for unrecognized scholars in a mid-Tang world of hereditary privilege and broken examinations.

韩愈（768—824），字退之，河阳（今河南孟州）人，郡望昌黎，世称「韩昌黎」「韩吏部」，谥号「文」，又称「韩文公」，是唐代古文运动的领袖、唐宋八大家之首。他幼年孤苦，三岁丧父，由兄嫂抚养成人；贞元八年（792）登进士第，其后三试博学宏词科均不中，困居长安近十年，「三上宰相书」恳求荐引而不得赏识，备尝蹭蹬。《马说》正写于这一时期，是他「杂说」系列（《杂说》四篇）中的第四篇，借「伯乐相马」的古老寓言，抒写自己怀才不遇、报国无门的愤懑。从时代看，中唐藩镇割据、科举渐坏，寒门士子进阶艰难，而权贵把持铨选、任人唯亲，「不养才、不识才」成为普遍积弊；韩愈此文不惟自伤，更是为天下寒士立言。其写作直接受《战国策》汗明见春申君、九方皋相马等典故启发，而以当时流行的「说」体短文出之，篇幅虽不足二百字（节选部分更短），却成为中国古代论说文中「借物明理」的典范，与《师说》并称韩愈论说文双璧，历来入选各类古文选本与中学教材。

Art

The essay belongs to the shuo form, a short argumentative piece. Its structure is exact: a thesis that only with Bo Le is there a thousand-li horse, a reversal that horses are common but Bo Le is not, a consequence that the famous horse is humiliated and dies between the stalls, and a diagnosis that the keeper does not feed it as it deserves. The prose is short-limbed and driven by particles: six sentence-final ye particles toll like bells; the constructions set up and release their objects; the words only and side by side are single-word judgments. This is Han Yu's full breath, fitting words style at its most economical.

从文体看，本文属「说」体——「说」是古代论说文体之一，以解释义理、发表议论为主，韩愈将其发展为精悍的杂文短章。《马说》的章法极具匠心：首句「世有伯乐，然后有千里马」以肯定判断立论，点出「识」与「才」的先后关系；第二句「千里马常有，而伯乐不常有」陡然一转，以「常有」对「不常有」，把问题的焦点从「有没有千里马」转向「有没有伯乐」；第三句「故虽有名马……不以千里称也」以「故」字承上，正面铺写名马受辱的惨状，三句之间环环相扣，如抽丝剥茧。语言上，全文善用虚词表情达意：「也」字六次收句，或表判断、或表感叹、或表陈述，摇曳生姿；「者」字结构（马之千里者、食马者）把论说对象一提一放，节奏分明；「祇」「骈」「尽」等动词精炼有力，「祇辱于奴隶人之手」的「祇」字写出无奈，「骈死于槽枥之间」的「骈」字状出惨烈。这种以短句为主、偶散相间、气盛言宜的行文，正是韩愈「文以载道」「惟陈言之务去」主张的实践，也是古文运动「以复古为革新」的标本。

Allusions

Bo Le judging horses is one of China's oldest parables of recognizing worth. In the Strategies of the Warring States, Han Ming compares himself to a worn-out thousand-li horse straining up Mount Taihang with a salt cart until Bo Le, clasping the shaft, weeps over it. In the Liezi, Bo Le recommends Jiufang Gao, who judges a horse by its essence rather than its color or sex, recognition beyond appearances. Han Yu inherits both parables but turns them: his emphasis falls not on the horse's meeting with Bo Le but on Bo Le's rarity, and he invents the keeper, the man who feeds without recognizing, to aim criticism at those who hold talent yet neither see nor nourish it.

「伯乐相马」是中国文化中最古老的识才典故之一，源头可溯至《战国策·楚策四》：汗明见春申君，自比「骥之齿至矣，服盐车而上太行」——老马拖着盐车爬太行山，伯乐见之而「攀辕哭之」，马「仰而鸣，声达于天」，于是「骥于是俯而喷，仰而鸣」。这则寓言确立了「伯乐」作为识才者原型的地位。又有《列子·说符》九方皋相马的故事：伯乐荐九方皋为秦穆公相马，九方皋「得其精而忘其粗，在其内而忘其外」，连马的毛色公母都说不清，却相中「天下之马」，说明最高明的识才不拘形迹。韩愈熔铸二典，却翻出新意：伯乐之典本是「马遇伯乐而鸣」，韩愈却写「千里马常有，而伯乐不常有」，把缺憾归于识才者之稀；更独创「食马者」意象，直指喂马之人「不知其能千里而食」，把批判的矛头从「无伯乐」推向「有养马者而不识马」。此后「千里马」成为人才代名词，「伯乐」成为用人者代名词，「伯乐相马」沉淀为成语，贯穿中国人才思想史，从唐代陆贽论选才，到龚自珍「我劝天公重抖擞，不拘一格降人才」，皆承此一脉。

Commentary

Since Su Shi called Han Yu's prose the revival of eight generations of decline, On Horses has stood as the masterpiece of his short argumentative pieces. Its two opening sentences have become proverbs in their own right, and Bo Le judging horses entered the language as the standard metaphor for talent scouting. Later writers, from Liu Ji's The Orange Seller's Tale to Gong Zizhen's Notes on the Sick Plum, descend directly from its method of political argument through an object. In modern classrooms it remains required reading, and its closing question, whether the age is truly without horses or truly without knowledge of horses, still applies to any system that fails its own talent.

《马说》自问世以来评价极高，被视为韩愈杂文成就的代表。韩愈以「文起八代之衰」（苏轼《潮州韩文公庙碑》）开一代文风，其论说文「闳中肆外」，而《马说》尤以「短而精、浅而深」见长：全文不过百余字（含节选外数句），却完成了从立论、反证到归因的完整论证，且层层都有形象化的比喻，堪称「以少许胜多许」的典范。后世对这一主题的书写不绝如缕：刘基《卖柑者言》借柑喻世，龚自珍《病梅馆记》以梅议政，都可见《马说》托物言志的遗响。近现代以来，《马说》一直是中学语文的必读篇目，「千里马常有，而伯乐不常有」成为家喻户晓的名言，「伯乐相马」成为选拔人才的通用隐喻。当代语境下，它又被赋予新的解读空间：当「识才」制度化的时代到来，人们重读此文，既感佩韩愈的锐利，也重新思考「伯乐与千里马」之外，如何建立让人才「不以千里称也」不再发生的机制——一篇千年前的小品，至今仍能激活现实的思考，这正是经典的当代价值。

Prosody

Form Classical prose essay in the shuo form, unregulated prose rhythm.古文论说体（「说」体杂文），散文句式

Rhyme It does not rhyme; its music comes from sentence length and repeated particles. Three appearances of there is and two of commonly make a circling cadence, while six sentence-final ye particles toll like a bell, now judging and now sighing.本文为散文，不押韵，音韵之美来自句式的长短参差与虚词的往复回环。「世有伯乐，然后有千里马。千里马常有，而伯乐不常有」以「有」字三现、「常」字二现构成回环；「祇辱于奴隶人之手，骈死于槽枥之间」以「于……之」对举形成低回的节奏；「也」字六次收句（不常有也、不以千里称也、食也、而食也等），或表判断、或表感叹，如钟磬徐鸣，一唱三叹。

Tone pattern Short four- and five-character sentences dominate, relieved by longer ones, and the voice moves through thesis, reversal, consequence, and diagnosis, so the rhythm falls and rises with the argument. It is prose that keeps the cadence of parallelism without its ornament.句式以四字、五字短句为主，间以长句（如「故虽有名马，祇辱于奴隶人之手」），短长相济，顿挫分明。语调用「先立论、再逆转、后归因」的议论口吻：起句肯定斩截，次句转折峭拔，末句感叹沉痛，声情随文气升降，读来气盛而辞严，是韩愈「气盛言宜」最直观的体现。

Reading note Han Yu's prose rides its music on breath, with particles doing the work: the opening nine-character declaration takes the stage, the pivot word but turns the second line into reversal, the paired phrases in the hands of give a local symmetry that reads like a lament, and the closing double use of eat and feed clicks shut, leaving the grievance hanging. This is the ancient-prose ideal: the rhythm of parallelism absorbed, its showiness discarded.《马说》的音韵特色，正在于「以气驭声、以虚词表情」的散文声律观。它不追求骈偶对仗，却以「也」「者」「而」「故」「虽」「祇」等虚词组织出起伏的声情：开篇「世有伯乐，然后有千里马」九字短句先声夺人，随即「千里马常有，而伯乐不常有」以「而」字一顿，语气急转直下，如棋局之翻覆；「祇辱于奴隶人之手，骈死于槽枥之间」两组「于……之」的对称结构，在散句中形成局部的整齐，读来低回悲咽；结尾「食马者不知其能千里而食也」连用两个「食」字，声调短促，戛然而止，余恨无穷。这种「偶散相间、虚字传神」的声律，正是韩愈在骈文泛滥之后倡导古文复归的成果——他吸收骈文的长短节奏而抛弃其雕琢，让散文重新获得自然的音乐性。此后柳宗元《捕蛇者说》、王安石《游褒禅山记》一路的宋代论说文，皆承此「以散文之气运声律」的传统，而《马说》正是这一传统开端处最精悍的标本。

Line by line

世有伯乐，然后有千里马。千里马常有，而伯乐不常有。

Only when there is a Bo Le in the world will there be a thousand-li horse. Thousand-li horses are common enough, but a Bo Le is not.

世上先有善于识别马的伯乐，然后才会有被发现的千里马。千里马是经常有的，可是伯乐却不经常有。

In the world there is Bole, and then the thousand-li horse. The thousand-li horse is ever there, but Bole is not ever there.

开篇两句为全文立骨。「世有伯乐，然后有千里马」以「然后」二字确定先后次序，暗示「识」是「才」得以彰显的前提——没有伯乐，千里马纵有千里之能也无从显现，这是全文的立论基础；「千里马常有，而伯乐不常有」以一「常」一「不常」的对照陡然逆转，把读者的注意力从「马」引向「人」，从「才」引向「识」。这两句的逻辑张力极强：既然马常有而伯乐不常有，那么天下绝大多数千里马注定「辱于奴隶人之手」，这就在客观上揭示了一个残酷的事实——人才被埋没不是个别现象，而是制度性的常态。两句连用三个「常有」，回环往复，语气笃定而沉痛；「然后」与「而」两个连词，一顺一逆，文章的气脉就在这顺逆之间立了起来。后人论人才，几乎无人能绕开这两句，它们已成为「识才之难」的经典表达。

The opening two lines set the bone of the whole. 'In the world there is Bole, and then the thousand-li horse' — through 'and then' fixing the order, hinting that 'recognizing' is the premise of 'talent's' showing — without Bole, the thousand-li horse, however great its power, cannot appear; this is the foundation of the whole's argument; 'the thousand-li horse is ever there, but Bole is not ever there' — through the contrast of 'ever' and 'not ever', the abrupt reversal, turning the reader's attention from 'the horse' to 'the man', from 'talent' to 'recognizing'. The logical tension of these two lines extreme: since the horses are ever and Boles not ever, then the vast majority of the world's thousand-li horses are doomed to 'humiliation in the slaves' hands', and this objectively reveals a cruel fact — talent's being buried is not an individual phenomenon, but the institutional norm. Two lines using three 'ever' in a row, the return, the tone assured and grieving; 'and then' and 'but' the two conjunctions, one forward one reversed, the essay's breath rising between the forward and reversed. Later writers on talent almost none can bypass these two lines, they have become the classic expression of 'the difficulty of recognizing talent'.

故虽有名马，祇辱于奴隶人之手，骈死于槽枥之间，不以千里称也。

So even when there is a famous horse, it can only be humiliated in the hands of servants and grooms, and die side by side with ordinary horses in the stalls, never being known as a thousand-li horse.

所以即使有了名贵的马，也只能在奴仆马夫的手里受到屈辱，和普通的马一同死在马槽之间，不能以日行千里而著称于世。

Hence, though there be a famous horse, it is humiliated in the hands of slaves, dies side by side with common horses in the stable, and is not famed for the thousand-li.

这三句是前文论断的展开与坐实。「故」字承上启下，把「伯乐不常有」的推论落到实处；「虽」字让步，点出即使有「名马」也在劫难逃。「祇辱于奴隶人之手」的「祇」（只）字，写尽千里马无可奈何的处境——它连受辱都无从反抗，只能被驱使于不识货的奴仆之手；「骈死于槽枥之间」的「骈」（并排）字最见功力：千里马竟与凡马并列而死，混同于槽枥之间，一生无所施展，这「骈」字写的是空间上的并列，更是价值上的抹平；「不以千里称也」以「也」字收束，语带叹息。三句由「辱」而「死」而「不称」，层层递进，把怀才不遇者的命运写尽写绝，字字锥心。这一组排比式的铺陈，是韩愈「气盛言宜」的典型体现，读者于此不难想见作者自己困顿长安、三试不第的身影。

These three lines are the expansion and confirmation of the above's thesis. 'Hence' carries the above and opens the below, landing the inference of 'Bole is not ever there' on the ground; 'though' the concession, naming that even with a 'famous horse' it cannot escape. 'It is humiliated in the hands of slaves' — the word 'humiliated' (only) writing to the full the thousand-li horse's helpless lot — it cannot even resist the humiliation, only driven by the slaves who know not horses; 'dies side by side with common horses in the stable' — the word 'side by side' the most crafty: the thousand-li horse dies side by side with the common horses, confounded between the stable and the trough, a lifetime without showing, this 'side by side' writes the spatial parallel, and the value's leveling; 'is not famed for the thousand-li' closes with 'also', the tone carrying the sigh. Three lines, from 'humiliation' to 'death' to 'not famed', layer on layer, writing to the full the fate of the unrecognized talent, every word piercing the heart. This set of parallel detailing, the typical showing of Han Yu's 'the breath strong, the word fitting', the reader here may well imagine the author himself, stuck in Chang'an, three attempts and failing.

马之千里者，一食或尽粟一石。食马者不知其能千里而食也。

A horse that can run a thousand li may eat a whole dan of grain at a single feeding; but the keeper, not knowing that it can run a thousand li, does not feed it as a thousand-li horse should be fed.

能够日行千里的马，一顿有时能吃完一石粮食；喂马的人不懂得它能日行千里，便不按千里马的食量去喂养它。

The thousand-li horse, at one meal, may eat a whole picul of grain. The man who feeds it knows not that it can run a thousand li, and feeds it accordingly.

末三句从「无伯乐」的慨叹转入「食马者」的揭露，文章至此达到批判的高潮。「马之千里者，一食或尽粟一石」先摆出事实：千里马食量过人，这是它「千里之能」的物质基础；「食马者不知其能千里而食也」随即点破症结——喂马的人不认识它的才能，自然不肯按千里马的食量喂养，于是千里马「食不饱，力不足，才美不外见」，千里之能无从施展。「食」字在两句中三次出现，而读音与含义不同：前两个读「shí」指食物、吃，末一个读「sì」指喂养，一字多音多义，正见韩愈炼字之精。这里的批判锋芒已不只指向「不识才」，更指向「不养才」：当权者既无识才之明，又无养才之心，人才被饿死在槽枥之间，这才是最沉痛的所在。全文到此戛然而止，把未尽之意留给读者，所谓「说」体短文的弦外之音，正在于此。

The last three lines turn from the sigh of 'no Bole' to the exposure of 'the man who feeds it', the essay reaching here the peak of critique. 'The thousand-li horse, at one meal, may eat a whole picul of grain' first sets out the fact: the thousand-li horse's appetite exceeds the common, this is the material base of its 'thousand-li power'; 'the man who feeds it knows not that it can run a thousand li, and feeds it accordingly' at once points out the crux — the feeder does not recognize its talent, naturally unwilling to feed it as a thousand-li horse, hence the thousand-li horse 'eats not its fill, the strength insufficient, the talent's beauty not shown', the thousand-li power cannot be used. The word 'feeds' appears three times in two lines, with different readings and meanings: the first two read 'eat', meaning food, eating, the last reads 'feed', meaning raising, one word with many sounds and meanings, precisely showing Han Yu's word-craft. The edge of the critique here points not only at 'not recognizing talent', but at 'not nourishing talent': those in power having neither the recognition nor the heart to nourish, talent starved to death between the troughs, this is the most grieving. The whole stops short here, leaving the unsaid to the reader, the so-called 'shuo' short essay's overtone lies precisely here.

Study

Word focus

祇 Only or merely: it compresses the famous horse's whole existence into nothing but humiliation at the hands of servants. The word's flatness, with no other possibility and no other end, is what makes it ache. 「祇辱于奴隶人之手」的「祇」（zhǐ），意为「只、仅仅」，是《马说》中第一处见功力的虚字。它限定动作的范围与可能：千里马的全部境遇，只是「辱于奴隶人之手」而已——没有别的出路，没有别的结局。「祇」字的关键在于它的「无可奈何」：若换成「遂」「竟」，则偏于结果；换成「乃」，则偏于陈述；唯独「祇」字，把千里马的处境压缩到「仅仅如此」的逼仄空间里，配合后面的「骈死于槽枥之间」，写出一种被彻底剥夺了可能性的人生。这一字也暗中呼应前文「千里马常有，而伯乐不常有」：正因为伯乐不常有，名马才「祇」能如此。一字之用，牵动全篇气脉，正是韩愈「惟陈言之务去」的体现——他不用习见的「徒」「但」，而取古雅精严的「祇」，既显文气之拗峭，又见用字之考究。

骈 Side by side: the horse dies in a row with ordinary horses. One word holds three griefs: sameness in life, waste in death, and the universality of the burying of talent. 「骈死于槽枥之间」的「骈」（pián），本义为两马并驾，引申为并列、成双。此处写千里马与凡马「并排而死」，一字而含三重深意：其一是「混同」——千里马生前与凡马同槽而食，死后与凡马同葬槽枥，一生没有留下任何区别；其二是「浪费」——千里马之死不是轰轰烈烈，而是无声无息地「并排」消失在马厩里，连死亡都平庸得可悲；其三是「悲剧」——「骈」字写出的是群体性的埋没，不只一匹马如此，天下名马莫不如此，这就把个体的不幸放大为普遍的社会悲剧。若换作「独死」「老死」，「骈」字的群体意味便荡然无存。与「祇辱」连读，「祇辱于奴隶人之手，骈死于槽枥之间」，一辱一死，由辱而死，节奏短促，声情悲咽，是全文情感最浓烈的一句，也是「托物言志」中最见刻骨之痛的一句。

食（sì） Read si, to feed, in the keeper feeds it, against shi, to eat, earlier: the same character, eaten and feeding, shows the mismatch at the essay's heart, a man who performs the act of feeding without the knowledge that would make it nourishment. 「食马者不知其能千里而食也」中的「食」，前两处读 shí 指吃食，后一处读 sì 指喂养，是全文的点睛之字，也是「一字多义」的经典案例。韩愈特意在「食马者」与「食也」之间制造读音与意义的转换：喂马的人天天给马喂食（食，shí），却不知道它需要按千里马的标准来喂养（食，sì）——「喂」的行为与「养」的理念错位，正是「不知其能千里」的结果。这个字表面在讲饲养方法，实则指向用人机制：当权者并非不给人才机会，而是给的「食」不对路——用养凡马的标准养千里马，用考常人的尺度量奇才，于是「食不饱，力不足，才美不外见」。一个「食」字，由具体的喂养引申为抽象的养才，由字面义生出比喻义，举重若轻地完成了全文从「论马」到「论人」的转换，是韩愈炼字艺术的点睛之笔。

马说