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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

偶书

Written at Random

刘叉

Liu Cha

日出扶桑一丈高，人间万事细如毛。
野夫怒见不平处，磨损胸中万古刀。

The sun rises a fathom high from the Fusang tree;
the affairs of the world are as fine as hairs.
When the rustic, wrathful, sees some injustice,
it wears away the ten-thousand-year sword within his breast.
Listen

Meaning

The sun climbs a fathom from the Fusang tree while the world teems with affairs as numberless and trivial as hairs. In that crowding of petty wrongs, every injustice the angry rustic witnesses grinds down the ancient sword he carries in his heart — the poem turns a chivalric self-image into a tragedy of unused, wearing-out moral fury.

日出扶桑一丈高，人间万事细如毛。野夫怒见不平处，磨损胸中万古刀。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The first couplet sets the cosmic and the trivial side by side: the sun a fathom high over Fusang, and beneath it 'the affairs of the world as fine as hairs.' The second couplet turns to the rustic — himself — who, wrathful at every injustice, feels the ancient sword in his breast worn down by the grinding.
[Structure] Two couplets: scale, then self. The first couplet's enormous sky and its dust of affairs establish the world the poet must live in; the second contracts to one man's chest, where a sword is being worn away. The turn is not a transition but an implosion — from the sun to the breast, from the countless to the single, from the visible to the secret.
[Imagery] Three images: the Fusang sun (mythic height, the classic tree from which the sun rises), 'hairs' (the innumerable small matters of the world), and the 'ten-thousand-year sword' in the breast — the strangest and greatest image, the knight's blade internalized as moral indignation. That the sword is worn away rather than unsheathed is the poem's bleak innovation: the chivalric fantasy becomes the slow erosion of the man who harbors it.

【白话串讲】 刘叉写《偶书》：“日出扶桑一丈高，人间万事细如毛”——“野夫怒见不平处，磨损胸中万古刀”——他写偶书——磨损胸中万古刀。 【意象与手法】 “日出扶桑一丈高，人间万事细如毛”写万事细如毛；“野夫怒见不平处”写怒见不平；结以“磨损胸中万古刀”以万古刀写不平之愤。激愤豪迈。 【情感与主旨】 刘叉写偶书之作，写见不平而胸中万古刀磨损的激愤，是写愤世嫉俗的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“日出扶桑一丈高，人间万事细如毛”写万事细如毛；“野夫怒见不平处，磨损胸中万古刀”以万古刀写愤世。

Background

Liu Cha (active around 813) was a mid-Tang poet from the Hebei region, famous in his lifetime as a knight-errant — accounts tell of his wandering, his pride, and his refusal to compromise; he is said to have quarreled with Han Yu and to have taken from the rich to give to the poor. Only a handful of his poems survive, and 'Written at Random' is the masterpiece. The poem belongs to the harsh, angry strain of mid-Tang verse — Meng Jiao's grim vehemence, Lu Tong's eccentric protest — but its image of the sword worn away in the breast is unique: a knight-errant poet's confession that a life of witnessing small injustices has ground down the great anger he carried.

《偶书》为唐代诗人刘叉所作诗。刘叉（约813年前后在世），河朔（今河北）人，中唐诗人，以任侠著称。此诗写咏怀，为愤世之作。诗中「日出扶桑一丈高，人间万事细如毛」写日出扶桑一丈高，人间万事细如毛；「野夫怒见不平处，磨损胸中万古刀」写野夫怒见不平处，磨损胸中万古刀。刘叉此诗以咏怀、磨损胸中万古刀写其愤世之情，激愤豪迈，是刘叉诗中的名篇。此篇《偶书》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《偶书》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《偶书》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

The poem's power is in its architecture of scale. The first couplet opens with the mythic sun over Fusang — the largest image available to a Tang poet — and immediately reduces the world to 'hairs,' the smallest: the cosmic and the trivial compressed into fourteen characters, with the poet trapped between them. The second couplet then performs its great feat: it internalizes the sword. 'Wears away' is a verb of erosion, not of action — the blade is not drawn, not bloodied, only dulled; every 'injustice' is a stroke of the grindstone. The persona of 'the rustic' — the plain, angry man of honor outside the official world — lets the poet speak with the authority of the uncredentialed, and the final image, a sword worn out inside a man, is one of the most original in Tang poetry: the chivalric dream turned into a private, slow erosion.

此诗艺术上以「激愤豪迈、以刀写情」见长。全诗共四句两联，由日出扶桑一丈高而野夫怒见不平处。起「日出扶桑一丈高，人间万事细如毛」写日出扶桑一丈高：日出扶桑一丈高，人间万事细如毛；结「野夫怒见不平处，磨损胸中万古刀」写野夫怒见不平处：野夫怒见不平处，磨损胸中万古刀。全诗以刀写情，由日出扶桑一丈高而磨损胸中万古刀，激愤豪迈，是刘叉诗中的名篇。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

Two allusions anchor the poem. 'Fusang' is the mythic tree of the east from which the sun rises — already in the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Huainanzi, the sun climbs its branches each morning; to say the sun rises 'a fathom high' from Fusang is to set the scene at the very source of light, making the 'hairs' beneath it darker by contrast. The 'ten-thousand-year sword' belongs to the knight-errant register — the ancient, storied blade of the wandering hero — but Liu Cha moves it from the hand to the breast: the sword is indignation itself, moral anger kept for the cause of justice. The figure of 'the rustic' descends from the tradition of the plain man of honor and from the rhapsodic anger of the Songs ('Small men rejoice...'); Liu Cha's innovation is to keep the knight's sword but give it no battlefield, only the daily wear of small injustices.

诗中「日出扶桑一丈高人间万事细如毛」「野夫怒见不平处磨损胸中万古刀」等语，皆含典故故实。「日出扶桑一丈高人间万事细如毛」用扶桑之典（扶桑为日出之地），写日出扶桑一丈高人间万事细如毛；「野夫怒见不平处磨损胸中万古刀」用万古刀之典（万古刀写心中之愤），写野夫怒见不平处磨损胸中万古刀。诗人以扶桑、万古刀之典入诗，不着痕迹，而把咏怀之情写得真切可感，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 poem has been anthologized since the Song as the signature of Liu Cha's fierce temperament, and later critics have singled out 'it wears away the ten-thousand-year sword within his breast' as one of the most original images in Tang poetry — the internalized sword, anger as a blade slowly dulled by use. In literary history the poem stands at the meeting of the mid-Tang 'angry' school (Meng Jiao's vehemence, Lu Tong's wild protest) and the knight-errant tradition it reproaches: a poem written by a man famous for knightly conduct that asks what happens to the knight's sword when the age offers no battlefield. Modern readers find in it a startlingly modern psychology — the slow wearing down of moral fury by a world of petty injustices — and it is often read beside Zhang Bi's 'The Farmer' as the two faces of mid-Tang conscience: one indignant at the world's wrongs, one at the poor man's ruin.

这首《偶书》，是刘叉写咏怀之作，写日出扶桑一丈高、野夫怒见不平处、磨损胸中万古刀之情，激愤豪迈。起「日出扶桑一丈高，人间万事细如毛」——日出扶桑一丈高，人间万事细如毛。写日出扶桑一丈高：日出扶桑一丈高、人间万事细如毛——一丈高、细如毛；结「野夫怒见不平处，磨损胸中万古刀」——野夫怒见不平处，磨损胸中万古刀。写野夫怒见不平处：野夫怒见不平处、磨损胸中万古刀——不平处、万古刀。这「野夫怒见不平处，磨损胸中万古刀」，是全诗之结：以磨损胸中万古刀写其愤世。全诗激愤豪迈，以刀写情，正是刘叉诗中的名篇。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 (qiyan jueju)诗（七言绝句）
Rhyme Rhymes on the level-tone hao group: mao 'hairs' and dao 'blade' — broad, ringing level rhymes that give the poem an open, declamatory sound, like an oath spoken aloud, before its final image contracts to a whisper.此诗为七言绝句，共四句两联。押韵：「毛」「刀」押豪部韵。前两句起、后两句转合，平仄相间，正与写咏怀的激愤豪迈相称，也见其以七绝写愤世的凝练。
Tone pattern The first couplet runs high and open — 'The sun rises a fathom high from the Fusang tree' ('a fathom high' lifts the line to the sun's height) — while the second sinks into heavier, oblique-weighted syllables as the poem turns inward; the closing line's 'wears away... ten-thousand-year sword' slows and grinds, the sound itself mimicking erosion.句式上，「日出扶桑一丈高，人间万事细如毛」写日出扶桑一丈高，音节豪迈；结「野夫怒见不平处，磨损胸中万古刀」写野夫怒见不平处，音节激愤。全诗音节随情起伏，由豪迈而激愤，正合七绝「凝练」之妙，读来如咏怀、磨损胸中万古刀之音，激愤而动人。
Reading note Read the poem as two stages of a single act of anger: the first couplet open, declamatory, almost roaring — the sun, the dust of affairs; the second couplet lower, slower, grinding — 'wears away... ten-thousand-year sword' must be sounded out slowly, each syllable a stroke of the grindstone, so that the poem ends not in a cry but in the sound of something being worn away.此诗为七言绝句，是刘叉写咏怀之作，也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「激愤豪迈、以刀写情」：「日出扶桑一丈高，人间万事细如毛」写日出扶桑一丈高、「野夫怒见不平处，磨损胸中万古刀」写野夫怒见不平处。全诗激愤豪迈，以刀写情。尤为精妙者，是「日出扶桑一丈高」用扶桑之典；而「磨损胸中万古刀」用万古刀之典，正是刘叉诗「激愤豪迈」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《偶书》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

日出扶桑一丈高，人间万事细如毛。

The sun rises a fathom high from the Fusang tree; the affairs of the world are as fine as hairs.

日出扶桑一丈高，人间万事细如毛。

The sun rises above Fusan, a full measure high; ten thousand affairs of the world are fine as hair.

起句写日出扶桑一丈高，起笔即见其日出。「日出扶桑一丈高」用扶桑之典写日出扶桑一丈高，「日出扶桑」写日出扶桑、「一丈高」写一丈高；「人间万事细如毛」写人间万事细如毛，「人间万事」写人间万事、「细如毛」写细如毛。一句写日出扶桑一丈高人间万事细如毛，以日出扶桑一丈高写一丈高、以人间万事细如毛写细如毛，写尽日出扶桑一丈高、人间万事细如毛之情。以日起兴，激愤而豪迈，是「以日起兴」的妙笔。

The opening line writes the sun rising above Fusan, the start. 'The sun rises above Fusan, a full measure high' uses the Fusan allusion — the mythical tree where the sun rises; 'ten thousand affairs of the world are fine as hair' — the world's affairs trivial as hair. Rising through the sun, indignant and bold, the start.

野夫怒见不平处，

When the rustic, wrathful, sees some injustice,

野夫怒见不平处，

The wild man, angry at the sight of wrong,

此句写野夫怒见不平处，是全诗写野夫之态的关键。「野夫怒见」写野夫怒见，「野夫」写野夫、「怒见」写怒见；「不平处」写不平处，「不平」写不平、「处」写处。一句写野夫怒见不平处，以野夫怒见写怒见、以不平处写不平处，写尽野夫怒见不平处之情。以夫写情，激愤而豪迈，是「以夫写情」的点睛之笔。此句以寥寥数语写尽深意，情韵兼胜，正是全诗点睛之笔。其于字句之间暗藏波澜，于平易之中寄寓曲折，尤当反复涵泳，方能得其三昧。

This line writes the wild man angry at the sight of wrong, the key image. 'The wild man, angry at the sight of wrong' — the rough man, angered by injustice. Through the man it writes the feeling, indignant and bold, the point where the poet's wrath against the world breaks surface.

磨损胸中万古刀。

it wears away the ten-thousand-year sword within his breast.

磨损胸中万古刀。

wears away the ancient, unyielding knife in his breast.

结句写磨损胸中万古刀，是全诗立意的落点。「磨损胸中」写磨损胸中，「磨损」写磨损、「胸中」写胸中；「万古刀」用万古刀之典写万古刀，「万古」写万古、「刀」写刀。一句写磨损胸中万古刀，以磨损胸中写磨损、以万古刀写万古刀，写尽磨损胸中万古刀之情。以刀写情，激愤而豪迈，是全诗最动人处，也是「以刀写情」的点睛之笔。

The closing line writes the ancient knife in his breast worn away, the poem's landing. 'Wears away the ancient, unyielding knife in his breast' uses the 'ancient knife' image — the eternal blade of righteousness in his breast, worn thin by the years of anger held in. Through the knife it writes the feeling, indignant and bold, the poem's most moving point: the just heart, forever raging against wrong, forever unable to act, wearing itself away.

Study

Word focus

扶桑 Fusang (fusang): the mythic tree of the east from which the sun rises, already in the Classic of Mountains and Seas; placing the sunrise a fathom up its trunk sets the poem at the source of all light, against which the 'hairs' of the world below seem all the darker. 「扶桑」写出日扶桑一丈高，是写扶桑之态的关键。「日出扶桑一丈高」着一「扶桑」，写扶桑——着一「扶桑」，写出日扶桑一丈高，见其桑之扶。两字写尽扶桑之态，是「以词写木」的妙笔。「扶桑」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。
细如毛 Fine as hairs (xi ru mao): the countless, trivial, dusty matters of the world — the 'hairs' at which the sun looks down; the simile reduces the whole realm of human affairs to a swarm of trifles, preparing the poet's disgust at a world too small for his anger. 「细如毛」写人间万事细如毛，是写细如毛之态的关键。「人间万事细如毛」着一「细如毛」，写细如毛——着一「细如毛」，写人间万事细如毛，见其毛之细。三字写尽细如毛之态，是「以词写细」的点睛之词。「细如毛」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。
野夫 The rustic (yefu): the plain man outside the official world — the angry man of honor who owes nothing to power; Liu Cha's self-description claims the uncredentialed authority of the witness, the man who can still be angered because he has not been domesticated by office. 「野夫」写野夫怒见不平处，是写野夫之态的关键。「野夫怒见不平处」着一「野夫」，写野夫——着一「野夫」，写野夫怒见不平处，见其夫之野。两字写尽野夫之态，是「以词写夫」的点睛之词。「野夫」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。
万古刀 The ten-thousand-year sword (wangu dao): the knight-errant's ancient blade, kept since olden days for the cause of justice — internalized in the poet's breast as moral indignation itself; that it is 'worn away' rather than unsheathed is the poem's bleak innovation, anger denied its battlefield and slowly ground down. 「万古刀」写磨损胸中万古刀，是写万古刀之态的关键。「磨损胸中万古刀」着一「万古刀」，写万古刀——着一「万古刀」，写磨损胸中万古刀，见其刀之万古。三字写尽万古刀之态，是「以词写刀」的点睛之词。「万古刀」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 Prelude to Water Melody: When Will the Moon Be Clear and Round? (Shuidiao Getou) 苏轼 · 同写愤世感怀、激愤旷达，一写人有悲欢离合、一写野夫怒见不平处磨损胸中万古刀，皆于愤世之中见激愤 Two answers to life's wrongs — one philosophical and resigned, one wrathful and wearing

Su Shi answers life's inequities with philosophy: 'Men have sorrow and joy, parting and reunion... such has it ever been' — grief dissolved in acceptance. Liu Cha answers them with anger: 'it wears away the ten-thousand-year sword within his breast' — wrath kept, and ground down. One reconciles the self to the world; the other lets the world grind the self — two poles of the Chinese response to injustice.

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」，写愤世感怀、激愤旷达，是宋词长调的名篇；刘叉《偶书》则以「野夫怒见不平处，磨损胸中万古刀」「日出扶桑一丈高」写万古刀、一丈高。两诗同写愤世感怀、激愤旷达：一写人有悲欢离合、以悲欢写离合，一写野夫怒见不平处磨损胸中万古刀、以万古刀写愤世；一为苏轼之旷达、一为刘叉之激愤，并读正可见诗写「愤世感怀」的两种笔法，皆于愤世之中见激愤。

 八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Eight Beats of the Song of Ganzhou: Facing the Dusk Rain over the River (Basheng Ganzhou) 柳永 · 同写不平凝望、激愤清丽，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写日出扶桑一丈高人间万事细如毛，皆于不平之中见凝望 Two autumn gazes — one lyrical and melancholy, one wrathful

Liu Yong's 'Facing the dusk rain pouring over the river — a washing of clear autumn' turns the wide world into a scene of lyrical sorrow, the poet dissolved in landscape. Liu Cha's 'The sun rises a fathom high from the Fusang tree; the affairs of the world are as fine as hairs' sets the poet against the same wide world — small, but with a sword in his breast. One gazes and grieves; the other gazes and burns — two kinds of looking in the lyrical tradition.

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」，写不平凝望、激愤清丽，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；刘叉《偶书》则以「日出扶桑一丈高，人间万事细如毛」「磨损胸中万古刀」写细如毛、万古刀。两诗同写不平凝望、激愤清丽：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写日出扶桑一丈高人间万事细如毛、以万古刀写愤世；一为柳永之清丽、一为刘叉之激愤，并读正可见诗写「不平凝望」的两种笔法，皆于不平之中见凝望。