唐 Tang · 诗 Poem
贫交行
Song of a Poor Man's Friendship
翻手作云覆手雨，纷纷轻薄何须数。
君不见管鲍贫时交，此道今人弃如土。
Have you not heard of the friendship Guan and Bao struck in poverty? Such principles men of today cast away like dirt.
Meaning
Du Fu's four-line satire on the fickleness of worldly friendship: people change with fortune as quickly as a hand flips cloud into rain, and the friendship that Guan Zhong and Bao Shuya formed in poverty — steadfast through poverty and success alike — is now discarded like dirt. Written during his decade of frustration in Chang'an, the poem is both a wound from his own humiliations and an indictment of an age in which loyalty had become cheap.
翻手为云、覆手为雨，那些纷纷轻薄的人何须去数。您不见管仲与鲍叔牙贫贱时的交情吗，这种道义如今的人早已抛弃如泥土了。
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] A flip of the hand is cloud, a flip back is rain; the shallow, changeable crowd is too many to count. Have you not heard how Guan Zhong and Bao Shuya were friends in poverty? That way of friendship men today throw away like dirt. [Structure and Technique] Four lines in two layers: the first two describe the symptom (fickleness, multitude), the second two name the disease (the old way abandoned). The poem moves from phenomenon to essence, using the past to shame the present. [Language] The opening metaphor — 'a turn of the hand makes cloud, a turn back makes rain' — packs the whole psychology of the timeserver into seven characters: two actions for speed, cloud and rain for the two faces of triumph and defeat. 'Why bother to count' is anger wearing contempt. The close, 'cast away like dirt', is the cruelest stroke in the poem: not merely neglected, but trampled. The 'Have you not heard' of the yuefu summons the reader as witness, so the indictment becomes universal.
【白话串讲】 杜甫写《贫交行》：“翻手作云覆手雨，纷纷轻薄何须数”——世态炎凉如翻手云雨。“君不见管鲍贫时交，此道今人弃如土”——他说管仲鲍叔牙那样的贫贱之交，如今被人像土一样丢弃。 【意象与手法】 此诗是杜甫感叹世态炎凉、针砭浇薄人情的小诗，四句短制而锋芒毕露。首句「翻手作云覆手雨」以「翻云覆雨」写势利小人的反复无常，比喻精警、形象鲜明；次句「纷纷轻薄何须数」以「纷纷」「何须数」写世风之浇薄、轻薄者之众多；三四句「君不见管鲍贫时交，此道今人弃如土」以管鲍之交的典故与今人的弃道作对照，点明主旨。全诗前两句写世态之炎凉，后两句写古道之沦丧，以古衬今、以正衬邪，短短四句，把杜甫对浇薄世风的愤怒与对古道热肠的追慕写得淋漓尽致。 【情感与主旨】 此诗是杜甫居长安期间的感慨之作，约作于天宝年间，时杜甫困居长安，饱尝世态炎凉、人情冷暖。杜甫自开元末入长安求仕，困居十年，「朝扣富儿门，暮随肥马尘。残杯与冷炙，到处潜悲辛」，饱受势利之徒的白眼与冷遇，对世态炎凉有深切的体会。此诗即写其感慨：世风浇薄，人情反复，翻手为云、覆手为雨，势利小人比比皆是；而古人那种贫贱不移的管鲍之交，如今却被人们如泥土般抛弃。诗中既有对浇薄世风的愤怒讽刺，也有对古道热肠的追慕呼唤，更有杜甫自身饱受炎凉后的切肤之痛。值得注意的是，此诗虽短，却是杜甫「诗史」之外另一面的体现——他不仅写国家大事、民生疾苦，也写个人在世俗中的遭遇与感慨，这种「小我」的感慨，正是「大我」情怀的基础。诗中「君不见管鲍贫时交」的呼唤，既是杜甫对真情的渴望，也是他困居长安时最深的痛感。 【名句点睛】 常考“翻手作云覆手雨”以翻云覆雨写势利小人的反复无常，比喻精警；“君不见管鲍贫时交，此道今人弃如土”以管鲍之交与今人弃道作对照，针砭浇薄。
Background
The poem was written during Du Fu's years of frustration in Chang'an, probably between 747 and 755. After failing the examination of 735, Du Fu returned to the capital around 746 hoping for office; in 747 Emperor Xuanzong opened a special examination for men of one art, but the chancellor Li Linfu engineered the notorious 'no remaining talent' farce, and Du Fu failed again. For a decade he knocked on the doors of the rich and powerful, enduring the humiliations he recorded in his poem to Vice Director Wei: 'At dawn I knock at rich men's gates, at dusk I follow fat horses' dust; leftover cups and cold roast meat, everywhere hidden grief.' Song of a Poor Man's Friendship distills that experience of cold shoulders into twenty-eight characters.
此诗为杜甫困居长安时期所作，约在唐玄宗天宝六载至十四载（747-755）之间。杜甫自开元二十三年（735）第一次应试落第后，于天宝五载（746）前后再次入长安，欲求仕进，却遭遇了人生中最困顿的十年。天宝六载，唐玄宗下诏「通一艺者皆可诣京师就选」，杜甫应诏，却因奸相李林甫从中作梗（「野无遗贤」之闹剧），再度落选。此后杜甫困居长安，奔走于权贵之门，希望得到引荐，却屡遭冷遇，「朝扣富儿门，暮随肥马尘。残杯与冷炙，到处潜悲辛」（《奉赠韦左丞丈二十二韵》），饱尝世态炎凉。此诗正是这种处境下的感慨之作。诗中「翻手作云覆手雨」写势利小人的反复无常——那些权贵、势利之徒，得势时如云翻腾、失势时如雨覆地，翻覆无常、毫无信义；「纷纷轻薄何须数」写世风的浇薄——轻薄无行之人如此众多，数也数不清；「君不见管鲍贫时交，此道今人弃如土」以管鲍之交的典故作对照——古时管仲与鲍叔牙贫贱相交、始终不渝，而如今这种道义被人如泥土般抛弃。杜甫此诗，既是对自身遭际的感慨，也是对盛唐末年世风日下的批判，更寄托了他在困顿中对真情的渴望。此诗虽短，却是理解杜甫长安十年困顿生活与「世态炎凉」感受的关键作品，也是其「以诗刺世」精神的体现。
Art
The poem's craft works on four levels. First, the sharpness of the metaphor: 'a turn of the hand makes cloud, a turn back makes rain' gives the timeserver's two faces — cloud in triumph, rain in defeat — through two quick hand movements, seven characters that exhaust the ugly physics of fickleness. Second, the force of the rhetorical question: 'why bother to count' says the shallow crowd are too many to count and not worth counting, contempt riding on anger. Third, the contrast of allusion: Guan and Bao's friendship of poverty, formed in want and kept through success, is set against today's 'cast away like dirt' — past against present, loyalty against treachery, so the theme carries itself. Fourth, condensation: twenty-eight characters move from the phenomenon of fickleness to the abandonment of an ethical way, from surface to root. This is Du Fu's art of seeing the large in the small.
此诗的艺术特色可从四个层面解析。其一，比喻的精警。首句「翻手作云覆手雨」以「翻手为云、覆手为雨」写势利小人的反复无常，比喻精警而形象——「翻手」「覆手」两个动作，写其翻覆之快、变化之速，一云一雨，写其得意与失势的两种面目，七字写尽势利之徒的丑态，是杜甫诗中炼喻的典范。其二，反问的力度。「纷纷轻薄何须数」以反问写轻薄者之众多，「何须数」三字，写其多到不屑去数、数也数不清，语气中带着愤怒与鄙夷。其三，用典的对比。「君不见管鲍贫时交，此道今人弃如土」以管鲍之交的典故与今人弃道作对照，以古衬今、以正衬邪——管鲍贫时之交是「古道」的典范，今人弃之如土是「世风」的写照，一古一今、一正一邪，对比强烈，主旨自明。其四，结构的凝练。全诗四句：前两句写世态（反复无常、轻薄众多），后两句写古道（管鲍之交、今人弃之），由现象到本质、由世态到古道，层层推进，二十八字写尽世态炎凉。四重手法相得益彰，使这首四句短制成为杜甫讽刺世态、咏叹人生的名篇，也是其「以小见大」的本领——短短二十八字，写尽一个时代的人情冷暖。
Allusions
The poem's allusion is concentrated in 'the friendship Guan and Bao struck in poverty'. Guan Zhong and Bao Shuya were men of the state of Qi in the Spring and Autumn period. According to the 'Biographies of Guan and Yan' in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, they were friends from childhood; Guan was poor and Bao knew his worth. In business Guan took the larger share of profit, and Bao did not call it greed, knowing his poverty; Guan's plans failed again and again, and Bao did not call him foolish, knowing the times were against him; Guan was thrice dismissed and thrice fled battle, and Bao did not call him unworthy or a coward, knowing he had an old mother to feed. Bao finally recommended Guan to Duke Huan of Qi, who made him chancellor and completed the hegemony. Guan said, 'My parents gave me life, but Bao is the one who knows me.' The phrase 'Guan-Bao friendship' has stood ever since for friendship that does not change with fortune. Du Fu uses it here for its core meaning — friendship that does not shift in poverty — against today's abandonment. The opening also recasts the old phrase 'turning cloud and rain', later the classic image of faithless inconstancy.
此诗的典故集中在「君不见管鲍贫时交」一句，用管仲与鲍叔牙的典故。「管鲍」指春秋时齐国的管仲与鲍叔牙。据《史记·管晏列传》记载，管仲与鲍叔牙自幼相交，管仲家贫，鲍叔牙深知其贤。二人合伙经商，分财时管仲多取，鲍叔牙不以为贪，知其家贫；管仲为鲍叔牙谋事而更穷困，鲍叔牙不以为愚，知其时运不济；管仲三仕三见逐于君，鲍叔牙不以为不肖，知其未遇其时；管仲三战三走，鲍叔牙不以为怯，知其有老母。鲍叔牙始终相信管仲是治国之才，后来鲍叔牙向齐桓公力荐管仲，管仲遂辅佐齐桓公成就霸业。管仲曾说：「生我者父母，知我者鲍子也。」后世遂以「管鲍之交」为知己之交、贫贱不移之交的典范。杜甫以此典写「贫时交」，正是取其「贫贱不移」的深意——管鲍之交，是在贫贱中结下、始终不渝的友谊，而如今的人们，早已把这种道义如泥土般抛弃。以「管鲍贫时交」与「今人弃如土」对照，正是杜甫对世态炎凉的深切感慨，也是对古道热肠的深情追慕。此外，「翻手作云覆手雨」化用「翻云覆雨」的成语（《楚辞》「云雨翻覆」），此语后世成为形容反复无常、毫无信义的经典比喻。全诗用典精当，化管鲍典故与翻云覆雨之语于讽刺之中，正是杜甫「以典刺世」的本领。
Commentary
The poem has long been ranked among Du Fu's satirical masterpieces and is one of the most condensed portrayals of the fickleness of the world in Chinese poetry. The Qing critic Shen Deqian, in his Alternative Discourses on Tang Poetry, praised it with the words 'every phrase brisk' — its metaphor of cloud-and-rain and its closing cry that the old way is 'cast away like dirt' have been admired for their bite. Its special value in literary history lies in its compression of the ten Chang'an years — the humiliation of knocking at rich men's gates, the hidden grief of cold cups and cold roast — into four lines. It also shows a side of Du Fu beyond the 'poetic history' of national affairs: he writes personal experience in the world, and this 'small self' is the ground of his 'great self'. Later poems on worldly coldness, such as Li Bai's 'Whoever makes friends in this world must have gold', share its tone.
此诗历来被推为杜甫讽刺世态的名篇，也是中国诗歌史上写「世态炎凉」最凝练的作品之一。历代论者对「翻手作云覆手雨」的比喻与「此道今人弃如土」的感慨评价极高：清人沈德潜《唐诗别裁》评此诗「咏贫交，语语爽快」，近人更指出此诗以「翻云覆雨」写势利小人，以「管鲍之交」写古道热肠，对比鲜明、锋芒毕露，是杜甫「刺世」精神的体现。在文学史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以极短的篇幅写出了杜甫困居长安时的深切感受——那「朝扣富儿门」的屈辱、「到处潜悲辛」的困顿，都浓缩在这二十八字中。此诗也是杜甫「诗史」之外的另一面：他不只写国家大事、民生疾苦，也写个人在世俗中的遭遇与感慨，这种「小我」的感慨，正是「大我」情怀的基础。诗中「君不见管鲍贫时交」的呼唤，千百年来引起了无数在困顿中渴望真情的读者的共鸣。后世写世态炎凉的诗文（如李白「世人结交须黄金」），多与此诗同调。对于今日读者，此诗是理解杜甫长安困顿生活的窗口，也是感受中国文学「刺世」传统的典范——那翻云覆雨的世态、弃如土的古道，穿越千年，仍能引起今人的共鸣与警醒。
Prosody
Line by line
翻手作云覆手雨，纷纷轻薄何须数。
A turn of the hand makes cloud, a turn back makes rain — the fickle and the frivolous, why bother to count them?
翻手为云、覆手为雨，那些纷纷轻薄的人何须去数。
Turn the hand and make clouds, turn the hand and make rain; the fickle crowd, why count them?
这两句写世态的炎凉与浇薄，是全诗「刺世」的核心，比喻精警而锋芒毕露。「翻手作云覆手雨」以「翻手为云、覆手为雨」写势利小人的反复无常——「翻手」「覆手」两个动作，写其翻覆之快、变化之速，一云一雨，写其在得势与失势之间的两种面目，七字写尽势利之徒翻云覆雨的丑态；「纷纷轻薄何须数」写世风的浇薄——「纷纷」写轻薄者之众多，「何须数」以反问写其多到不屑去数、数也数不清，语气中带着愤怒与鄙夷。两句一写「质」（反复无常），一写「量」（众多轻薄），从质与量两方面写出世态炎凉的全面。值得注意的是，这两句的「翻手」「覆手」与「纷纷」「何须」，都带着杜甫对世风的深恶痛绝——他在长安十年，饱受势利之徒的白眼与冷遇，这两句正是其切肤之痛的凝缩。以「翻云覆雨」写世态，以「何须数」写浇薄，正是杜甫「以诗刺世」的锋芒所在，也为后两句「管鲍贫时交」的追慕作了最有力的铺垫。
These two lines write the world's coldness and shallowness, the core of the poem's 'satire on the age', the metaphor alert, the edge bare. 'Turn the hand and make clouds, turn the hand and make rain' writes the snobs' fickleness — the two motions of turning the hand, the speed of the reversal, one cloud one rain, the two faces in and out of power, seven words writing to the full the snob's infamous weather-turning; 'the fickle crowd, why count them?' writes the shallow age — 'the crowd' their numbers, 'why count them?' the counter-question, too many to count, the tone angry and contemptuous. One line the quality (fickleness), one the quantity (the shallow many), the world's coldness written complete. Notable: the 'turn hand' 'fickle' 'why count' all carry Du Fu's loathing of the age — his ten years in Chang'an suffered the snobs' cold looks, and these lines are the condensation of the pain in his own flesh. Writing the world through 'clouds and rain', the shallowness through 'why count them', Du Fu's satirical edge, storing the fullest groundwork for the admiration of 'Guan-Bao friendship in poverty' below.
君不见管鲍贫时交，此道今人弃如土。
Have you not heard of the friendship Guan and Bao struck in poverty? Such principles men of today cast away like dirt.
您不见管仲与鲍叔牙贫贱时的交情吗，这种道义如今的人早已抛弃如泥土了。
Do you not see the friendship of Guan Zhong and Bao Shu in poverty? That way of the world men now cast away like dirt.
这两句是全诗的主旨所在，以管鲍之交的典故与今人的弃道作对照，点明「贫交」之道的沦丧。「君不见管鲍贫时交」以「君不见」唤起——这是乐府歌行中常见的唤起语（如李白「君不见黄河之水天上来」），杜甫借以引出管鲍之交的典故：管仲与鲍叔牙贫贱相交、始终不渝，鲍叔牙在管仲贫贱时知其贤、信其才，终成大业，这是「贫交」的典范；「此道今人弃如土」写今人之弃道——「此道」指管鲍之交所体现的贫贱不移之道，「弃如土」写今人把这种道义如泥土般抛弃——「如土」二字极狠，不是不重视，而是如泥土般轻贱、唾弃。两句以古衬今、以正衬邪：管鲍的「贫时交」越可敬，今人的「弃如土」越可耻；古道的珍贵，反衬出世风的浇薄。这两句正是全诗的点题之笔，也是杜甫对世态炎凉的终极控诉——当他困居长安、饱受冷遇时，那「管鲍贫时交」的呼唤，既是对真情的渴望，也是对时代的失望。以「君不见」的唤起与「弃如土」的狠笔收束全诗，正是杜甫「刺世」的锋芒所在。
These two lines are the poem's theme, setting the allusion to the Guan-Bao friendship against the modern abandonment of the way, naming the loss of the 'poor friendship'. 'Do you not see the friendship of Guan Zhong and Bao Shu in poverty?' opens with 'do you not see?' — the call familiar in yuefu song (like Li Bai's 'do you not see the Yellow River's water comes from heaven'), Du Fu using it to bring out the allusion: Guan Zhong and Bao Shu, poor yet loyal, Bao Shu knowing Guan Zhong's worth in his poverty and trusting his talent, at last the great achievement — the model of the 'poor friendship'. 'That way of the world men now cast away like dirt' the modern abandonment — 'that way' the way of unshakable loyalty in poverty that the Guan-Bao friendship embodied, 'cast away like dirt' the moderns throwing this way away as if it were dirt; 'like dirt' the cruelest words — not merely undervalued, but held as cheap as mud, spat upon. The two lines set the ancient against the modern, the right against the wrong: the more honorable the Guan-Bao 'poor friendship', the more shameful the modern 'cast away like dirt'; the preciousness of the ancient way sets off the shallowness of the age. These lines are the point-naming, and Du Fu's ultimate indictment of the world's coldness — when he was trapped in Chang'an, suffering coldness, the call of 'the Guan-Bao friendship in poverty' was both the longing for true feeling and the disappointment in the age. Closing with the 'do you not see?' call and the 'cast away like dirt' cruel stroke, Du Fu's satirical edge at its height.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
'At dawn I knock at rich men's gates, at dusk I follow fat horses' dust; leftover cups and cold roast, everywhere hidden grief' records the hardships of Chang'an in a long poem, a full-length record of the ways of the world. Song of a Poor Man's Friendship condenses the same experience into four lines, a short satire. One spreads out concrete encounters in length, the other generalizes the age in brevity; one grieves in secret, the other rages in the open. Read together, they show the two registers — grief and anger — of the same ten years.
《奉赠韦左丞丈二十二韵》「朝扣富儿门，暮随肥马尘。残杯与冷炙，到处潜悲辛」以长诗细写困居长安的辛酸，是杜甫「世态炎凉」的长篇实录。此诗《贫交行》则「翻手作云覆手雨」「此道今人弃如土」，以四句短制凝练地写世态炎凉，是杜甫「刺世」的短篇佳作。同为写困居长安的世态炎凉，一以长诗铺写具体遭遇，一以短章凝练概括世态；一「潜悲辛」的辛酸，一「弃如土」的愤怒。两诗对读，可见杜甫写同一题材的长短两种笔法，也可见其困居长安十年所积的深痛——那悲辛与愤怒，正是同一处境的两种表达。
侠客行 Song of the Knight-Errant 李白 · 同为交友题材，一写侠义一写贫交 Same theme of friendship — one knightly loyalty, one friendship of the poorLi Bai's 'Ten paces, kill a man; a thousand leagues, never lingering' praises the knight-errant's heroic fidelity; Du Fu's poem mourns the loss of friendship that does not shift in poverty. Both High Tang poets write of human bonds: Li Bai praises loyalty with the sword, Du Fu mourns its loss through the manners of the age — one heroic, one sorrowful; one celebrating, one satirizing. Read together, they show the two High Tang attitudes to faithfulness — Li Bai trusting that the knightly spirit survives, Du Fu feeling that the old way is already lost.
李白《侠客行》「十步杀一人，千里不留行。事了拂衣去，深藏身与名」写侠客的豪迈与高义，是李白对「侠义」的赞颂。杜甫《贫交行》则「翻手作云覆手雨」「此道今人弃如土」，写世态的炎凉与贫交的沦丧，是杜甫对「古道」的呼唤。同为盛唐诗人写「交谊」，李白赞侠义之烈（以剑写义），杜甫叹古道之丧（以世态写情）；一豪放一沉痛，一颂一刺。两诗对读，可见盛唐诗人对「情义」的两种态度——李白相信侠义尚存，杜甫痛感古道已丧，也可见李白与杜甫一「飘逸」一「沉郁」的诗风差异。
客至 A Guest Arrives 杜甫 · 同为杜甫写交谊，一写真情一叹世态 Same poet on friendship — one warm with true feeling, one cold toward the ways of the world'The flowered path has never been swept for a guest; my thatch gate opens today for the first time for you' records the joy of a friend's visit and the honest wine-and-food welcome of a poor house — the warmth of true friendship. Song of a Poor Man's Friendship is its cold counterpoint: cloud-and-rain fickleness, the old way cast away like dirt. One warm, one cold; one trusting, one indignant. Read together, they show both sides of Du Fu's experience of friendship — because he knew how cold the world could be, he cherished warmth the more.
《客至》「花径不曾缘客扫，蓬门今始为君开」写友人造访的喜悦，以「盘飧市远无兼味，樽酒家贫只旧醅」写待客的真情，是杜甫写「真情之交」的温暖之作。此诗《贫交行》则「翻手作云覆手雨」，写世态的炎凉与贫交的沦丧，是杜甫叹「浇薄世风」的冷峻之作。同为杜甫写交谊，一写「客至」的真情（贫而待客、情真意切），一写「贫交」的炎凉（翻云覆雨、古道沦丧）；一暖一冷，一温情一冷峻。两诗对读，可见杜甫对交谊的两种体验——他既珍视真情（客至），也痛感世态（贫交行），而正是因深知世态之凉，才更珍惜真情之暖。