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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

山中寡妇

The Mountain Widow

杜荀鹤

Du Xunhe

民生people's livelihood 七律seven-character regulated verse 现实realism

夫因兵死守蓬茅，麻苎衣衫鬓发焦。
桑柘废来犹纳税，田园荒后尚征苗。
时挑野菜和根煮，旋斫生柴带叶烧。
任是深山更深处，也应无计避征徭。

Her husband died in war; she keeps the thatched hut,
hemp-cloth clothes, her temples' hair scorched.
Mulberry and mulberry-spinach wasted, yet still she pays tax,
fields deserted, yet still they levy the seedling tax.
Often she picks wild herbs and boils them with the roots,
at once chops green wood and burns it with the leaves.
Even were it the deeper depths of the mountains,
still no way to escape the taxes and corvée.

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Meaning

The poem portrays a widow in the mountains who, after her husband's death in war, survives on wild herbs and wet firewood while still being taxed on land she no longer farms. Through bare facts it indicts the late-Tang tax system that pursues the destitute even into the deep hills.

丈夫因战乱死去，她独自守着茅草屋；穿着粗麻的衣衫，鬓发枯黄如焦。桑树柘树早已荒废，却仍要缴纳丝税；田园已经荒芜，还要征收青苗税。她时常挖来野菜，连着根一起煮着吃；随手砍下湿柴，带着树叶就烧火。哪怕躲进深山更深的地方，恐怕也没有办法逃避官府的赋税徭役。

Appreciation

The whole poem is almost pure plain description—no metaphor, no allusion—yet more forceful than any rhetoric. Its craft is in the chosen details: it does not write weeping, only four life details—clothes of hemp, scorched hair, herbs boiled with roots, wood burned with leaves. The four details pile up, grounding the words 'can't go on living' in fact. 'Boiled with the roots' and 'burned with the leaves' are especially vicious: eating the roots means there is nothing else to eat; burning with leaves means no time to dry the wood. Du Xunhe came from a humble family, knowing the people's suffering; what he writes is not sympathy but accusation. The closing 'even were... still' is a hopeless supposition—even the deep mountains are no way out, then where is a way out? More suffocating than any fierce words.

【白话串讲】杜荀鹤写山中寡妇：丈夫战死，她守着茅屋。“桑柘废来犹纳税，田园荒后尚征苗”——桑树荒了还要交税。“时挑野菜和根煮，旋斫生柴带叶烧”——她挖野菜连根煮。“任是深山更深处，也应无计避征徭”——躲到深山也没用。【意象与手法】全诗几乎全是白描，无一比喻、无一典故，却比任何修辞都有力。最见功力的是选材：不写哭诉，只写四个生活细节——衣是麻苎，发是焦枯，菜是连根煮，柴是带叶烧。四个细节层层加码，把“活不下去”这四个字落到了实处。“和根煮”“带叶烧”尤其毒辣：连根一起吃，是没有别的可吃；带叶就烧，是等不及柴晾干。【情感与主旨】此诗作于唐末，其时黄巢起义已过，藩镇混战，赋税苛急。杜荀鹤出身寒门，深知民间疾苦，所以他写的不是同情，而是控诉。尾联的“任是……也应……”是一个绝望的假设——连深山都不是出路，那还有哪里是出路？这比任何激烈的言辞都更让人窒息。【名句点睛】 “任是深山更深处，也应无计避征徭”——不说苛政猛于虎，而说猛于深山。把赋税写成一张笼罩天下、无处可逃的网，其批判力度在晚唐诗中无出其右。

Background

In the Zhongzong and Zhaozong reigns of late Tang, regional warlords split the land, warfare raged, and the court and various camps competed in extortion, taxes far heavier than in high Tang. Du Xunhe, humble-born, long dwelt in the countryside, seeing firsthand the village's decay, and wrote many poems reflecting the people's misery, such as 'An Old Man Met After the Turmoil' and 'Again Passing Huicheng County'; 'The Mountain Widow' is the most famous. The 'tax' and 'seedling levy' in the poem were real late-Tang exactions, not invention.

此诗作于唐末僖宗、昭宗年间。其时黄巢起义甫定，藩镇混战方炽，朝廷与诸镇竞相聚敛，赋税之重远逾盛唐；加之刺史多为武夫，急于贡赋，苛政横征，农村凋敝已至极点。杜荀鹤出身寒微，相传为杜牧出妾之子，久居乡野，屡试不第，四十六岁始登进士第，不久即遭乱还山，故深知民间疾苦。其《自叙》诗云「宁为宇宙闲吟客，怕作乾坤窃禄人」，可见其立身之谨与关切之切。他写下大量反映民瘼的诗篇，如《乱后逢村叟》《再经胡城县》《题所居村舍》等，《山中寡妇》为其中最著名者。诗中所写纳税、征苗皆唐末实征之目，桑柘之税、青苗之敛均有史可按，非虚构之辞。史载唐末诸镇括率，名目百出，雀鼠耗、间架诸税皆见史册；贡赋不以时上，朝廷则益刻民以自给。杜荀鹤行卷长安，目击城郭之外白骨蔽野，村落之内十室九空，故其落笔皆实录，无一字夸饰，读之如读一纸晚唐户口册。

Art

The poem's artistic power comes entirely from 'concreteness.' The first couplet writes the person (husband dead, alone, hemp clothes, scorched hair), the second writes the taxes (mulberry wasted yet taxed, fields deserted yet levied), the third writes food and fire (herbs with roots, green wood with leaves), the closing draws the verdict. The four couplets move from appearance to circumstance, from circumstance to daily life, from daily life to conclusion, logically tight like a plaint. In method it is plain description throughout, not a single metaphor, because any metaphor would weaken the impact of the fact itself. And the string of empty words 'yet' 'still' 'often' 'at once' 'even were' 'still' is like locks added layer by layer, locking the despair step by step. This advance of feeling through empty words is Du Xunhe's development of Du Fu's 'Three Officers and Three Partings' tradition.

此诗的艺术力量全部来自「具体」二字。首联写人（夫死、独居、麻衣、焦发），颔联写赋（桑废仍税、田荒仍征），颈联写食与炊（野菜和根、生柴带叶），尾联下断语。四联由外貌到境遇、由境遇到日常、由日常到结论，逻辑严密如一纸状书。手法上通篇白描，不设一喻，不用一典，因为任何修辞都会削弱事实本身的冲击力。而「犹」「尚」「时」「旋」「任是」「也应」这一串虚字，则像一层层加码的枷锁，把绝望一步步锁死；尤其尾联以极端假设收束——连深山都不是出路，则天下更无出路——由一户推及四海，含蓄而力度千钧。这种以虚字推进情绪、以假设扩展批判的写法，是杜荀鹤对杜甫「三吏三别」写实传统的直接推进。尤可注意其虚字与程度语的运用：时、旋、任是、也应、更深层层进逼，将一个苦字写出了加速度。律诗至此，已卸尽盛唐的雍容，只剩一副嶙峋的骨架，此即所谓唐音之变；而变中有不变者，白描的诚实与对苍生的痛切，仍是杜诗的家法。

Allusions

The poem uses no allusion, purely realist. (1) 'Pengmao' means a thatch hut, standing for poor dwelling. (2) 'Mazhu' (hemp-spinach) is hemp cloth, the coarsest cloth. (3) 'Sangzhe' (mulberry-spinach) are the trees for silkworms; the Tang taxed silk by the number of mulberry trees, so though they were wasted the tax remained. (4) 'Zhengmiao' means the seedling tax, a pre-levied tax on green seedlings in mid-to-late Tang. (5) 'Zhengyao' means taxes and corvée.

全诗不用典故，纯为写实，然名词皆有所本，正是其「无一字无来处」的另一种形态。①「蓬茅」指茅草搭的屋，代指贫居。②「麻苎」即麻布，最粗劣的衣料，贫者所服。③「桑柘」为养蚕的树木，唐代按桑柘之数征收丝绢，故桑柘虽废而丝税不免。④「征苗」指青苗税，唐代中后期于田禾青苗时预征之税，是苛政中的尤者。⑤「征徭」为赋税与徭役的总称。此诗以俗语名物入律而不觉其俗，正因每一俗名之下都压着一桩真实的弊政，读来字字有分量。此诗不用典，而以俗语名物直陈弊政，实承杜甫三吏三别与白居易秦中吟一路而来，可谓以不用典为典。与同时聂夷中咏田家诸作并观，可见晚唐写实诗的共同取径：宁失于俚，不失于饰。另按：青苗之征，后人多溯及熙宁新法，实则唐中后期已有预征青苗之事，此诗正可为税制史之旁证，其史料价值不下于其诗学价值。且此诗所咏皆有晚唐史事可覆按，非虚拟泛设之词，以诗证史，字字有根，故尤可宝重。

Commentary

The Qing scholar He Shang in his Carrying-Wine Garden Poetry Talk said of Du Xunhe: 'Of late-Tang poets, only Xunhe could speak the people's suffering.' The Tang Poem Grades quotes that this poem is 'every character blood and tears, unbearable to finish reading.' The modern Qian Zhongshu in his Song Poem Selections, discussing Song poets learning late Tang, especially named Du Xunhe's kind of poem as 'the Song mode within the Tang sound,' saying it is plain yet has backbone.

清人贺裳《载酒园诗话》评杜荀鹤能道唐末民间疾苦，于诸家中独具只眼。《唐诗品汇》引前贤之论，谓此类诗字字血泪，不忍卒读。近人钱钟书论宋诗源流，特举杜荀鹤此等作品为「唐音中之宋调」，谓其质直而有筋骨，开宋代写实诗风之先河。今人文学史论晚唐现实主义诗派，必举杜荀鹤与聂夷中、于濆并举，而《山中寡妇》与《乱后逢村叟》尤为其代表；「任是深山更深处，也应无计避征徭」一联，已成为控诉苛政的千古名句，其批判力度在晚唐诗中无出其右者。以诗证史者亦重此篇：唐末苛政之烈，史书所记为条文，此诗所咏为血肉，两相参证，其可信过于泛泛记载。今人选晚唐诗，论社会诗必首推此篇与乱后逢村叟；而言及中国现实主义诗歌传统，此诗与三吏三别、秦中吟一线相承，为谱系中不可缺的一环，其地位历代未有异议。而其感人之深，正在事真语真：不使一豪语，不下一虚字渲染，一字一泪，千载之下读之犹觉戚戚。

Prosody

Form Seven-character regulated verse (oblique-beginning, first line rhyming)七言律诗（仄起首句入韵）。

Rhyme Rhymes with the Ping shui lower-level second Xiao group: mao, jiao, miao, shao, yao. The Xiao rhyme is clear and far, yet used here feels shrill and bitter, precisely because the matter written is too bitter—the clarity of sound turns into the sorrow of sound.押平水韵下平二萧韵：茅、焦、苗、烧、徭，一韵到底。萧韵本清越悠扬，此诗用之却觉凄厉，正因所写之事太苦，音之清反成声之哀，声情与词情的反差尤增其沉重。

Tone pattern The second couplet 'wasted yet' 'deserted still' two three-character rhythms are the same, like two heavy hammers striking in succession; the third couplet 'with roots boil' 'with leaves burn' likewise, four three-character tails hammering down in a row, the rhythm hurried and pressing, the reader given almost no breath. The closing 'even were... still' relaxes, yet it is the relaxation after despair, feeling heavier.颔联「废来犹」「荒后尚」两组三字节奏相同，如两记重锤连击；颈联「和根煮」「带叶烧」亦然，四个三字尾一路砸下，节奏急促紧逼，读者几无喘息之机。尾联「任是……也应……」舒缓下来，却是绝望后的松弛，更觉沉重。平仄合律而不以声害意，诵读时当于三字尾处用力，方得其顿挫。

Reading note Though a regulated verse, this poem has no trace of carving; the two middle couplets' antithesis is neat yet natural in language—writing yuefu content in regulated-verse form. Late-Tang poets mostly turned delicate; Du Xunhe alone could keep Du Fu's remnant wind with a plain brush—this piece is his representative.此诗虽为律诗，却全无雕琢之态，中二联对仗工整而语出自然，是以律诗的形式写乐府的内容。晚唐诗人多趋纤巧秾丽，杜荀鹤独能以质朴之笔存杜甫遗风，此篇为其代表。尤可注意者，颈联「时挑野菜和根煮，旋斫生柴带叶烧」以最琐屑的日常细节入对，而字字皆有生活实感，绝无书斋想象之痕，此正其出身寒素、久居乡野者方能道。论者谓此诗得「三吏三别」之神而更趋质直，于律诗体裁中见叙事之密、议论之峻，在晚唐现实主义诗风中堪称典范。此诗之律，可谓以文为诗而仍存诗之声：每一虚字的顿挫，即是控诉的一次加码，声律与批判在此达到罕见的统一，后来学写实诗者当于此参法。

Line by line

夫因兵死守蓬茅，

Her husband died in war; she keeps the thatched hut,

丈夫因为战乱死去，她独自守着一间茅草屋。

Her husband died in the war, and she keeps thatch alone.

七字交代了全部背景：战乱、丧夫、孤居、赤贫。「守」字尤苦——不是住，是守，守着一个没有指望的家。开篇即以一「兵」字点明祸源，则以下所有苛政之苦，皆与战乱相为表里，起笔便有史笔的分量。守蓬茅三字又与尾联深山遥应：她的家本已在山中，则篇末更深处之想，愈见其走投无路，首尾之间自有一条地理的线索，结构之密如此。

Seven words give the whole background: war, widowed, lonely dwelling, utter poverty. The word 'keeps' the bitterest — not lives, but keeps, keeping a home without hope. The opening, with one word 'war', names the source of the calamity, and all the tax-hardship below is interwoven with the war, the brush carrying at once the weight of history. 'Keeps thatch' also answers the closing's 'deepest depths of the hills': her home is already in the hills, and the later thought of the deeper still shows the more her being driven to the wall, a thread of geography running head to tail, the structure this close.

麻苎衣衫鬓发焦。

hemp-cloth clothes, her temples' hair scorched.

穿着粗麻布的衣衫，两鬓的头发枯黄如焦。

Coarse hempen robes, and her temples' hair scorched and dry.

以衣与发写人。「焦」字最触目——头发枯焦是长期饥饿、营养不良之状，一个字就写出她的身体已被消耗到什么地步。不着「贫」字「苦」字，而贫苦之状使人不忍正视，此白描之力。鬓发焦又与麻苎衣衫互文见义：衣见其贫，发见其瘁，一外一内，把战争与赋敛加于一人的损耗写全了，十字抵得一篇小传。焦字兼摄形神，可谓一字立骨，与麻苎之朴质互为表里。

Writing the woman through robe and hair. The word 'scorched' the most striking — hair scorched and dry is the look of long hunger and malnutrition, one word writing how far her body has been consumed. No word 'poor', no word 'hardship', and the poverty and toil are past bearing the look at, the power of plain writing. 'Temples' hair scorched' also interweaves with the 'coarse hempen robes': the robe the poverty, the hair the wasting, without and within, writing the full toll that war and taxation have taken on one person, ten words worth a short biography. The word 'scorched' holding both form and spirit, the bone of the line, set against the hemp's coarseness inside and out.

桑柘废来犹纳税，

Mulberry and mulberry-spinach wasted, yet still she pays tax,

桑树柘树早已荒废，却仍然要缴纳丝税。

Mulberry and tanner's trees long gone to waste, yet the silk tax is still due.

「犹」字是关键。树没了，税还在——赋税已完全脱离了生产实际，成为纯粹的掠夺。此句的荒谬感正来自「废」与「纳」的强行焊接，一字之转，揭露便入骨三分。此句与下句实为一联总纲：税之为物，已不管生产之有无，下文野菜生柴之惨，正是这句荒谬的具体后果，章法上因果相衔，读来步步紧逼。因果相衔，层累而下，章法之密与赋敛之密适成对照。

The word 'still' is the key. The trees are gone, and the tax remains — the levy has wholly parted from the reality of production, become pure plunder. The absurdity of the line comes precisely from the forced welding of 'gone to waste' and 'still due', one turn of the word, and the exposure strikes to the bone. This line and the next form one couplet's outline: the tax, regardless of production, and the later horror of wild herbs and firewood is precisely the concrete consequence of this absurdity, the craft of cause and effect linked, the reading pressing step by step. Cause and effect linked, layer on layer, the closeness of craft set against the closeness of the levies.

时挑野菜和根煮，

Often she picks wild herbs and boils them with the roots,

她时常挖些野菜，连着根一起煮来吃。

At times she digs wild herbs and boils them root and all.

「和根煮」三字千钧。野菜的根本不堪食，连根煮下去，是因为实在没有别的东西可以入锅。「时」字言其频繁，则非一时之窘，而是日常之常，将「活不下去」四字落到了最实处。征苗之苗，与上句桑柘之丝相对：一蚕一谷，农家仅有的两条生路，皆被税网罩尽，律诗对仗在此成了对苦难的清点，工整愈甚，惨痛愈深。

The words 'root and all' carry a thousand jun. The root of the wild herb is not fit to eat, and boiling it with the root is because truly nothing else can enter the pot. The word 'at times' writes the frequency — not a moment's pinch, but the daily norm, landing 'cannot live' on the solidest ground. The 'seedling tax' of the levy, set against the mulberry and tanner's 'silk' above: the silkworm and the grain, the only two livelihoods of the farming house, both covered by the tax net, the regulated couplet here become the inventory of suffering, the more exact the craft, the deeper the grief.

任是深山更深处，

Even were it the deeper depths of the mountains,

哪怕躲进深山中更深的地方。

Even could she flee to the deepest depths of the hills,

以假设推进。她已经在山中了，还要「更深处」——退无可退之处，仍在想着退。这一假设写尽乱世小民的普遍心理：以为躲开人烟便可躲开官府，而诗人的断语即将堵死这条最后的退路。旋字又与时字相应：时言其频，旋言其急，一缓一急之间，日子已无一日之安，炼字之精如此，非久居其境者不能道。时旋相承，字有斤两，非亲历其境者不能下此二字。

Advancing through hypothesis. She is already in the hills, and would go 'to the deepest depths' — where there is no further retreat, she still thinks of retreat. This hypothesis writes the common mind of the little people in the disordered age: thinking to escape the officials by escaping the human trace, and the poet's verdict will at once block this last retreat. The word 'by turns' also answers 'at times': 'at times' the frequency, 'by turns' the urgency, one slow one urgent, and the days have not one day of peace, the word-craft this fine, one who has not long lived in it cannot write these two words.

也应无计避征徭。

still no way to escape the taxes and corvée.

恐怕也没有办法躲开官府的赋税与徭役。

there would still be no way to escape the levies and corvee.

断然作结。「无计」二字堵死最后一条路。全诗的绝望不在于苦，而在于苦无止境、无处可逃；不说苛政猛于虎，而说苛政猛于深山，把赋税写成一张笼罩天下、无处可逃的网，批判遂由一人升为一代。此句之尤痛者，在也应二字的俨然：不是恐怕，而是断定——官府之无远弗届，已成乱世小民的常识，绝望至此，语愈平而痛愈深。

Closing in the decisive. The words 'no way' block the last road. The poem's despair lies not in the hardship, but in the hardship's endlessness and nowhere to flee; not saying the tyrant rule is fiercer than the tiger, but that the tyrant rule is fiercer than the deep hills, writing the tax as a net covering all under heaven, nowhere to flee, the criticism raised from one person to an age. The bitterest part of this line is the seeming of 'should still be': not 'perhaps', but the verdict — the official's reaching everywhere has become the common knowledge of the disordered little people, the despair at this pitch, the plainer the words the deeper the pain.

Study

Word focus

焦 The 'scorched' (jiao) in 'temples' hair scorched' is the poem's fiercest stroke in writing the person. Scorched hair is not from age but the physical sign of long hunger and spent nutrition. The poet does not write her gaunt, yellow face, only takes one 'scorched' character, pushing a body drained by life before the reader—more concrete and undeniable than any description. 「鬓发焦」的「焦」字，是全诗写人最狠的一笔。头发枯焦并非老，而是长期饥饿、营养耗尽的生理征象。诗人不写她面黄肌瘦，只取一个「焦」字，便把一个被生活榨干的躯体推到读者眼前；此字又有火烧火燎的联想，暗与首句之「兵」相呼应——战火焚屋，亦焚人，比任何形容都更具体、更不可辩驳。与此诗通篇的焦渴意象相合，视觉的枯焦直通生计的枯竭。

犹／尚 The 'yet' (you) and 'still' (shang) in the second couplet are a pair of progressive empty words. Mulberry-spinach wasted 'yet' she pays tax; fields deserted 'still' they levy the seedling tax—two turns in succession reveal the complete break between tax and production. Empty words have no real meaning, yet here become the pivot of accusation: the unreasonable lies wholly in the 'clearly none, yet still' that these two characters mark. 颔联的「犹」与「尚」是一对递进的虚字。桑柘已废「犹」要纳税，田园已荒「尚」要征苗——两个转折连用，把赋税与生产的彻底脱节揭示无遗。虚字本无实义，此处却成为控诉的支点：不合理之处，全在这两个字所标示的「明明没有，却还要」之中。律诗中二联以虚字相对而不觉其空，反觉其重，是晚唐律法纯熟的表现。犹尚与下文联动，颔颈四联遂成一气呵成的控诉链条。

任是 The 'even were' (renshi) in 'even were the deeper depths of the mountains' means 'even if,' a guide-word for an extreme supposition. The poet first supposes the least reachable place by government—the deeper depths of the mountains—then with 'still no way' topples it at a stroke. The more extreme the supposition, the more hopeless the conclusion. This use of an empty word extends the accusation from one household to a universal judgment that nowhere under heaven can escape. 「任是深山更深处」的「任是」即「纵然是」，是一个极端假设的引导词。诗人先假设一个最不可能被官府触及的所在——深山的更深处，再以「也应无计」一举推翻。假设愈极端，结论愈绝望。这一虚字的运用，使批判从具体的一户人家扩展为普天之下无处可逃的整体判断，与「任是」句式在唐诗中常见的翻案法一脉相承。任是句式之源，可溯秦韬玉贫女之托与白居易卖炭翁之断，而此诗用得更决绝、更彻底，遂成绝唱。