唐 Tang · 诗 Poem
无家别
No Home to Leave
寂寞天宝后，园庐但蒿藜。
我里百余家，世乱各东西。
存者无消息，死者为尘泥。
贱子因阵败，归来寻旧蹊。
人行见空巷，日瘦气惨凄。
但对狐与貍，竖毛怒我啼。
四邻何所有，一二老寡妻。
宿鸟恋本枝，安辞且穷栖。
方春独荷锄，日暮还灌畦。
县吏知我至，召令习鼓鞞。
虽从本州役，内顾无所携。
近行止一身，远去终转迷。
家乡既荡尽，远近理亦齐。
永痛长病母，五年委沟溪。
生我不得力，终身两酸嘶。
人生无家别，何以为烝黎。
In my village over a hundred households, scattered east and west by the chaos of war.
Those alive send no word; the dead have turned to dust and mud.
Because my army was defeated, I, a humble man, came home seeking the old paths.
Walking, I saw empty lanes; the sun was thin and the air was bleak and chill.
I faced only foxes and wild cats, their fur bristling, growling angrily at me.
What neighbors remained? Only one or two old widows.
A roosting bird loves its own branch; how dare I refuse, and roost here in poverty?
In early spring I hoed alone, returning at dusk to water the beds.
The county clerk knew I had come and summoned me to drill with the war drums.
Though I serve in my own district, looking within I have nothing to take along.
Nearby service is just my single self; far off I would surely lose my way.
Since my homeland is already laid waste, far or near amounts to the same.
I grieve forever for my mother, long ill, who five years ago was abandoned in a gully.
She gave birth to me yet gained no support from me; lifelong we both sob in anguish.
If a man must live without a home to leave, how can he be called one of the people?
Meaning
A defeated soldier returns to his village to find nothing left: houses are weeds, neighbors dead or scattered, foxes have taken the lanes. When the county clerk conscripts him again, he realizes there is no one to say goodbye to and nothing to take - and his closing cry, 'if a man must live without a home to leave, how can he be called one of the people?', is Du Fu's most devastating question about what war does to the ordinary person.
天宝之乱以后，家园一片寂寞荒凉，田园里只剩蒿草和蒺藜。我原来的村子有一百多户人家，因战乱各自流散东西。活着的没有消息，死了的已化为尘泥。我因兵败而逃归，回来寻找旧日的路径。走着只见空荡荡的巷子，日光惨淡，气氛凄凉。只对着狐狸与狸子，它们竖着毛对我愤怒地啼叫。四邻还有什么人？只有一两个年老的寡妇。宿鸟还恋着自己的树枝，我怎敢推辞，姑且在这穷困之地栖息。开春我独自扛着锄头，傍晚回来浇灌菜畦。县吏知道我回来了，召令我去练习鼓鞞。虽然服役于本州，回头看看却没有什么可携带的。近行只有一身，远行终将迷失方向。家乡既然已经荡尽，远近的道理也就一样了。我永远悲痛那久病的老母，五年前就死在沟溪里。生我一场，我竟不能尽孝，终生两处悲酸。人生无家可别，还凭什么做百姓呢！
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] After the Tianbao years my garden is all weeds; our hundred-odd households scattered in the war. The living send no word, the dead are dust. Defeated in battle, I came home along the old paths to find empty lanes, a thin pale sun, foxes bristling and growling at me, and only one or two old widows left. Like a roosting bird that loves its branch, I stayed and farmed - until the county clerk summoned me to drill with the drums. I serve my own district, yet I have no one to take with me; near or far makes no difference now, since home is already gone. My mother died five years ago in a gully, and I could not be with her. If a man must live without a home to leave, what right has he to be called one of the people? [Structure] The poem is one long first-person monologue in six layers: the ruined village, the scattered households, the empty lanes, the widow neighbors, the re-conscription, and the mother's death - each layer narrowing the man's world until the final question. The last two lines are the poem's axis: everything before them is testimony, and they are the verdict. [Imagery] The images are chosen for their plainness and their wrongness: a sun that is 'thin', foxes that growl at a human as an intruder, a bird that loves its branch beside a man with no branch to love. Nothing is decorative; each detail reports a fact of the ruin.
【白话串讲】 杜甫写《无家别》：“寂寞天宝后，园庐但蒿藜”——安史之乱后，家乡荒芜。“存者无消息，死者为尘泥”——“贱子因阵败，归来寻旧蹊”——“但对狐与貍，竖毛怒我啼”——“人生无家别，何以为蒸黎”——他写无家可归的士兵。 【意象与手法】 此诗是杜甫「三别」之一，以「无家者」的第一人称自述，写战乱后无家可归、又被征召的孤苦，是杜甫现实主义诗篇中最沉痛的控诉。全诗以「我」的口吻展开：「寂寞天宝后，园庐但蒿藜」写战乱后的荒凉；「我里百余家，世乱各东西」写村落的离散；「存者无消息，死者为尘泥」写生死的无常；「人行见空巷，日瘦气惨凄」写家园的荒芜；「但对狐与貍，竖毛怒我啼」写满目荒凉、唯余狐貍；「四邻何所有，一二老寡妻」写邻里的凋零；「宿鸟恋本枝」以下，写「我」归来后勉强耕种，又被县吏征召，最后以「人生无家别，何以为烝黎」的悲叹作结。全诗以白描叙事，层层铺写「无家」之痛，结尾的反问更是千古哀音。 【情感与主旨】 此诗作于唐肃宗乾元二年（759）春，是杜甫「三别」之一。诗以一个战乱后无家可归、又被征召入伍者的自述，写尽了安史之乱给百姓带来的深重苦难。诗中主人公本是相州之战的逃归者，回到家乡，只见村落荒芜、亲人离散、满目凄凉；他勉强耕种度日，又被县吏征召入伍。最令人心碎的是，「我」无家可别——别人被征，还有家人相送、依依惜别，而「我」孑然一身，连一个可告别的人都没有。末句「人生无家别，何以为烝黎」以反问作结：人活在世上，连家都没有、连分别都无从谈起，还凭什么做百姓呢？这一问，是杜甫对战争最沉痛的控诉，也是对一个被战争彻底摧毁的生命的终极悲悯。诗中既有对战争罪恶的控诉，也有对百姓苦难的深切同情，更有「无家者」那近乎麻木的悲哀，是杜甫「三别」中最沉痛、最深刻的一首。 【名句点睛】 常考“寂寞天宝后，园庐但蒿藜”写安史之乱后家园的荒芜；“人生无家别，何以为蒸黎”以反诘写尽无家者无处可别的沉痛，是千古哀音。
Background
Du Fu (712-770) wrote 'No Home to Leave' in the spring of 759, the bleakest year of his life. The Tang army had just suffered a catastrophic defeat in its siege of Xiangzhou (Yecheng) against the An Lushan rebels; fleeing soldiers roamed the countryside, and the conscription machine ground on regardless. On his way from Luoyang back to his post at Huazhou, Du Fu passed through the war-flattened villages of Henan and composed the six masterpieces known as 'Three Officers and Three Partings' - the closest Chinese poetry has come to war reporting. 'No Home to Leave' is the last and most desolate of the three 'partings': where 'Newly Wed's Parting' has a wife to weep and 'The Old Man's Parting' an old man to sneak away, this speaker has no one left at all.
此诗作于唐肃宗乾元二年（759）春，是杜甫「三别」（《新婚别》《垂老别》《无家别》）之一。此前，唐军九节度使围攻相州（邺城）大败，史称「相州之败」。战后，杜甫从洛阳回华州任所，途经河南一带，目睹战乱后的惨状，写下了「三吏三别」六首诗。此诗以一个战乱后逃归的士兵为主人公，写其回到家乡后「无家可归、又被征召」的惨状。「天宝后」指天宝十四载（755）安史之乱爆发之后，至乾元二年已历四年，河南一带是安史之乱的主要战场，叛军与官军反复拉锯，百姓流离失所、田园荒芜。诗中「我里百余家，世乱各东西」写村落的离散，「存者无消息，死者为尘泥」写亲人的凋零，「但对狐与貍，竖毛怒我啼」写家园的荒芜——那无人居住的村庄，只剩下狐狸与狸子，见了人竟竖毛怒啼，可见此地久已无人。主人公「贱子因阵败，归来寻旧蹊」，是相州之战的逃归者，他回到家乡，却已无家可归；勉强耕种度日，又被县吏征召入伍，「虽从本州役，内顾无所携」——服役本州，却连一个可以告别的人、一件可以携带的物都没有。最沉痛的是末句「人生无家别，何以为烝黎」：别人被征，尚有家可别、有人相送，而「我」无家可别，这是怎样的人间惨剧。此诗是杜甫「三别」中最沉痛的一首，也是「诗史」对安史之乱最深刻的控诉之一。
Art
Four techniques hold the poem together. First, the sustained first person: the whole poem is the testimony of the victim himself, which is why its plainness is unbearable - there is no narrator to soften it. Second, layered plain description: ruined garden, scattered village, dead and living, empty lanes, foxes, widows, farming, conscription - the layers accumulate without commentary until the last two lines supply the meaning. Third, the paradox in the title itself: everyone in this war is 'parting' from something, and this man's special hell is that he cannot even perform the parting. Fourth, the coinages: a 'thin' sun, foxes 'growling angrily' at a man - Du Fu's habit of using a word in a place it has never been, so that the ordinary scene comes back strange and correct. The shifting rhymes of the ancient-style form let the voice stumble from grief to grief without polish.
此诗的艺术特色可从四个层面解析。其一，第一人称的叙述视角。全诗以「无家者」的「我」为叙述者，自述身世，自述所见，自述所感，比第三人称的叙述更真切、更动人——读者仿佛亲耳听到这个无家者的悲诉，其孤苦与麻木如在目前。其二，白描铺写的层层推进。全诗以白描的手法，层层铺写「无家」之痛：先写战乱后的荒凉（园庐蒿藜），再写村落的离散（百余家、各东西），再写亲人的凋零（存者无消息、死者为尘泥），再写家园的荒芜（空巷、狐貍），再写邻里的萧条（一二老寡妻），再写生计的艰难（荷锄、灌畦），再写被征的无奈（习鼓鞞、无所携）——一层层写下来，把「无家」的悲惨推到极致。其三，以「别」的反差写「无家」的沉痛。题名《无家别》，全诗的妙处正在「无家」与「别」的反差：战乱中人人都在「别」（新婚别、垂老别），而「我」连家都没有，无从可别——「人生无家别，何以为烝黎」的反问，正是以「有家之别」反衬「无家」之痛。其四，景物描写的传神。诗中「人行见空巷，日瘦气惨凄」「但对狐与貍，竖毛怒我啼」，以「日瘦」（日光惨淡）、「狐貍怒啼」写家园的荒凉，景中含情、以景写悲，是杜甫白描中的传神之笔。四重手法层层推进，使此诗成为杜甫「三别」中最沉痛、最深刻的一首。
Allusions
The poem is built from older materials, used without show. 'Tianbao' is Xuanzong's reign era; 'after Tianbao' means the whole span of the An Lushan rebellion. The weed-choked garden recalls the Shijing lament 'that millet has grown tall' and Tao Yuanming's overgrown paths; 'the living have no word, the dead are dust and mud' echoes Cao Cao's bleak vision of bleached bones. 'A humble man' is the traditional self-deprecation of soldiers and commoners in Han yuefu. 'A roosting bird loves its own branch' reverses the old Han line 'Yue birds nest on southern branches' into a question the speaker asks of himself: if even the bird returns, how can he leave? 'War drums' are the conscription officer's mustering drums. 'The people', from the Shijing phrase 'Heaven gave birth to the people', is the poem's last and heaviest word: the speaker asks whether a man with no home still belongs to the human community at all.
此诗的用语深植于《诗经》与乐府传统，几乎不用生僻典故而含义深沉。「天宝后」指安史之乱后，「天宝」是唐玄宗的年号（742-756），安史之乱爆发于天宝十四载（755），故「天宝后」即指战乱之后。「园庐但蒿藜」的「蒿藜」是荒草与蒺藜，写田园荒芜，令人想到《诗经·小雅·黍离》「彼黍离离」的亡国之悲与陶渊明《归去来兮辞》「三径就荒」的荒芜意象。「存者无消息，死者为尘泥」化用《诗经·王风·中谷有蓷》「有女仳离，嘅其叹矣」的离散意象与古诗「白骨露于野，千里无鸡鸣」的惨状。「贱子」是古人自谦之称（《后汉书》「贱子获罪」），「贱子因阵败，归来寻旧蹊」写其逃归，暗含乐府《十五从军征》「十五从军征，八十始得归」的叙事传统——那归来的老兵，面对的是同样的荒凉与无家。「日瘦气惨凄」的「日瘦」，以「瘦」写日光之暗淡，是杜甫独创的炼字，令人想到其「星垂平野阔」的炼字法。「宿鸟恋本枝」化用《文选》古诗「胡马依北风，越鸟巢南枝」的「恋枝」意象，写人对故土的依恋，而「安辞且穷栖」则以宿鸟自比，写无可奈何的栖息。「习鼓鞞」的「鼓鞞」是军中的战鼓，「召令习鼓鞞」写被征入伍。「烝黎」即黎民百姓（《诗经》「天生烝民」），「何以为烝黎」的反问，以「烝黎」这一本指天下百姓的词，写一个连家都没有的人还凭什么做百姓，更见其沉痛。全诗化用古诗、乐府、诗经的意象与叙事传统，以白描写尽战乱之惨，正是杜甫「以古诗写时事」的本领，也是「诗史」精神的体现。
Commentary
Critics have always ranked 'No Home to Leave' the most terrible of the 'Three Partings' and among the supreme war poems of Chinese literature. Qiu Zhaotong, in the Qing, noted that 'every line writes the wretchedness of having no home'; Qian Zhongshu observed that the three words 'no home to leave' name the deepest possible degree of the tragedy, since in that world parting was normal - the man who cannot even part has fallen below the reach of ordinary grief. Together with 'The Stone Moat Officer' and 'Newly Wed's Parting', it descends from having a home and parting from it, to having no home at all. Descending from the Shijing and Han yuefu, it opens the line that leads to Bai Juyi's new yuefu and, through them, to the whole tradition of Chinese poetry of social witness.
此诗历来被推为杜甫「三别」中最沉痛的一首，也是中国文学史上对战争控诉最深刻的作品之一。历代论者对「人生无家别，何以为烝黎」的反问评价极高：清人仇兆鳌《杜诗详注》评此诗「通首写无家之惨，语语酸心」，近人钱钟书更指出「无家别」三字本身即是最大的悲剧——当「别」已成为战乱中人人习见的常态时，连「别」都无从谈起的人，其悲惨已到了无可言说的地步。在文学史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以「无家者」的第一人称视角，写出了安史之乱对百姓的毁灭性打击——家园的荒芜、亲人的凋零、生死的无常、被征的无奈，层层写来，把一个被战争彻底摧毁的生命写得如在目前。此诗与《新婚别》《垂老别》合称「三别」，分别以「新婚」「垂老」「无家」三种身份写战乱中的生离死别：新婚别是新婚即别，垂老别是垂老犹征，无家别是无家可别——三者层层递进，无家之痛最为深重。杜甫此诗，上承《诗经》、汉乐府（如《十五从军征》）的征人题材，下启白居易《新丰折臂翁》等新乐府，是中国战争诗中最沉痛的篇章。对于今日读者，此诗是理解安史之乱与杜甫「诗圣」精神的核心作品，也是感受中国文学「哀民生之多艰」传统的典范——那「人生无家别」的悲问，穿越千年，仍在拷问着战争的罪恶与和平的价值。
Prosody
Line by line
但对狐与貍，竖毛怒我啼。
I faced only foxes and wild cats, / their fur bristling, growling angrily at me.
只对着狐狸与狸子，它们竖着毛对我愤怒地啼叫。
I face nothing but foxes and wild cats; they bristle their fur and hiss at me in anger.
这两句写家园的荒芜，以「狐貍怒啼」写尽村落久已无人的凄凉，是杜甫白描中最传神的一笔。「但对狐与貍」写所见——诗人（主人公）回到家乡，不见亲人邻里，只见狐狸与狸子在废墟间出没，「但」字写尽满目荒凉——除了狐貍，什么都没有了；「竖毛怒我啼」写狐貍之态——那些狐貍见到人，竟竖着毛、愤怒地啼叫，仿佛在驱逐这个闯入者，「怒我啼」三字极妙：狐貍本是怕人的，如今却对人怒啼，可见此地久无人类活动，狐貍已反客为主，把人当成了闯入者。两句以「狐貍」这个反常的意象，写出了家园荒芜的极致——当人类的村落只剩下狐貍的巢穴，当人类归来反而被狐貍驱逐，这是怎样的人间惨剧。而「怒我啼」的「怒」字，更写出这片土地的拒绝与陌生——这里已不再是「我」的家，而是狐貍的家了。这两句看似写景，实则是「无家」之痛最深刻的呈现：一个回到故乡的人，却被故乡的狐貍驱逐，他已彻底无家可归了。
These two lines write the home's desolation, using foxes hissing in anger to exhaust the village's long emptiness, the most vivid stroke of Du Fu's plain line drawing. I face nothing but foxes and wild cats writes what is seen - the protagonist returns home, finds no kin or neighbor, only foxes and cats moving among the ruins; nothing but writes the total desolation - nothing remains but foxes. They bristle their fur and hiss at me in anger writes their posture: the foxes, seeing a man, bristle and hiss as if driving off the intruder. Hiss at me in anger is exquisite: foxes fear men, yet now they hiss in anger at men; this place has known no human activity so long that the foxes have reversed roles, treating the man as the intruder. The two lines use the反常 image of foxes to write the extreme of the ruined home - when a human village holds only fox dens, when the returning man is driven off by foxes, what human catastrophe that is. And the anger writes the land's rejection and strangeness - this is no longer my home but the foxes'. The lines seem scenery, yet are the deepest presentation of the pain of no home: a man returned to his hometown, driven off by the hometown's foxes; he is utterly homeless.
人生无家别，何以为烝黎。
If a man must live without a home to leave, / how can he be called one of the people?
人生无家可别，还凭什么做百姓呢！
If a man's life is to part from no home, how can he be counted among the people?
这两句是全诗的结尾，也是千古哀音，以反问写尽「无家」的极致之痛。「人生无家别」是概括——人活在世上，竟连「别」都无法经历，因为「我」已无家可别：别人被征，尚有家可别、有人相送、有泪可流，而「我」孑然一身，家破人亡，连那生离死别的悲恸都成为一种奢侈；「何以为烝黎」是反问——「烝黎」即黎民百姓，诗人质问：一个无家可归、无家可别的人，还凭什么做天下的百姓呢？这一问，把「无家」的悲剧推向了存在论的层面——家，是人安身立命之所，是「人」之为「人」的基础；无家，则人何以为人？这一问，既是主人公的自问，也是杜甫对战争的终极控诉：战争不仅夺去了人的生命，更摧毁了人赖以生存的一切根基，让人连「做百姓」的资格都被剥夺。两句以「无家别」的悖论与「何以为烝黎」的反问收束全诗，把个人的悲剧升华为对人类处境的质问，其沉痛之深、力量之大，在中国诗歌史上罕有其匹，正是杜甫「诗圣」精神的最高体现。
These two lines are the poem's ending, the eternal lament, using a rhetorical question to exhaust the ultimate pain of no home. If a man's life is to part from no home is the generalization: a man in the world cannot even experience parting, because he has no home to part from - others conscripted still have a home to leave, someone to see them off, tears to shed; he alone, family broken, cannot even afford the grief of parting. How can he be counted among the people? is the rhetorical question: the people means the common folk; the poet demands - a man with no home, no home to part from, on what ground is he a subject of the realm? This question pushes the tragedy of no home to the ontological level: home is where man anchors himself, the basis of being human; without home, how is man man? The question is at once the protagonist's self-question and Du Fu's ultimate accusation against war: war takes not only life but destroys every ground man lives by, stripping even the qualification of being a subject. The two lines close the poem with the paradox of parting-from-no-home and the question how can one be of the people, sublimating personal tragedy into a questioning of the human condition; the depth of its pain, the force of its power, rarely matched in Chinese poetry - the highest expression of the Poet-Sage's spirit.
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In 'The Stone Moat Officer' the old woman is dragged away while her husband escapes over the wall - a household breaking, but still a household; 'the living must muddle on, the dead are finished forever' is grief with family around it. 'No Home to Leave' strips even that away: no one to wake, no one to say goodbye. Read in sequence, the two poems show Du Fu's deliberate descent from parting to the impossibility of parting.
《石壕吏》「存者且偷生，死者长已矣」写石壕村老妇一家在战乱中的离散，老翁逾墙而走、老妇被征入伍，是「三吏」中有家之别的惨状。此诗《无家别》则「人生无家别，何以为烝黎」，写无家者连「别」都无从谈起的极痛，是「三别」中无家之别的沉痛。同为安史之乱中的征役题材，一写「有家」而别（石壕村虽破，尚有老翁老妇相别），一写「无家」而征（无家者孑然一身）；一别之惨，一无家之痛。两诗对读，可见杜甫「三吏三别」从「有家之别」到「无家之别」的递进，也可见战争摧残百姓的步步深入——当连「别」都成为奢望时，人的存在已到了最深的绝境。
新婚别 Newly Wed's Parting 杜甫 · 同为三别，一别新婚一无家可别 Both from the 'Three Partings', one parting with love intact, one with no one to love.The new bride of 'Newly Wed's Parting', married at dusk and parted at dawn, still has vows to give and a face to remember. The speaker of 'No Home to Leave' has neither bride nor vow: his parting is conscription pure and simple. The two poems mark the two poles of the same catastrophe - parting with love is the lesser evil; parting from nothing is the greater.
《新婚别》「暮婚晨告别，无乃太匆忙」写新婚次日即离别的新妇之悲，新妇尚有「妾身未分明」的牵挂与「与君永相望」的誓言，是「三别」中「有家之别」的深情。此诗《无家别》则「人生无家别，何以为烝黎」，写无家者连别都无从谈起的极痛，是「三别」中「无家之别」的沉痛。同为「别」，新妇之别尚有情可诉、有人可念，无家者之别却孑然一身、无人可别；一写别之深情，一写别之无望。两诗对读，可见杜甫「三别」以「有家」与「无家」对照，写出战乱中离别的两种极致——有情之别已惨，无情可别更惨。
十五从军征 Fifteen Years of Conscription 佚名（汉乐府） · 同写老兵归家之无家，一承一开 Related readingCompare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
汉乐府《十五从军征》「十五从军征，八十始得归」写老兵归来，家园荒芜、亲故凋零的惨状（「兔从狗窦入，雉从梁上飞」），是汉乐府中征人无家的经典。杜甫《无家别》则「贱子因阵败，归来寻旧蹊」，写逃归的士兵回家，只见狐貍怒啼、老寡妻零，是唐诗中征人无家的典范。同为「老兵归家而无家」，汉乐府写「兔雉」之荒芜，杜甫写「狐貍」之怒啼；汉乐府以「八十始得归」写征役之久，杜甫以「阵败归来」写战乱之惨。两诗对读，可见中国战争诗「征人无家」母题的千年传承，也可见杜甫「三吏三别」对汉乐府现实主义传统的继承与深化。