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唐 Tang · 文 Prose

小石潭记

A Record of the Little Stone Pond

柳宗元

Liu Zongyuan

名篇Masterpiece 游记Travelogue 写景Scenic Writing

从小丘西行百二十步，隔篁竹，闻水声，如鸣珮环，心乐之。
伐竹取道，下见小潭，水尤清冽。
全石以为底，近岸，卷石底以出，为坻，为屿，为嵁，为岩。
青树翠蔓，蒙络摇缀，参差披拂。

Walking west from the little hill for a hundred and twenty paces, I heard, through a screen of bamboo, the sound of water, like the chiming of jade pendants and rings, and my heart delighted in it.
I cut a path through the bamboo and went down, where I saw a little pond, its water unusually clear and cold.
The bottom was formed of a single whole slab of stone; near the bank the stone bottom curled up out of the water, forming islets, small isles, jagged rocks, and cliffs.
Green trees and emerald vines covered, twined, swayed, and dangled over it in lush, uneven profusion.

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Meaning

The opening section of Liu Zongyuan's famous travelogue records the discovery of a hidden pond: walking west from a hill, hearing water through a bamboo screen, cutting a path down to a pool of exceptional clarity, whose stone bottom curls into islets and crags under a canopy of green trees and hanging vines. Beneath the serene, meticulously observed description lies the displaced writer's need for consolation in a landscape no one else visits.

从小丘往西走一百二十步，隔着竹林，听到水声，像玉佩玉环相互碰撞发出的清脆声响，心里十分高兴。砍倒竹子开出一条小路，往下走看见一个小潭，潭水格外清凉澄澈。潭底是一整块石头，靠近岸边，石底向上翻卷露出水面，成为坻、屿、嵁、岩各种形状。青翠的树木、碧绿的藤蔓，互相遮掩缠绕、摇曳下垂，参差不齐地随风飘拂。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] A hundred and twenty paces west of the little hill, a bamboo screen, a sound of water like jade pendants; a path cut through bamboo, a descent, a small pond of extraordinary clarity; a single slab of stone for a bottom, curling near the bank into islets, isles, jagged rocks and cliffs; green trees and emerald vines covering, twining, swaying, dangling. [Structure] The passage is organized by the traveler's movement: distance and direction first (a map-like precision), then sound before sight, then action, then the pond itself — water, stone, trees — observed from below upward, from the transparent to the lush. [Technique] White-sketch description and one synaesthetic simile do all the work: the water is 'heard' as jade before it is 'seen', and 'clear and cold' (qinglie) fuses sight and touch. The fourfold 'forming islets, isles, jagged rocks, cliffs' is pure verbal economy — four shapes, four characters apiece. [Mood] The delight ('my heart delighted in it') is genuine, and that is the point: an exile's capacity for joy, and its fragility, are both planted in this opening section.

【白话串讲】柳宗元被贬永州，写《小石潭记》：“从小丘西行百二十步，隔篁竹，闻水声，如鸣珮环”。“伐竹取道，下见小潭，水尤清冽”——“潭中鱼可百许头，皆若空游无所依”——“日光下澈，影布石上”——“潭西南而望，斗折蛇行，明灭可见”——他写小石潭的清幽。【意象与手法】这是柳宗元「永州八记」的第四篇，以白描见长：移步换景、由声及形、由水及石及木，层次井然；「如鸣珮环」以声写水，通感传神；「为坻，为屿，为嵁，为岩」四字排比，简练写出石之千姿。语言洗练，几乎无一赘字，是古文运动「文从字顺」的典范。【情感与主旨】表面写小石潭的清幽之景，骨子里却是作者被贬永州后孤寂心境的投射——潭水愈清冽，愈见无人共赏之冷；美景愈幽静，愈衬贬谪之愁。下文「凄神寒骨，悄怆幽邃」的抒情，正由这段写景层层逼出。【名句点睛】「如鸣珮环」「水尤清冽」「蒙络摇缀，参差披拂」皆以最简之笔写最活之景，千百年来传诵不衰，是「惜墨如金」的文言典范。

Background

Liu Zongyuan (773–819), courtesy name Zihou, was a Tang prose master and one of the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song, who with Han Yu led the Classical Prose Movement. In 805 he joined Wang Shuwen's 'Yongzhen Reform'; after its collapse he was exiled as assistant marshal to Yongzhou in remote southern Hunan. There, 'casting my footsteps into the land of landscape, giving my feelings to the Li Sao', he sought consolation in scenery. In 809, with friends including Wu Wuling, he wrote a series of eight travelogues of the hills and ponds of Yongzhou — the 'Eight Records of Yongzhou' — of which 'A Record of the Little Stone Pond' is the fourth, and the most famous. The passage translated here is its opening section, describing the discovery of the pond and its clear water.

柳宗元（773—819），字子厚，河东（今山西永济）人，世称柳河东，唐代文学家、思想家，「唐宋八大家」之一，与韩愈共同倡导古文运动。永贞元年（805），柳宗元参与王叔文领导的「永贞革新」，试图打击宦官与藩镇势力，革新失败后被贬为永州司马。永州地处湘南，当时尚属荒僻之地，柳宗元在贬所「投迹山水地，放情咏《离骚》」，寄情山水以排遣忧愤。元和四年（809）秋，他与友人吴武陵、龚古、宗玄等游永州西山一带，先后写下《始得西山宴游记》《钴鉧潭记》《钴鉧潭西小丘记》《至小丘西小石潭记》等八篇游记，合称「永州八记」，《小石潭记》即其中第四篇。本文所录为游记的开篇部分，写发现小石潭的过程与潭水的清冽之景。柳宗元的山水游记在中国文学史上具有开创意义：他首次把山水当作独立的审美对象来描写，把个人身世之感融入自然景物，使游记从地理记载升华为抒情文学，开后世山水散文之先河。

Art

The travelogue's craft can be summarized as 'the journey's path as the structure, white-sketch as the method, feeling as the governor of scene'. The route gives the order: distance, bamboo screen, sound, path, descent, pond, bottom, bank, trees — each step a new frame, moving from far to near, from sound to form. Two techniques dominate: the white-sketch ('its water unusually clear and cold'; 'one whole slab of stone for the bottom') achieves effect by refusing ornament, while one simile — water sounding 'like the chiming of jade pendants and rings' — converts hearing into sight and touch at a stroke, and carries a cultural charge, since jade pendants were the insignia of the gentleman. The layered observation (water, then stone, then trees; from below upward) builds a three-dimensional picture, and the fourfold 'forming islets, isles, jagged rocks, cliffs' changes shape with every four characters. Almost no character in the passage is expendable — the model of the Classical Prose ideal that writing should be smooth and exact.

《小石潭记》是柳宗元山水游记的代表作，其艺术特色可概括为「以游踪为纲、以白描为体、以情驭景」。从章法看，全文以作者的游踪为线索，移步换景，层层深入：先写「从小丘西行百二十步」交代出发方位，次写「隔篁竹，闻水声」以声引路，再写「伐竹取道，下见小潭」由闻而见，最后驻足细写潭景，由远及近、由声到形，线索分明，读来如随作者同游。从手法看，白描与比喻并用：「水尤清冽」「全石以为底」是白描，不事雕琢而境界自出；「如鸣珮环」以佩玉相击之声状水声之清脆，把听觉化为视觉与触觉，通感之妙令人击节。从写景层次看，先写水（清冽）、次写石（为坻为屿为嵁为岩）、再写树（青树翠蔓，蒙络摇缀，参差披拂），由下而上、由实而虚，画面立体而富有生机。尤其「为坻，为屿，为嵁，为岩」一组排比，写卷起的石底露出水面后形态各异：水中高地、小岛、不平的岩石、陡峭的石壁，四字一变，尽写石之千姿百态。全段语言洗练，几乎无一赘字，正是古文运动「文从字顺」主张的典范。

Allusions

Though a landscape travelogue, the passage is saturated with cultural resonance. The 'bamboo screen' (huangzhu) — bamboo being the emblem of the gentleman's integrity, hollowness and jointedness — places the exile among trees that share his virtues, faintly echoing Qu Yuan's 'I dwell in the dark bamboo, never seeing the sky'. 'Jade pendants and rings' (peihuan) were the ornaments of the ancient gentleman which, according to the Liji, chimed as he walked; jade was the very figure of virtue — so likening the water's sound to pendants tacitly lends nature a gentleman's voice, and the delight ('my heart delighted in it') becomes a recognition. The clear, cold, bottomless pond mirrors the exiled writer's own purity and solitude: the more beautiful the water, the more starkly it records that no one else is there to see it. The lush 'covering, twining, swaying, dangling' of trees and vines then sets that solitude against the irrepressible vitality of nature — a duality that prepares the later turn to 'chilling to the spirit and the bones'.

本文虽为山水游记，其意象与文化内涵却渊源有自。「隔篁竹，闻水声，如鸣珮环」一句，最见文化积淀：篁竹，即竹林，竹在中国文化中向来象征君子之德——虚心、有节、挺拔，柳宗元被贬后独与竹木山水为伴，颇有屈原「余处幽篁兮终不见天」的孤高自守之态；珮环，指古代君子随身佩带的玉饰，行走时相互撞击发出清脆之声，《礼记》载君子「行则鸣珮玉」，玉又是君子德行的象征，故以「珮环」之声写水声，实则以君子之音拟自然之声，暗含作者以德自许之意。潭水意象在古典文学中亦多与清净、幽深、孤独相连，柳宗元笔下的小石潭「水尤清冽」「全石以为底」，清澈见底却幽深寂寥，正是作者贬谪生活中孤高清冷心境的投射——山水愈美，愈见其无人共赏之孤。而「青树翠蔓，蒙络摇缀」所写的藤萝缠绕、翠色披拂，又暗示自然生命力的蓬勃，与作者内心的压抑形成微妙对照。这种以山水写人格、以景物寓身世的写法，承屈原香草美人之传统，启后世「一切景语皆情语」之先声。

Commentary

'A Record of the Little Stone Pond' is the most celebrated piece among the Eight Records and a summit of Chinese landscape travel writing. Before Liu Zongyuan, landscape served as background or as geography; he was the first to make it an independent object of aesthetic attention and to pour into it the feeling of his own exile, transforming the travelogue from itinerary into lyric — hence his reputation as a founder of the genre. Later writers from Ouyang Xiu and Su Shi to the Ming and Qing travel essayists all stand in his debt. The passage's economy is proverbial: in under two hundred characters it completes discovery, observation, and the planting of emotion, and phrases like 'like the chiming of jade pendants' and 'covering, twining, swaying, dangling' have become part of the shared Chinese memory of landscape. Still a fixture of the school curriculum, it stands with 'The Old Drunkard's Pavilion' and 'Yueyang Tower' as one of the three great classical travelogues.

《小石潭记》是中国古代山水游记的巅峰之作，也是「永州八记」中最脍炙人口的一篇。柳宗元之前，山水多作为背景或陪衬出现在诗文中（如郦道元《水经注》偏重地理，谢灵运诗偏重摹形），柳宗元则第一次把山水当作独立的审美对象来精心刻画，并在景物中注入自己贬谪的身世之感，使游记成为抒情言志的文学体裁，故文学史家多视他为「山水游记的奠基人」。此文语言之精，历来为人称道：全文不足二百字，却写尽发现、见潭、状景、抒情的过程，「清冽」「蒙络摇缀」「参差披拂」等词，准确而凝练，几乎无法替换，堪称古文「惜墨如金」的典范。后世文人如宋之欧阳修、苏轼，明之袁宏道、徐霞客，其山水文章皆不同程度受柳宗元影响。时至今日，《小石潭记》仍入选中学语文教材，与《醉翁亭记》《岳阳楼记》并列为古典游记名篇，其「如鸣珮环」的水声、「参差披拂」的翠蔓，已成为一代代中国人关于山水之美的共同记忆。

Prosody

Form Classical prose travelogue (san-style guwen), unrhymed, opening section of 'A Record of the Little Stone Pond'游记散文（散体古文，无韵）

Rhyme Unrhymed prose: there is no rhyme scheme, and the music comes instead from the variation of line lengths — mostly four- to six-character clauses ('through a bamboo screen', 'I heard the sound of water', 'down I saw a little pond', 'green trees and emerald vines') — punctuated by the strictly parallel fourfold 'forming islets, isles, jagged rocks, cliffs'. Sparse and dense, fast and slow, alternate like the water's own pace.全文不押韵，以散句行文，靠句式的长短参差与节奏的自然流转取胜。句中多四字、五字、六字短句，如「隔篁竹」「闻水声」「下见小潭」「青树翠蔓」，间以「为坻，为屿，为嵁，为岩」的整饬排比，疏密相间、疾徐有致。

Tone pattern The voice modulates with the gaze: the opening 'from the little hill, west a hundred and twenty paces' is narrative, measured, unhurried; 'I cut a path through the bamboo, down I saw a little pond' quickens with the descent; the fourfold 'forming islets, isles, jagged rocks, cliffs' lands in measured, stone-like beats; and 'covering, twining, swaying, dangling' slows into a long, vine-like cadence. The whole passage rises and falls as the eye moves, like a stream winding — rhythm without any rule of meter.语调由叙事起（从小丘西行百二十步，从容舒缓），转写景则渐趋紧凑（伐竹取道，下见小潭），至状石用四字排比而铿锵（为坻为屿为嵁为岩），写草木则复归绵长（蒙络摇缀，参差披拂），全段随视线移动而语调起伏，如溪水蜿蜒，自然成韵。

Reading note As prose the piece observes no regulated meter; its rhythm is generated by content — what the Chinese tradition calls 'rhyme arising from feeling'. Within a single sentence, 'through a bamboo screen, I heard the sound of water, like the chiming of jade pendants, my heart delighted in it', three-, four-, and five-character clauses alternate and read like dripping water. 'I cut a path through the bamboo, down I saw a little pond' — eight characters, two pauses — is crisp with resolve; 'forming islets, isles, jagged rocks, cliffs' — eight characters, four beats — is as regular as the stones surfacing in turn; 'green trees and emerald vines, covering, twining, swaying, dangling' — twelve characters, three pauses — stretches long and slow, like the swaying of vines. Compared with the uniformity of parallel prose, this varied prose rhythm is closer to natural breathing, and it is exactly the Classical Prose ideal — writing smooth and exact — realized at the level of sound.《小石潭记》是散体游记，不讲求押韵与对仗，其节奏之美来自句式的长短变化与动词的精准安排。全段句子以四至七字为主，短句居多：「隔篁竹，闻水声，如鸣珮环，心乐之」一句之内，三字、四字、五字相间，读来如泉水叮咚，清脆明快；「伐竹取道，下见小潭」八字两顿，干脆利落，写出行动的果决；「为坻，为屿，为嵁，为岩」八字四顿，节拍整齐，如石出水面的次第呈现；「青树翠蔓，蒙络摇缀，参差披拂」十二字三顿，绵长悠远，如藤蔓摇曳的姿态。这种随内容而变化的节奏，正是古文「因文生情、因情成韵」的妙处——柳宗元不讲声律，而声律自在其中。与骈文的整齐划一相比，这种长短错落的散体节奏更接近自然语言的呼吸，也更宜于传达山水游记从容自得的审美心境，是古文运动「文从字顺」主张在音韵层面的落实。

Line by line

从小丘西行百二十步，隔篁竹，闻水声，如鸣珮环，心乐之。

Walking west from the little hill for a hundred and twenty paces, I heard, through a screen of bamboo, the sound of water, like the chiming of jade pendants and rings, and my heart delighted in it.

从小丘往西走一百二十步，隔着竹林，听到水声，像玉佩玉环相互碰撞发出的清脆声响，心里十分高兴。

A hundred twenty steps west from the small mound, through a curtain of bamboo, I hear water sound like jingling jade pendants, and my heart is glad.

开篇五句，写发现小潭的缘起，笔法极见章法。「从小丘西行百二十步」先交代方位与距离，简洁如地图注记，点出这是承接《钴鉧潭西小丘记》的续游；「隔篁竹」写路径之幽，竹林为障，正见小潭之隐；「闻水声」由听觉切入，未见其形先闻其声，以声引路，制造悬念；「如鸣珮环」以君子佩玉相击之声拟水声，清脆悦耳，且暗含以德自许之意；「心乐之」三字直写心理，是全文情感的起点，也为下文「伐竹取道」的行动提供动机。这五句环环相扣：行——隔——闻——拟——乐，由动作而听觉而情感，层层推进，无一闲笔。「心乐之」的「乐」字尤为关键，它点出作者此时尚未察觉小潭的清冷寂寥，为下文乐极生悲、以寂寥之心观景的情绪转折埋下伏笔。

The opening five phrases write the discovery of the small pool, the brush showing masterly structure. A hundred twenty steps west from the small mound first gives direction and distance, concise as a map note, marking this as a continuation of the previous record of the small mound west of Coquette Pond. Through a curtain of bamboo writes the path's seclusion - bamboo as screen, precisely showing the pool's hiddenness. I hear water sound cuts in through hearing: before seeing the form, hearing the sound, using sound as guide, creating suspense. Like jingling jade pendants uses the gentleman's jade ornaments clinking to mimic the water, clear and pleasant, secretly carrying the self-comparison to virtue. My heart is glad directly writes the feeling, the essay's emotional starting point, and the motive for cutting bamboo to open a path below. The five phrases link ring by ring: walk - through - hear - compare - glad, from action to hearing to feeling, layer by layer, not one idle stroke. Glad is especially key: it marks the author not yet aware of the pool's cold solitude, planting the伏笔 for the later turn from joy to grief, from gladness to the solitude of the heart.

伐竹取道，下见小潭，水尤清冽。全石以为底，近岸，卷石底以出，为坻，为屿，为嵁，为岩。

I cut a path through the bamboo and went down, where I saw a little pond, its water unusually clear and cold. Its bottom was formed of a single whole slab of stone; near the bank the stone bottom curled up out of the water, forming islets, small isles, jagged rocks, and cliffs.

砍倒竹子开出一条小路，往下走看见一个小潭，潭水格外清凉澄澈。潭底是一整块石头，靠近岸边，石底向上翻卷露出水面，成为坻、屿、嵁、岩各种形状。

I cut through the bamboo to make a path, and below found a small pool, the water especially clear and cold. Its bed is a single slab of stone; near the bank, the stone bottom curls upward into islets, mounds, reefs, and crags.

这一段写见潭与状潭，是全文写景的重心。「伐竹取道」四字写行动之果决——为寻水声不惜披荆斩棘，见出作者寻幽探胜的兴致；「下见小潭，水尤清冽」点出主体，「尤」字与上文「心乐之」呼应，暗示此前潭水虽多，此潭尤清，凸显小潭的与众不同。「全石以为底」一句堪称奇笔：一般潭底皆泥沙，此潭竟整块石头为底，写尽小潭的奇特。「近岸，卷石底以出」写石底近岸处向上翻卷、露出水面，继以「为坻，为屿，为嵁，为岩」四个短语排比，把露出水面的石头分为四种形态：水中高地（坻）、小岛（屿）、不平岩石（嵁）、陡峭石壁（岩），一石而具四态，简练到极致。这组排比既是白描，又暗含欣赏的喜悦，石之千姿，恰如作者眼中的世界——于困顿中仍能发现自然之美。

This passage writes seeing and describing the pool, the essay's scenery center. Cutting through the bamboo to make a path writes the resolve of the action - for the water sound he does not hesitate to hew through bamboo, showing the author's delight in seeking the secluded. Below found a small pool, the water especially clear and cold names the subject; especially echoes the heart is glad above, hinting that though there were many pools before, this one is the clearest, highlighting its uniqueness. Its bed is a single slab of stone is a stroke of genius: most pool beds are mud and sand; this one is a whole stone slab, exhausting the small pool's strangeness. Near the bank, the stone bottom curls upward, then four phrases in parallel - into mounds, islets, reefs, and crags - dividing the exposed stone into four forms: underwater rise (chi), small isle (yu), uneven rock (kan), steep crag (yan); one stone with four forms, economy to the extreme. This parallel is at once plain drawing and secret joy of appreciation: the stone's thousand forms are precisely the world in the author's eyes - still discovering natural beauty amid hardship.

青树翠蔓，蒙络摇缀，参差披拂。

Green trees and emerald vines covered, twined, swayed, and dangled over it in lush, uneven profusion.

青翠的树木、碧绿的藤蔓，互相遮掩缠绕、摇曳下垂，参差不齐地随风飘拂。

Green trees, jade vines, intertwined and trailing, dangling and swaying, drooping at random in the wind.

「青树翠蔓，蒙络摇缀，参差披拂」十二个字，写潭边草木之景，是全文色彩最鲜明、动态最生动的一笔。「青」「翠」两字连用，写树与蔓的葱茏之色，绿意扑面；「蒙络摇缀」四字，写藤蔓攀附树木、交错缠绕、摇曳下垂之态，一词写尽藤萝的纠缠与生机；「参差披拂」写枝条长短不齐、随风飘拂之姿，动态宛然。这十二个字全是白描，无一比喻、无一夸张，却把一个幽静潭边的草木写得活灵活现，正见柳宗元「文从字顺」、以简驭繁的语言功力。从章法看，此句是写景的收束：先水、次石、后木，由下而上，层层铺满画面，而「蒙络摇缀」的纷披生意与「水尤清冽」的冷寂清澈形成对照——生机与清冷并存，恰是作者贬谪心境的双重写照，为下文「凄神寒骨」的抒情张本。

Twelve characters - green trees, jade vines, intertwined and trailing, dangling and swaying, drooping at random in the wind - write the vegetation by the pool, the essay's most vivid color and motion. Green and jade used consecutively write the lush hue of trees and vines, greenness pressing the face. Intertwined and trailing writes the vines clinging to trees, crossing and winding, dangling downward - one phrase exhausting the vines' tangle and life. Drooping at random in the wind writes the branches' uneven lengths, swaying in the breeze, motion vivid. These twelve characters are all plain drawing, not one metaphor, not one hyperbole, yet render the secluded pool's vegetation alive - showing Liu Zongyuan's linguistic power of smooth words controlling complexity. Structurally the line closes the scenery: first water, then stone, then trees, from bottom to top, layer by layer filling the picture; the intertwined vines' abundant life contrasts with the water especially clear and cold - life and coldness coexisting, precisely the double portrait of the author's exile mood, preparing the emotional release of the later spirit chilled, bones numbed.

Study

Word focus

清冽 'Clear and cold' — the key adjective of the passage: 'clear' (qing) is the transparency visible to the eye, 'cold' (lie) the chill felt on the skin, so one word-pair fuses sight and touch. More than a description of water, the word carries the author's own purity and desolation, and it quietly forecasts the later line 'chilling to the spirit and the bones'. 「水尤清冽」之「清冽」，是全段写水的关键形容词，也是柳宗元炼字的名例。「清」写水之澄澈透明，「冽」写水之清凉寒洌，二字合写，既见视觉之清澈，又见触觉之寒凉，兼色与温、视与触，比单用「清」「凉」丰富得多。古人写水，多言「清」而不及「冽」，柳宗元着一「冽」字，小石潭的清寒之气便扑面而来。更重要的是，「冽」字暗含情绪：此潭水清而寒，清得寂寥、寒得孤独，恰是作者被贬永州、心境清冷孤寂的投射。清冽的潭水与「凄神寒骨」的下文暗中呼应，写景与抒情在此浑然一体。一个「冽」字，既写物态，又写心境，正是王国维所谓「以我观物，故物皆着我之色彩」的绝佳例证。

蒙络摇缀 'Covering, twining, swaying, dangling' — four verbs in a row, one image apiece: 'covering' spreads like a net, 'twining' binds like a cord, 'swaying' swings in the wind, 'dangling' hangs down. The static vine is made vivid with motion, and each character can be painted separately — the model of classical prose's verbal economy. 「蒙络摇缀」四字，写藤蔓缠绕树木之态，动词连用，精妙绝伦。「蒙」写藤蔓如网般覆盖，「络」写如绳索般缠绕，「摇」写随风摆动，「缀」写下垂牵连，四个动词一气贯下，把静态的藤蔓写得动静交生：既有覆盖缠绕的密实，又有摇曳下垂的生动，一词一景，几乎可以逐字作画。这样的动词连用，是柳宗元古文语言凝练的典型体现——不靠形容词堆砌，而以动词的白描写真，正合古文运动「惟陈言之务去」的主张。从画面看，「蒙络摇缀」写的是「密」与「动」，与「参差披拂」的「疏」与「飘」相映成趣，藤之密、蔓之动、枝之参差，合成一幅幽潭翠蔓图。后人评柳文「清莹秀澈，锵鸣金石」，此四字可见一斑。

心乐之 'And my heart delighted in it' — the passage's only direct statement of feeling, and its hinge: it supplies the motive for cutting a path down, and it is the first note of a joy that will later be answered by 'chilling to the spirit and the bones'. Three plain words hold the exile's astonished, fragile capacity for delight. 「心乐之」三字，是全文直接写心情的句子，位置极妙，作用极大。「之」指代上文的「水声如鸣珮环」，一个「乐」字写初闻水声时的欣喜，如深山偶遇知音。这三字看似平淡，实有多重作用：其一，为「伐竹取道」的行动提供心理动机——因为「乐」，才不惜砍竹开路；其二，与下文「凄神寒骨，悄怆幽邃」的凄清形成强烈反差，乐之愈深，哀之愈切，情绪的跌宕正是柳宗元贬谪心态的真实写照；其三，以「乐」写作者对自然美的敏锐感受，纵然身处逆境，仍能为一泓清水、一片竹林而欣然，见其胸襟；其四，为后文「不可久居」的黯然离开蓄势，先扬后抑，文情起伏。三字写尽初见之乐，却为全文的悲剧底色埋下伏笔，真可谓「一乐字而全文皆活」。