时运

Meaning

Tao Yuanming's 'Shi Yun' records a spring outing to the eastern outskirts in four four-character stanzas: the morning, the wind warming the new shoots, the bathing and drinking by the marsh, the boys singing homeward from the Yi river, and finally the evening at home with a half-full cup. Joy is genuine but is immediately set beside a wish that the peaceful age of the ancient sage-kings could be recovered, so the poem moves from outward delight to a quiet, solitary regret that no amount of scenery can answer.

迈迈时运，穆穆良朝。袭我春服，薄言东郊。山涤余霭，宇暧微霄。有风自南，翼彼新苗。洋洋平泽，乃漱乃濯。邈邈遐景，载欣载瞩。称心而言，人亦易足。挥兹一觞，陶然自乐。延目中流，悠想清沂。童冠齐业，闲咏以归。我爱其静，寤寐交挥。但恨殊世，邈不可追。斯晨斯夕，言息其庐。花药分列，林竹翳如。清琴横床，浊酒半壶。黄唐莫逮，慨独在余。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] In four stanzas he describes a spring excursion — putting on spring clothes, walking to the east suburb, bathing at the marsh, singing home with the young, and returning to his cottage to sit with a half-empty pot. [Structure] The poem is built on paired antitheses: mountain and sky above, water and earth below; youth and the distant age of sages; the company of the outing and the solitary poet at the close. [Imagery] Two images dominate. The new shoots warmed by a southern wind carry the promise of the season, while the clear river of the third stanza carries the golden age: the same water, present and unattainable. [Language] Almost every word is a common noun or verb — hill, cloud, wind,苗, marsh, wine, qin — and the effects come from placing them rather than decorating them. The 'lone sigh' at the end is not a grief in the ordinary sense but the price of a sensibility that cannot help comparing its own age with an imagined better one.

【白话串讲】 陶渊明写《时运》：“迈迈时运，穆穆良朝”——“袭我春服，薄言东郊”——“山涤余霭，宇暧微霄”——“有风自南，翼彼新苗”——他写时运——有风自南，翼彼新苗。 【意象与手法】 “迈迈时运、穆穆良朝”写迈迈时运；“袭我春服、薄言东郊”写袭我春服；“山涤余霭、宇暧微霄”写山涤余霭；“洋洋平泽、乃漱乃濯”写洋洋平泽；结以“清琴横床，浊酒半壶。黄唐莫逮，慨独在余”写慨独在余。旷达超逸。 【情感与主旨】 陶渊明写田园之作，写春游东郊、有风自南翼彼新苗的田园之乐，是陶渊明田园诗中的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“迈迈时运，穆穆良朝”写时运良朝；“有风自南，翼彼新苗”写春郊新苗。

Allusions

Two classical references carry the poem. 'Qing Yi' (清沂, the clear Yi river) recalls the passage in the 'Analects' where Confucius says, 'I wish I could make merited men wash their mind in the Yi river,' linking bathing to moral cleansing. 'Huang Tang' — the golden age of the yellow emperor Xuanyuan and King Tang of Shang — is the standard shorthand for an ideal past of upright government, and 'mo dai' (莫逮, cannot be reached) states that the age is gone rather than that the poet wishes to live in it. 'Tong guan qi ye' (童冠齐业, the boys and their caps having completed their studies) borrows the Confucian scene of the disciples gathered under the myrtle tree, and here supplies the serenity of ordinary life against which the poet's sigh registers.

诗中「迈迈时运穆穆良朝」「袭我春服薄言东郊」「山涤余霭宇暧微霄」「有风自南翼彼新苗」「洋洋平泽乃漱乃濯」「邈邈遐景载欣载瞩」「称心而言人亦易足」「挥兹一觞陶然自乐」「延目中流悠想清沂」「童冠齐业闲咏以归」「我爱其静寤寐交挥」「但恨殊世邈不可追」「斯晨斯夕言息其庐」「花药分列林竹翳如」「清琴横床浊酒半壶」「黄唐莫逮慨独在余」等语，皆含典故故实。「迈迈时运穆穆良朝」写迈迈时运穆穆良朝；「袭我春服薄言东郊」写袭我春服薄言东郊；「山涤余霭宇暧微霄」写山涤余霭宇暧微霄；「有风自南翼彼新苗」写有风自南翼彼新苗；「洋洋平泽乃漱乃濯」写洋洋平泽乃漱乃濯；「延目中流悠想清沂」用清沂之典（沂为孔子浴乎沂之地），写延目中流悠想清沂；「童冠齐业闲咏以归」写童冠齐业闲咏以归；「我爱其静寤寐交挥」写我爱其静寤寐交挥；「但恨殊世邈不可追」写但恨殊世邈不可追；「斯晨斯夕言息其庐」写斯晨斯夕言息其庐；「花药分列林竹翳如」写花药分列林竹翳如；「清琴横床浊酒半壶」写清琴横床浊酒半壶；「黄唐莫逮慨独在余」用黄唐之典（黄唐写黄帝唐尧），写黄唐莫逮慨独在余。诗人以清沂、黄唐等典入诗，不着痕迹，而把田园写景之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。

Commentary

Commentators have long disputed whether the closing sigh is ambitious or humble. Su Zhe thought it expressed the frustration of a man who cannot doze his way back to the age of Fang and Hua; the-modern reader more often hears a quiet admission that imagining a perfect age is itself a form of happiness. The poem is valued chiefly as evidence of the range of Tao's style — where 'Returning to Field Life' is dense with agrarian detail, 'Shi Yun' is airy, almost ceremonial, and shows that his simplicity could be raised without effort into grandeur.

这首《时运》，是陶渊明写田园写景之作，写迈迈时运、山涤余霭、洋洋平泽、陶然自乐、慨独在余之情，旷达超逸。起「迈迈时运，穆穆良朝」——迈迈时运，穆穆良朝。写迈迈时运：迈迈时运、穆穆良朝——时运、良朝；「袭我春服，薄言东郊」——袭我春服，薄言东郊。写袭我春服：袭我春服、薄言东郊——春服、东郊；「山涤余霭，宇暧微霄」——山涤余霭，宇暧微霄。写山涤余霭：山涤余霭、宇暧微霄——涤余霭、暧微霄；「洋洋平泽，乃漱乃濯」——洋洋平泽，乃漱乃濯。写洋洋平泽：洋洋平泽、乃漱乃濯——平泽、漱濯；「清琴横床，浊酒半壶。黄唐莫逮，慨独在余」——清琴横床，浊酒半壶，黄唐莫逮（用黄唐之典），慨独在余。写慨独在余：清琴横床、浊酒半壶、黄唐莫逮、慨独在余——琴床酒壶、黄唐莫逮、慨独在余。这「黄唐莫逮，慨独在余」，是全诗之结：以慨独在余写其田园。全诗旷达超逸，以景写情，正是陶渊明诗中的名篇。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。

Prosody

Line by line

Related Reading