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魏晋 Wei-Jin · 诗 Poem

思吴江歌

Song of Thinking of the Wu River

张翰

Zhang Han

秋风起兮佳景时，吴江水兮鲈正肥。
三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲。

When the autumn wind rises, and the season is at its best:
The Wu River water — and the perch are fat.
Three thousand li — and still no homeward return.
The grief hard to bear — and I look to the sky and mourn.
Listen

Meaning

Four short lines in the Chu song style. In autumn, when the Wu River perch are fattest, the poet, three thousand li from home, is told that a dish of perch is precisely what he has been missing; the knowledge that the delicacy belongs at home is what tips his regret into helpless grief. The poem is the source of the well-known idiom 'longing for home' expressed through a fish rather than through a road, and it is read as the moment Zhang Han decided to abandon his official post and return south.

秋风起兮佳景时，吴江水兮鲈正肥。三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The autumn wind comes, the water of the Wu is clear and the perch are fat; three thousand miles away with no way home, the sight of the fish is what makes him lift his face to the sky and groan. [Structure] Two couplets of seven characters each with a 'xi' (兮) refrain: the first presents a scene, the second converts the scene into grief, and nothing is explained in between. [Imagery] Almost nothing is described — a wind, water, fish, a sky — yet each is chosen so as to be provable from home: the wind of autumn, the river of his birthplace, the fish of the local table. [Effect] The poem's fame rests on what it declines to say: he does not say he wants to go home, he says the fish is fat, and the reader supplies both the journey and the tears. The compressed effect of the 'xi' particle, held for the full four lines, stretches four short sentences into an elegy.

【白话串讲】 张翰写《思吴江歌》：“秋风起兮佳景时，吴江水兮鲈正肥”——“三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲”——他思吴江——吴江水兮鲈正肥。 【意象与手法】 “秋风起兮佳景时、吴江水兮鲈正肥”写秋风鲈鱼；“三千里兮家未归”写三千里家未归；结以“恨难得兮仰天悲”写仰天悲。含蓄深婉。 【情感与主旨】 张翰写思乡怀归之作，以秋风鲈鱼写思归之情，是“莼鲈之思”典故的来源。 【名句点睛】 常考“秋风起兮佳景时，吴江水兮鲈正肥”写秋风鲈鱼；“三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲”写思归。

Background

Zhang Han (c. 251–314) was a gentleman of the Jin court who served as a high official in Luoyang and is remembered chiefly for two acts: this poem, and the reply he made when asked why he was leaving. When told that the whole realm was in chaos and that returning was the right course, he answered that he had come to Luoyang only to see the wind from the east and the perch of the Wu — and then packed and went. The anecdote, recorded in the 'Jin Shu' biography, made him a standard figure in later literature for resolving public duty by private feeling.

《思吴江歌》为西晋诗人张翰所作诗。张翰，字季鹰，吴郡吴（今江苏苏州）人，西晋文学家。此诗写思乡怀归。诗云「秋风起兮佳景时，吴江水兮鲈正肥。三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲」。据载张翰因见秋风起，思念吴中菰菜、莼羹、鲈鱼脍，遂弃官归乡，「鲈鱼之思」即出于此。此诗以思乡怀归、恨难得兮仰天悲写其思乡之情，含蓄深婉，是魏晋诗中的名篇。此篇《思吴江歌》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。此篇《思吴江歌》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。此篇《思吴江歌》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。

Art

The economy is unusual even for a four-line poem: twenty-eight characters carry a season, a place, a food, a distance, a refusal and a grief. The device is the delayed relevance of the scene. In the first couplet the perch seem only to describe autumn; only in the second do we learn that 'the perch being fat' is a reproach, because the fat fish belong to a home the poet does not have. The 'xi' (兮) particle of the Chu songs is placed at line ends, so that the clause that would be 'when the autumn wind rises' becomes 'when the autumn wind rises —', leaving the grammatical completion hanging in the air, which is exactly how the grief hangs.

此诗艺术上以「含蓄深婉、以景写情」见长。全诗共四句，由秋风起兮佳景时而三千里兮家未归而恨难得兮仰天悲。起「秋风起兮佳景时，吴江水兮鲈正肥」写秋风起兮佳景时：秋风起兮佳景时，吴江水兮鲈正肥；「三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲」写三千里兮家未归：三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲。全诗以景写情，由秋风起兮而鲈正肥而恨难得兮仰天悲，含蓄深婉，是魏晋诗中的名篇。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。

Allusions

The reference behind the poem is the story of the perch: later writers from Su Shi's generation onward invoke 'the wind from the east and the perch of the Wu' as a compact way of saying that a man has remembered home. The 'xi' (兮) refrain marks the formal model as the Chu 'Li Sao' tradition rather than the northern ballads, giving the poem the elegant reserve of the south. The number 'three thousand li' is a conventional Chinese figure for an immeasurable distance, and it appears here as a mathematical fact (so far away) precisely so that the grief beside it can be total.

诗中「秋风起兮佳景时」「吴江水兮鲈正肥」「三千里兮家未归」「恨难得兮仰天悲」等语，皆含典故故实。「秋风起兮佳景时」写秋风起兮佳景时；「吴江水兮鲈正肥」用鲈鱼之典（张翰见秋风起思吴中鲈鱼脍），写吴江水兮鲈正肥；「三千里兮家未归」写三千里兮家未归；「恨难得兮仰天悲」写恨难得兮仰天悲。诗人以秋风鲈鱼之典入诗，不着痕迹，而把思乡怀归之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。

Commentary

Traditional readers treated the poem as evidence of Zhang Han's政治 insight — that a man who leaves at the moment of decay leaves correctly — and it is quoted for that reason in the 'Jin Shu' and in many later Anthologies. Modern readers more often treat it as pure lyric, praising its refusal to explain: the poem contains no statement about home and no reason for leaving, and its whole effect rests on that restraint. Its four lines remain among the most frequently quoted of the period and have served as a shorthand for homesickness in Chinese poetry for more than a thousand years.

这首《思吴江歌》，是张翰写思乡怀归之作，写秋风起兮佳景时、三千里兮家未归、恨难得兮仰天悲之情，含蓄深婉。起「秋风起兮佳景时，吴江水兮鲈正肥」——秋风起兮佳景时，吴江水兮鲈正肥（用秋风鲈鱼之典）。写秋风起兮佳景时：秋风起兮佳景时、吴江水兮鲈正肥——秋风起、佳景时，吴江水、鲈正肥；「三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲」——三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲。写三千里兮家未归：三千里兮家未归、恨难得兮仰天悲——三千里家未归、恨难得仰天悲。这「三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲」，是全诗之结：以恨难得兮仰天悲写其思乡。全诗含蓄深婉，以景写情，正是魏晋诗中的名篇。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。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

Form Shi (seven-character Chu song style, using the 'xi' particle)诗（七言楚歌体）
Rhyme Four lines of seven characters, rhymed throughout on the level tone: 'shi' (时, season), 'fei' (肥, fat), 'gui' (归, to return) and 'bei' (悲, to mourn). The scheme is a simple a a a a run, so that the poem never leaves a single resonance; because the rhyme falls at the end of each seven-syllable clause, the line sounds closed but the 'xi' before it has already opened it, and the two effects fight throughout.此诗为七言楚歌体，共四句，句中用「兮」字。押平声韵：「时」「肥」「归」「悲」押支微部韵。诗体依楚歌体而定，句中用兮，音节悠长，正与写思乡怀归的含蓄深婉相称，也见其以楚歌写怀归的自然。
Tone pattern Each line is seven syllables with a caesura after the fourth, giving a rhythm like 'QIU— FENG— QI— XI'. The interpolated 'xi' hangs a syllable after the natural pause and does not bear stress, so the measure drags slightly at every line-end, which is precisely the effect of holding back a statement. The rhyme on 'bei' (mourn) in the last line lands on a word of grief with no punctuation to blunt it, giving the close a flat, conclusive weight.句式上，「秋风起兮佳景时，吴江水兮鲈正肥」写秋风起兮佳景时，音节悠扬；「三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲」写三千里兮家未归，音节绵长。全诗音节随情起伏，由悠扬而绵长，正合楚歌「一唱三叹」之妙，读来如思乡怀归、恨难得兮仰天悲之音，含蓄而动人。
Reading note The choice of the Chu song form (楚歌) is not incidental: borrowing the particle-bearing manner of the 'Li Sao' gives four plain statements the elevated, ritual cadence of southern elegy. The poem is short enough to be sung rather than read, and the effect of the 'xi' refrain is to turn ordinary observation into incantation. Note how the prosody mirrors the psychology — the lines keep running toward their subject and never quite arrive at it, just as the poet keeps approaching the thought of home and never states it.此诗为七言楚歌体，是张翰写思乡怀归之作，也是魏晋诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「含蓄深婉、以景写情」：「秋风起兮佳景时，吴江水兮鲈正肥」写秋风起兮佳景时、「三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲」写三千里兮家未归。全诗含蓄深婉，以景写情。尤为精妙者，是「吴江水兮鲈正肥」用秋风鲈鱼之典；而「三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲」以叹写思，正是「鲈鱼之思」的由来，为历代选本所常收。《思吴江歌》一诗之所以读来声情并茂，正在于诗人以声韵配合情思、以节奏烘托意境，音节之长短、平仄之起伏，皆与诗意相为表里，此亦可见中国古典诗歌声律之美与匠心之工。

Line by line

秋风起兮佳景时，吴江水兮鲈正肥。

When the autumn wind rises and the season is at its best, the Wu River water — and the perch are fat.

秋风起兮佳景时，吴江水兮鲈正肥。

The autumn wind rises, the season of fair scenes; Wu's waters, the perch are fat.

首二句写秋风起兮佳景时，起笔即见其景。「秋风起兮佳景时」写秋风起兮佳景时，「秋风起兮」写秋风吹起、「佳景时」写正是佳景之时；「吴江水兮鲈正肥」写吴江水兮鲈正肥，用秋风鲈鱼之典写吴江水兮鲈正肥。两句一写秋风起兮佳景时、一写吴江水兮鲈正肥，以秋风起写秋风、以鲈正肥写鲈鱼肥美，写尽秋风起兮佳景时、吴江水兮鲈正肥之情。以景起兴，含蓄而清丽，是「以景起兴」的妙笔。

The opening two lines write autumn-wind-fair-scene, scenery present from the start. The-autumn-wind-rises-the-season-of-fair-scenes writes the autumn wind's rising, fair scene time. Wu's-waters-the-perch-are-fat uses the autumn-wind-perch allusion. One line for the autumn wind and fair scene, one for Wu waters and fat perch. Using autumn-wind for autumn, using perch-are-fat for the perch's richness. Starting with scenery, reserved and fresh - the fine stroke of scenery bi-xing.

三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲。

Three thousand li — and still no homeward return; the grief hard to bear — and I look to the sky and mourn.

三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲。

Three thousand li, home not returned; regret hard to come by, I look to the sky and grieve.

尾二句写三千里兮家未归，是全诗立意的落点。「三千里兮家未归」写三千里兮家未归，「三千里兮」写三千里之远、「家未归」写家未归；「恨难得兮仰天悲」写恨难得兮仰天悲，「恨难得兮」写恨难得、「仰天悲」写仰天而悲。两句一写三千里兮家未归、一写恨难得兮仰天悲，以三千里家未归写家远未归、以恨难得仰天悲写仰天悲叹，写尽三千里兮家未归、恨难得兮仰天悲之情。以叹写思，含蓄而深挚，是全诗最动人处，也是「以叹写思」的点睛之笔。

The closing two lines write three-thousand-li-home-not-returned, the poem's thought landing. Three-thousand-li-home-not-returned writes the distance and not returning. Regret-hard-to-come-by-I-look-to-the-sky-and-grieve writes looking to the sky in grief. One line for three-thousand-li home not returned, one for regret-hard-to-come-by looking sky and grieving. Using sigh for longing, reserved and sincere - the poem's most moving place, the finishing stroke of sigh-longing.

Study

Word focus

正肥 'Zheng fei,' just now at its fattest: the word 'zheng' is what turns a neutral description into a wound, marking the fish as fat at precisely the wrong moment for the person reading about them. The perfection of the fish is thereby made an accusation, and the poet is left with the only available response, which is to look upward. 「正肥」写鲈正肥，是写鲈鱼肥美的关键。「吴江水兮鲈正肥」着一「正肥」，写正肥——着一「正肥」，写鲈正肥，见其鲈之肥。两字写尽正肥之味，是「以词写味」的妙笔。「正肥」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
未归 'Wei gui,' not yet returned: a tense rather than an event, implying an intention with an obstacle. It is what separates the poet from the fish — he has a home to which the return has not happened, and the fish has none to which it could fail. The plainness of the two characters conceals that the whole lament rests on them. 「未归」写家未归，是写家未归之慨的关键。「三千里兮家未归」着一「未归」，写未归——着一「未归」，写家未归，见其未归之慨。两字写尽未归之情，是「以词写归」的点睛之词。「未归」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
难得 'Nan de,' hard to obtain: here it qualifies an inner condition ('Nan de zhi hen'), meaning grief that cannot be got rid of. The choice of 'de, to obtain, makes the grief a thing to be acquired or not acquired, which is quietly comic and quietly terrible; it also delivers the train of thought from the fish to the self without any connective. 「难得」写恨难得兮，是写难以得到之慨的关键。「恨难得兮仰天悲」着一「难得」，写难以得到——着一「难得」，写恨难得兮，见其难得之恨。两字写尽难得之慨，是「以词写慨」的点睛之词。「难得」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
仰天 'Yangtian,' to look up at the sky: the only physical action in the poem, and therefore the only gesture toward a listener. Placed last, it conveys a grief too large for any direction — the poet looks up not for help but because there is nowhere else to put the feeling, and the sky receives it in silence. 「仰天」写仰天悲，是写仰天而悲之态的关键。「恨难得兮仰天悲」着一「仰天」，写仰面朝天——着一「仰天」，写仰天悲，见其悲之态。两字写尽仰天之情，是「以词写悲」的点睛之词。「仰天」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

Related Reading

八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Ba Sheng Gan Zhou: 'In the Autumn Rain That Streaming Down the Sky' 柳永 · 同写秋景思归、登高怀乡，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天归思难收、一写秋风起兮佳景时三千里兮家未归，皆于秋景之中见思归 Both are autumn poems of return in which the landscape is arranged around a single longing; Zhang Han compresses the moment into four lines, Liu Yong expands it into a long tune of layered sightings and imagined love.

Liu Yong's masterwork gathers rain, sky, the washing of a clear autumn, then a painted tower, a woman at a window and 'mistaking, again and again, the boats returning at the horizon for hers.' Where Zhang Han trusts a single image, Liu Yong accumulates them until the reader is exhausted by the effort of keeping them in view. The contrast is instructive: Zhang's four lines win by refusal, Liu's long tune by insistence, and the fact that both are def canons of their genres shows the range available to Chinese poets faced with the same autumn and the same question of home.

柳永《八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天》「不忍登高临远，望故乡渺邈，归思难收」，写秋景思归、登高怀乡，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；张翰《思吴江歌》则以「秋风起兮佳景时，吴江水兮鲈正肥」「三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲」写秋风起兮、三千里家未归。两诗同写秋景思归、登高怀乡：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天归思难收、以暮雨写归思，一写秋风起兮佳景时三千里兮家未归、以秋风写思归；一为柳永之清丽、一为张翰之深婉，并读正可见诗写「秋景思归」的两种笔法，皆于秋景之中见思归。

 浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯 Xian Xi Sha (Tune: 'Silk-Washing Stream'): 'A Tune of New Song and a Cup of Wine' 晏殊 · 同写怀归感怀、无可奈何，一写无可奈何花落去、一写恨难得兮仰天悲，皆于怀归之中见无可奈何 Both treat the arrival of autumn as an occasion for feeling rather than description; Yan Shu's regret is softened by the return of the swallows, while Zhang Han leaves the grief unmitigated.

Yan Shu's lines — 'Sorrow for the flowers' passing seems useless, and the swallows that I thought I knew come back again' — make loss and reunion alternate, which is what makes the regret bearable. Zhang Han has no such consolation: the perch are fat every autumn and the return does not happen, so the poem declines the comfort that the seasons offer. Read side by side, the two establish the two standard Chinese attitudes to autumn parting — the cycle that can be trusted, and the absence that cannot.

晏殊《浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯》「无可奈何花落去，似曾相识燕归来」，写怀归感怀，是宋词小令的名篇；张翰《思吴江歌》则以「三千里兮家未归，恨难得兮仰天悲」写三千里家未归、恨难得仰天悲。两诗同写怀归感怀、无可奈何：一写无可奈何花落去、以花落燕归写惜时，一写恨难得兮仰天悲、以仰天悲写怀归；一为晏殊之温润、一为张翰之深婉，并读正可见诗写「怀归无可奈何」的两种笔法，皆于怀归之中见无可奈何。