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先秦 Pre-Qin · 诗 Poem

卫风·谷风

Valley Wind

诗经

Shijing

弃妇Forsaken Wife 婚姻Marriage 卫风Airs of Wei 怨而不怒Resentment without Anger 诗经Book of Songs

习习谷风，以阴以雨。
黾勉同心，不宜有怒。
采葑采菲，无以下体？
德音莫违，及尔同死。
行道迟迟，中心有违。
不远伊迩，薄送我畿。
谁谓荼苦？
其甘如荠。
宴尔新昏，如兄如弟。
泾以渭浊，湜湜其沚。
宴尔新昏，不我屑以。
毋逝我梁，毋发我笱。
我躬不阅，遑恤我后。
就其深矣，方之舟之。
就其浅矣，泳之游之。
何有何亡，黾勉求之。
凡民有丧，匍匐救之。
不我能畜，反以我为仇。
既阻我德，贾用不售。
昔育恐育鞫，及尔颠覆。
既生既育，比予于毒。
我有旨蓄，亦以御冬。
宴尔新昏，以我御穷。
有洸有溃，既诒我肄。
不念昔者，伊余来塈。

The valley wind blows with a moan, in cloud and rain it shrouds.
We strove to be of one heart; how could you give way to wrath?
To gather the turnip and radish, would you throw away the root?
Do not break your gentle word; with you I would live and die.
I walked the road with lingering steps; my heart was loath to part.
You did not send me far, to the gate you saw me off.
Who says the sow-thistle is bitter? It is sweet as shepherd's purse to me.
Your new marriage is full of bliss; you love as brothers close.
The Jing is made muddy by the Wei, yet clear is its watery bed.
Your new marriage is full of bliss; you think me not worth your regard.
Do not come to my fish-dam, do not open my fish-basket.
My own self you refuse; how can I care for what comes after?
When the waters were deep, I crossed by raft or boat.
When the waters were shallow, I swam or waded through.
Whether there was plenty or want, I strove with all my might.
When any neighbor met misfortune, I crawled to give him aid.
You cannot cherish me, but make me your foe instead.
You have rejected my virtue, like goods no one would buy.
In olden days we feared want and distress; together we braved the storm.
Now that we have flourished and thrived, you see me as poison vile.
I have stored delicious foods, to against the winter keep.
Your new marriage is full of bliss; you used me to ward off dearth.
You are fierce and angry, and give me all the toil.
You do not remember of old—how I alone brought you rest.

Listen

Meaning

A woman who has labored devotedly through poverty and hardship for her husband is cast aside when he takes a new bride. In a muted yet piercing lament, she recalls their vows of mutual love, her unsparing toil, and his heartless joy at her expulsion, expressing her sorrow with quiet dignity and restrained grief.

谷中大风习习吹来，伴着阴云伴着雨。曾勉力同心相待，本不该对我动怒。采过葑菜采过菲，难道只取叶不要根？往日好话莫违背，誓要与你同到死。走在大道上步履迟迟，心中满是与你相违的恨。不求远送只求近送，你却只送到门槛里。谁说荼菜滋味苦？我心中它甜如荠。你与新欢多快乐，亲亲密密如兄弟。泾水因渭水而显浊，泾底却清清见沚。你与新欢多快乐，对我却不肯顾惜。别到我的鱼坝去，别把我的鱼篓开。我自身尚且不被容纳，哪顾得上我走后的事。遇到水深的，就用筏用船渡过去。遇到水浅的，就浮着游着淌过去。家中有这没那，我都勉力为你谋求。邻里有难，我爬着也要去救助。你却不能容爱，反把我当作仇敌。既拒绝了我的好意，好比货卖不出。从前怕穷怕困顿，与你共度艰难。如今家业已成，你却把我比成毒虫。我备下美味的积蓄，原是为抵御寒冬。你与新欢多快乐，却用我的积蓄挡穷。你暴戾又狂怒，把苦役都推给我。全不念当初的情分，唯我是爱原如空梦。

Appreciation

One of the two great 'forsaken wife' poems in the Book of Songs (the other is 'Valley Wind' in the Airs of Bei), this piece voices the anguish of a wife abandoned after years of devoted service. Its power lies in its 'resentment without anger'—she never rages but uses natural imagery, memory, and contrast to expose the ugliness of ingratitude. The refrain 'your new marriage is full of bliss' sharpens the pain, while the ethical restraint embodies the Confucian ideal of gentle, bringing to mind the very essence of 'mild and sincere' poetics.

【白话串讲】 “习习谷风，以阴以雨”——诗经《卫风·谷风》：山谷的风，吹来阴雨。“黾勉同心，不宜有怒”——她曾与丈夫同心协力。“谁谓荼苦？其甘如荠”——谁说苦菜苦？比起我的遭遇，它像荠菜一样甜。一个弃妇的控诉。【意象与手法】以“习习谷风”起兴，借夫妻共渡难关的旧日温情反衬今日新人笑、旧人哭的残酷；“泾以渭浊”自明清白，“毋逝我梁，毋发我笱”的絮叨留恋故物。六章结构完整，全诗“怨而不怒”，哀婉中见温厚。【情感与主旨】弃妇诗双璧之一。以遭丈夫遗弃的女子口吻，泣诉多年辛苦操持却换来“宴尔新昏，以我御穷”的凉薄结局，是上古婚姻制度下女性命运的悲歌，也以极高的抒情克制成为“温柔敦厚”诗教的典范文本。【名句点睛】常考“谁谓荼苦？其甘如荠”以苦菜反衬内心更苦；“宴尔新昏，不我屑以”以新人欢笑反衬弃妇之悲。

Background

This poem reflects the prevalence of discarded wives in the patriarchal marriage system of the Zhou dynasty. The state of Wei, situated between the Yellow River and Qi River, was known for relatively free customs and fluid marital relations, making the abandonment of old wives by nouveaux-riche husbands a recognized social tragedy. The female speaker recalls how she 'strove with one heart' and 'crawled to help' during hard times, only to be thrown away once prosperity arrived. Such a fate was structurally embedded in a society where a woman's worth depended on her practical utility to her husband's family; once no longer needed, she was discarded like a worn-out tool.

《卫风·谷风》产生的社会背景，是周代父权婚姻制度下弃妇现象的普遍存在。卫国地处河淇之间，其俗据《汉书·地理志》载「卫地有桑间濮上之阻，男女亦亟聚会，声色生焉」，民风虽开放而婚姻观念亦相对流动，丈夫因境遇改善或移情别恋而「弃其旧妻」之事并不罕见。本诗以第一人称展开，当是采自卫地民间、由乐官配乐的女声抒情诗。其时代约在春秋前期。诗中所写，是一位女子嫁后「黾勉同心」「何有何亡，黾勉求之」，与夫共渡贫寒（「昔育恐育鞫，及尔颠覆」），待家业稍成，丈夫却另结新欢（「宴尔新昏」），将她如敝履抛弃。这种「以色事人者，色衰而爱弛」的悲剧，在《氓》《邶风·谷风》中亦有同调，共同构成《诗经》中一组沉痛的弃妇叙事。它不惟是个人遭际的哀鸣，更折射出宗法礼制下女性缺乏独立人格与经济保障的结构性弱势——她的全部价值，被绑定在「御穷」「御冬」的实用功能上，一旦功能不再被需要，便遭「比予于毒」的彻底否定。

Art

The poem's artistry lies first in its controlled 'resentment without anger' and the counterpoint of joyous scenes with sad realities. It opens with the rising image of the valley wind and rain—at once a real storm and a metaphor for the husband's inexplicable rage. The contrast structure is masterly: vows of 'one heart' versus the new bride's 'brotherly' intimacy; her past 'crawling to save' neighbors versus his present 'poison' accusation. The 'Jing muddy, Wei clear' simile is a proud self-defense, while the repeated 'your new marriage is full of bliss' clangs like a funeral bell for her own death. The closing 'violent and fierce' exposes his brutality, yet even then her tone stays restrained, making her grief all the more affecting.

《谷风》的艺术成就，首在「怨而不怒」抒情节制与「以乐景写哀」的反衬手法。全诗以弃妇自述口吻，通篇不见破口大骂，而多以追忆、对比、白描出之：第三章以「泾以渭浊，湜湜其沚」的流水明喻，自写虽被诬浊而本心清白，含蓄蕴藉；第四章以「就其深矣，方之舟之；就其浅矣，泳之游之」的排比，写当年持家渡难的种种周折，平常语中见深情。其对比结构极见匠心：昔日「黾勉同心」「及尔同死」的誓约，对今日「宴尔新昏，如兄如弟」的薄情；昔日「凡民有丧，匍匐救之」的仁义，对今日「不我屑以」「比予于毒」的冷酷——以乐衬哀，以昔衬今，愈显其悲。起兴「习习谷风，以阴以雨」既写自然界风暴，亦暗喻丈夫无故之怒（一说喻夫妇应如风雨和顺），兴中有比，奠定全诗凄风苦雨的基调。末章「有洸有溃，既诒我肄」以叠字写丈夫暴戾，于温厚中透出一丝锋芒，使怨情终有落点。通篇哀而不伤、怨而不怒，于追忆与对比中见出上古女性最温厚的申诉姿态，这正是孔子所谓「温柔敦厚」诗教在弃妇题材中的典型呈现。

Allusions

Several images have become lasting literary codes. 'Gathering turnips and radishes, not using the root' is a rustic metaphor for discarding the old on account of the new. 'Your new marriage' (yan er xin hun) became an allusion for a man's joyful remarriage; 'the Jing and Wei' became a metaphor for purity versus false accusation, foreshadowing Qu Yuan's 'alone am I pure.' 'Crawling to save' gave birth to the idiom for earnest rescue. These everyday objects and streams, through the poet's craft, transformed into universal symbols of abandonment and integrity.

诗中意象多本于周代日常与礼俗，却凝成绵长的文学语码。「谷风」本指来自大谷的暴风或东风，此处既实写天风，亦喻丈夫之怒，开启后世以「风」喻男子暴戾或命运无常的传统（如「飘风不终朝」）。「采葑采菲，无以下体」以采菜「取叶弃根」隐喻恋新厌旧，是《诗经》「以农事喻情」的典型，其「下体」（根）的被弃，直启《氓》「桑之落矣，其黄而陨」的色衰之喻。「宴尔新昏」之「宴」训乐，「昏」即「婚」古字，此词遂成男子再娶新欢的专属典故，后世「宴尔」一词即源于此。「泾以渭浊」以二水清浊相入写人我之别，是「清浊」母题的早期隐喻形态，对屈原文「举世皆浊我独清」、渔父「沧浪濯缨」皆有先导意义。「匍匐救之」写尽力赴难，后成「匍匐救难」成语。凡此，皆可见《谷风》以家常物事铸成永恒抒情范式的功力。凡此种种，皆可见《谷风》以家常农事与水流之象铸成后世抒情与比喻的永恒语码，其影响直贯汉乐府《上山采蘼芜》与古诗十九首的弃妇书写。

Commentary

The poem unfolds in six stanzas. The first recalls the marital vow and chides the husband's anger, using the valley wind as a portent of rage. The second narrates the wife's slow departure, his cold farewell at the gate, and her bitter realization that her lot is worse than bitter herbs. The third asserts her inner clarity through the Jing-Wei simile and laments her future, for she is not even accepted now. The fourth revisits her past industry—crossing deep waters, swimming shallows, and helping neighbors. The fifth denounces his ingratitude: he has rejected her as a foe and looks on her as poison. The final stanza reveals her stores, once meant to endure winter, now used to fend off his poverty, while he gives her only abuse. The ending poignantly recalls his former love, now utterly forgotten.

全诗六章，章法如泣诉长卷。首章「习习谷风」起兴，接以「黾勉同心，不宜有怒」「德音莫违，及尔同死」，追忆当初同心偕老之誓，已暗含今日之怒与违，是倒叙之笔。次章写被弃上路：「行道迟迟，中心有违」写不舍，「不远伊迩，薄送我畿」写夫之薄情只送到门槛，「谁谓荼苦？其甘如荠」以反语写心中之苦甚于荼菜，结以「宴尔新昏，如兄如弟」点出祸根——新人已据其位。第三章以「泾以渭浊，湜湜其沚」自明清白，复以「毋逝我梁，毋发我笱」的絮语留恋旧物，末句「我躬不阅，遑恤我后」沉痛自弃。第四章追述持家之劳：「方之舟之」「泳之游之」写渡难，「何有何亡，黾勉求之」「凡民有丧，匍匐救之」写其贤。第五章写恩将仇报：「不我能畜，反以我为仇」「既生既育，比予于毒」，今昔对照至烈。末章收束：「我有旨蓄，亦以御冬」「以我御穷」揭穿她不过是被用即弃的工具，「有洸有溃，既诒我肄」写所受虐待，「不念昔者，伊余来塈」以一声空梦般的叹息作结。六章由誓而弃、由弃而诉、由诉而伤，层层剥开一颗被辜负的心。

Prosody

Reading note The poem's irregular rhyme and enjambment mirror the speaker's agitated recollections, while the repetition of 'yan er xin hun' serves as a rhythmic anchor, pounding the new joy against the old sorrow.《卫风·谷风》为《国风》中篇幅较长的弃妇诗，六章章八句，句式以四言为主，间以「黾勉同心」「不我屑以」等加字词尾，节奏纡徐而带泣诉之调。押韵灵活，随情换韵：首章「雨」「怒」「下」「死」鱼部协（怒属鱼部、下死同部）；次章「违」「畿」「荠」「弟」微脂合韵；三章「沚」「以」「笱」「后」之部相协；四章「舟」「游」「求」「救」幽部一韵；五章「仇」「售」「鞫」「毒」幽觉职通押（古音旁转）；末章「冬」「穷」「肄」「塈」冬脂合韵。其重章虽不如《泽陂》那般严整复沓，却在「宴尔新昏」一词的三度重现（二、三、末章）中形成回旋的悲音锚点，强化了「新人笑、旧人哭」的刺点。句法多用倒装与反诘（「无以下体」「谁谓荼苦」「不我屑以」），使诵读时语气欹侧、如诉如泣，最宜于女声独唱的哀歌场合，体现了四言弃妇诗「韵随情转、辞婉而痛深」的声律特质。

Line by line

习习谷风，以阴以雨。

The opening rising image of the valley wind and rain sets a bleak atmosphere. The wind may be gentle or violent, but combined with yin and rain it prefigures the marital storm and the husband's inexplicable anger. This 'borrowing scene to express feeling' establishes the keynote of desolate sorrow and the poem's technique of implicit complaint.

Softly soughs the valley wind, now overcast, now raining.

「习习谷风，以阴以雨」是全诗起兴，亦是最耐寻味的篇首。「习习」或训和舒、或训连续不断，「谷风」或指东风（生长之风）、或指大谷暴风，二说并存恰成张力：若取「和顺」则喻夫妇本应如风雨滋物般和美，若取「暴怒」则直喻丈夫无故之怒。无论何解，「以阴以雨」的凄风苦雨已为全篇定下惨淡基调。此兴之妙，在于「景」与「情」的双向暗通：自然界的狂风骤雨，正对应诗中女子所遭遇的婚姻风暴与丈夫骤变的容色。它不开门见山写弃，而先以天象铺陈，使个人悲剧获得一种「天亦为之阴沉」的普遍悲悯，是《诗经》「先言他物以引起所咏之词」的最高明用法，也预示了全诗「怨而不怒、借景写哀」的抒情基调。

'Softly soughs the valley wind, now overcast, now raining' is the opening evocation of the poem and the most thought-provoking opening. 'Softly soughs' is glossed either as gentle and smooth or as continuous; 'valley wind' is taken either as the east wind (the wind of growth) or as the gale from a great valley, the two readings held in tension: if 'gentle' it images the harmony husband and wife should share like wind and rain nourishing things; if 'furious' it images the husband's causeless anger. Either way, the bitter wind and rain of 'now overcast, now raining' fix the bleak keynote of the whole. The art of this evocation lies in the two-way hidden passage between 'scene' and 'feeling': the natural storm corresponds to the marital tempest and the husband's sudden change that the woman suffers. It does not open by writing the abandonment, but first lays out the sky, endowing the personal tragedy with the universal pity of 'heaven itself turned overcast,' the most masterly use of the Book of Songs' 'first naming another thing to stir the subject,' and foreshadowing the lyric keynote of 'resentful without anger, grief through scenery.'

宴尔新昏，如兄如弟。

This piercing line describes the husband's joyful new marriage, where he and his new bride are 'like brothers.' Set against the earlier vow 'with you I would live and die,' it reveals how completely the woman's place has been taken. The light word 'yan' (joyful) becomes brutally sarcastic in the mouth of the abandoned wife.

Merry at your new marriage, you are like brother and sister.

「宴尔新昏，如兄如弟」是刺骨的一笔。「宴」训乐，「新昏」即新婚（「昏」为「婚」古字），写丈夫与新欢绸缪快乐；「如兄如弟」则以手足之亲喻二人亲密无间。此句之痛，在于它恰与首章「黾勉同心，及尔同死」的夫妻之誓形成最锋利的对照——昨日与我「同心」者，今日与新人「如兄如弟」，而「我」则被悬置在「不远伊迩，薄送我畿」的冷漠里。一个「宴」字极轻快，却因落在弃妇自述中而倍显残忍：你的快乐，正是我的刑场。「宴尔新昏」四字自此凝成男子再娶新欢的专属典故，后世诗词中以「宴尔」刺薄情者不绝，其最早而最沉痛的出处，便是《谷风》这一句。

'Merry at your new marriage, you are like brother and sister' is a cutting line. 'Merry' means joy, 'new marriage' the new wedding (marriage written in the ancient form); writing the husband's bliss with the new love. 'Like brother and sister' uses the closeness of siblings to image the pair's intimacy. The pain of the line lies in its sharp contrast with the first stanza's vow of 'let us strive as one heart, and die with you'—he who yesterday was 'of one heart' with me is today 'like brother and sister' with the new woman, while 'I' am suspended in the coldness of 'not far, I am near, you barely see me to the gate.' The single 'merry' is light, yet falling in the abandoned woman's telling it is the more cruel: your joy is my execution ground. The four characters 'merry at your new marriage' have since condensed into the allusion for a man's remarriage to a new love; later verse mocking the fickle has used 'merry' endlessly, and its earliest, most sorrowful source is this line of the 'Valley Wind.'

泾以渭浊，湜湜其沚。

This famous simile uses the Jing River, made turbid by the clearer Wei, to declare the speaker's innocence. She may appear muddy in her husband's eyes, but down at the bottom her waters remain clear. It is a restrained yet forceful self-defense, pioneering the 'clear and muddy' motif in Chinese poetry that later echoes in Qu Yuan and the 'Father of the Fisherman.'

The Jing, by the Wei, runs turbid; yet clear are, oh, its pools.

「泾以渭浊，湜湜其沚」是弃妇自明心迹的千古名句。泾水、渭水皆关中名川，泾水浊而渭水清，二水交汇，泾因渭衬而显其浊；「湜湜」形容水清见底，「沚」指水中小洲或水底——意谓泾水虽因汇入渭水而看似浑浊，但其底层仍清澈如故。诗人以此自喻：丈夫因有了新人而视我为「浊」，但我本心清澈无辜，一如泾底之清。这一以水喻人的比兴，含蓄蕴藉而力重千钧，把「被诬」的委屈化作一幅可触的水图。其「清浊」母题，正是屈原「举世皆浊我独清」、渔父「沧浪濯缨」的先声，可见中国诗以水性写人格的传统，早在《诗经》弃妇口中便已成熟。相较直诉冤屈，此句以景代情，最得「怨而不怒」之妙。

'The Jing, by the Wei, runs turbid; yet clear are, oh, its pools' is the age-old line in which the abandoned woman declares her innocence. The Jing and Wei are both famous rivers of the central plain, the Jing turbid and the Wei clear; where the two meet, the Jing seems turbid by contrast with the Wei. 'Clear' describes water transparent to the bottom, 'pools' the islets or the riverbed—the meaning is that the Jing, though seeming turbid where it joins the Wei, is at bottom clear as before. The woman compares herself: because the husband has a new love he sees me as 'turbid,' yet my own heart is clear and blameless, like the clearness at the bottom of the Jing. This water-metaphor is reserved and weighty, turning the grievance of being slandered into a tangible water picture. Its theme of 'clear and turbid' is the forerunner of Qu Yuan's 'the whole world is turbid, I alone am clear' and the Fisherman's 'washing the lapel in the clear waves'; it shows that the Chinese poetic tradition of writing character through water was already mature in the mouth of the Book of Songs' abandoned woman. Compared with pleading her grievance directly, this line substitutes scenery for feeling and best achieves the 'resentful without anger.'

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Word focus

黾勉 mǐn miǎn: to exert oneself diligently; the repeated adverb 'striving' embodies the wife's entire ethic of hard work and forbearance, set against the husband's total ingratitude. 「黾勉同心，不宜有怒」「何有何亡，黾勉求之」中「黾勉」（音min mian）意为勤勉、努力、勉力而为。叠韵联绵词，状人尽心竭力之态。诗中两见，首章写当初夫妻「黾勉同心」共守盟誓，第四章写持家时「何有何亡，黾勉求之」——无论家中有无，皆勉力谋求、从无怨言。一个「黾勉」，浓缩了这位女子在婚姻中全部的勤恳与隐忍，也反衬出丈夫「不我屑以」「比予于毒」的忘恩。它是全诗的「德」之核心：女主人公所有的悲剧，不在于她不曾努力，而恰恰在于她的努力被彻底抹杀。后世「黾勉」一词沿用为「勉力从事」的雅言（如归有光「黾勉从事」），其温厚勤勉的内核，正自《谷风》这位无名女子而来。

湜湜 shí shí: clear and pure (of water); used to describe the transparent bottom of the Jing River, it declares the wife's untainted inner integrity despite the murk of accusation. 「泾以渭浊，湜湜其沚」之「湜湜」（音shi）形容水清见底、明净的样子。它与上句「浊」形成强烈反差：泾水因汇入渭水而表相浑浊，但其底「湜湜」依然清澈，正如诗人虽被丈夫视为可弃之「浊」，本心却清白无瑕。叠字「湜湜」本身即带水光澄澈的视觉质感，与「浊」的浑噩构成视听双重对照。此词的力量在于「底层之清」的隐喻——外界的污名如水面之浑，遮不住内在的真实，这是一种含蓄而坚定的自辩。以「湜湜」写清，与《诗经》他处「河水清且涟猗」同一白描传统，而置于弃妇自明之境，则使寻常水字承载了人格重量，是炼字「以物之清浊写人之清浊」的典范。

宴尔 yàn ěr: 'joyfully, at ease'; a compound describing the husband's pleasure in his new marriage, which has passed into the language as an allusion to remarrying and forgetting the old love. 「宴尔新昏」之「宴」训乐、安乐，「尔」为语助词（或指代「你」），「新昏」即新婚。合言即「你快乐地新结姻缘」。「宴」字本有安享、和乐之意（如「宴安」），此处以轻快的「宴」写丈夫再娶之欢，落在弃妇口中便成最尖的讽刺——你的「宴」，正是我的「殇」。尤为关键的是，「宴尔新昏」自此凝定为汉语中男子再娶新欢的专属典故，后世诗文每以「宴尔」刺薄情（如「莫教偏，和月和天，乞与新人，也恁么团圆」虽异趣而同调），其词源即在此篇。一个本表「安乐」的寻常字，因被安放在弃妇叙事的对照轴上，竟获得了穿越千年的悲剧反讽意味。