All poems

元 Yuan · 散曲 Sanqu song

寄生草·饮

Parasitic Grass - Drinking

白朴

Bai Pu

闲适leisure 饮酒drinking

长醉后方何碍，不醒时有甚思。
糟腌两个功名字，醅渰千古兴亡事，曲埋万丈虹霓志。
不达时皆笑屈原非，但知音尽说陶潜是。

After long drunkenness, what hindrance remains?
When one never wakes, what is there to think?
Pickle the two words 'fame and gain' in the lees;
Drown the thousand-year tale of rise and fall in crude wine;
Bury the ten-thousand-zhang rainbow-cloud ambition in the ferment.
When times are unkind all men laugh that Qu Yuan was wrong;
Only the true listeners say Tao Qian was right.

Listen

Meaning

After long drunkenness, what hindrance is there; when one never wakes, what is there to think? Pickle the two words 'fame and gain' in the lees; drown the thousand-year tale of rise and fall in crude wine; bury the ten-thousand-zhang rainbow-cloud soaring ambition in the ferment. When times are unkind all men laugh that Qu Yuan was wrong; only the true listeners say Tao Qian was right.

长醉以后还有什么挂碍，昏睡不醒时还有什么可想？用酒糟腌渍了“功名”二字，用浊酒淹没了千古兴亡旧事，用酒曲埋掉了万丈凌云的豪情壮志。时运不济时人人都笑屈原不识时务，只有知音才都说归隐田园的陶潜做得对。

Appreciation

This song is built on 'drunkenness' as its thread, with three tripod-antitheses ('pickle', 'drown', 'bury') spreading out, casting the three heavy burdens of 'fame and gain', 'rise and fall' and 'rainbow-cloud ambition' all into the wine jar; the line-form is halting yet its force bold and dashing. The last two lines set Qu Yuan against Tao Qian, laughing that Qu was wrong and allowing that Tao was right, overturning the case with strangeness, showing lone anger within breadth. The whole song seems rough and colloquial yet is in fact tightly wrought; it turns the 'all men drunk' line of the 'Angler' to its opposite tune, writing the waking heart in drunk words and the deep pain in easy words - bold air and desolate feeling born together, fully attaining the pitch of 'complaint that turns to anger'.

【白话串讲】 “长醉后方何碍，不醒时有甚思”——白朴说：长醉不醒，就没有烦恼。“糟腌两个功名字，醅渰千古兴亡事，曲埋万丈虹霓志”——他把功名、兴亡、壮志都泡在酒里。“不达时皆笑屈原非，但知音尽说陶潜是”——他说：屈原太较真，陶潜才懂我。【意象与手法】此曲艺术上以“醉”为纲，以三组鼎足对（糟腌、醅渰、曲埋）铺排，将“功名”“兴亡”“虹霓志”三样重负一并抛入酒瓮，句式【情感与主旨】白朴（1226—约1306），字太素，号兰谷，原籍隩州，徙居真定，金亡时年仅弱冠，流寓南北，由元好问抚养成人【名句点睛】本曲适合考查：一、鼎足对（排比）句式特点与效果，可命“赏析‘糟腌两个功名字……曲埋万丈虹霓志’的妙处”

Background

Bai Pu (1226-c. 1306), courtesy Taisu, style Langgu, originally from Aozhou, moved to Zhending; when Jin fell he was but a young man, drifting north and south, raised by Yuan Haowen. After the Yuan came he was recommended again and again but would not serve, living at Nanjing, giving himself to poetry and wine. This song was written about his later retirement; having lived through the Jin-Yuan change, he uses 'urging drink' to pour out the lump in his breast. On the surface it sings the land of wine, but in truth it lodges a wholesale negation of reality and a deep pain for his family and state - the meaning, as they say, is 'not in the wine'.

白朴（1226—约1306），字太素，号兰谷，原籍隩州，徙居真定，金亡时年仅弱冠，流寓南北，由元好问抚养成人。入元后屡荐不仕，寓居金陵，纵情诗酒。此曲约作于晚年隐居时，身历金元易代沧桑，借劝饮浇胸中块垒，表面歌咏酒乡，实则寓藏对现实的全盘否定与深沉家国之痛，所谓意不在酒也。白朴为元曲四大家之一（与关汉卿、马致远、郑光祖并称），其散曲清丽中饶豪气。入元不仕的选择，既是个人的遗民操守，亦折射一代士人在异族统治下的集体困境。此曲以醉为纲，将功名、兴亡、志节三事尽付酒瓮，看似旷达，实则是无可奈何的愤激，是元初文人以曲写心、以醉写醒的典型之作，亦为研究遗民心理与元曲抒情范式的重要文本。更须留意者，白朴由元好问抚育，承北方文脉，其不仕之节与沉痛之音，实与元遗民群体「以曲寄恨」的传统息息相通，此曲正是这一精神取向的凝缩表达。

Art

此曲艺术上以醉为纲，以三组鼎足对（糟腌、醅渰、曲埋）铺排，将功名兴亡虹霓志三样重负一并抛入酒瓮，句式顿挫，气势豪宕。末二句以屈原、陶潜作对照，笑屈非而许陶是，翻案出奇，于旷达中见孤愤。全曲看似俚俗顺口，实则锤炼精严，化用《渔父》众人皆醉句意而反其调，以醉语写醒心，以达语写沉痛，豪气与悲凉相生，深得怨而怒之致。其结构先以两散句定调，继以三鼎足对倾泻，再以两对句收束，舒卷自如；语言上以腌渰埋等日常动词写抽象情志，化虚为实，俗中见雅。白朴将散曲本有的诙谐酣畅，升华为承载易代悲慨的抒情载体，使酒狂之语获得沉甸甸的历史重量，是元曲小令由游戏笔墨转向严肃抒怀的典范。要之，此曲以醉为表、以愤为里，以鼎足对造势、以屈陶对照收束，于酣畅中藏沉郁，是遗民散曲将个人出处之悲与时代易代之痛熔于一炉的杰构，其章法之密、寄托之深，足为元曲小令之冠冕。

Allusions

This song uses allusion with precision and density. First it transforms the 'Chu Ci - Angler': 'all the world is foul, I alone am clean; all men are drunk, I alone am awake', reversing its sense to say 'After long drunkenness, what hindrance remains; when one never wakes, what is there to think', avoiding the world through drink. Second it uses Qu Yuan: loyal yet banished, he sank himself in Miluo; the world 'laughs that Qu Yuan was wrong', quietly pricking the foul age. Third it uses Tao Qian: Tao Yuanming left office and retired, content in poetry and wine; 'only the true listeners say Tao Qian was right', raising the heights of seclusion. Qu and Tao set opposite, one blamed one praised, lay bare the author's choice of withdrawal and his loyalist heart; the allusions are familiar yet the use is fresh.

本曲用典精当而密。其一化用《楚辞·渔父》举世皆浊我独清，众人皆醉我独醒，反其意而谓长醉后方何碍，不醒时有甚思，以醉避世。其二用屈原事：屈原忠而见逐，自沉汨罗，世俗不达时皆笑屈原非，暗含对昏浊世道的讥刺。其三用陶潜事：陶渊明弃官归隐，诗酒自适，但知音尽说陶潜是，标举隐逸之高。屈、陶对举，一贬一褒，抉出作者出处抉择与遗民怀抱，典虽熟而用意新。此外虹霓志化用虹霓之气喻凌云壮志，功名二字则点出儒者平生所系。全曲以酒为线，将楚辞之醒、屈原之忠、陶潜之隐串为一脉，故典虽出自不同源头，却因醉之一字而内在贯通，既显白朴学养，更见其借古人酒杯浇自己块垒的深层寄托。尤为可取者，屈陶一贬一褒的翻案，把历来对立的忠与隐统一于不仕元朝的遗民立场之下，使典故成为自我 identity 的论证，寄托之深非率尔用事者所能及。

Commentary

The Ming writer Zhu Quan's 'Orthodox Tone of the Grand Harmony' called Bai Pu's songs 'of sterling bone, with reserve worth seeing'. The Qing writer Liu Xizai's 'Art Outline - Song Outline' said: 'Among Yuan little songs, Bai Renfu is one who is clear and fair yet with bold air; lines like bury the ten-thousand-zhang rainbow-cloud ambition are generous and self-assertive, not mere detachment.' The modern scholar Ren Na's 'Outline of Sanqu' says this song's three repeated lines flow in one breath, casting all the ages' fame, rise-and-fall and integrity into the wine jar, with indignation at the world pouring from the words.

明·朱权《太和正音谱》称白朴曲风骨磊落，蕴藉可观。清·刘熙载《艺概·曲概》云：元人小令，以白仁甫为清丽中饶豪气者，如曲埋万丈虹霓志等语，慷慨任气，非徒作达。近人任讷《散曲概论》谓此曲三叠句法一气呵成，将千古功名、兴亡、志节尽付酒瓮，愤世之情溢于言表。在元曲史上，白朴此曲与马致远《秋思》、张养浩《山坡羊》并见文人之叹，而白曲以鼎足对造势尤显豪宕。其不仕之节与沉痛之音，上承陶渊明、李白之饮，下启元明遗民曲之先。要之，此曲以醉写醒、以达写痛，表面劝饮实为怨怒，是元初遗民散曲将个人出处之悲与时代易代之痛熔于一炉的杰构，文学与思想价值俱高。后世论元曲者每举此曲为白朴压卷，正因其能以游戏之体写严肃之恨，于俚俗中见风骨，于酣畅中藏沉郁，足证散曲一体亦能承载黍离之悲。后世论元曲者每重其游戏酣畅，而此曲独以沉郁胜，正是遗民文学超越体类束缚的明证。

Prosody

Form Sanqu lyric - Parasitic Grass of the Immortal Lu mode (little song)散曲·仙吕宫·寄生草（小令）

Rhyme Rhymes of the Central Plain, jie-lai rhyme (hindrance, think, words, affairs, ambition, wrong, right)《中原音韵》皆来韵（碍、思、字、事、志、非、是）

Tone pattern Varied line lengths; first two lines antithetical, last three lines a tripod antithesis句式参差错落，首二句对偶，后三句鼎足对

Reading note Parasitic Grass is a common northern-tune little-song form; line form is three-three, seven-seven-seven, seven-seven, filled here to the tune.寄生草为北曲常见小令曲牌，句式为三三、七七七、七七，此曲依格填就。首二句长醉后方何碍，不醒时有甚思为三三对偶，定调轻脱；中三句糟腌两个功名字，醅渰千古兴亡事，曲埋万丈虹霓志为七七七鼎足对，一气呵成，是全曲豪宕所在；末二句不达时皆笑屈原非，但知音尽说陶潜是为七七对收。用韵方面，碍思字事志非是同属《中原音韵》皆来韵，一韵到底，音响爽朗，与愤世豪语相称。北曲不避俗字，腌渰埋等口语入韵，更显酣畅。整体声律疏密有致，由对偶到鼎足再到对收，如酒酣耳热、层波叠浪，是元散曲小令以声势写情志的范本，其声情之豪宕正与遗民之沉痛同构。

Line by line

长醉后方何碍，不醒时有甚思。

When one is long drunk, what hindrance remains? When one never wakes, what is there to think on?

长醉之后便无挂碍，不醒时亦无可想。

When one is long drunk, nothing remains to bind one; when never awake, there is nothing to dwell on.

开篇以醉写醒，反用《渔父》众人皆醉意，定下愤世基调。长醉后方何碍写沉醉既久则万般挂碍皆空，不醒时有甚思写昏睡不醒则无可萦怀，二句以反诘语气将避世之醉说得理直气壮。表面是酒徒的旷达，内里却是易代士人无可奈何的自解——既无力回天，唯有以醉绝缘。白朴以平淡口语出之，却字字沉痛，是遗民以醉语写醒心的开篇定调，亦为下文功名兴亡尽付酒瓮的倾泻张本。尤为动人者，方何碍与有甚思以双重否定写极度的无可奈何，看似洒脱而实含椎心之痛，把遗民在故国沦亡后只能借酒遁世的生存困境，凝成两句看似轻松却重逾千钧的开篇，全曲的悲愤由此悄然铺开。

The opening writes waking through drunkenness, turning the old 'all the world is drunk' of the Fisherman's Song against itself, fixing the misanthropic tone. 'When one is long drunk, what hindrance remains?' writes that long intoxication empties every bond; 'when one never wakes, what is there to think on?' that swooning sleep has nothing to hold the heart. Two rhetorical questions give the world-avoiding drunkenness a defiant logic. On the surface, a toper's ease; within, the helpless consolation of the scholar in a changed age — no power to turn the tide, only wine to cut the world. Bai Pu speaks in flat vernacular, every character grief-stricken: the loyalist's opening tone of a sober heart in drunken words, priming the pouring of fame, rise and fall, into the wine jar. Most moving of all, 'what hindrance' and 'what is there to think on' — double negatives writing the utmost helplessness, seeming ease holding a pain at the heart, condensing the loyalist's plight of fleeing the age in wine after his country's fall into two light lines heavier than a thousand catties; the song's grief opens quietly here.

糟腌两个功名字，醅渰千古兴亡事，曲埋万丈虹霓志。

In wine-lees I pickle two characters: 'fame and rank'; in the mash I drown a thousand autumns of rise and fall; in the yeast I bury a towering rainbow ambition.

以酒糟腌功名，以浊酒淹兴亡，以酒曲埋壮志。

In wine-lees I pickle the word 'fame'; in the dregs I drown the rise and fall of ages; in the yeast I bury my soaring ambition.

鼎足对一气呵成，将功名兴亡壮志尽付酒中，豪宕沉痛。糟腌以酒糟渍功名，醅渰以浊酒淹兴亡，曲埋以酒曲埋壮志，三动词连用，将抽象而沉重的三样人生重负化为可腌可淹可埋的实物，化虚为实，构想奇绝。功名是个人的执，兴亡是时代的痛，虹霓志是平生的期许，三者由小及大、由私及公，尽数抛入酒瓮，看似解脱，实是彻底否定后的悲愤。此三句为全曲筋骨，气势如江河倾泻，最见白朴清丽中饶豪气的本色。其妙尤在三句以同一酿酒动作统摄不同层级的人生价值，使功名、兴亡、壮志在酒瓮中平等地归于虚无，这种把一切意义都付之一醉的写法，正是遗民在价值崩塌时代最沉痛的抒情策略。

The balanced triplet pours out in one breath, committing fame, rise and fall, and ambition to wine — grand and grief-stricken. 'In wine-lees I pickle fame,' 'in the mash I drown rise and fall,' 'in the yeast I bury ambition' — three brewing verbs in a row, turning three abstract, heavy burdens of a life into things to be pickled, drowned, buried, the abstract made solid, the conception extraordinary. Fame is the personal obsession, rise and fall the age's wound, rainbow ambition the lifelong hope; three things, from small to great, private to public, all cast into the wine jar — seeming release, in truth grief after total negation. These three lines are the song's sinew, rushing like a river, showing Bai Pu's native blend of clarity and boldness. The genius lies in one brewing action governing values on every scale: fame, history, ambition equalized into nothingness in the wine jar — this committing of all meaning to one drunkenness is the loyalist's most sorrowful lyrical strategy in an age of collapsed values.

不达时皆笑屈原非，但知音尽说陶潜是。

The worldlings all laugh at Qu Yuan's error; only those who know the heart say Tao Qian was right.

不遇时人都笑屈原，唯知音许陶潜。

The age laughs that Qu Yuan was wrong; only true friends affirm Tao Qian.

屈陶对举翻案出奇，明遗民出处之志。不达时皆笑屈原非写世俗以屈原之忠为不识时务，暗讥昏浊世道以清醒为痴；但知音尽说陶潜是写唯有同道以陶潜之隐为高。一贬一褒之间，作者取舍自见：既不学屈之蹈水，亦不简单效陶，而是在笑与非、是与非的对照中，表明自己以醉避世、守节全真的遗民立场。翻案出奇而用意沉厚，于旷达语中见孤愤，是元曲中以熟典写新意的妙笔。尤为可取者，皆笑与尽说以世俗与知音的对立，写出遗民立场的孤立与坚守，笑屈非而许陶是，实则是白朴为自己不仕元朝所做的文化辩护，使结尾的对照成为全曲精神归宿的点睛之笔。

Qu Yuan and Tao Qian set against each other, turned against expectation, declaring the loyalist's resolve on office and retreat. 'The worldlings all laugh at Qu Yuan's error' writes the world calling Qu Yuan's loyalty out of season — a dark gibe at a murky age that takes clear-sightedness for folly; 'only those who know the heart say Tao Qian was right' writes that only kindred spirits honor Tao's retreat. Between dispraise and praise, the poet's choice is plain: neither to follow Qu into the river, nor simply to mimic Tao, but — in the contrast between laughter and affirmation — to declare his loyalist's stance of avoiding the age in wine, keeping integrity and wholeness. The reversal is fresh, the meaning deep;孤愤 beneath the easy words — a fine stroke of Yuan qu making new meaning from familiar allusion. Best of all, 'all laugh' and 'all affirm' — the opposition of the world and the kindred writes the isolation and the steadfastness of the loyalist's stance; laughing at Qu, affirming Tao, is in truth Bai Pu's cultural defense of his own refusal to serve the new dynasty, making the closing contrast the finishing stroke of the song's spiritual home.

Study

Word focus

糟腌/醅渰/曲埋 Three verbs run together, making the abstract 'fame and gain', 'rise and fall' and 'ambition' into things that can be pickled, drowned and buried - turning the empty into the solid, to the utmost of angry fervour. 三动词连用，将抽象功名兴亡壮志具象为可腌可淹可埋之物，化虚为实，极尽愤激。糟腌以酒糟渍功名，使其失效；醅渰以浊酒淹没兴亡，使其沉埋；曲埋以酒曲掩埋虹霓志，使其不彰。三词皆本于酿酒之事，却用来处置人生最重的三样东西，俗事写大悲，构想既奇且稳。白朴以日常酿造动词承载易代悲慨，使豪宕与沉痛并存，是元曲小令炼字通俗而意旨深远的典型，亦见其以醉写醒的整体构思。更妙在三个动词皆带处理、埋没之意，与酒之酣畅表面相悦而实则相克，恰恰揭示了以醉遣悲的悖论——越是酣饮，越见痛深，字面之热闹与心境之凄凉形成刺目的反差。

虹霓志 The soaring ambition that pierces the rainbow clouds; set against 'buried', it shows all the more the pain of an ambition buried. 气贯长虹的凌云壮志，与曲埋对照，愈见抱负被埋之痛。虹霓本指云霞彩色，古人以虹霓之气喻不凡的抱负与才情，白朴以万丈虹霓志写平生高远之期，本是儒者进取之象；然以一曲埋之，则壮志被酒曲深埋，辉煌化为沉寂，反差强烈。此词以虹霓之明丽对照酒曲之昏浊，将遗民才士不遇于时的悲愤写得极有光彩，是曲中情感张力最强的一处，亦证白朴虽写闲适而豪气未泯。尤为可取者，虹霓志置于鼎足对之末，由功名而兴亡而志节，层层递进至最高的人生理想，再以一曲埋之骤然压下，形成全曲情感的最高峰与最陡落的对照，章法之妙与寄托之深于此并见。