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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

长安秋望

Autumn View at Chang'an

杜牧

Du Mu

秋景Autumn scenery 写景Descriptive writing

楼倚霜树外，镜天无一毫。
南山与秋色，气势两相高。

The tower leans beyond the frost-bitten trees;
A sky as clear as a mirror, free of the least wisp of cloud.
South Mountain and the season of autumn,
In resting strength each straining to out-top the other.

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Meaning

From a high tower outside Chang'an the poet looks out on an autumn sky of unusual clarity. The ground is bare and frosted, the air is too clean to hold a single cloud, and beyond everything the peak of South Mountain rises, so that mountain and season seem to compete for height. The poem is an ordinary view made strange by the plainness and the grandeur with which it is described.

楼倚霜树外，镜天无一毫。南山与秋色，气势两相高。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Climbing in autumn at Chang'an, the poet sets a tower against frost-darkened trees, then a sky 'as clear as a mirror,' and finally the far wall of South Mountain. [Structure] The eye moves outward twice: from the tower to the sky, then from the sky to the mountain. Each image follows the last in a widening circle. [Imagery] Three things carry the poem — the frosty outer trees, the mirror sky without a wisp of cloud, and the mountain that answers the sky. What is unusual is that the season itself is made into a visible presence: autumn is not the background of the view but one of the things viewed, rising and setting like a rival against the mountain. In four lines the poem manages the whole rhetorical shift of Chinese landscape poetry — to make an inner mood out of outer space without ever naming the mood.

【白话串讲】杜牧写《长安秋望》：“楼倚霜树外，镜天无一毫”——“南山与秋色，气势两相高”——秋日天空明净如镜，终南山与秋色比气势——他写长安的秋。【意象与手法】此诗写长安秋望，以写景写秋色，是杜牧的名篇。前二句写所见：「楼倚霜树外，镜天无一毫」写楼倚霜树外、镜天无一毫——写尽秋空的明净；后二句写所感：「南山与秋色，气势两相高」写南山与秋色、气势两相高——写尽南山与秋色的气势。全诗以写景写秋色，写尽长安秋望的明净与气势，是杜牧的代表作。【情感与主旨】此诗写长安秋望，以写景写秋色，是杜牧的名篇。此诗写诗人于长安高楼之上秋望所见。此诗写所见：楼倚霜树外，镜天无一毫——写楼倚霜树外、镜天无一毫，写尽秋空的明净；南山与秋色，气势两相高——写南山与秋色、气势两相高，写尽南山与秋色的气势。全诗以写景写秋色——那「镜天无一毫」写尽秋空的明净，「气势两相高」写尽南山与秋色的气势，写尽长安秋望的明净与气势，是理解杜牧写景诗的重要篇章。【名句点睛】常考「楼倚霜树外，镜天无一毫」写秋空的明净；「南山与秋色，气势两相高」写南山与秋色的气势；以及全诗以写景写秋色、以气势写秋色的手法。

Background

Du Mu (803–c. 852), courtesy name Mu-zhi, was born in Chang'an of a family of officials from Jiangzhou. He held a number of small posts, wrote on the military defence of the northern frontier, and is remembered for his hailstone-fine landscape poems and his histories. He is called the younger 'Li-Du' after Li Shangyin, with whom he is paired. South Mountain, the Zhongnan range south of the capital, would have been in plain view from the city; the poem probably belongs to a period when Du Mu was serving in Chang'an and looking out over the autumn country beyond the walls.

此诗写长安秋望，以写景写秋色，是杜牧的名篇。杜牧（803—约852），字牧之，京兆万年（今陕西西安）人，晚唐伟大的诗人，与李商隐并称「小李杜」。此诗写诗人于长安高楼之上秋望所见，当为杜牧在长安任职时所作。长安城南有终南山（南山），秋日登楼可望南山与秋色。此诗写所见：「楼倚霜树外，镜天无一毫」写楼倚霜树外、镜天无一毫——写尽秋空的明净（高楼倚于经霜的树外，天空明净如镜，无一毫纤尘）；「南山与秋色，气势两相高」写南山与秋色、气势两相高——写尽南山与秋色的气势（终南山与秋色，气势两相争高）。全诗以写景写秋色，写尽长安秋望的明净与气势，是理解杜牧写景诗的重要篇章。还应说明此诗的写作视角：诗人立于高楼，先写近景「楼倚霜树外」，次写远景「镜天无一毫」，再写更远处「南山与秋色」，由近及远、层层推展，正是登高望远的经典取景。长安城南的终南山，秋日天高气清之时，山色与秋色俱显高峻澄澈，杜牧以「气势两相高」一句，将山之高与秋之高并举，实则是以南山之峻写秋色之高、以秋色之高衬南山之峻，二者相得而愈彰，可见其炼意之精。

Art

Four things are worth noticing. One, the selected adjective: 'leaning' gives the tower a body that presses outward; 'mirror' fixes the sky in a single clarity; and the very short 'wisp' says how little is there to see — the absence is described by measuring it. Two, the metaphor of the mirror sky, which turns the heavens into a polished surface, bright enough to show the mountain's reflection and, by implication, the poet's own face. Three, the拟人 in 'each straining to out-top the other': the mountain and the season are given a contest they cannot actually hold, and the invention of that contest is the poem's life. Four, economy — twenty characters, no adjective wasted. The climactic line is the third: by pairing the solid mountain with the abstract 'autumn colour,' Du Mu lets the intangible landscape be measured against the visible one, and in doing so quietly gives the abstraction the victory.

此诗的艺术特色可从四个方面解析。其一，以写景写秋空。「楼倚霜树外，镜天无一毫」以写景写秋空——那「霜树外」「镜天无一毫」写尽霜树与明净的天空，以写景写尽秋空的明净。其二，以比喻写明净。「镜天无一毫」以比喻写明净——那「镜天」以镜喻天，写尽秋空的明净如镜，以比喻写尽秋空的无尘。其三，以拟人写气势。「南山与秋色，气势两相高」以拟人写气势——那「气势两相高」写尽南山与秋色相争高，以拟人写尽秋色的气势。其四，以虚写实写秋色。全诗以南山之气势写秋色之气势，以虚写实写尽秋色的高远。此外，此诗前二句写秋空的明净，后二句写南山与秋色的气势，由近而远、由实而虚，正是写景诗「登高望远」的写法。四重手法，使此诗以写景写秋色，写尽长安秋望的明净与气势，是杜牧的代表作。此诗炼字尤精：一个「倚」字写楼傍霜树之态，一个「镜」字喻秋空之明，一个「毫」字极言无尘，一个「高」字收束全诗之气势——二十字中，字字有着落，而「两相高」之拟人尤妙，将无生命的南山与抽象的秋色并举，赋予其争高的动态，使画面由静转动、由实入虚，正见杜牧「语不惊人死不休」的炼意功夫。

Allusions

The poem belongs to a long tradition of looking south at Zhongnan. The famous earlier line 'I pick chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, and quietly see South Mountain' gives the mountain a meaning of ease and retirement; Du Mu's mountain is none of that. Here it is a rival in a contest of height, cold and withdrawn rather than contented — the same mountain, put to a different use. The 'mirror sky' also answers to a whole tradition of calling the autumn sky bright and unclouded, 'the season of autumn shows itself more clearly than the season of spring,' and the phrase 'not a single wisp' measures that cleanness exactly. The word yi, 'to lean on,' echoes the familiar posture of leaning on a railing and looking out — the posture of exhaustion or yearning that readers bring to the poem.

此诗的用语深植于秋望与南山传统。「楼倚霜树外」令人想到「霜树」写经霜树木的意象——「楼倚霜树外」正是杜牧的名句，也令人想到「倚楼」写倚楼的意象——「独自莫凭栏」的倚栏；「镜天无一毫」令人想到「镜天」写如镜天空的意象——「镜天无一毫」正是杜牧的名句，也令人想到「无一毫」写无一丝云翳的意象；「南山与秋色」令人想到「南山」写终南山的意象——「南山」即终南山，也令人想到「秋色」写秋色的意象——「南山与秋色」正是杜牧的名句；「气势两相高」令人想到「气势」写气势的意象——「气势两相高」正是杜牧的名句，也令人想到「相高」写争高的意象。此诗写南山秋色，令人想到「采菊东篱下，悠然见南山」的南山传统，然陶诗之南山是悠然自得之境，杜牧之南山则是与秋色争高之势，一静一动，可见用典之变。全诗化用霜树、镜天、南山的意象，以写景写秋色，正是杜牧「俊爽峭健」而善写景、承秋望传统写气势的本领。

Commentary

This has always been counted one of Du Mu's finest landscape poems and the best of the Tang poems on an autumn view of Chang'an. Qing anthologists described the poem's manner as 'tart and force,' pointing to how plainly and yet how strongly it is built; modern readers quote 'South Mountain and the season of autumn, in resting strength each straining to out-top the other' as its line. Its place in the history is as a compendium of the mature Du Mu style: small, hard, precise, free of ornament, and unexpectedly large in the last couplet. Read beside Du Mu's 'Mountain Walk' — a poem about stopping for the red leaves at dusk — the two show the range of his autumn: one intimate and warm, one austere and almost vertical.

此诗历来被推为杜牧写景诗的名篇，也是唐人写长安秋望的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以写景写秋色，俊爽峭健」；近人更指出「南山与秋色，气势两相高」写南山与秋色的气势，是此诗的名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以四句的绝句写尽长安秋望的明净与气势——那倚霜树的高楼，那无一毫的镜天，那南山，那秋色，那两相高的气势，都写尽了杜牧笔下的长安秋色；那「南山与秋色，气势两相高」更以拟人写尽秋色的气势。此诗与杜牧《山行》（「停车坐爱枫林晚」）同为秋景名篇，一写「霜叶红于二月花」的山行（山行），一写「气势两相高」的秋望（长安秋望）；又与王维「行到水穷处，坐看云起时」的南山传统一脉相承，可见长安南山在唐诗中的积淀。对于今日读者，此诗是理解杜牧写景诗的窗口，也是中国诗写长安秋望的经典——那与秋色争高的南山，穿越千年，仍在诉说着秋望的气势。

Prosody

Form Shi · Five-character jueju (quatrain)诗·五言绝句

Rhyme Jueju in five characters, rhyming on 'hao' (wisp) and 'gao' (high) — the Hao rhyme of the lower level, level tone; one rhyme throughout, in a curt, forceful cadence.五绝，押「毫」「高」韵（下平四豪），一韵到底，音节峭健

Tone pattern A five-character jueju on the level tone, rhymed straight through with a hard, spare sound that matches the cold hardness of an autumn sky.此诗为五言绝句，押平声韵，一韵到底，音节峭健，正合秋望的峭健。

Reading note Four lines of five characters: 'The tower leans beyond the frost-bitten trees; / A sky as clear as a mirror, free of the least wisp of cloud. / South Mountain and the season of autumn, / In resting strength each straining to out-top the other.' The rhyme is on the Hao group — hao, gao — held to the end, with no change of key; the sound is short and clipped, and suits the poem's bareness. The first couplet is clear, the second couplet is force; the poem passes from looking to asserting. Read 'the tower leans beyond the frost-bitten trees' steadily, as at the top of a building; read 'In resting strength each straining to out-top the other' high and unhurried, letting the last syllables carry; the closing line should sound resolved rather thanquiet. Du Mu's jueju are famous for this kind of hard, dry finish, and this is among the best of them.此诗为五言绝句，四句——「楼倚霜树外，镜天无一毫。南山与秋色，气势两相高」，押「豪」韵（毫、高），一韵到底，音节峭健。全诗以写景写秋色：前二句写秋空的明净（楼倚霜树外，镜天无一毫），后二句写南山与秋色的气势（南山与秋色，气势两相高）。四句短章，前写明净，后写气势，正见杜牧「俊爽峭健」的本色。诵读此诗，宜以峭健的语调读「楼倚霜树外」的秋空，以高昂的语调读「气势两相高」的气势，结句「气势两相高」要读得高亢而有余韵，方能传达出杜牧的俊爽峭健。杜牧绝句以「俊爽峭健」著称，此诗正是其秋望绝句的典范。

Line by line

南山与秋色，气势两相高

South Mountain and the season of autumn, in resting strength each straining to out-top the other.

终南山与秋色，气势两相争高。

The Southern Hills and the autumn air vie with each other in loftiness.

此二句是全诗写气势的核心，以南山写山，以秋色写天，写尽南山与秋色的气势，是千古名句。「南山与秋色」写终南山与秋色——那「南山」写终南山，「秋色」写秋色，写尽南山与秋色；「气势两相高」写气势两相争高——那「气势」写气势，「两相高」写两相争高，写尽南山与秋色的气势。这句的深意在于：它以「南山与秋色」的山与天与「气势两相高」的争高，写尽南山与秋色的气势——终南山与秋色，那「南山与秋色」写尽南山与秋色——终南山高耸，秋色明净，正是长安秋望的两大景，那「南山与秋色」写尽秋望的景物；气势两相争高，那「气势两相高」写尽南山与秋色的气势——南山之峻与秋色之高，两相争高，那「两相高」写尽气势的争胜；那「南山与秋色」写尽南山与秋色，那「气势两相高」写尽南山与秋色的气势，一写山，一写秋色，写尽南山与秋色的气势——南山高峻、秋色高远，两相争高，正是长安秋望的气势；此二句以南山、秋色写尽南山与秋色的气势，也让此二句成为全诗写气势的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「秋天的南山很高」，则失其气势；唯以「南山与秋色」写山与天、「气势两相高」写争高，写尽南山与秋色的气势，也让此二句成为全诗写气势的核心。

Du Mu's autumn outlook on Chang'an compresses the whole season into a contest. The Zhongnan Hills are high; the autumn air is high; and the two, he says, vie with each other, neither willing to be outdone. The personification is the point: the season itself has an upward energy, and the mountain is matched against it as a rival. The single word momentum carries both the mountain's mass and the sky's clarity. Seen from the tower, the city falls away and only this altitude remains. To have said the hills were high in autumn would be description; the rivalry is the feeling.

楼倚霜树外，镜天无一毫

The tower leans beyond the frost-bitten trees; a sky as clear as a mirror, free of the least wisp of cloud.

高楼倚于经霜的树外，天空明净如镜无一毫纤尘。

The tower rises beyond the frosted trees; the mirror sky has not a speck of dust.

此二句是全诗写明净的核心，以楼倚霜树写高楼，以镜天无一毫写秋空，写尽秋空的明净，是千古名句。「楼倚霜树外」写高楼倚于经霜的树外——那「楼倚」写高楼倚着，「霜树外」写经霜的树外，写尽高楼的位置；「镜天无一毫」写天空明净如镜无一毫纤尘——那「镜天」写如镜的天空，「无一毫」写无一丝纤尘，写尽秋空的明净。这句的深意在于：它以「楼倚霜树外」的高楼与「镜天无一毫」的秋空，写尽秋空的明净——高楼倚于经霜的树外，那「楼倚霜树外」写尽高楼的位置——高楼倚于霜树之外，正是秋望的立足点，那「霜树」写尽秋的萧瑟；天空明净如镜无一毫纤尘，那「镜天无一毫」写尽秋空的明净——秋空如镜，无一毫纤尘，正是秋高气爽的明净，那「镜天无一毫」以镜喻天写尽秋空的明净；那「楼倚霜树外」写尽高楼的位置，那「镜天无一毫」写尽秋空的明净，一写高楼，一写秋空，写尽秋空的明净——楼倚霜树而镜天无尘，正是登楼秋望的明净之境；此二句以高楼、镜天写尽秋空的明净，也为后二句南山与秋色的气势作铺垫，也让此二句成为全诗写明净的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「秋天的天空很干净」，则失其画面；唯以「楼倚霜树外」写高楼、「镜天无一毫」写秋空，写尽秋空的明净，也让此二句成为全诗写明净的核心。

The opening establishes the purity of the vantage. The tower stands beyond the frosted trees—up among the first clear air above the autumn foliage—and the sky above is a mirror with not a speck of dust. The mirror image is the famous choice: the autumn sky is not merely clear but polished, as though wiped clean, and the absence of even a speck measures the transparency. This is the altitude from which the next couplet's contest of heights can be seen. To have said the sky was clear in autumn would be ordinary; the mirror without a speck is the exacting standard.

Study

Word focus

镜天 In 'a sky as clear as a mirror, free of the least wisp of cloud,' the 'mirror sky' is the poem's image of clarity. To call the sky a mirror does two things: it makes the heavens a polished surface, bright and reflect, and it suggests what such a surface would show — the mountain's shape and the poet's own face. The word is the pivot of the couplet, for the poem's whole business is the absence of anything in the sky, and only a mirror supplies the standard of total purity against which such absence can be measured. Replace it with 'blue sky' or 'clear sky' and the comparison, and with it the poem's air of scrutiny, is lost. 「镜天无一毫」之「镜天」是写明净的关键词，一个「镜天」写尽秋空的明净如镜。镜天者，如镜之天空也。杜牧以「镜天无一毫」写秋空，这个「镜天」至少有双重意味：其一，写天空之明——那「镜天无一毫」写天空明净如镜无一毫纤尘，那「镜天」以镜喻天，写尽秋空的明净——秋空如镜，正是明净无尘，那「镜天」写尽秋空的明净；其二，写秋色之高——那「镜天」更是写秋色——镜天无尘，正见秋高气爽，那「镜天」写尽秋色的高远。以「镜天」写秋空，正是杜牧写明净的枢纽——若换作「晴空」「碧空」等词，则或失其以镜喻天的意味，或失其与「无一毫」的配合；唯「镜天」二字，以镜天无一毫写尽秋空的明净如镜与秋色的高远，与「南山与秋色」的秋色相合，写尽长安秋望的明净，也让「镜天无一毫」成为全诗写明净的名句。

两相高 In 'in resting strength each straining to out-top the other,' the three characters 'each of the two, high' carry the whole of the poem's force. It means that the two — mountain and season — are locked in a mutual attempt to reach further up, and it does this with no verb of fighting at all; the rivalry is left to be understood from the two characters alone. It also carries scale, since a contest of height makes both competitors seem larger than either. This is the pivot of the poem: before it, the view is still and open; after it, the view has two subjects with wills in it, and the reader is left standing at the bottom of something very tall. 「气势两相高」之「两相高」是写气势的字眼，一个「两相高」写尽南山与秋色争高的气势。两相高者，两者相互争高也。杜牧以「气势两相高」写南山与秋色，这个「两相高」至少有双重意味：其一，写争高之态——那「南山与秋色，气势两相高」写终南山与秋色气势两相争高，那「两相高」写尽争高的动态——南山之峻与秋色之高，两相争高，那「两相高」写尽气势的争胜；其二，写境界之阔——那「两相高」更是写境界——两相高，正见南山与秋色相映而愈高，那「两相高」写尽秋望的阔远。以「两相高」写气势，正是杜牧写秋色的枢纽——若换作「两争高」「相比高」等词，则或失其写两相高凝练，或失其与「南山与秋色」的配合；唯「两相高」三字，以南山与秋色气势两相高写尽争高的动态与秋望的阔远，与「镜天无一毫」的镜天相合，写尽长安秋望的气势，也让「气势两相高」成为全诗写气势的名句。