出塞作

Meaning

Wang Wei, on an official mission to the frontier, describes a day of hunting beyond Juyan and then turns from the spectacle to the machinery of defense and reward. The hunting is wild and endless; the officers man the walls by day and cross the Liao by night; and finally the poet speaks of a trophy — bow and horse — destined for a Han commander. The poem praises the frontier's martial energy and quietly registers the distance between that energy and its results.

居延城外猎天骄，白草连天野火烧。 暮云空碛时驱马，秋日平原好射雕。 护羌校尉朝乘障，破虏将军夜渡辽。 玉靶角弓珠勒马，汉家将赐霍嫖姚。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The poem moves from the hunt outside Juyan to the soldiers who guard the frontier, and closes on the gifts the state hands to its commander. [Structure] The first quatrain is the hunt, the second the garrison; the last couplet is the poet's own voice, and it is the only line that mentions the Han explicitly. [Imagery] The dominant figure is fire and speed: the grass-fire, the driving of horses, the killing of falcons. White grass burning to the horizon makes the desert look, for an instant, like a battlefield. [Tone] The celebration is genuine but never wholly comfortable, because the poem's own vocabulary of horses and bows already implies what they are for. [Turn] The final couplet withdraws from the hunt into the machinery of reward, and the whole poem is reframed as an account of an institution rather than as an adventure.

【白话串讲】 王维写《出塞作》：“居延城外猎天骄，白草连天野火烧”——“暮云空碛时驱马，秋日平原好射雕”——“护羌校尉朝乘障，破虏将军夜渡辽”——“玉靶角弓珠勒马，汉家将赐霍嫖姚”——他写出塞打猎与边功。 【意象与手法】 此诗写边塞，以报国写边塞，是王维的名篇。前四句写边景：「居延城外猎天骄，白草连天野火烧。暮云空碛时驱马，秋日平原好射雕」写居延城外猎天骄、白草连天野火烧——写尽边塞的野火；后四句写报国：「护羌校尉朝乘障，破虏将军夜渡辽。玉靶角弓珠勒马，汉家将赐霍嫖姚」写护羌校尉朝乘障、破虏将军夜渡辽——写尽汉家的军威。全诗以报国写边塞，写尽边塞的野火与汉家的军威，是王维的代表作。 【情感与主旨】 此诗写边塞，以报国写边塞，是王维的名篇。此诗为王维奉使出塞途中所作，写边塞风光与汉家军威，寄寓其报国之志。开元年间，王维出使河西边塞，居延（今内蒙古额济纳旗）一带唐军与吐蕃对峙，此诗写边塞秋日狩猎之景与汉家将士之雄。此诗写居延城外猎天骄，白草连天野火烧；暮云空碛时驱马，秋日平原好射雕；护羌校尉朝乘障，破虏将军夜渡辽；玉靶角弓珠勒马，汉家将赐霍嫖姚。此诗写边景：居延城外猎天骄，白草连天野火烧——写居延城外猎天骄、白草连天野火烧，写尽边塞的野火；暮云空碛时驱马，秋日平原好射雕——写暮云空碛时驱马、秋日平原好射雕，写尽秋日的射雕；护羌校尉朝乘障，破虏将军夜渡辽——写护羌校尉朝乘障、破虏将军夜渡辽，写尽汉家的军威；玉靶角弓珠勒马，汉家将赐霍嫖姚——写玉靶角弓珠勒马、汉家将赐霍嫖姚，写尽赐马的嫖姚。全诗以报国写边塞——那「白草连天野火烧」写尽边塞的野火，「汉家将赐霍嫖姚」写尽汉家的军威，写尽边塞的野火与汉家的军威，是理解王维边塞诗的重要篇章。 【名句点睛】 常考「居延城外猎天骄，白草连天野火烧」写边塞的野火；「玉靶角弓珠勒马，汉家将赐霍嫖姚」写汉家的军威；以及全诗以报国写边塞、以用典写军威的手法。

Allusions

Juyan was a Tang fortress on the edge of the Gobi. 'Chieftain of Heaven' is how the Xiongnu named their ruler, and its use here keeps the enemy at the legendary level of the frontier. 'White grass' is the hard grass of the western deserts, hard enough to be bleached; 'grasfire' is the spring burning of the steppe, which both hunters and invaders use. 'Protector of the Qiang' and the title 'general who breaks the enemy' are Han military titles, and the Liao is the river of the north-east campaign against the Khitan. In the closing line Huo Qubing took the rank of the general who had driven the Xiongnu from the border, and the poet's gift of bow and horse to him praises the frontier without ever describing a battle.

此诗的用语深植于边塞与报国传统。「居延」令人想到「居延」写居延塞的意象——也令人想到「居延城外猎天骄」的意象；「天骄」令人想到「天骄」写天之骄子的意象——匈奴自称天之骄子，也令人想到「胡天八月即飞雪」（岑参）的意象；「白草」令人想到「白草」写西域白草的意象——也令人想到「北风卷地白草折」（岑参）的意象；「空碛」令人想到「空碛」写空旷沙漠的意象——也令人想到「大漠孤烟直」（王维）的意象；「护羌校尉」令人想到「护羌校尉」写汉代官名的意象——也令人想到「校尉羽书飞瀚海」（高适）的意象；「霍嫖姚」令人想到「霍嫖姚」写霍去病的意象——汉代名将，也令人想到「嫖姚校尉」的意象。全诗化用居延、天骄、白草、空碛、护羌校尉、霍嫖姚的意象典故，以报国写边塞，正是王维「浑成」而善用典、承边塞传统写报国之本领。「天骄」令人想到「天骄」写天之骄子的意象——也令人想到「骄虏」的意象；「空碛」令人想到「空碛」写空旷沙漠的意象——也令人想到「平沙无垠」的意象，以空碛写边塞。

Commentary

Long ranked among Wang Wei's best frontier poems and as a representative Tang poem of frontier martial spirit. Qing readers praised the poem's 'full and buoyant' energy. Modern readers often notice the poem's oddity: it is more interested in the apparatus of war — titles, bows, horses, gifts — than in any fighting at all, and that cool interest is its quality. Its special place in the tradition is that it honors the frontier from the outside, as an official reporting on it, rather than as a soldier living it; where Gao Shi writes of the cost, Wang Wei writes of the occasion. Compared with 'Chariot to the Frontier', which is spare and desolate, this poem is full, quick and rich.

此诗历来被推为王维边塞诗的名篇，也是唐诗写边塞军威的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以报国写边塞，雄浑壮阔」；近人更指出「玉靶角弓珠勒马，汉家将赐霍嫖姚」写汉家的军威，是此诗的名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以八句的七律写尽边塞的野火与汉家的军威——那居延城外，那猎天骄，那白草，那连天，那野火烧，那暮云，那空碛，那时驱马，那秋日，那平原，那好射雕，那护羌校尉，那朝乘障，那破虏将军，那夜渡辽，那玉靶，那角弓，那珠勒马，那汉家，那将赐，那霍嫖姚，都写尽了王维笔下的出塞作；那「汉家将赐霍嫖姚」更以颂扬写尽汉家的军威。此诗与王维《使至塞上》（「单车欲问边」）同为边塞名篇，一写「大漠孤烟直」的边塞（使至塞上），一写「居延城外猎天骄」的边塞（出塞作）；又与王昌龄《出塞》「但使龙城飞将在」的边塞传统一脉相承，可见唐诗写边塞的传统。对于今日读者，此诗是理解王维边塞诗的窗口，也是唐诗写边塞军威的经典——那将赐的嫖姚，穿越千年，仍在诉说着汉家的军威。

Prosody

Line by line

Related Reading