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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

秦州杂诗·其七

Miscellaneous Poems of Qinzhou, No. VII

杜甫

Du Fu

边塞Frontier 感慨Lament

莽莽万重山，孤城山谷间。
无风云出塞，不夜月临关。
属国归何晚，楼兰斩未还。
烟尘独长望，衰飒正摧颜。

A boundless waste of folded mountains;
A lone city set in valley and among the hills.
No wind, yet clouds go out beyond the passes;
No night, yet the moon lies on the frontier walls.
When will the envoy of the border state come back?
Lou Lan is not beheaded, and no man returns.
Smoke and dust — I look alone toward the far horizon;
The season wastes me and hardens my face.

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Meaning

Written at Qinzhou in 759, after Du Fu had given up his post and begun his wandering westward, the poem describes a frontier city and then reads that city as an omen. The mountains and the single wall stand for the pressure of a place that can never rest; the clouds that leave the passes without wind and the moon that lights the walls before night are the strange sights of a high border land and at the same time signs of unrest. The allusions to Su Wu and the beheading of Lou Lan turn the complaint into an accusation: envoys stranded abroad, the enemy's ruler not touched, nothing won. The poem closes on the poet's own face, weathered, which is the measure of the country's decline.

莽莽万重山，孤城山谷间。无风云出塞，不夜月临关。属国归何晚，楼兰斩未还。烟尘独长望，衰飒正摧颜。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The first couplet places the city: a hundred miles of mountains, one wall in a valley. The second makes the place strange: clouds leaving the passes with no wind, moonlight on the walls before the night has begun. The third reaches for history — an envoy who should have come home long ago, and a head that was never struck off. The fourth returns to the body: smoke and dust, a long look, and a face worn thin. [Structure] The octave is built as four couplets of two lines each, and each couplet moves one step further in: space, then an omen, then history, then the self. [Imagery] The images are deliberately unnatural — '无风' and '不夜' — and these two paradoxes are what give the poem its chill; behind them the ordinary matter of a garrison is all but hidden, so that the frontier appears as an interruption in the order of things rather than a place.

【白话串讲】杜甫写《秦州杂诗·其七》：“莽莽万重山，孤城山谷间”——“无风云出塞，不夜月临关”——“属国归何晚，楼兰斩未还”——“烟尘独长望，衰飒正摧颜”——他写秦州——无风云出塞。【意象与手法】此诗写边塞，以忧国写边塞，是杜甫的名篇。前四句写边城：「莽莽万重山，孤城山谷间。无风云出塞，不夜月临关」写莽莽万重山、孤城山谷间、无风云出塞、不夜月临关——写尽边城的苍茫；后四句写忧国：「属国归何晚，楼兰斩未还。烟尘独长望，衰飒正摧颜」写属国归何晚、楼兰斩未还、烟尘独长望——写尽忧国的衰飒。全诗以忧国写边塞，写尽边城的苍茫与忧国的衰飒，是杜甫的代表作。【情感与主旨】此诗写边塞，以忧国写边塞，是杜甫的名篇。此诗写杜甫在秦州（今甘肃天水）所见边城景象而忧时伤怀。乾元二年（759），杜甫弃官西行，客居秦州，秦州地处西北边陲，杜甫见万重山间的孤城、无风自出塞的云、未夜已临关的月，又念及出使西域的属国（苏武）、斩楼兰的傅介子等故事，遂生边患未平、国势衰飒之叹。此诗写边城：莽莽万重山，孤城山谷间——写莽莽万重山、孤城山谷间，写尽边城的苍茫；无风云出塞，不夜月临关——写无风云出塞、不夜月临关，写尽边城的意象；属国归何晚，楼兰斩未还——写属国归何晚、楼兰斩未还，写尽忧国的用典；烟尘独长望，衰飒正摧颜——写烟尘独长望、衰飒正摧颜，写尽忧国的衰飒。全诗以忧国写边塞——那「无风云出塞」写尽边城的苍茫，「衰飒正摧颜」写尽忧国的衰飒，写尽边城的苍茫与忧国的衰飒，是理解杜甫边塞诗的重要篇章。【名句点睛】常考「莽莽万重山，孤城山谷间」写边城的苍茫；「无风云出塞，不夜月临关」写边城的意象；以及全诗以忧国写边塞、以用典写忧国的手法。

Background

Du Fu (712-770), zi Zimei and also called the Old Man of Du陵, was from Gongxian and is called the 'poet sage'; his poems have been read as a history of his age. In the spring of 759 he abandoned his post in Huazhou and travelled westward with his family as the fighting around Henan grew worse, and Qinzhou, the modern Tianshui in Gansu, was the first station on that road. These twenty poems are the record he kept of that first year in the west, and this is the seventh. It is one of the few poems in which he writes of the frontier rather than of the war in the heart of the country.

此诗写边塞，以忧国写边塞，是杜甫的名篇。杜甫（712—770），字子美，号少陵野老，巩县（今河南巩义）人，唐代诗人，与李白并称「李杜」，被尊为「诗圣」，其诗被称为「诗史」。此诗写杜甫在秦州（今甘肃天水）所见边城景象而忧时伤怀。乾元二年（759），杜甫弃官西行，客居秦州，秦州地处西北边陲，杜甫见万重山间的孤城、无风自出塞的云、未夜已临关的月，又念及出使西域的属国（苏武）、斩楼兰的傅介子等故事，遂生边患未平、国势衰飒之叹。此诗写边城：「莽莽万重山，孤城山谷间」写莽莽万重山、孤城山谷间——写尽边城的苍茫（莽莽万重山，孤城山谷间）；「无风云出塞，不夜月临关」写无风云出塞、不夜月临关——写尽边城的意象（无风云出塞，不夜月临关）；「属国归何晚，楼兰斩未还」写属国归何晚、楼兰斩未还——写尽忧国的用典（属国归何晚，楼兰斩未还）；「烟尘独长望，衰飒正摧颜」写烟尘独长望、衰飒正摧颜——写尽忧国的衰飒（烟尘独长望，衰飒正摧颜）。全诗以忧国写边塞，写尽边城的苍茫与忧国的衰飒，是理解杜甫边塞诗的重要篇章。

Art

The technique of the poem is to make the landscape wrong in a way that the reader feels before he understands. '无风云出塞' and '不夜月临关' are both impossible statements, and the impossibility is the point: at this altitude the wind behaves oddly and the moon is up early, but Du Fu uses the oddness as a sign that the frontier is not under the ordinary order of heaven. The second couplet then does the work that an argument would do elsewhere, compressing two allusions — Su Wu straining towards home for nineteen years, Fu Yezhi cutting off the king of Lou Lan — into a single unanswered question and a single unperformed deed. The poem's closing line, on the other, is the most direct thing in it, and the descent from '烟尘' to '衰飒正摧颜' is what makes the politics personal.

此诗的艺术特色可从四个方面解析。其一，以白描写边城。「莽莽万重山」以白描写边城——那「莽莽万重山」写尽群山的苍莽，以白描写尽边城的苍茫。其二，以反衬写孤城。「孤城山谷间」以反衬写孤城——那「孤城」「山谷间」写尽孤城的孤悬，以反衬写尽边城的苍茫。其三，以用典写忧国。「属国归何晚，楼兰斩未还」以用典写忧国——那「属国」「楼兰」用苏武、傅介子之典写边事，以用典写尽忧国的衰飒。其四，以直抒写衰飒。「衰飒正摧颜」以直抒写衰飒——那「摧颜」写尽衰飒的摧颜，以直抒写尽忧国的衰飒。此外，此诗前四句写边城的苍茫，后四句写忧国的衰飒，由景及忧，正是边塞诗「以景写忧」的写法。四重手法，使此诗以忧国写边塞，写尽边城的苍茫与忧国的衰飒，是杜甫的代表作。此诗还善于以「无风云出塞」的「无风」写反常之景——无风而云出，正是秦州高地的奇观，一个「无风」写尽边塞景色的特异。又善以「不夜月临关」的「不夜」写月照之早——未夜而月临，正是边地天象的写照，一个「不夜」写尽边城月色的苍茫。

Allusions

The pair of allusions is double-edged. 属国 refers to Su Wu, who was held by the Xiongnu for nineteen years and on his return was made prefect of the dependents; '归何晚' therefore prays for a late return, and at the same time rebukes a generation of envoys who do not come at all. 楼兰 refers to Fu Yezhi, who went as an envoy, killed the king of Lou Lan and returned with his head; '斩未还' says that the deed of old is still undone. Du Fu's use of these stories is not scholarly decoration: in a poem about a city on the edge of the empire they are the only way to name what has not been accomplished. That both are examples of successful service makes the failure of the present the sharper.

此诗的用语深植于边塞与忧国传统。「莽莽」令人想到「莽莽」写苍莽的意象——也令人想到「莽莽雪原」的意象；「孤城」令人想到「孤城」写孤城的意象——也令人想到「孤城遥望玉门关」（王昌龄）的意象；「出塞」令人想到「出塞」写出塞的意象——也令人想到「秦时明月汉时关」的意象；「不夜」令人想到「不夜」写不夜的意象——也令人想到「不夜城」的意象；「属国」令人想到「属国」用苏武之典——苏武出使匈奴归汉为典属国，也令人想到「典属国」的意象；「楼兰」令人想到「楼兰」用傅介子之典——傅介子斩楼兰王，也令人想到「不破楼兰终不还」（王昌龄）的意象。全诗化用莽莽、孤城、出塞、不夜、属国、楼兰的意象典故，以忧国写边塞，正是杜甫「沉郁」而善用典、承边塞传统写忧国之本领。「属国」典出苏武——苏武出使匈奴十九年归汉，官拜典属国，「归何晚」正叹苏武之晚归而讽当世无人；「楼兰」典出傅介子——傅介子持节斩楼兰王，为国立功，「斩未还」正叹如今无人斩楼兰。

Commentary

This is one of the few frontier poems by Du Fu, and for that reason it has been read as a document as much as a poem. The border they wrote about was not the romantic frontier of the early Tang — it was a place of garrison towns, forced labour and unfinished campaigns, and Du Fu's mind never left the heartland where the war was being fought. Critics of the Qing dynasty noted that the poem's severity lay in its restraint; the latest readers have pointed out that the two impossible lines, '无风' and '不夜', are what make the place feel wrong before we know why. What gives the poem its permanent weight is the last couplet: the empire's troubles are measured, in the end, by the look of one weather-beaten face.

此诗历来被推为杜甫边塞诗的名篇，也是《秦州杂诗》二十首中写边塞的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以忧国写边塞，沉郁悲壮」；近人更指出「无风云出塞，不夜月临关」写边城的意象，是此诗的名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以八句的五律写尽边城的苍茫与忧国的衰飒——那莽莽，那万重山，那孤城，那山谷间，那无风，那云出塞，那不夜，那月临关，那属国，那归何晚，那楼兰，那斩未还，那烟尘，那长望，那衰飒，那摧颜，都写尽了杜甫笔下的秦州；那「衰飒正摧颜」更以直抒写尽忧国的衰飒。此诗与杜甫《秦州杂诗·其六》（「城上胡笳奏」）同为秦州杂诗，又与《春望》（「国破山河在」）同为忧国名篇，一写「感时花溅泪」的春望（春望），一写「无风云出塞」的秦州（秦州杂诗其七）；又与王昌龄《从军行》「不破楼兰终不还」的边塞传统一脉相承，可见中国诗写边塞忧国的传统。对于今日读者，此诗是理解杜甫边塞诗的窗口，也是中国诗写秦州的经典——那长望烟尘的身影，穿越千年，仍在诉说着忧国的衰飒。

Prosody

Form Poem in the five-character octave (pentadic lü-shi)诗·五言律诗

Rhyme A five-character octave rhyming on jian, guan, huan and yan — the same wide 'shan' group as Wang Wei's snow poem, but held with a heavier, more urgent stress. The long open vowel sounds like a held breath, which suits a city on a hill looking outward.五律，押「间」「关」「还」「颜」韵（上平十五删），一韵到底，音节沉郁

Tone pattern The regulated frame is strict: five characters, level and oblique tones alternating, the two middle couplets in parallel. Within it the rhythm is slower and heavier than the snow poem's, and the lines of the third couplet are among the densest Du Fu wrote — two historical names in ten characters and a complaint in each.此诗为五言律诗，押平声韵，一韵到底，音节沉郁，正合边塞的沉郁。

Reading note Du Fu's octaves are usually read for their weight, and this one is a small model of it. Eight lines move from mountain to city to cloud to moon to envoy to head to dust to face, and every step is short of the one before. '无风' and '不夜' are the only two places where the poetry calls attention to itself, and the attention is meant to alarm. The closing couplet drops all contrivance, so that the poem's argument — that the empire's decline is visible in one man's face — arrives as an observation rather than a conclusion.此诗为五言律诗，八句——「莽莽万重山，孤城山谷间。无风云出塞，不夜月临关。属国归何晚，楼兰斩未还。烟尘独长望，衰飒正摧颜」，押「删」韵（间、关、还、颜），一韵到底，音节沉郁。全诗以忧国写边塞：前四句写边城的苍茫（莽莽万重山、不夜月临关），后四句写忧国的衰飒（属国归何晚、衰飒正摧颜）。八句短章，前写边城，后写忧国，以「衰飒正摧颜」写尽忧国的衰飒，正见杜甫「沉郁」的本色。诵读此诗，宜以沉郁的语调读「无风云出塞」的苍茫，以悲壮的语调读「衰飒正摧颜」的衰飒，结句要读得沉郁而有余韵，方能传达出杜甫的沉郁悲壮。杜甫律诗以「沉郁顿挫」著称，此诗正是其边塞诗的典范。

Line by line

无风云出塞，不夜月临关

No wind, yet clouds go out beyond the passes; No night, yet the moon lies on the frontier walls.

无风云出塞，不夜月临关。

With no wind, clouds drift out beyond the frontier; before night, the moon already hangs over the pass.

此二句是全诗写意象的核心，以无风云出塞写云出塞，以不夜月临关写月临关，写尽边城的意象，是千古名句。「无风云出塞」写无风云出塞——那「无风」写无风，「云出塞」写云出塞，写尽无风的出塞云；「不夜月临关」写不夜月临关——那「不夜」写不夜，「月临关」写月临关，写尽不夜的临关月。这句的深意在于：它以「无风云出塞」的出塞云与「不夜月临关」的临关月，写尽边城的意象——无风云出塞，那「无风云出塞」写尽无风的出塞云——无风云出塞，正是塞云自涌的写照，那「云出塞」写尽边城的苍茫；不夜月临关，那「不夜月临关」写尽不夜的临关月——不夜月临关，正是月照雄关的写照，那「月临关」写尽边城的苍茫；那「无风云出塞」写尽无风的出塞云，那「不夜月临关」写尽不夜的临关月，一写云，一写月，写尽边城的意象——无风云出而月临关，正是边塞苍茫的写照；此二句以云、月写尽边城的意象，也为下文的忧国作铺垫，也让此二句成为全诗写意象的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「秦州这边云很多，月亮照在关口」，则失其奇警；唯以「无风云出塞」写云出塞、「不夜月临关」写月临关，写尽边城的意象，也让此二句成为全诗写意象的核心。

The Qinzhou couplets are Du Fu's frontier visions, and this is the strangest. With no wind, clouds drift out beyond the frontier—clouds moving in still air, as if the border were breathing; before night, the moon already hangs over the pass—the daylight not yet gone, the moon already on the walls. The two impossibilities (clouds without wind, moonlight before dark) make the border feel dreamlike and uncanny. To have said clouds were leaving the frontier and the moon was over the pass would be a sky description; the windless clouds and the pre-night moon are the uncanniness.

莽莽万重山，孤城山谷间

A boundless waste of folded mountains; A lone city set in valley and among the hills.

莽莽万重山，孤城山谷间。

Vast, unending, ten thousand folds of mountains; a lone city lies hidden in the valley.

此二句是全诗写边城的核心，以莽莽万重山写万重山，以孤城山谷间写孤城，写尽边城的苍茫，是千古名句。「莽莽万重山」写莽莽万重山——那「莽莽」写莽莽，「万重山」写万重山，写尽群山的苍莽；「孤城山谷间」写孤城山谷间——那「孤城」写孤城，「山谷间」写山谷间，写尽孤城的孤悬。这句的深意在于：它以「莽莽万重山」的万重山与「孤城山谷间」的孤城，写尽边城的苍茫——莽莽万重山，那「莽莽万重山」写尽群山的苍莽——莽莽万重山，正是群山绵延的写照，那「莽莽」写尽边城的苍茫；孤城山谷间，那「孤城山谷间」写尽孤城的孤悬——孤城山谷间，正是孤城深藏的写照，那「孤城」写尽边城的苍茫；那「莽莽万重山」写尽群山的苍莽，那「孤城山谷间」写尽孤城的孤悬，一写山，一写城，写尽边城的苍茫——莽莽群山而孤城其间，正是边城的写照；此二句以万重山、孤城写尽边城的苍茫，也为下文的云月作铺垫，也让此二句成为全诗写边城的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「秦州四面环山，很荒凉」，则失其画面；唯以「莽莽万重山」写万重山、「孤城山谷间」写孤城，写尽边城的苍茫，也让此二句成为全诗写边城的核心。

The opening establishes the place. Vast, unending, ten thousand folds of mountains; a lone city lies hidden in the valley. The vastness of the range is measured against the city's oneness: ten thousand folds against one lone town. The word vast is the scale, the word lone is the point. It is the geography of a frontier outpost, and it prepares the cloud-and-moon couplet. To have said the town was surrounded by many mountains would be a map; the ten thousand folds and the single lone city are the isolation.

Study

Word focus

莽莽 Boundless and tangled: the word gives the mass of mountains both their depth and their pressure, so the city is enclosed rather than merely surrounded. It is the first word of the poem and sets its scale, and it is what allows 'a lone city' to feel small without any comment being made on it. 「莽莽万重山」之「莽莽」是写苍茫的关键词，一个「莽莽」写尽群山的苍莽。莽莽者，草木深广、苍莽无涯也。杜甫以「莽莽万重山」写苍茫，这个「莽莽」至少有双重意味：其一，写山之莽——那「莽莽万重山」写莽莽万重山，那「莽莽」写尽群山的苍莽——莽莽万重山，正是群山绵延的写照，那「莽莽」写尽边城的苍茫；其二，写势之雄——那「莽莽」更是写雄——莽莽，正见山势的雄浑，那「莽莽」写尽边塞的苍茫。以「莽莽」写苍茫，正是杜甫写边塞的枢纽——若换作「巍巍」「苍苍」等词，则或失其与「万重山」「孤城山谷间」的配合，或失其写莽莽的意味；唯「莽莽」二字，以莽莽万重山写尽群山的苍莽与山势的雄浑，与「孤城山谷间」的孤城相合，写尽边城的苍茫，也让「莽莽万重山」成为全诗写苍茫的名句。

摧 To break: in '衰飒正摧颜' it means the weathering of the face, so that political sorrow is registered on the body instead of being argued. It is the word that turns the frontier scenery of the opening lines into a personal injury, and the last thing the reader is left to look at. 「衰飒正摧颜」之「摧」字是写衰飒的关键词，一个「摧」字写尽衰飒的摧颜。摧者，摧折、伤毁也。杜甫以「衰飒正摧颜」写衰飒，这个「摧」字至少有双重意味：其一，写颜之摧——那「衰飒正摧颜」写衰飒正摧颜，那「摧」字写尽衰飒的摧颜——摧颜，正是容颜憔悴的写照，那「摧」字写尽忧国的衰飒；其二，写心之伤——那「摧」字更是写伤——摧，正见忧国的伤痛，那「摧」字写尽杜甫的忧国。以「摧」字写衰飒，正是杜甫写边塞的枢纽——若换作「伤」「损」等字，则或失其与「衰飒」「正摧颜」的配合，或失其写摧的意味；唯「摧」字，以衰飒正摧颜写尽衰飒的摧颜与忧国的伤痛，与「烟尘独长望」的长望相合，写尽忧国的衰飒，也让「衰飒正摧颜」成为全诗写衰飒的名句。