宫槐陌

Meaning

This quatrain, one of the twenty Wangchuan poems, paints a small path in the Wangchuan estate lined with pagoda trees (gonghuai), dark and damp with green moss. The only sign of human activity is the gatekeeper sweeping, while the poet jests that he does it out of dread that a mountain monk may arrive. In four spare characters-laden lines the poem fuses reclusive landscape with an undertone of quiet, unhurried expectancy.

仄径荫宫槐，幽阴多绿苔。 应门但迎扫，畏有山僧来。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Wang Wei writes of the palace pagoda-tree path: the narrow way is shaded by the trees, deep in its gloom the moss is green; the gatekeeper only sweeps to receive, and fears a mountain monk's coming. <br>[Structure] The first couplet belongs to the scene, the second to the human response; the eye moves from the shaded path outward to the door, and the poem closes on a light, half-playful note. <br>[Imagery] The four images — narrow path, tall trees, deep shade, green moss — are all cool, saturated greens and greys, and they accumulate into a single effect of stillness. The porter's broom and the imagined monk are the only moving parts, and even they are stilled into metaphor. <br>[Tone] What is said is almost nothing, and that is the point: Wang Wei trusts silence and shade rather than statement. The poem shows how a landscape poem can be built from the absence of events.

【白话串讲】 王维写《宫槐陌》：“仄径荫宫槐，幽阴多绿苔”——“应门但迎扫，畏有山僧来”——他写宫槐下的小径。 【意象与手法】 此诗写山水，以闲适写山水，是王维的名篇。前二句写槐径：「仄径荫宫槐，幽阴多绿苔」写仄径荫宫槐、幽阴多绿苔——写尽槐径的幽阴；后二句写迎客：「应门但迎扫，畏有山僧来」写应门但迎扫、畏有山僧来——写尽迎客的闲趣。全诗以闲适写山水，写尽槐径的幽阴与迎客的闲趣，是王维的代表作。 【情感与主旨】 此诗写山水，以闲适写山水，是王维的名篇。此诗为《辋川集》二十首之一，写辋川别业中的宫槐陌。宫槐陌为辋川别业中一条两旁植宫槐（槐树）的小径，仄径（狭窄小径）荫于宫槐之下，幽阴多生绿苔；应门（守门者）但须迎扫，畏有山僧来。此诗以槐径写山水：仄径荫宫槐，幽阴多绿苔——写仄径荫宫槐、幽阴多绿苔，写尽槐径的幽阴；应门但迎扫，畏有山僧来——写应门但迎扫、畏有山僧来，写尽迎客的闲趣。全诗以闲适写山水——那「幽阴多绿苔」写尽槐径的幽阴，「畏有山僧来」写尽迎客的闲趣，写尽槐径的幽阴与迎客的闲趣，是理解王维山水诗的重要篇章。 【名句点睛】 常考「仄径荫宫槐，幽阴多绿苔」写槐径的幽阴；「应门但迎扫，畏有山僧来」写迎客的闲趣；以及全诗以闲适写山水、以平实写禅趣的手法。

Allusions

The vocabulary belongs to the long tradition of reclusive verse. The pagoda tree (gonghuai) is the locust-pagoda tree, planted in rows before palaces and offices in the capitals, so that the path carries a half-bureaucratic, half-forest flavour. The narrow path (zè jìng) echoes the classics of mountain walking; the deep shade and green moss recall the mossy courtyard of the_Qingtang tradition, where moss is the token of a house nobody disturbs. The gatekeeper (yingmen, 'Answering the gate') is a term from the Classics for the porter who answers the door, and implies a household of some ceremony. The mountain monk (shanseng) carries the whole Tang association of hermit-Buddhists with eccentric and holy men. Little is quoted outright, and that is typical of Wang Wei: the allusions are submerged in plain speech and surface only as a change of register.

此诗的用语深植于山水与闲适传统。「宫槐」令人想到「宫槐」写槐树的意象——槐树，也令人想到「宫槐柏梁」的意象；「仄径」令人想到「仄径」写小径的意象——也令人想到「曲径通幽」的意象；「幽阴」令人想到「幽阴」写幽暗的意象——也令人想到「荫翳」的意象；「绿苔」令人想到「绿苔」写青苔的意象——也令人想到「苔痕上阶绿」（刘禹锡）的意象；「应门」令人想到「应门」写守门者的意象——也令人想到「僮仆应门」的意象；「山僧」令人想到「山僧」写出中僧人的意象——也令人想到「山僧对棋坐」（白居易）的意象。全诗化用宫槐、仄径、幽阴、绿苔、应门、山僧的意象，以闲适写山水，正是王维「诗中有画」而善写幽、承山水传统写禅趣之本领。「宫槐」令人想到「宫槐」写槐树的意象——槐树植于宫阙而名宫槐，也令人想到「槐安国」的意象；「仄径」令人想到「仄径」写小径的意象——也令人想到「羊肠小径」的意象，以仄径写径之窄。「幽阴」令人想到「幽阴」写幽暗的意象——也令人想到「绿树阴浓夏日长」（高骈）的意象，以幽阴写槐荫之深。

Commentary

This poem has long been counted among Wang Wei's finest landscape quatrains and among the highpoints of the Wangchuan cycle. Qing commentators praise it as 'leisurely landscape, calm and natural'; modern readers single out the second couplet, 'the gatekeeper does nothing but sweep, and fears a mountain monk will come', as the poem's celebrated line, because it converts a domestic chore into a metaphor for welcome. Its special place in literary history is the way four lines manage to hold gloom and courtesy at once, so that the estate reads both abandoned and hospitable. It pairs naturally with Wang Wei's 'Bamboo Lodge' from the same collection — one a silent sitting in the deep forest, this one a swept path awaiting a guest — and with the whole line of hermit poetry running back to Tao Qian's 'Return to the Field'. The quiet of the place, and the vanity of waiting for it to be broken, still speak to readers today.

此诗历来被推为王维山水诗的名篇，也是《辋川集》的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以闲适写山水，幽静自然」；近人更指出「应门但迎扫，畏有山僧来」写迎客的闲趣，是此诗的名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以四句的五绝写尽槐径的幽阴与迎客的闲趣——那仄径，那荫宫槐，那幽阴，那多绿苔，那应门，那但迎扫，那畏有，那山僧来，都写尽了王维笔下的宫槐陌；那「畏有山僧来」更以虚写写尽迎客的闲趣。此诗与王维《竹里馆》（「独坐幽篁里」）同为辋川集名篇，一写「深林人不知」的竹里（竹里馆），一写「应门但迎扫」的宫槐（宫槐陌）；又与陶渊明《归园田居》「户庭无尘杂」的闲居传统一脉相承，可见中国诗写隐逸的传统。对于今日读者，此诗是理解王维山水诗的窗口，也是《辋川集》的经典——那扫径迎僧的闲趣，穿越千年，仍在诉说着隐逸的闲适。此诗与王维《辛夷坞》《栾家濑》等同为辋川集名篇，一写「木末芙蓉花」的辛夷（辛夷坞），一写「应门但迎扫」的宫槐（宫槐陌）；又与裴迪《辋川集》同题唱和，可见辋川唱和之风。

Prosody

Line by line

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