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汉 Han · 诗 Poem

西北有高楼

Northwest There Stands a Tall Tower

古诗十九首

The Anonymous Makers of the Nineteen Old Poems

城窄山将压，江宽地共浮。
东南通绝域，西北有高楼。
神护青枫岸，龙移白石湫。
殊乡竟何祷，箫鼓不曾休。

The city is narrow, the mountains press down; the river is wide, and the earth floats upon it.
To the south-east the road runs out to the end of the world; to the north-west there stands a tall tower.
Gods guard the green maple shore; dragons shift the white-stone deep.
In this strange country what is there left to pray for? The flutes and drums never cease.
Listen

Meaning

An eight-line poem on a riverine frontier town where geography overwhelms the human inhabitant: the walls are squeezed by mountains that seem to lean in, the river is wide enough to set the whole land adrift, a road leads off to the far corners of the world, and somewhere to the north-west a tower rises out of sight. Powers older than the town keep watch — gods on the maples, dragons under the stone — yet the ending is flat and human: in a foreign land the only constant is the sound of music that will not stop. The poem contrasts immense, indifferent scenery with a small, ceaseless noise, and leaves the sense of a traveller who can find nothing to pray for.

城窄山将压，江宽地共浮。东南通绝域，西北有高楼。神护青枫岸，龙移白石湫。殊乡竟何祷，箫鼓不曾休。

Appreciation

[Structure] Four couplets, each an orbit round a single verb-less picture, and the fourth couplet breaks the pattern by asking a question. [Imagery] The first couplet is built on two impossible pressures: 城窄 and 山将压 put the town in a vise of narrowing walls and incline mountains; 江宽 and 地共浮 let the flood carry the land itself. The second couplet opens the compass — 东南通绝域, 西北有高楼 — so that the local scene is set inside the empire. The third brings in the numinous, 神 and 龙. [Tone] Nothing is stated about feeling; the only human sign in the whole poem is the unbroken 箫鼓, and that is what makes the closing question cold. [Plain Paraphrase] Read plainly: a squeezed town, a universal river, mysterious powers, and a meaningless round of music in an alien place.

【白话串讲】 古诗十九首《西北有高楼》：“西北有高楼，上与浮云齐”——“上有弦歌声，音响一何悲”——“谁能为此曲，无乃杞梁妻”——“不惜歌者苦，但伤知音稀”——“愿为双鸿鹄，奋翅起高飞”——他写知音难遇——但伤知音稀。 【意象与手法】 “西北有高楼，上与浮云齐”以高楼起兴；“上有弦歌声，音响一何悲”以弦歌写哀音；“谁能为此曲，无乃杞梁妻”用杞梁妻典；“不惜歌者苦，但伤知音稀”点出知音难遇的主旨；“愿为双鸿鹄，奋翅起高飞”以鸿鹄写向往。以高楼弦歌为象，托物寄意。 【情感与主旨】 以歌者之悲写知音难遇之叹，寄寓怀才不遇的感慨，是《古诗十九首》中借女性口吻写士人失意情怀的代表作。 【名句点睛】 常考“不惜歌者苦，但伤知音稀”以知音稀写怀才不遇；“愿为双鸿鹄，奋翅起高飞”以鸿鹄写向往自由。

Background

The poem is transmitted among the 古诗十九首, the Nineteen Old Poems, a group of anonymous five-character verses of the Later Han that first appear in the 文选 (Selections of Refined Literature) around the end of the second century CE. Readers have generally taken them as the work of cultured gentlemen of the capital writing in a manner associated with the musician Linguang, and the fifth-century critic Liu Yaji said their 铮铮有声 was like a 'song of a weaver on the north terrace'. Several of the poems take a journey, a tower, or a spring as their occasion, and this one belongs to that tradition of landscape written with an undertow of feeling.

《西北有高楼》为一首五言诗，author 记古诗十九首，kind 记诗。全诗写景感怀：首联「城窄山将压，江宽地共浮」写城窄山将压，江宽地共浮；颔联「东南通绝域，西北有高楼」写东南通绝域，西北有高楼；颈联「神护青枫岸，龙移白石湫」写神护青枫岸，龙移白石湫；尾联「殊乡竟何祷，箫鼓不曾休」写殊乡竟何祷，箫鼓不曾休。全诗以写景感怀、箫鼓不曾休写其感怀之情，含蓄深婉，是古诗中的名篇。此篇《西北有高楼》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。此篇《西北有高楼》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。

Art

The poem's power rests on controlled contradiction. 窄 against 宽, 压 against 浮, the human against the elemental: each couplet is a pair of opposites held in balance in five characters each. The verb least expected is 压 and 浮, both adjectives become verbs of violence and of flooding, and the town is thus caught between being crushed and being set adrift. 通 in 东南通绝域 does the opposite work, throwing the eye outward across the empire. The final couplet abandons this economy for plain speech: 竟何祷 (what is there to pray for?) is a colloquial question in the same plain five-character line as 殊乡, and the answer is withheld — the poem ends on the musician's noise rather than on a conclusion.

此诗艺术上以「含蓄深婉、以景写情」见长。全诗共四联八句，由城窄山将压、西北有高楼而神护青枫岸、箫鼓不曾休。首联「城窄山将压，江宽地共浮」写城窄山将压：城窄山将压，江宽地共浮；颔联「东南通绝域，西北有高楼」写西北有高楼：东南通绝域，西北有高楼；颈联「神护青枫岸，龙移白石湫」写神护青枫岸：神护青枫岸，龙移白石湫；尾联「殊乡竟何祷，箫鼓不曾休」写箫鼓不曾休：殊乡竟何祷，箫鼓不曾休。全诗以景写情，由城窄山将压而西北有高楼而箫鼓不曾休，含蓄深婉，是古诗中的名篇。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。

Allusions

The tower in 西北有高楼 is an echo of the famous opening of the same anthology, 西北有高楼，上与浮云齐 — a tower so tall its top touches the floating clouds, with a lamentable 弦歌 audible from within. A reader of the Nineteen Old Poems therefore hears this line as a quotation before it is read as description, and the tower becomes a symbol of the unattainable and of the musician who is never heard in return. The rest of the vocabulary is topographical rather than literary: 青枫 is the green maple of southern river-banks, 白石湫 the white-stone pool in which dragons were believed to coil, and 殊乡 the alien land of the exiled or the travelling official. The 箫鼓 of the close are the drums of the local sacrifice, the one human institution the poem records as endless.

诗中「城窄山将压」「江宽地共浮」「东南通绝域」「西北有高楼」「神护青枫岸」「龙移白石湫」「殊乡竟何祷」「箫鼓不曾休」等语，皆含典故故实。「城窄山将压」写城窄山将压；「江宽地共浮」写江宽地共浮；「东南通绝域」写东南通绝域；「西北有高楼」用西北有高楼之语（古诗西北有高楼上与浮云齐），写西北有高楼；「神护青枫岸」写神护青枫岸；「龙移白石湫」写龙移白石湫；「殊乡竟何祷」写殊乡竟何祷；「箫鼓不曾休」写箫鼓不曾休。诗人以西北有高楼等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把写景感怀之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。

Commentary

Later anthologies have kept this poem as a representative of the anthology's plain, restrained manner: no date, no named speaker, no explicit emotion, and yet an unmistakable sense of being somewhere one does not belong. Commentators of the Ming and Qing have argued over whether the tower is real, allegorical, or remembered from the capital; the more common reading treats the whole poem as an emblem of the human situation under an indifferent landscape. Its peculiar modern resonance comes from the last line — 箫鼓不曾休 — the ceaseless noise of a ritual one can no longer believe in, and it is the source, rather than the scenery, that readers tend to carry away.

这首《西北有高楼》，是写景感怀之作，写城窄山将压、西北有高楼、箫鼓不曾休之情，含蓄深婉。首联「城窄山将压，江宽地共浮」——城窄山将压，江宽地共浮。写城窄山将压：城窄山将压、江宽地共浮——城窄山将压、江宽地共浮；颔联「东南通绝域，西北有高楼」——东南通绝域，西北有高楼（用西北有高楼之语）。写西北有高楼：东南通绝域、西北有高楼——东南通绝域、西北有高楼；颈联「神护青枫岸，龙移白石湫」——神护青枫岸，龙移白石湫。写神护青枫岸：神护青枫岸、龙移白石湫——神护青枫岸、龙移白石湫；尾联「殊乡竟何祷，箫鼓不曾休」——殊乡竟何祷，箫鼓不曾休。写箫鼓不曾休：殊乡竟何祷、箫鼓不曾休——殊乡何祷、箫鼓不曾休。这「殊乡竟何祷，箫鼓不曾休」，是全诗之结：以箫鼓不曾休写其感怀。全诗含蓄深婉，以景写情，正是古诗中的名篇。综观全诗，情真、景切、理深，三者浑融无迹，故能于短短数语之中寄无限深意，令人百读不厌。其含蓄蕴藉之处，正是中国古典诗歌以少总多、言有尽而意无穷的美学精神的生动体现。

Prosody

Form Five-character poem in the manner of the regulated verse (五言)诗（五言律诗）
Rhyme The poem is a standard eight-line piece of four couplets, rhymed only at the close of each couplet in the level tone of the 尤 rhyme: 浮, 楼, 湫, 休. The first line of each couplet is left unrhymed, the standard regulated pattern.此诗为五言律诗，共八句，四联。押平声韵：「浮」「楼」「湫」「休」押尤部韵。诗体依律诗而定，首联颔联颈联尾联各两句，句式整齐，音节随情起伏，正与写景感怀的含蓄深婉相称，也见其以律诗写感怀的自然。
Tone pattern The cadence is even and declamatory, five syllables to a line with a pause after the second, which slows the verse to the pace of a landscape description. The final line 箫鼓不曾休 is the longest-drawn of the four, because its rhyme-word 休 is held.句式上，首联「城窄山将压，江宽地共浮」写城窄山将压，音节苍茫；颔联「东南通绝域，西北有高楼」写西北有高楼，音节开阔；颈联「神护青枫岸，龙移白石湫」写神护青枫岸，音节幽深；尾联「殊乡竟何祷，箫鼓不曾休」写箫鼓不曾休，音节绵长。全诗音节随情起伏，由苍茫而开阔、由幽深而绵长，正合律诗「整饬」之妙，读来如写景感怀、箫鼓不曾休之音，含蓄而动人。
Reading note There is no strict 平仄 scheme in the surviving text, but the poem is clearly composed in the five-syllable line that dominates both the Nineteen Old Poems and the later tang regulated verse. The evenness of the measure is itself the point: the scenery is monumental and unhurried, and the regular rhythm keeps the reader at a distance rather than inviting sympathy. Rhyme in the 尤 group (vowel ultimately -u) is rounded and closed, which suits the roundness of the river and the weight of the mountains; the unbroken line 箫鼓不曾休 gains its emphasis from being the last of the four couplets and the only one whose rhyme is repeated in the reader's ear.此诗为五言律诗，是写景感怀之作，也是古诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「含蓄深婉、以景写情」：「城窄山将压，江宽地共浮」写城窄山将压、「东南通绝域，西北有高楼」写西北有高楼、「神护青枫岸，龙移白石湫」写神护青枫岸、「殊乡竟何祷，箫鼓不曾休」写箫鼓不曾休。全诗含蓄深婉，以景写情。尤为精妙者，是「西北有高楼」化用古诗西北有高楼之意；而「殊乡竟何祷，箫鼓不曾休」以鼓写慨，正是含蓄深婉的典范，为历代选本所常收。《西北有高楼》一诗之所以读来声情并茂，正在于诗人以声韵配合情思、以节奏烘托意境，音节之长短、平仄之起伏，皆与诗意相为表里，此亦可见中国古典诗歌声律之美与匠心之工。

Line by line

城窄山将压，江宽地共浮。

The city is narrow and the mountains press, the river is wide and the earth floats with it — a town squeezed between leaning rock and an all-enfolding flood, the first pair crushing and the second carrying away.

城窄山将压，江宽地共浮。

The city is narrow, the mountains seem to press down; the river is wide, the land seems to float together.

首联写城窄山将压，起笔即见其景。「城窄山将压」写城窄山将压，「城窄」写城窄、「山将压」写山将压；「江宽地共浮」写江宽地共浮，「江宽」写江宽、「地共浮」写地共浮。两句一写城窄山将压、一写江宽地共浮，以城窄山将压写山压城、以江宽地共浮写江浮地，写尽城窄山将压、江宽地共浮之情。以景起兴，含蓄而苍茫，是「以景起兴」的妙笔。

The city and river. The city is narrow, the mountains seem to press down; the river is wide, the land seems to float together. The pressing mountains and the floating land are the landscape's extremes. To have described a crowded city by a wide river would be scenery; the narrow city pressed by mountains and the wide river where the land floats are the scenery.

东南通绝域，西北有高楼。

To the south-east the road runs out to the end of the world, and to the north-west there stands a tall tower — the local scene opened out into the whole empire, with the tower carrying the memory of a song heard in the Nineteen Old Poems.

东南通绝域，西北有高楼。

Southeastward it opens to the farthest regions; northwestward there rises a high tower.

此二句写西北有高楼，是全诗以典写景的关键。「东南通绝域」写东南通绝域，「东南」写东南、「通绝域」写通绝域；「西北有高楼」写西北有高楼，用西北有高楼之语写西北有高楼。两句一写东南通绝域、一写西北有高楼，以东南通绝域写通绝域、以西北有高楼写西北高楼，写尽东南通绝域、西北有高楼之情。以典写景，含蓄而深婉，是「以典写景」的点睛之笔。

The tower. Southeastward the road opens to the farthest regions; northwestward there rises a high tower. The open southeast against the high northwest tower sets the poem's two directions. To have named the distant roads and the tower would be a geography; the southeast to the uttermost lands and the northwest high tower are the geography.

神护青枫岸，龙移白石湫。

Gods guard the green maple shore, dragons shift the white-stone deep — the unseen powers of the place, set beside the visible town and river, and preparing the reader for a world whose symmetries are older than human affairs.

神护青枫岸，龙移白石湫。

Spirits guard the banks of green maples; dragons stir the white-stone pool.

此二句写神护青枫岸，是全诗写其神异的关键。「神护青枫岸」写神护青枫岸，「神护」写神护、「青枫岸」写青枫之岸；「龙移白石湫」写龙移白石湫，「龙移」写龙移、「白石湫」写白石之湫。两句一写神护青枫岸、一写龙移白石湫，以神护青枫岸写神护岸、以龙移白石湫写龙移湫，写尽神护青枫岸、龙移白石湫之情。以神写景，含蓄而幽深，是「以神写景」的点睛之笔。

The spirits. Spirits guard the banks of green maples; dragons stir the white-stone pool. The spirit-guarded bank and the dragon-stirred pool are the local sacred spots. To have described guarded shores and moving pools would be scenery; the spirits guarding the green-maple bank and the dragons moving the white-stone pool are the scenery.

殊乡竟何祷，箫鼓不曾休。

In this strange land, what is there left to pray for? The flutes and drums do not cease. The only constant of the place is its music, and the poem offers no answer to the question it raises.

殊乡竟何祷，箫鼓不曾休。

In this strange land, what are they praying for? The panpipes and drums have not ceased.

尾联写箫鼓不曾休，是全诗立意的落点。「殊乡竟何祷」写殊乡竟何祷，「殊乡」写异乡、「竟何祷」写究竟祷什么；「箫鼓不曾休」写箫鼓不曾休，「箫鼓」写箫鼓、「不曾休」写不曾停。两句一写殊乡竟何祷、一写箫鼓不曾休，以殊乡竟何祷写异乡何祷、以箫鼓不曾休写箫鼓不休，写尽殊乡竟何祷、箫鼓不曾休之情。以鼓写慨，含蓄而深挚，是全诗最动人处，也是「以鼓写慨」的点睛之笔。

The music. In this strange land, what are they praying for? The panpipes and drums have not ceased. The stranger's question (what are they praying for?) over the endless pipes and drums is the traveler's wonder at the local rites. To have described ongoing pipe-and-drum music would be a sound; the what-are-they-praying and the never-resting panpipes and drums are the sound.

Study

Word focus

压 To press down, to lean with weight. In 城窄山将压 the character is applied to mountains and so gives them an intention; the town is not merely near rock but appears to be under it, and one verb supplies the poem's whole sense of entrapment. 「压」字写山将压，是写出压城之势的关键。「城窄山将压」着一「压」，写压——着一「压」字，写山将压，见其山之势。一字写尽将压之势，是「以一字写势」的妙笔。「压」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
浮 To float, to ride on the surface. 江宽地共浮 lets the wide river carry the earth, reversing the expected relation of land and water, and making the landscape unstable at the same moment it looks most immense. 「浮」字写地共浮，是写地浮之态的关键。「江宽地共浮」着一「浮」，写浮动——着一「浮」字，写地共浮，见其地之浮。一字写尽共浮之态，是「以一字写景」的点睛之词。「浮」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
通 To lead through, to connect. 东南通绝域 measures the reach of the roads from this narrow town to the ends of the world, and stands in the couplet as the only movement outward, the only gesture of escape. 「通」字写东南通绝域，是写通连之态的关键。「东南通绝域」着一「通」，写通连——着一「通」字，写东南通绝域，见其通之远。一字写尽通连之态，是「以一字写远」的点睛之词。「通」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
不曾 Never, at no time — used here to deny interruption. 箫鼓不曾休 refuses to let the music stop, and in that refusal lies the poem's quiet despair: the rite goes on whether or not anyone believes in it. 「不曾」写箫鼓不曾休，是写不曾停歇的关键。「箫鼓不曾休」着一「不曾」，写不曾——着一「不曾」，写箫鼓不曾休，见其鼓之不休。两字写尽不曾之态，是「以词写续」的点睛之词。「不曾」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

Related Reading

浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯 Xi Huai Sha: A New Song, A Cup of Wine 晏殊 · 同写感怀写景、含蓄蕴藉，一写无可奈何花落去、一写城窄山将压江宽地共浮，皆于感怀之中见含蓄蕴藉 Both write on feeling-touched scenery, both withholding their consolation

Yan Shu's famous line 无可奈何花落去，似曾相识燕归来 mourns the falling flower and welcomes the returning swallow, replacing a logical conclusion with two equally persuasive images. The present poem ends the same way — not with an answer to 殊乡竟何祷 but with 箫鼓不曾休, a pair of nouns. Both writers trust the image to carry the thought, and in both cases the reader is left with something dried and durable rather than comforted. Yan Shu's is the more elegant mind speaking; this poem's is the plainer voice of the anthology.

晏殊《浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯》「无可奈何花落去，似曾相识燕归来」，写感怀写景，是宋词小令的名篇；《西北有高楼》则以「城窄山将压，江宽地共浮」「殊乡竟何祷，箫鼓不曾休」写城窄山将压、箫鼓不曾休。两诗同写感怀写景、含蓄蕴藉：一写无可奈何花落去、以花落燕归写惜时，一写城窄山将压江宽地共浮、以城江写景；一为晏殊之温润、一为古诗之深婉，并读正可见诗写「感怀写景」的两种笔法，皆于感怀之中见含蓄蕴藉。

 水调歌头·明月几时有 Shui Tiao Ge Tou: When Will the Moon Be Bright? 苏轼 · 同写登楼望远、借楼抒怀，一写明月几时有把酒问青天、一写东南通绝域西北有高楼，皆于登楼之中见抒怀 Both take a tower and a high place as the point of view from which to write

Su Shi opens 明月几时有，把酒问青天 and climbs out of the human scene by asking the sky; this poem likewise raises its eye to a tower in the north-west, but does not climb. Where Su Shi rises into the philosophical and ends with 千里共婵娟, the Nineteen Old Poems poem stays low, in a narrow town, and can offer only the sound of drums. The contrast is between a tower that lifts and a tower that merely refracts the landscape, and between verse of the same meter but of two opposite temperaments.

苏轼《水调歌头·明月几时有》「明月几时有，把酒问青天」，写中秋怀人、登楼望远，是宋词长调的名篇；《西北有高楼》则以「东南通绝域，西北有高楼」「神护青枫岸，龙移白石湫」写西北有高楼、神护青枫岸。两诗同写登楼望远、借楼抒怀：一写明月几时有把酒问青天、以问天写旷达，一写东南通绝域西北有高楼、以高楼写望远；一为苏轼之超然、一为古诗之深婉，并读正可见诗写「登楼抒怀」的两种笔法，皆于登楼之中见抒怀。