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汉 Han · 乐府 Yuefu ballad

饮马长城窟行

Watering the Horse at the Great Wall Spring

陈琳

Chen Lin

边塞Border Frontier 反战Anti-War

饮马长城窟，水寒伤马骨。
往谓长城吏，慎莫稽留太原卒！
官作自有程，举筑谐汝声！
男儿宁当格斗死，何能怫郁筑长城。
长城何连连，连连三千里。
边城多健少，内舍多寡妇。
作书与内舍，便嫁莫留住。
善事新姑嫜，时时念我故夫子！
报书往边地，君今出语一何鄙？
身在祸难中，何为稽留他家子？
生男慎莫举，生女哺用脯。
君独不见长城下，死人骸骨相撑拄。
结发行事君，慊慊心意关。
明知边地苦，贱妾何能久自全？

Water the horse at the Great Wall spring,
The water is cold, it chills the horse's bone.
I go to the wall overseer and say:
"Do not delay us Taiyuan conscripts!"
"Official works have their own schedule;
Raise your rammers and shout in unison!"
A man would rather die in combat
Than fret and fume building the Great Wall.
The Great Wall—how it stretches on,
On and on for three thousand li.
Border towns have many sturdy youths;
Inner homes have many widowed wives.
I write a letter to my wife at home:
"Marry again; do not stay for me.
Serve well your new parents-in-law,
Yet from time to time think of your old husband!"
A reply comes back to the border land:
"How base are the words you speak today?
Being in the midst of calamity,
Why should I detain another's child?
If a boy is born, do not raise him;
If a girl is born, feed her dried meat.
Do you not see beneath the Great Wall—
The dead men's bones propping one another?"
From girlhood I served you as wife;
My anxious heart has always been with you.
I know well the bitterness of the border—
How can your lowly wife long preserve herself?

Listen

Meaning

A conscript forced to build the Great Wall writes to his wife urging her to remarry, but she replies with a vow of loyalty and a grim vision of the bones beneath the wall. Through exchanged letters, the poem dramatizes the human cost of forced labor and endless warfare.

在长城下的泉窟饮马，水冷刺骨，伤透了马骨。走去对监修长城的官吏说：千万不要再扣留我们太原的役卒！官家的工程自有期限，打夯吧，把歌声唱齐！男儿宁可在战场上拼杀而死，怎能憋着闷气来筑长城。长城啊何其连绵，连绵三千里。边城多少健壮少年，家中多少独守寡妇。写封信寄给家里，你改嫁去吧，别再等我。好好侍奉新的公婆，可也要时时想念我这个旧日的丈夫！妻子的回信寄到边地：你如今说话怎这么浅薄？我身陷祸难之中，又怎能拖累别家的儿女？生下男孩千万别养，生下女孩就用干肉喂大。你难道没看见长城脚下，死人的骸骨一根根相撑相柱？我自束发便侍奉你，郁结的心意与你相连。明知边地苦寒，我这做妻的又怎能独自苟全？

Appreciation

A masterpiece of Jian'an literary imitation of yuefu, this poem uses the old Qin-dynasty theme of the Great Wall to reflect the burden of conscription at the end of the Han dynasty. The structure is built on letters exchanged between a conscript and his wife, with narrative interludes so seamless that Shen Deqian praised it as having 'no trace of question and answer.' The opening line about the horse's chilled bones hints at human suffering; the conscript's anger and desperate advice to his wife to remarry give way to her shocking reply—'If a boy is born, do not raise him'—and the harrowing image of bones propping each other beneath the wall. Personal tragedy expands into an era's catastrophe, and the closing vow of loyalty in the face of certain death is both sorrowful and piercing. The poem's power lies in its colloquial directness and its ability to channel folk-song vitality without literary affectation.

【白话串讲】 “饮马长城窟，水寒伤马骨”——陈琳写筑长城的征夫：“男儿宁当格斗死，何能怫郁筑长城”——男儿宁可战死，也不愿这样筑城。“边城多健少，内舍多寡妇”——“作书与内舍，便嫁莫留住”——他写信让妻子改嫁。长城下的血泪。【意象与手法】以役卒与妻子的往返书信为骨架，间以叙事，通篇几组对话而无问答之痕。“饮马长城窟，水寒伤马骨”以马骨之伤衬人役之苦；“生男慎莫举”的酷语与“死人骸骨相撑拄”的惨景，将个人悲剧推至时代惨剧。以对话写人、以常语写痛，毫无文人拟作的矫饰。【情感与主旨】建安文人拟乐府中的名篇，借秦代筑城旧题写汉末繁役之祸。役卒劝妻改嫁的绝望体贴与妻“结发行事君”的坚守交织，将个人悲剧推至时代惨剧，反战之力胜过无数颂城之辞，沈德潜谓可与汉乐府竞爽。【名句点睛】常考“男儿宁当格斗死，何能怫郁筑长城”以愤语写征夫之怒；“生男慎莫举，生女哺用脯”以酷语写繁役之祸。

Background

Chen Lin (d. 217), courtesy name Kongzhang, a native of Sheyang in Guangling, was one of the Seven Masters of the Jian'an period. He served under He Jin, then Yuan Shao, and later Cao Cao. The title is an old yuefu tune; the ancient text dealt with a woman longing for her absent husband. Chen Lin repurposes the Qin-era building of the Great Wall to criticize the heavy conscription of the late Han, when constant warfare drove common people into endless labor and separated husbands from wives. The Taiyuan conscript, the wall official, and the wife are all portraits of the age. The poem is thus not merely a frontier song but a sidelight on the chaos of the Jian'an era, best read alongside works like 'The Seven Sorrows' or 'The Hao-li Song.'

陈琳（？—217），字孔璋，广陵射阳人，建安七子之一，初为何进主簿，后依袁绍，绍败归曹，为司空军师祭酒。其诗仅存数首，而《饮马长城窟行》最为世重。《饮马长城窟行》本为乐府瑟调曲名，古辞写思妇念远（青青河畔草），陈琳此作则借秦筑长城之古题，写汉末建安年间征役繁重的现实。汉末战乱频仍，百姓被驱筑城、远征，夫妻离散者众，诗中太原卒、长城吏、内舍寡妇，皆当时缩影。题为秦事而实伤汉末，是文人拟乐府借古讽今的惯法。陈琳身处乱世，亲见徭役之酷，故能于对话中写出役卒与妻子双双陷于绝境的真实：男儿不得格斗而死，唯余筑城怫郁；妇人不得相保，唯余生男勿举之誓。此诗因此不只是边塞之吟，更是建安乱离之史的侧影，宜与《七哀诗》《蒿里行》并读。陈琳此诗借秦筑长城古题写汉末繁役之祸。汉末战乱频仍，百姓被驱筑城远征，夫妻离散者众，诗中太原卒、长城吏、内舍寡妇皆当时缩影。题为秦事而实伤汉末，是文人拟乐府借古讽今的惯法。诗中役卒之愤、妻之贞与惨，交织成白骨长城，其反战之力胜过无数颂城之辞，宜与《七哀诗》并读。

Art

The poem's most striking feature is its construction entirely through dialogue and letters, with no trace of seams. It moves from the conscript's complaint to the official, to his angry outburst, to the epistolary exchange with his wife. The colloquial style varies with each speaker—defiant, sorrowful, or bitter—giving the poem a dramatic immediacy. Folk-song techniques such as reduplication ('stretches on, stretches on') and antithetical lines ('border towns have many sturdy youths / inner homes have many widowed wives') heighten the sense of endless distance and desolation. The final shift to tender, resigned grief makes the preceding harsh imagery resonate even more deeply. Chen Lin succeeds in capturing the spirit of folk yuefu while showing the deliberate craft of a literary writer.

此诗艺术上最突出者，是以对话结构全篇而浑化无痕。通篇由役卒独白、与吏对语、寄妻之书、妻之覆书数层组成，人多语杂而衔接自然，沈德潜评无问答之痕，而神理井然，正指此。开篇叙事仅两句，随即入役卒往谓长城吏的请辞，被拒后迸出男儿宁当格斗死的反抗，节奏骤紧；继而长城何连连四句以民歌式复沓（连连、连连）写工程之漫无际涯，由个人之愤扩为一代之悲。作书与内舍以下转为书信体，役卒劝嫁语愈体贴而愈惨，妻报书先责后誓，生男慎莫举二句以不合常情之语写透绝望，骨力惊挺。结二句忽收缠绵，明知边地苦，贱妾何能久自全，于不可能处见不死之心，反衬更痛。全诗句式杂言与五言间用，语气随人物转换，或愤或婉或酷，无一闲笔，是文人拟乐府而能得民歌神理的典范。通篇由役卒与妻往返书信为骨架，间以叙事，人多语杂而衔接自然，沈德潜评无问答之痕而神理井然。开篇以水寒伤马骨衬人役之苦，中段役卒求归不得、愤而宁当格斗死，继以寄书劝妻、妻之覆书，由个人之愤扩为一代之悲。结以骸骨相撑拄、贱妾何能久自全，于不可能中守不离之本心，哀婉刺骨，是文人拟乐府得民歌神理的典范。

Allusions

The title itself is a yuefu allusion, but Chen Lin reverses the original theme of a longing wife into a two-way exchange. 'The Great Wall—how it stretches on' echoes the ancient 'green grass by the river' formula to express endlessness. The line 'dead men's bones propping one another' draws on murals and legends of the Qin wall, where countless laborers died and were buried in the ramparts. The shocking advice 'if a boy is born, do not raise him' alludes to the ancient practice of female infanticide and the terror of conscription, while 'serve well your new parents-in-law' uses everyday colloquial terms for mother- and father-in-law, rootting the tragedy in domestic life. These allusions and echoes give the poem both historical depth and emotional realism.

诗用古题而多化汉乐府意象与成语。饮马长城窟为乐府旧题，古辞青青河畔草，绵绵思远道即写筑城征人之妇的思念，陈琳沿其题而翻其意，由思妇转为役卒与妻双向倾诉，是拟作对古题的再创造。长城何连连，连连三千里用连绵复字写城之长，与古诗青青河畔草、绵绵思远道之绵绵同一叠字传统，皆以声写延展不尽之苦。死人骸骨相撑拄直写筑城白骨，与秦代筑城传说及乐府十五从军征中兔从狗窦入的荒残景象一脉相承，是长城题材最刺目的意象。生男慎莫举，生女哺用脯翻用战国策、王符潜夫论所见生男堕杀之俗（亦见《汉书》载民间生女杀之风气），以反常之嘱写祸难之深。姑嫜即公婆，古乐府常用（如相逢行中子婿从门来，中庭生桂树，新妇识宾客中的舅姑），善事新姑嫜全用乐府家常语。诸象皆有所本，而经陈琳组织，遂成一座白骨长城的逼真写照。饮马长城窟为乐府旧题，古辞写思妇念远，陈琳沿其题而翻其意，由思妇转为役卒与妻双向倾诉。长城何连连用连绵复字写城之长，与古诗绵绵思远道同法。死人骸骨相撑拄直写筑城白骨，与十五从军征荒残景象一脉。生男慎莫举翻用民间杀婴之俗写祸难之深。姑嫜即公婆，善事新姑嫜全用乐府家常语，诸象皆有所本而经组织成白骨长城之写。

Commentary

The opening couplet, 'Water the horse at the Great Wall spring, / The water is cold, it chills the horse's bone,' sets the bitter frontier scene and uses the horse's pain to foreshadow human suffering. The conscript's plea to the official is rejected with cold bureaucratic logic ('Official works have their own schedule'), sparking his defiant cry that he would rather die fighting than build the wall in frustration. The middle narrative lines show the wall's vastness and the social rupture it causes. The letter to his wife—urging her to remarry and serve her new in-laws well—reveals tender affection amid despair. The wife's reply, far from accepting his advice, rebukes him and paints the ghastly image of bones propping one another, then vows her undying loyalty. The final lines, 'I know well the bitterness of the border— / How can your lowly wife long preserve herself?' are deeply poignant: she cannot survive alone, yet she refuses to abandon him. Each layer of dialogue deepens the tragedy.

起二句饮马长城窟，水寒伤马骨，以饮马起兴，水寒伤马骨既是实写边地之苦，亦以马骨之伤暗喻人身之损，沉痛入题。往谓长城吏四句为第一组对话：役卒求吏勿留太原卒，吏以官作自有程、举筑谐汝声相拒，役卒愤而男儿宁当格斗死，何能怫郁筑长城，宁当、何能二句见其宁战死不负役的刚烈。长城何连连四句转叙事，连连三千里写城之无尽，边城多健少，内舍多寡妇写征役造成的人间拆散。作书与内舍以下为书信：役卒劝妻便嫁莫留，善事新姑嫜见其体贴；妻报书先责君今出语一何鄙，继言身在祸难中不能累他家子，生男慎莫举，生女哺用脯以酷语写绝望，君独不见长城下，死人骸骨相撑拄以惨景证之。结四句结发行事君，慊慊心意关，明知边地苦，贱妾何能久自全，由愤转柔，于死别中守情，哀婉而力重。全诗句句相生，由景及语、由语及书、由书及骨，悲剧层层推深。起二句饮马长城窟，水寒伤马骨以马骨之伤暗喻人身之损。往谓长城吏四句为第一组对话，役卒求归被拒，愤而宁当格斗死。长城何连连四句写工程无尽、人家拆散。作书与内舍以下为书信：役卒劝妻便嫁，妻报书先责后誓，生男慎莫举、骸骨相撑拄写透绝望。结四句由愤转柔，明知边地苦，贱妾何能久自全，于死别中守情，悲而力重。

Prosody

Reading note This is a yuefu song, not a regulated poem, so line lengths vary with the speaker's mood. Five-character lines dominate, but seven-character and mixed lines (e.g., the official's order, the conscript's cry) create abrupt shifts. Rhyme changes roughly with each exchange, mimicking natural speech. Reduplicated words like 'stretches on, stretches on' and paired antitheses echo the Han folk-song tradition. The prosody is deliberately colloquial and dramatic, allowing the poem to be sung or recited with ease.此诗为乐府歌辞，非近体，故句式长短错落，随人物语气而变，不受律诗平仄黏对约束。通篇以五言为主干（饮马长城窟、水寒伤马骨、长城何连连等），间以七言与杂言（慎莫稽留太原卒、男儿宁当格斗死、君独不见长城下），句式之长短对应情绪之缓急：叙事用五言，呼告与誓语用七言，便生顿挫。押韵方面，古乐府本随乐而歌，此诗用换韵与遥韵相济，如骨、卒、声、城、里、妇、留、嫜、子、鄙、子、脯、拄、君、关、全等，大致随对话段落换韵，模拟说话的呼吸。连连、连连，健少、寡妇等叠字与对句，承汉乐府复沓传统，既助记忆又写延展之苦。全篇语似率易而音节暗合情态，是文人拟乐府而能协律度声的范例，宜歌宜诵。

Line by line

男儿宁当格斗死，何能怫郁筑长城。

A man would rather die in combat than fret and fume building the wall; this couplet expresses the conscript's fierce refusal of degrading forced labor, contrasting a warrior's death with stifled, spirit-breaking drudgery.

A man would rather die fighting hand to hand; how can he brood his life away building the Great Wall?

此二句为役卒对长城吏拒绝后的爆发，是全诗刚骨所在。宁当格斗死以战死为荣，何能怫郁筑长城以筑城之闷为辱，两相对照，写出役卒宁赴沙场、不忍受役的决绝。怫郁谓忧郁愤懑、气不得伸，筑长城则是无休止的苦役，二字写尽被驱者精神的窒息。建安士人诗中多写乱离之愤，此句则以役卒口吻出之，比文人直抒更见力量——它把抽象的不平化作一个具体抉择：宁可痛快死，不肯憋屈活。语气斩截，毫无拟作常有的温吞，故沈德潜极赏其骨力。此联亦定下全篇反抗基调：后文妻之生男慎莫举、骸骨相撑拄，皆此宁死不苟之气的延伸。

The soldier's choice. A man would rather die fighting hand to hand; how can he brood his life away building the Great Wall? The two fates (death in battle, slow death by corvée) are the soldier's refusal of the wall. To have said a soldier would rather die fighting than build the wall would be a speech; the rather-die-fighting against the brooding-building-the-wall are the speech.

君独不见长城下，死人骸骨相撑拄。

Do you not see the dead men's bones propping one another beneath the wall? This shocking image, addressed to her husband, turns the wall itself into a monument of human bones and becomes the poem's most haunting emblem of war's cost.

Have you not seen, below the Great Wall, the bones of the dead leaning against one another?

此二句为妻子覆书中最惊心之语，以眼前景证心中誓。君独不见是汉乐府与汉赋中常见的呼告句式（如陌上桑使君遣吏往、罗敷前致词），此处用于夫妻书信，陡增当面指陈之力。长城下死人骸骨相撑拄写筑城者白骨累累、相互支柱的惨状，撑拄二字极具象，令人如见如触，是长城题材最刺目的意象，亦暗承秦筑长城杀人之史传记忆。妻以此景回答丈夫便嫁之劝：既见如此，则改嫁非薄情，而是同归于此骨堆的必然。景愈惨而情愈贞，反衬出结句贱妾何能久自全的沉痛——她不是能自全，而是不忍独全。二句以最硬的景写最软的情，是拟乐府得民歌之骨的证明。

The bones. Have you not seen, below the Great Wall, the bones of the dead leaning against one another? The leaning-on-one-another bones are the wall's true material. The direct question (have you not seen?) is the wife's answer to her husband. To have described the wall's bones would be a sight; the bones under the wall leaning on one another are the sight.

饮马长城窟，水寒伤马骨。

Watering the horse at the Great Wall spring, the cold water chills the horse's bone—a bleak opening that uses the horse's suffering to imply the even greater suffering of the conscript.

Water the horse at the Great Wall spring; the water is so cold it wounds the horse's bones.

此二句为全诗起手，以饮马起兴，先布边地苦寒之景。饮马长城窟写役卒于长城下泉窟饮马，点出地点与人；水寒伤马骨以泉水之寒伤透马骨，既是实写边地之凄，亦以马骨之伤暗喻人身之损、役役之酷。此句妙在由物及人：马且伤骨，人何以堪？以景之寒写心之寒，起手便沉。沈德潜极赏其骨力，正因不待铺叙，仅二句已立繁役之苦的基调，下文的求归、寄书、骸骨皆由此寒字生出。古诗往往起手即定调，此联即一例。

The spring. Water the horse at the Great Wall spring; the water is so cold it wounds the horse's bones. The cold that reaches the horse's bone is the frontier's cold, and the soldier's own. To have described the cold spring would be scenery; the wall spring and the cold that wounds the horse's bone are the scenery.

Study

Word focus

怫郁 Meaning 'depressed,' 'indignant,' or 'pent-up resentment.' In the line '何能怫郁筑长城,' it captures the spiritual suffocation of being forced into labor—contrasting with a quick death in battle. It shifts the focus from physical to psychological suffering. 怫郁意为忧郁、愤懑、心情郁结不伸。诗中何能怫郁筑长城以之状役卒被驱筑城时精神的窒息与憋屈，与宁当格斗死之痛快死形成强烈反差：战死虽凶而有丈夫之气，筑城之怫郁则是无声的消磨，更不堪忍。此词精准点出苦役之害不在力竭而在心死，较之水寒伤马骨之写身苦，更深一层写心苦。怫郁本出《楚辞》（如九叹心怫郁而内伤），陈琳以之入乐府口语，雅俗相济而不失力度。一字而定役卒性格之刚与处境之惨，是全诗反抗情绪的凝结点，后文妻之生男慎莫举、骸骨相撑拄，皆此怫郁之外化。

姑嫜 Classical terms for 'mother-in-law' and 'father-in-law' (i.e., 'new parents-in-law'). Used in the conscript's letter, it adds a homely, warm touch, revealing his concern for his wife's future even in his despair. 姑嫜即公婆，姑为婆母、嫜为翁公（亦作舅姑）。诗中善事新姑嫜是役卒劝妻改嫁时所嘱：好好侍奉新的公婆。此词带着汉魏乐府家常温度，古诗中每见（如相逢行、孔雀东南飞中供养卒大恩皆涉舅姑），用于此处，使劝嫁语不流于绝情，反见丈夫于绝望中仍为妻谋安稳的体贴。姑嫜前加新字，与故夫子相对，新故之间便是此一生死离别——善事新者，正因自已为故。一词而含劝、含愧、含不舍，最见书信体语短情长之妙。其用乐府熟语而不隔，恰证陈琳拟作之得民歌神理。

骸骨 Meaning 'dead bones' or 'skeletal remains.' In '死人骸骨相撑拄,' the bones 'prop each other up,' suggesting the sheer number of dead and the way their remains are packed together—a visceral image of mass death. 骸骨犹言尸骨、枯骨。诗中君独不见长城下，死人骸骨相撑拄以之写筑城者白骨累累、相互支柱的惨状，撑拄二字极具象，令人如见如触。骸骨本寻常死生之词，入此句则与长城这一象征工程形成刺目反差：巍巍长城竟由累累骸骨垒成。此词直承秦筑长城杀人之史传记忆，亦与十五从军征、古诗荒丘意象一脉。以骸骨收束妻子劝夫之语，是将个人离别之痛推至时代惨剧的关纽，最见陈琳拟乐府以白描写血泪的力量，宜与怫郁并观其沉郁。