杭州春望

Meaning

Bai Juyi, governor of Hangzhou, looks out over the city on a spring morning: the tower bright with dawn, the river bank white with sand, the sound of tide going into the temple of Wu Yuan, willows hiding the old quarter. He moves down from the public buildings to the working city — silk-weavers, wine-shops — and closes on one unexpected thing: the grassy path around the lake, which looks like a green skirt-waist drawn across the water. The poem is a record, in eight regulated lines, of a whole city seen at one hour.

望海楼明照曙霞，护江堤白踏晴沙。 涛声夜入伍员庙，柳色春藏苏小家。 红袖织绫夸柿蒂，青旗沽酒趁梨花。 谁开湖寺西南路，草绿裙腰一道斜。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Bai Juyi looks out on Hangzhou in spring: the tower lit by dawn, the river bank of white sand, the temple of Wu Yuan with the tide in its ear, the willows over Su Xiaoxia's old home, weavers praising their silk, wine-shops under green flags, and a grassy causeway that is like a green skirt-waist. <br>[Structure] A proper regulated poem: four couplets, each a scene, moving from the tiled public buildings to the lake road. The final line answers the question posed in the seventh, though nothing in the question predicts the answer. <br>[Imagery] Colour dominates: red sleeves, green flags, white sand, green grass. Sound is present but only twice, and both sounds are natural (the tide, the market). <br>[Tone] The poem's mood is that of a man who is satisfied with what he can see, and who finds a joke in the last line; there is no complaint, and the wit is kept light.

【白话串讲】 白居易写《杭州春望》：“望海楼明照曙霞，护江堤白踏晴沙”——“涛声夜入伍员庙，柳色春藏苏小家”——“红袖织绫夸柿蒂，青旗沽酒趁梨花”——“谁开湖寺西南路，草绿裙腰一道斜”——他写杭州的春色。 【意象与手法】 此诗写景，以春景写景，是白居易的名篇。前四句写春望：「望海楼明照曙霞，护江堤白踏晴沙。涛声夜入伍员庙，柳色春藏苏小家」写望海楼明照曙霞、护江堤白踏晴沙——写尽曙霞的江堤；后四句写杭城：「红袖织绫夸柿蒂，青旗沽酒趁梨花。谁开湖寺西南路，草绿裙腰一道斜」写红袖织绫夸柿蒂、青旗沽酒趁梨花——写尽梨花的沽酒。全诗以春景写景，写尽曙霞的江堤与梨花的沽酒，是白居易的代表作。 【情感与主旨】 此诗写景，以春景写景，是白居易的名篇。此诗为白居易任杭州刺史时春望杭州而作，写杭州的江堤、寺庙、市井与湖景。白居易为杭州刺史时，勤于治理，此诗写其春日登楼望杭州。此诗写望海楼明照曙霞，护江堤白踏晴沙；涛声夜入伍员庙，柳色春藏苏小家；红袖织绫夸柿蒂，青旗沽酒趁梨花；谁开湖寺西南路，草绿裙腰一道斜。此诗写春望：望海楼明照曙霞，护江堤白踏晴沙——写望海楼明照曙霞、护江堤白踏晴沙，写尽曙霞的江堤；涛声夜入伍员庙，柳色春藏苏小家——写涛声夜入伍员庙、柳色春藏苏小家，写尽伍员的庙声；红袖织绫夸柿蒂，青旗沽酒趁梨花——写红袖织绫夸柿蒂、青旗沽酒趁梨花，写尽梨花的沽酒；谁开湖寺西南路，草绿裙腰一道斜——写谁开湖寺西南路、草绿裙腰一道斜，写尽裙腰的草绿。全诗以春景写景——那「望海楼明照曙霞」写尽曙霞的江堤，「草绿裙腰一道斜」写尽裙腰的草绿，写尽曙霞的江堤与梨花的沽酒，是理解白居易写景诗的重要篇章。 【名句点睛】 常考「望海楼明照曙霞，护江堤白踏晴沙」写曙霞的江堤；「红袖织绫夸柿蒂，青旗沽酒趁梨花」写梨花的沽酒；以及全诗以春景写景、以对仗写杭城的手法。

Allusions

Two of the four couplets depend on local reference. Wuyuan miao, the temple of Wu Yuan (Wu Zixu), is the shrine at the foot of the river in Hangzhou where the tide was said to arrive and go; Suxiao jia, the house of Su Xiaoxia, refers to the famous courtesan Su Xiaoxiao of the Southern Qi, buried outside the city wall, whose name still gave the quarter its character. Wanghailou, the tide-tower, was the eastern city tower. Hujiang di is the bank along the river. Shidi refers to the persimmon-patterned silk woven in the area, one of its local products; qingqi is the customary green wine flag; lihua supplied the season for drinking. Nothing is quoted from a book, and the allusions are entirely local — which is why the poem reads as report rather than as learning.

此诗的用语深植于写景与春景传统。「望海楼」令人想到「望海楼」写望海楼的意象——杭州东楼，也令人想到「楼观沧海日」的意象；「曙霞」令人想到「曙霞」写朝霞的意象——也令人想到「云霞出海曙」的意象；「护江堤」令人想到「护江堤」写护江长堤的意象——也令人想到「苏堤白堤」的意象；「伍员庙」令人想到「伍员庙」写伍子胥庙的意象——杭州伍员庙，也令人想到「伍胥潮」的意象；「苏小家」令人想到「苏小家」写苏小小的意象——杭州名妓苏小小，也令人想到「苏小小墓」的意象；「柿蒂」令人想到「柿蒂」写柿蒂纹绫的意象——也令人想到「柿蒂绫」的意象；「梨花」令人想到「梨花」写梨花的意象——也令人想到「梨花带雨」的意象。全诗化用望海楼、曙霞、护江堤、伍员庙、苏小家、柿蒂、梨花的意象典故，以春景写景，正是白居易「通俗」而善用典、承写景传统写春景之本领。「望海楼」令人想到「望海楼」写望海楼的意象——也令人想到「江楼」的意象；「青旗」令人想到「青旗」写青旗酒帘的意象——也令人想到「青旗沽酒」的意象，以青旗写市井。

Commentary

This regulated poem is among the most anthologized of Bai Juyi's works and the standard Tang description of Hangzhou. Qing critics call it 'clear and lovely, perfectly regulated'; modern readers quote the couplet on the silk and the wine as the poem's best, for the way ordinary work enters high verse without becoming picturesque. Its particular place is as a companion to 'Walking in Early Spring by the West Lake', the other poem by which Hangzhou is known — that one walks and counts, this one looks and asks. Together they anchor the whole tradition of Chinese writing about Hangzhou, and they are read as evidence of the particular civility of Bai Juyi's governorship: a poet who notices his city's trades as carefully as its towers.

此诗历来被推为白居易写景诗的名篇，也是唐诗写杭州春景的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以春景写景，明丽工整」；近人更指出「红袖织绫夸柿蒂，青旗沽酒趁梨花」写梨花的沽酒，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曙霞的江堤与梨花的沽酒——那望海楼，那明照曙霞，那护江堤，那白踏晴沙，那涛声，那夜入，那伍员庙，那柳色，那春藏，那苏小家，那红袖，那织绫，那夸柿蒂，那青旗，那沽酒，那趁梨花，那谁开，那湖寺，那西南路，那草绿，那裙腰，那一道斜，都写尽了白居易笔下的杭州春望；那「草绿裙腰一道斜」更以设问写尽裙腰的草绿。此诗与白居易《钱塘湖春行》「孤山寺北贾亭西」同为杭州名篇，一写「最爱湖东行不足」的钱塘（钱塘湖春行），一写「草绿裙腰一道斜」的春望（杭州春望）；又与林逋《山园小梅》的杭州诗传统一脉相承，可见唐诗写杭州的传统。对于今日读者，此诗是理解白居易写景诗的窗口，也是唐诗写杭州春景的经典——那裙腰的草绿，穿越千年，仍在诉说着梨花的沽酒。

Prosody

Line by line

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