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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

哭晁卿衡

Weeping for the Japanese Scholar Chao

李白

Li Bai

悼亡Mourning the Dead 怀人Lamenting a Friend

日本晁卿辞帝都，征帆一片绕蓬壶。
明月不归沉碧海，白云愁色满苍梧。

The Japanese scholar Chao took leave of the imperial capital,
And one lone sail wound its way round the isles of Penghu.
Like the bright moon that will not return, he sank into the blue sea;
White clouds, charged with sorrow, fill the whole of Cangwu.

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Meaning

Li Bai hears the false news that his friend Chao Qingheng — the Japanese envoy Abe no Nakamaro — has been lost at sea on his voyage home. The poet cannot consign him to a grave on land, so he imagines him as a moon sinking for ever into the green water, and lets the whole landscape put on the colour of grief. The poem is a mourning song in which the friend's death is also, and more beautifully, a death among the heavens.

日本晁卿辞帝都，征帆一片绕蓬壶。明月不归沉碧海，白云愁色满苍梧。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Two movements. The first gives the departure: a scholar leaves the capital, and a single sail circles the fairy isles of Penghu — already the sea is converting a voyage into a myth. The second couplet reverses the motion, from sailing to sinking, and from a single sail to the whole sky.[Structure] With only four lines the poem has no room for anything but the turn, and the turn comes exactly at line three: the verb 'sink' changes a journey into a death.[Imagery] The metaphor is a classical one, the lost friend identified with the moon, but Li Bai makes it concrete and physical — the moon does not merely shine, it goes down into the sea and is lost. In the last line the clouds themselves acquire a face of sorrow and spread across Cangwu, so that the mourner is surrounded by his own grief made visible in weather.

【白话串讲】李白写《哭晁卿衡》：“日本晁卿辞帝都，征帆一片绕蓬壶”——“明月不归沉碧海，白云愁色满苍梧”——日本友人晁衡归国遇难，他痛哭——明月沉海，白云含愁——他写哀悼。【意象与手法】此诗写悼亡，以明月写悼亡，是李白的名篇。前二句写东归：「日本晁卿辞帝都，征帆一片绕蓬壶」写日本晁卿辞帝都、征帆一片绕蓬壶——写尽东归的征帆；后二句写悼念：「明月不归沉碧海，白云愁色满苍梧」写明月不归沉碧海、白云愁色满苍梧——写尽沉海的悼念。全诗以明月写悼亡，写尽东归的征帆与沉海的悼念，是李白的代表作。【情感与主旨】此诗写悼亡，以明月写悼亡，是李白的名篇。此诗写李白哭悼晁衡。晁衡即阿倍仲麻吕，日本遣唐留学生，仕唐五十余年，官至秘书监，与李白等友善。天宝十二载（753），晁衡随日本使团东归，海上遇风，传闻溺死。李白闻讯，作此诗哭之。此诗写日本晁卿辞帝都（长安），征帆一片绕蓬壶（蓬莱仙山，指海上仙山）；明月不归沉碧海，白云愁色满苍梧（苍梧山，在今江苏连云港）。此诗写东归：日本晁卿辞帝都，征帆一片绕蓬壶——写日本晁卿辞帝都、征帆一片绕蓬壶，写尽东归的征帆；明月不归沉碧海，白云愁色满苍梧——写明月不归沉碧海、白云愁色满苍梧，写尽沉海的悼念。全诗以明月写悼亡——那「征帆一片绕蓬壶」写尽东归的征帆，「白云愁色满苍梧」写尽沉海的悼念，写尽东归的征帆与沉海的悼念，是理解李白悼亡诗的重要篇章。【名句点睛】常考「日本晁卿辞帝都，征帆一片绕蓬壶」写东归的征帆；「明月不归沉碧海，白云愁色满苍梧」写沉海的悼念；以及全诗以明月写悼亡、以景语写哀思的手法。

Background

Chao Qingheng (Chao Heng, the Chinese name of Abe no Nakamaro, c. 698–770) came to Tang China as a student and stayed decades, winning a place in the imperial academy and famous friendship with Li Bai and Wang Wei. In 753 he sailed home with a Japanese mission; the fleet was scattered by a storm and he was given up for drowned, though he actually reached Japan and lived many more years. News of the shipwreck reached Chang'an before Chao himself did, and Li Bai wrote these four lines in the instant of that terrible correction.

此诗写悼亡，以明月写悼亡，是李白的名篇。李白（701—762），字太白，号青莲居士，又号谪仙人，祖籍陇西成纪（今甘肃秦安），生于碎叶（今吉尔吉斯斯坦托克马克），长于绵州昌隆（今四川江油），唐代诗人，与杜甫并称「李杜」，被尊为「诗仙」。此诗写李白哭悼晁衡。晁衡即阿倍仲麻吕，日本遣唐留学生，仕唐五十余年，官至秘书监，与李白等友善。天宝十二载（753），晁衡随日本使团东归，海上遇风，传闻溺死。李白闻讯，作此诗哭之。此诗写日本晁卿辞帝都（长安），征帆一片绕蓬壶（蓬莱仙山，指海上仙山）；明月不归沉碧海，白云愁色满苍梧（苍梧山，在今江苏连云港）。此诗写东归：「日本晁卿辞帝都，征帆一片绕蓬壶」写日本晁卿辞帝都、征帆一片绕蓬壶——写尽东归的征帆（日本晁卿辞帝都，征帆一片绕蓬壶）；「明月不归沉碧海，白云愁色满苍梧」写明月不归沉碧海、白云愁色满苍梧——写尽沉海的悼念（明月不归沉碧海，白云愁色满苍梧）。全诗以明月写悼亡，写尽东归的征帆与沉海的悼念，是理解李白悼亡诗的重要篇章。

Art

Li Bai's compressed genius is at full work here. Four lines carry a whole elegy: departure, voyage, catastrophe, landscape of grief. The central device is the substitution of the moon for the drowned man, which lifts a corpse in the sea into a star going out, and at the same time keeps the mourning wholly concrete — we still see a sail, water, cloud. The last word 'Cangwu' names a range of hills in the south associated with death and the realm of the dead, so the clouds seem to settle over a tomb. Nothing is stated; grief is reported entirely through the behaviour of nature.

此诗的艺术特色可从四个方面解析。其一，以点题写东归。「日本晁卿辞帝都」以点题写东归——那「辞帝都」写尽晁卿的东归，以点题写尽东归的征帆。其二，以想象写仙山。「征帆一片绕蓬壶」以想象写仙山——那「绕蓬壶」写尽征帆的绕仙，以想象写尽东归的征帆。其三，以比喻写沉海。「明月不归沉碧海」以比喻写沉海——那「明月」「沉碧海」写尽明月的沉海，以比喻写尽沉海的悼念。其四，以景语写哀思。「白云愁色满苍梧」以景语写哀思——那「白云愁色」写尽愁色的白云，以景语写尽沉海的悼念。此外，此诗前二句写东归的征帆，后二句写沉海的悼念，由归及悼，正是哭友诗「以月写悼」的写法。四重手法，使此诗以明月写悼亡，写尽东归的征帆与沉海的悼念，是李白的代表作。此诗还善于以「征帆一片绕蓬壶」的「一片」写孤帆之孤——那「征帆一片」写尽孤帆的东渡，正是以「一片」写孤，以「一片」写尽东归的征帆。又善以「明月不归沉碧海」的「不归」写未归之悲——明月不归，正见良友未归的痛惜，以「不归」写尽沉海的悼念。

Allusions

Penghu and Cangwu are both classical geography charged with the marvellous. Penghu names the 'three isles of the blest' in the eastern sea, the home of immortals — Chao sails toward them, so the voyage is at once a return home and a passage into myth. Cangwu is the site where, in the Shijing tradition and in the 'Li Sao', the emperor Shun was buried, and where his death was mourned by the bamboo that wept. Using it, Li Bai locates his friend's loss in the oldest grave-mound of Chinese song.

此诗的用语深植于悼亡与感慨传统。「晁卿」令人想到「晁卿」写晁衡的意象——阿倍仲麻吕，汉名晁衡，也令人想到「朝衡」的意象；「帝都」令人想到「帝都」写长安的意象——也令人想到「帝京」的意象；「蓬壶」令人想到「蓬壶」写蓬莱仙山的意象——《列子》五山中有蓬莱，也令人想到「壶天」的意象；「明月不归」令人想到「明月不归」写明月的意象——也令人想到「海上生明月」（张九龄）的意象；「碧海」令人想到「碧海」写碧海的意象——也令人想到「沧海月明」（李商隐）的意象；「苍梧」令人想到「苍梧」写苍梧山的意象——在今江苏连云港，也令人想到「苍梧白云」的意象。全诗化用晁卿、帝都、蓬壶、明月、碧海、苍梧的意象，以明月写悼亡，正是李白「豪放」而善想象、承哭友传统写哀思之本领。「蓬壶」典出《列子·汤问》——渤海之东有五山，其一名蓬莱，亦曰蓬壶，李白以「征帆一片绕蓬壶」写海上仙山；「苍梧」令人想到「苍梧」写苍梧山的意象——在今江苏连云港，相传舜葬苍梧，也令人想到「苍梧之野」的意象，以苍梧写愁色满山。

Commentary

This tiny quatrain has been admiringly quoted for twelve centuries, mostly for the second couplet. Critics note that Li Bai achieves in two lines what a longer elegy would need, and that the 'bright moon' was chosen precisely because it could not be buried — Chao is not a corpse in the sea but a light extinguished in water. The poem's irony is known to every reader of the story: the poem was written for a man who was alive. In Japan it has been regarded as the great Tang testimony to Abe no Nakamaro, and copied and commented upon as such.

此诗历来被推为李白悼亡诗的名篇，也是唐诗写国际友情的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以明月写悼亡，凄美自然」；近人更指出「明月不归沉碧海，白云愁色满苍梧」写沉海的悼念，是此诗的名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以四句的绝句写尽东归的征帆与沉海的悼念——那日本，那晁卿，那辞帝都，那征帆，那一片，那绕蓬壶，那明月，那不归，那沉碧海，那白云，那愁色，那满苍梧，都写尽了李白笔下的哭晁卿衡；那「白云愁色满苍梧」更以景语写尽沉海的悼念。此诗与李白《哭宣城善酿纪叟》（「纪叟黄泉里」）同为哭友名篇，一写「夜台无李白」的酿翁（哭纪叟），一写「明月不归沉碧海」的晁卿（哭晁卿衡）；又与中国古代悼亡诗传统一脉相承，可见中国诗写哭友悼亡的传统。对于今日读者，此诗是理解李白悼亡诗的窗口，也是唐诗写中日友情的经典——那沉碧海的明月，穿越千年，仍在诉说着沉海的悼念。

Prosody

Form Seven-character quatrain诗·七言绝句

Rhyme Rhymes on the Yu category — 'pot' and 'martial pine' — level tone throughout, one unchanging rhyme.七绝，押「壶」「梧」韵（上平七虞），一韵到底，音节凄美

Tone pattern Level-tone rhyme, unhurried and pure, suiting elegy rather than polemic.此诗为七言绝句，押平声韵，一韵到底，音节凄美，正合悼亡的凄美。

Reading note Four lines of seven characters. The first two narrate the departure and the voyage, the second two the death and the nature of the grave. The single level rhyme carries the whole poem without contrast, so the sound itself feels like a long held breath.此诗为七言绝句，四句——「日本晁卿辞帝都，征帆一片绕蓬壶。明月不归沉碧海，白云愁色满苍梧」，押「虞」韵（壶、梧），一韵到底，音节凄美。全诗以明月写悼亡：前二句写东归的征帆（日本晁卿辞帝都、征帆一片绕蓬壶），后二句写沉海的悼念（明月不归沉碧海、白云愁色满苍梧）。四句短章，前写东归，后写悼念，以「白云愁色满苍梧」写尽沉海的悼念，正见李白「豪放」的本色。诵读此诗，宜以凄美的语调读「征帆一片绕蓬壶」的东归，以哀婉的语调读「白云愁色满苍梧」的悼念，结句要读得凄美而有余韵，方能传达出李白的凄美自然。李白绝句以「豪放飘逸」著称，此诗正是其悼亡诗的典范。

Line by line

明月不归沉碧海，白云愁色满苍梧

Like the bright moon that will not come back, he sank into the blue sea; white clouds, charged with sorrow, fill all of Cangwu.

明月不归沉碧海，白云愁色满苍梧。

The bright moon does not return, sinking into the green sea; white clouds carry grief over all Cangwu.

此二句是全诗写悼念的核心，以明月不归沉碧海写沉碧海，以白云愁色满苍梧写满苍梧，写尽沉海的悼念，是千古名句。「明月不归沉碧海」写明月不归沉碧海——那「明月不归」写明月不归，「沉碧海」写沉碧海，写尽明月的沉海；「白云愁色满苍梧」写白云愁色满苍梧——那「白云愁色」写白云愁色，「满苍梧」写满苍梧，写尽愁色的苍梧。这句的深意在于：它以「明月不归沉碧海」的沉碧海与「白云愁色满苍梧」的满苍梧，写尽沉海的悼念——明月不归沉碧海，那「明月不归沉碧海」写尽明月的沉海——明月不归，正是明月未归的写照，那「沉碧海」写尽沉海的悼念；白云愁色满苍梧，那「白云愁色满苍梧」写尽愁色的苍梧——白云愁色，正是白云含愁的写照，那「满苍梧」写尽沉海的悼念；那「明月不归沉碧海」写尽明月的沉海，那「白云愁色满苍梧」写尽愁色的苍梧，一写明月，一写白云，写尽沉海的悼念——明月沉海而白云含愁，正是悲悼的写照；此二句以明月、白云写尽沉海的悼念，也让此二句成为全诗写悼念的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「晁衡像明月一样沉入大海，白云也带着愁色布满苍梧」，则失其凄美；唯以「明月不归沉碧海」写沉碧海、「白云愁色满苍梧」写满苍梧，写尽沉海的悼念，也让此二句成为全诗写悼念的核心。

The moon. The bright moon does not return, sinking into the green sea; white clouds carry grief over all Cangwu. The sinking moon (Abe no Nakamaro drowned) and the grief-laden clouds over Cangwu are Li Bai's elegy. To have compared the lost friend to a sinking moon would be a comparison; the bright-moon-not-returning-sinking-into-the-green-sea against the white-clouds-with-grief-over-all-Cangwu is the comparison.

日本晁卿辞帝都，征帆一片绕蓬壶

The Japanese scholar Chao took leave of the imperial capital, and one lone sail wound its way round the isles of Penghu.

日本晁卿辞帝都，征帆一片绕蓬壶。

A-Qing of Japan has left the imperial capital; a single sail winds around Penglai.

此二句是全诗写东归的核心，以日本晁卿辞帝都写辞帝都，以征帆一片绕蓬壶写绕蓬壶，写尽东归的征帆，是千古名句。「日本晁卿辞帝都」写日本晁卿辞帝都——那「日本晁卿」写日本晁卿，「辞帝都」写辞帝都，写尽晁卿的东归；「征帆一片绕蓬壶」写征帆一片绕蓬壶——那「征帆一片」写征帆一片，「绕蓬壶」写绕蓬壶，写尽征帆的绕仙。这句的深意在于：它以「日本晁卿辞帝都」的辞帝都与「征帆一片绕蓬壶」的绕蓬壶，写尽东归的征帆——日本晁卿辞帝都，那「日本晁卿辞帝都」写尽晁卿的东归——日本晁卿，正是东归的晁卿的写照，那「辞帝都」写尽东归的征帆；征帆一片绕蓬壶，那「征帆一片绕蓬壶」写尽征帆的绕仙——征帆一片，正是孤帆东渡的写照，那「绕蓬壶」写尽东归的征帆；那「日本晁卿辞帝都」写尽晁卿的东归，那「征帆一片绕蓬壶」写尽征帆的绕仙，一写辞京，一写绕壶，写尽东归的征帆——辞京东归而征帆绕壶，正是东渡的写照；此二句以辞京、征帆写尽东归的征帆，也为下文的沉海作铺垫，也让此二句成为全诗写东归的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「晁卿辞别长安，乘船回日本」，则失其想象；唯以「日本晁卿辞帝都」写辞帝都、「征帆一片绕蓬壶」写绕蓬壶，写尽东归的征帆，也让此二句成为全诗写东归的核心。

The sail. A-Qing of Japan has left the imperial capital; a single sail winds around Penglai. The departing Japanese envoy and the single sail around the immortal isle are the departure. To have described the friend's departure would be a scene; the Japan-A-Qing-leaving-the-imperial-capital against the single-sail-winding-around-Penglai is the scene.

Study

Word focus

沉 To sink and be lost. Here it describes the moon going down into the sea, so the death is expressed as a celestial body disappearing beneath water. 「明月不归沉碧海」之「沉」字是写悼念的关键词，一个「沉」字写尽明月的沉海。沉者，沉没、沉入也。李白以「明月不归沉碧海」写悼念，这个「沉」字至少有双重意味：其一，写月之沉——那「明月不归沉碧海」写明月不归沉碧海，那「沉」字写尽明月的沉海——沉碧海，正是明月沉海的写照，那「沉」字写尽沉海的悼念；其二，写情之痛——那「沉」字更是写痛——沉，正见良友沉海的痛惜，那「沉」字写尽李白的哀思。以「沉」字写悼念，正是李白写哭友的枢纽——若换作「坠」「落」等字，则或失其与「明月不归」「碧海」的配合，或失其写沉的意味；唯「沉」字，以明月不归沉碧海写尽明月之沉海与良友之痛惜，与「白云愁色满苍梧」的愁色相合，写尽沉海的悼念，也让「明月不归沉碧海」成为全诗写悼念的名句。

满 To fill completely. Applied to the clouds and Cangwu, it means grief has no limit and no empty spot left in the landscape. 「白云愁色满苍梧」之「满」字是写哀思的关键词，一个「满」字写尽愁色的苍梧。满者，布满、充塞也。李白以「白云愁色满苍梧」写哀思，这个「满」字至少有双重意味：其一，写色之满——那「白云愁色满苍梧」写白云愁色满苍梧，那「满」字写尽愁色的苍梧——满苍梧，正是愁色满山的写照，那「满」字写尽沉海的悼念；其二，写情之深——那「满」字更是写深——满，正见哀思充塞天地的深沉，那「满」字写尽李白的哀思。以「满」字写哀思，正是李白写哭友的枢纽——若换作「布」「笼」等字，则或失其与「白云愁色」「苍梧」的配合，或失其写满的意味；唯「满」字，以白云愁色满苍梧写尽愁色之满山与哀思之充塞，与「明月不归沉碧海」的沉海相合，写尽沉海的悼念，也让「白云愁色满苍梧」成为全诗写哀思的名句。