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明 Ming · 文 Prose

送东阳马生序

Presented to Ma Sheng of Dongyang

宋濂

Song Lian

赠序Farewell-Prelude Genre 劝学On Learning 苦读Hard Study 名篇Famous Piece

余幼时即嗜学。
家贫，无从致书以观，每假借于藏书之家，手自笔录，计日以还。
天大寒，砚冰坚，手指不可屈伸，弗之怠。
录毕，走送之，不敢稍逾约。
以是人多以书假余，余因得遍观群书。

When I was a child I was driven by a craving for learning.>
My family was poor, and there was no way to get books to read, so I used every chance to borrow from those who had collections, and I copied them out with my own hands, counting off the days in which to return them.>
When the weather was extremely cold, the inkstone froze hard, and my fingers could not bend or stretch, but I never left that undone. When the copying was finished, I would run to hand the books back, not daring to go one moment past the day agreed. Because of this, most people lent me their books, and so I was able to look upon the whole collection.

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Meaning

Song Lian, about to send a young provincial off to the capital, begins not with advice but with his own childhood. He craved learning, could not afford books, borrowed them, and copied them out by hand in the coldest weather, refusing to slacken even when his fingers stiffened; he returned the books on the day he promised, and so obtained the trust that made borrowing possible at all. The passage teaches by example rather than by precept, and its quiet argument is that the difficulty of studying was never the real obstacle — the obstacle was whether the heart would keep going.

我小时候就爱好学习。家中贫穷，没有办法买书来看，常常向藏书的人家借书，亲手用笔抄录，计算着日子按期归还。天气非常寒冷，砚台里的墨水冻成了坚硬的冰，手指冻得不能弯曲伸直，也不懈怠。抄录完毕，跑着去送还书，不敢稍微超过约定的期限。因此人们大多愿意把书借给我，我因而能够广泛地阅读各种书籍。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The passage narrates one episode from the author's youth: wanting books, borrowing them, copying them by hand through freezes, and returning them to the day.[Structure] The sentences are short and successive, arranged as a chain of cause and effect — craving, poverty, borrowing, copying, punctuality, trust, and finally access to the whole library.[Imagery] The single image is the frozen inkstone and the fingers that cannot move, and it is placed as the centre of the passage; everything else is procedural.[Sentiment] The tone never rises. Nothing is complained about and nothing is exalted; the value of the passage comes from the plainness with which suffering is reported, and from the sentence that arrives at its end — many people lent me their books — as the reward for a discipline nobody else saw.

【白话串讲】宋濂写《送东阳马生序》：“余幼时即嗜学。家贫，无从致书以观”——他借书抄书。“天大寒，砚冰坚，手指不可屈伸，弗之怠”——“以中有足乐者，不知口体之奉不若人也”——他劝后辈珍惜读书的机会。【意象与手法】本文是赠序体，以现身说法劝学，亲切而有力。写法上以「苦」字为骨，层层铺叙：家贫之窘、天寒之苦、守约之诚，细节如「砚冰坚」「手指不可屈伸」「走送之」，皆以白描出之，真切入微；又以「嗜学」与「遍观群书」首尾呼应，苦乐对照，寓劝勉于自述，不做空洞说教。【情感与主旨】宋濂作此序赠同乡后学马君则，借自己幼时借书抄书、冒寒苦读的经历，勉励后生珍惜太学优渥的读书条件，刻苦向学、德业双修，字里行间洋溢着长者对后辈的殷殷期望与以苦为乐的儒者襟怀。【名句点睛】「以是人多以书假余，余因得遍观群书」一句写尽寒士以诚致学的因果，诚信与勤勉由此立住；「天大寒，砚冰坚，手指不可屈伸，弗之怠」以三个短语连写苦读之状，画面感极强，常为论者称引。

Background

Song Lian (1310–1381), a native of Jinxi in the south of the present Zhejiang, was the leading literary figure of the early Ming and served as an imperial preceptor and historian; he was later banished and died in exile. This preface, written for a young man from Dongyang who was going to the capital to study, belongs to the genre of the farewell-preface — the xù written on the occasion of a departure — and it uses that conventional setting as an excuse to describe his own education. The passage translated here is the opening of the preface, and it is the portion that has made the whole piece famous.

宋濂（1310—1381），字景濂，号潜溪，浙江浦江人，明初文臣之首，官至翰林学士承旨，主修《元史》，与刘基、高启并称「明初诗文三大家」，被朱元璋誉为「开国文臣之首」。其生当元末明初乱世，幼年家贫而好学，曾先后受业于吴莱、柳贯、黄溍等浙东名儒，以文章名世。洪武十一年（1378），宋濂告老还乡的第二年，应诏入京朝见太祖，时值同乡后生马君则以「太学生」身份入京求学，宋濂遂作此文相赠，故题曰「送东阳马生序」——东阳为浙江金华属县，马生即马君则。明代立国后重文教，设国子监（太学）以养士，马生所处的读书条件已远胜宋濂幼时，然世风渐趋浮躁，士子或耽于逸乐、或急功近利，宋濂作此序正是要借自身寒窗苦读的经历，为后学树立「勤且艰」的榜样，其良苦用心，正是一位从贫寒中走出的元老对后辈最真诚的叮咛。宋濂师承浙东大儒吴莱、柳贯、黄溍，学宗朱熹理学，其文一本儒者之教，故赠序之中，苦读之实与立志之教并见——他不止叙少年抄书之事，更在以自身的「以中有足乐者」现身说法，把理学所重的「志」字写进最平凡的求学日常里。

Art

The passage is made almost entirely of four-character and five-character clauses, which gives it the pace of a man recalling rather than composing. Two devices carry it. The first is accumulation: borrowing, copying, punctuality, trust are set down one after another in the same voice, and the reader feels the length of the discipline without a single word of comment. The second is the frozen inkstone, placed as a still centre in the middle of the sentences; the cold is a physical fact, and the refusal that follows it — 'but I never left that undone' — is the thesis of the whole preface compressed into six characters.Finally, the passage makes its point by result rather than by exhortation: because he was punctual, books came; because books came, he read everything. The reward for the hardship arrives as a fact, and the reader is left to infer the advice.

《送东阳马生序》在艺术上最见功力处，是以「现身说法」为骨架、以「白描细节」为血肉的赠序写法。全文以「余幼时即嗜学」五字开宗，一个「嗜」字立起全文精神，然后以「家贫，无从致书以观」与「嗜学」构成第一重矛盾，引出借书抄书之策：「每假借于藏书之家，手自笔录，计日以还」三句，一写借之勤、一写抄之勤、一写还之信，句句落实、无一虚字。继而以「天大寒，砚冰坚，手指不可屈伸，弗之怠」的特写镜头，把抄书之苦推到极致——「砚冰坚」写天寒之极，「手指不可屈伸」写冻僵之状，「弗之怠」写志坚之态，三句之内，景、情、志俱全。再以「录毕，走送之，不敢稍逾约」写还书之诚，「走」字状其急切、「不敢」状其敬畏，而「以是人多以书假余，余因得遍观群书」以因果句收束，写诚信带来的回报，逻辑圆满。全段以苦写志、以诚得书，铺叙之中暗藏对比——贫与嗜、苦与乐、诚与信，层层递进，为下文劝学张本，笔法老辣而情真意挚。

Allusions

The books of the time were copied by hand because printing was limited and expensive, so 手自笔录 was the ordinary manner of study in a poor household rather than a particular hardship. 藏书之家, the households that kept private collections, were the classical institution of Chinese learning; borrowing from them and returning the book on time was the whole economy by which a poor boy could read at all. The phrase 遍观群书, having read the whole collection, stands for the aim of an education in the Confucian sense. Nothing in the passage is alluded to and nothing is quoted; its authority comes from being a single life reported without ornament, which is why later writers borrowed its shape rather than its words.

《送东阳马生序》的文化意蕴，深植于中国「劝学苦读」的千年传统。「余幼时即嗜学」的「嗜」，上承《论语》「知之者不如好之者，好之者不如乐之者」，把求学写成天性之乐；「家贫，无从致书以观，每假借于藏书之家，手自笔录」，则与先秦两汉的藏书史密切相关——印刷术未兴之时，书籍靠抄写流传，故抄书是寒士求学的必经之路，东汉班超佣书养亲、晋代车胤囊萤夜读皆属此传统。文中「计日以还」的守信，暗合《史记》「信而好古」的儒者之德，也与《荀子·劝学》「君子博学而日参省乎己」的积累精神相通；「以是人多以书假余」，更开启后世「书非借不能读也」（袁枚《黄生借书说》）的著名论题——借书之不易，反成苦读之动力。通篇以贫寒砥砺志节，正是中国士人「安贫乐道」「苦学成才」价值观的典型呈现，与范仲淹断齑画粥、欧阳修荻管画地等故事同属一个精神谱系，影响及于近世「囊萤映雪」类励志叙事的文化心理。

Commentary

The preface has been the standard model for the moral exhortation in Chinese schools for centuries, and this opening is the part that is usually read. Later essayists learned from it the method of teaching through a single concrete life rather than through precept; the Qing writers who imitated it are numerous, and the comparison with Yuan Mei's 'Huang Sheng Borrows Books' is the usual pairing. Modern readings note that the passage's authority is unusual: it is a formal document written by a minister to a young man about to enter the capital, and it refuses to give any advice about anything except study. That refusal is what has kept the piece in the anthologies, and it is also why the passage feels, to a modern reader, like a description rather than a sermon.

《送东阳马生序》是明代赠序文中最负盛名的一篇，明清以降，凡选古文者必录之，《古文观止》虽未收，然《明文海》《御选古文渊鉴》诸书皆载，历来为塾师讲授劝学的经典文本。其影响主要在两方面：一是文体价值，把赠序从应酬文字提升为寓教于情的劝学名篇，开明清「现身说法」式劝学文的先河，袁枚《黄生借书说》、彭端淑《为学》皆受其沾溉；二是教育价值，「天大寒，砚冰坚，手指不可屈伸，弗之怠」的苦读形象，与「凿壁偷光」「囊萤映雪」并列为中国励志文化的经典图景，数百年间激励无数寒门学子。现代以来，此文长期入选中学语文教材，其中「以中有足乐者，不知口体之奉不若人也」一句（选段之后）更成为论「精神富足」的常用论据。从思想史看，文章以亲历见证劝学，把儒家的自强不息（《周易》「天行健，君子以自强不息」）与师道传统熔于一炉，其真诚恳切的力量，至今读来犹动人肺腑，堪称中国劝学文学的一座丰碑。

Prosody

Form A Ming prose preface of the presentation genre (赠序), unrhymed, loose, and modelled on the spoken recollection of an older man.明代散体赠序（古文赠序体，介于书信与论说文之间）

Rhyme There is no rhyme, and no attempt at one; the close of each clause falls where the sense closes. What sounds like rhythm is the alternation of short and long clauses, four characters against five, six and eight.本文不押韵、不尚骈偶，音韵之美来自文言的虚词节奏与句式的长短参差：句中「每」「以」「而」「之」等虚词密布，调节语流使之纡徐舒缓；句末「学」「观」「还」「怠」「约」「书」等字随叙事自然收束，不刻意求韵而自成声调。四字句（天大寒，砚冰坚）、五字句（余幼时即嗜学）、六字句（手指不可屈伸）相间而出，诵读时如步行山径，高低随势，是明代古文平实从容声调的典型。

Tone pattern The voice is that of a mature man remembering, so the intonation is level, unhurried and never emphatic. The cadence is that of walking — the movement of the sentences through borrowing, copying, running, returning — and it quickens at the running and slows at the end.句式以散句为主，间用三句一组的短句排比（天大寒，砚冰坚，手指不可屈伸），节奏由缓入急、由急复缓；语调用自述（余幼时即嗜学）、铺陈（每假借于藏书之家）、特写（手指不可屈伸）、因果收束（以是人多以书假余）四种方式推进，语调恳切平易，如长者娓娓道来，诚挚之中自含劝勉之力。

Reading note The passage has no metrical scheme, and its effect comes from sentence length alone. The opening, five characters, is as close to plain speech as Chinese gets. Then the clauses are set in a row of rising length, and the rhythm of the whole is the rhythm of a chore being reported: borrow, copy, count, return — the iambic of work. In the middle, three short clauses are placed together, and the reading slows to a stop on the ice; the sentence tightens, and then the refusal comes in six characters, an effect that any language can feel. The final sentence is the longest of the passage, and it releases the tension built by everything before it. This is the reason the piece was chosen as a model for the Plain Style that followed: it shows that Chinese prose needs no rhyme or parallelism, only the right length for each step of the argument.《送东阳马生序》的声律特色，在于以「质实」为美、以「恳切」为声。全文不用一典、不设一喻，纯以口语化的文言叙述亲身经历，故其节奏即生活节奏：开篇「余幼时即嗜学」五字，如老人闲话当年，声调平起；「家贫，无从致书以观」八字一顿，如叹如述；「每假借于藏书之家，手自笔录，计日以还」三句连排，如数家珍，语速渐快；至「天大寒，砚冰坚，手指不可屈伸，弗之怠」，短句密布、声调陡然收紧，如人屏息于寒风中坚持抄写；「录毕，走送之，不敢稍逾约」复转急促，一个「走」字带动全句节奏飞驰；终以「以是人多以书假余，余因得遍观群书」的长句舒缓收束，如释重负、余味悠长。这种「随事赋声」的节奏安排，使读者不自觉地随作者的讲述起伏呼吸，其声情之真挚，正是此文虽无华彩而感人至深的原因所在。赠序一体，宋濂以现身说法的平实声调出之，遂使劝学之理如春风化雨，润物无声。

Line by line

余幼时即嗜学。家贫，无从致书以观，每假借于藏书之家，手自笔录，计日以还。

When I was a child I was driven by a craving for learning. My family was poor, and there was no way to get books to read, so I used every chance to borrow from those who had collections, and I copied them out with my own hands, counting off the days in which to return them.

我小时候就爱好学习。家中贫穷，没有办法买书来看，常常向藏书的人家借书，亲手用笔抄录，计算着日子按期归还。

Even as a child I was passionate for learning. My family was poor; I had no way to get books to read, so I often borrowed from households that kept libraries, copying them out by hand and returning them on the appointed day.

开篇两句定下全段的基调与矛盾，是「现身说法」的起点。「余幼时即嗜学」以「嗜」字立骨——不是「好」学，不是「勤」学，而是「嗜」学，如嗜酒嗜茗，是发自天性的热爱，一字已把求学写成生命的需要；「即」字写其早，「幼时」写其少，全句以时间与程度双重强调，为后文所有「苦」提供了「乐在其中」的心理根据。次句「家贫，无从致书以观」是命运的第一重考验：在书籍靠抄录流传的时代，「致书」（买书）是读书的前提，家贫则无书可读，窘境立现。然而作者笔锋一转，「每假借于藏书之家，手自笔录，计日以还」——借书、抄书、守约，三个短语一口气排出，如连珠发矢，把「嗜学」转化为具体行动，贫不足以阻其学，反而成就其勤。一句写心、一句写境、一句写行，心、境、行三者交织，寒士求学的形象由此立起，动人处正在于以平实语写真切事，无一句夸饰而句句见性情。

The hunger. Even as a child I was passionate for learning. My family was poor; I had no way to get books to read, so I often borrowed from households that kept libraries, copying them out by hand and returning them on the appointed day. The passion for learning and the copying and returning are the opening. To have borrowed and copied books would be a diligence; the even-as-a-child-I-was-passionate-for-learning-my-family-was-poor-I-had-no-way-to-get-books-to-read-so-I-often-borrowed-from-households-that-kept-libraries-copying-them-out-by-hand-and-returning-them-on-the-appointed-day is the diligence.

天大寒，砚冰坚，手指不可屈伸，弗之怠。

When the weather was extremely cold, the inkstone froze hard, and my fingers could not bend or stretch, but I never left that undone.

天气非常寒冷，砚台里的墨水冻成了坚硬的冰，手指冻得不能弯曲伸直，却仍然不松懈。

When the weather was bitterly cold and the inkstone froze solid, my fingers could not bend or straighten—yet I never slackened.

此三句是全篇最富画面感的特写，以极简之笔写极苦之境，遂成千古苦读图。「天大寒」三字总写气候，是背景；「砚冰坚」三字以物证寒——墨冻成冰，可见气温之低、抄书环境之恶劣；「手指不可屈伸」六字以体证寒——冻僵的手指已无法握笔，这是身体承受的极限；而「弗之怠」三字如中流砥柱，把前文的「寒」「冰」「僵」全部顶住——手不能屈伸，心却不懈怠，肉体之限与意志之坚在此短兵相接。句法上，「砚冰坚」与「手指不可屈伸」均为四字与六字，节奏短促如冻硬之躯，而「弗之怠」以三字顿住，如寒风中的一声心跳；「弗之怠」为宾语前置的文言句式（「弗怠之」之倒装），古雅而有顿挫感。三句之内，由外而内、由物及心，寒士苦读之状如在目前，读之令人凛然生敬，是白描手法在古文中的巅峰运用。

The ice. When the weather was bitterly cold and the inkstone froze solid, my fingers could not bend or straighten—yet I never slackened. The frozen inkstone and the stiff fingers and the no-slacking are the famous scene. To have copied in the freezing weather would be a scene; the when-the-weather-was-bitterly-cold-and-the-inkstone-froze-solid-my-fingers-could-not-bend-or-straighten-yet-I-never-slackened is the scene.

录毕，走送之，不敢稍逾约。以是人多以书假余，余因得遍观群书。

When the copying was finished, I would run to hand the books back, not daring to go one moment past the day agreed. Because of this, most people lent me their books, and so I was able to look upon the whole collection.

抄录完毕，跑着去送还书，不敢稍微超过约定的期限。因此人们大多愿意把书借给我，我因而能够广泛地阅读各种书籍。

When the copying was done, I ran to return them, not daring to overshoot the appointed day by a moment. For this reason people often lent me books, and so I was able to read widely.

此四句写守约与回报，完成「以诚得书」的逻辑闭环，是借书叙事的收束。「录毕」承前文之抄，「走送之」写还书之急——「走」非行走之「走」，而是奔跑之意，一个「走」字写尽不敢逾期的心情，仿佛书在手中多留一刻便是失信；「不敢稍逾约」的「不敢」写敬畏，「稍」字写谨慎——连「稍微」逾约都不敢，则守信之严可知。这三句把「借—抄—还」的完整链条补足，而落点全在「信」字：寒士之「嗜学」固可贵，然若无「计日以还」「不敢稍逾约」的诚信，藏书之家又安肯屡屡相借？故「以是人多以书假余」的「以是」（因此）二字，正是因果之锁——先前的守信换来了普遍的信赖；「余因得遍观群书」以「遍观」收束，写嗜学者的最大幸福：困于无书者，竟因诚信而得博览群书。前文之苦、之信，尽化为此一「得」字的甘甜，苦乐对照、因果分明，劝学之意在不言中已呼之欲出。

The trust. When the copying was done, I ran to return them, not daring to overshoot the appointed day by a moment. For this reason people often lent me books, and so I was able to read widely. The running to return and the never-breaking-trust and the widely-read result are the close. To have earned the trust would be a trust; the when-the-copying-was-done-I-ran-to-return-them-not-daring-to-overshoot-the-appointed-day-by-a-moment-for-this-reason-people-often-lent-me-books-and-so-I-was-able-to-read-widely is the trust.

Study

Word focus

嗜学 Craving for learning (嗜学). 嗜 is the appetite of the senses — it belongs with hunger and thirst rather than with reason — so Song Lian does not say he liked study but that he was possessed by it. With 家贫 in the next clause, the pair sets an outer poverty against an inner appetite, and that contrast is what supplies the passage with its energy. 「余幼时即嗜学」之「嗜学」二字，是全文立骨之词，也是理解宋濂其人其文的钥匙。「嗜」本义为贪食，《说文》释「嗜，嗜欲，喜之也」，引申为对某事物特别爱好、近乎癖好。宋濂不用「好学」「勤学」，而用「嗜学」，境界顿异：好学是理性的选择，嗜学是天性的渴求，如饥之于食、渴之于饮，求之不得则不安。这一个「嗜」字，为后文所有的苦读行为提供了心理根据——唯因嗜学成癖，故家贫不能止其借，天寒不能止其抄，手冻不能止其写，一切苦难在「嗜」的火焰前皆化为燃料。同时，「嗜学」与「家贫」构成强烈反差：贫是外境的匮乏，嗜是内心的丰盈，外贫内富，正是中国士人「安贫乐道」理想的写照。此二字置于开篇，如乐章的定调之音，全段的借书、抄书、守约、遍观，皆为此「嗜」字作注脚。

弗之怠 Did not let it slacken (弗之怠). Literally 'did not neglect it,' with the object 之 placed before the verb in the normal inverted order of negative sentences. Three characters in which a body at its limit and a will at its limit are set against each other; the sentence is the compressed thesis of the whole preface. 「手指不可屈伸，弗之怠」之「弗之怠」三字，是全篇意志力的最高凝缩，也是文言特殊句式的典范。「弗之怠」即「弗怠之」（不松懈于抄书之事），宾语「之」前置，是文言否定句中宾语前置的典型格式（「弗」「不」等否定词后的代词宾语常前置），读来古拙而有顿挫。三字紧承「手指不可屈伸」的极限描写，构成意志对肉体的胜利：手指冻僵，是身体之极；弗之怠，是精神之坚——身体可以到达极限，而志向没有极限。从修辞看，「弗之怠」以否定句收束一联排比，如急流遇石、戛然有声，在「砚冰坚」「不可屈伸」的层层渲染之后，三字一出，寒士的倔强与坚韧喷薄而出。这不仅是字词的功力，更是人格的写照——宋濂一生「自少至老，未尝一日去书卷」，正是「弗之怠」三字的终身实践，故此言出于自身，格外可信可感。

计日以还 Counted the days for returning (计日以还). The pupil reckoned out in advance when each borrowed book must go back, which is to say he set himself a limit he intended to keep. It matters because the trust it earned is the direct cause of his later access to the whole collection: punctuality, in this passage, is not a virtue but a practical asset. 「计日以还」四字写还书之守时，是借书叙事的信用支点，也是全文因果逻辑的关键一环。「计日」即计算日期，「以还」即按期归还——借书之时已暗自盘算归还之日，可见其借书必先自律，宁可少读也不逾约。这四个字的分量，须放到借书的整个链条中看：藏书之家肯把珍本借给一个贫寒少年，前提是相信他「计日以还」；而他能「遍观群书」，前提又是藏书之家「多以书假余」。故「计日以还」虽只四字，却是「以是人多以书假余」的因、是「遍观群书」的根——诚信在此不是道德空谈，而是直接兑换为读书机会的资本。细味此词，宋濂写守信不写其「义」而写其「计」，正见寒士式诚信的质朴与具体：不是高调的信条，而是刻进日子的算盘。一词之微，已透出全文「以诚求学」的命脉，与「走送之」「不敢稍逾约」互为表里。