近现代 近现代 · 文 Prose
背影
The Back
我与父亲不相见已二年余了，我最不能忘记的是他的背影。
那年冬天，祖母死了，父亲的差使也交卸了，正是祸不单行的日子。
That winter, my grandmother died, and my father's post was also relinquished—truly a season when misfortune came not singly but in pairs.
Meaning
Zhu Ziqing opens by stating he has not seen his father for over two years and that what he remembers most is his father's back. He then sets the scene: that winter his grandmother died and his father lost his job, a time of double calamity that foreshadows the famous scene of the father buying oranges at the station.
我与父亲不相见已经有两年多了，我最不能忘记的是他的背影。那年冬天，祖母死了，父亲的差使也交卸了，正是祸不单行的日子。
Appreciation
A model of vernacular prose, the essay focuses on 'the back' and uses plain, almost spoken-language description to carry intense feeling. The opening establishes the long separation and the family's decline, building tension for the later appearance of the back. It writes the most ordinary father's love—unspoken, expressed only through action—and through the single image of a back conveys the silence and depth of a Chinese father, and the grown son's belated understanding and regret.
【白话串讲】 朱自清写《背影》：“我与父亲不相见已二年余了，我最不能忘记的是他的背影”。父亲爬过月台给他买橘子：“他用两手攀着上面，两脚再向上缩；他肥胖的身子向左微倾，显出努力的样子”——“我看见他的背影，我的泪很快地流下来了”——写父爱的名篇。 【意象与手法】 《背影》是白话散文的典范：以「背影」为聚焦点，用白描手法写最平常的人事，语言朴素到近乎口语，而情感浓度极高。选文为开头部分，先交代「我」与父亲的久别与家道中落，为「背影」的出现蓄势。 【情感与主旨】 文章写的是最普通的父爱——不事张扬、不善言辞、只以行动表达的爱。朱自清以「背影」这一瞬间的视觉记忆，写出了中国式父亲的沉默与深情，也写出了人到中年后对父亲的体谅与愧疚。 【名句点睛】 「我最不能忘记的是他的背影」一句，以「不能忘记」直写记忆之深，「背影」二字既是最平常的物象，又成为父爱的永恒符号——此后百年，「背影」已成为中国文学中父爱的代名词。
Background
Zhu Ziqing (1898–1948), styled Peixian, born in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, was a renowned modern essayist, poet, and scholar, whose representative essays include The Back, Moonlight over the Lotus Pond, Hurry, and Spring. In 1925, while a professor at Tsinghua, Zhu received a letter from his father Zhu Hongjun: 'I am well, only my arm pains badly; lifting chopsticks or pen is difficult—the time of my going is not far.' Zhu wept at the letter and recalled the winter of eight years before (1917) when he parted from his father at Pukou station, and so wrote The Back. That winter Zhu's grandmother died and his father lost his post as commissioner of the Xuzhou tobacco and wine monopoly; the family sold and pawned what they had, their circumstances bleak—the father, to bury the grandmother and send his son to school, borrowed everywhere. In this 'misfortune not singly' situation, the father saw Zhu off at Pukou and insisted on clambering across the tracks to buy him oranges. The essay was published in the Literary Weekly in November 1925 and collected in the volume The Back in 1928. It is a mature masterpiece of prose after the May Fourth vernacular movement and the most moving piece on father's love in modern Chinese literature, long a fixture in middle-school textbooks and a shared memory of generations.
朱自清（1898—1948），字佩弦，原籍浙江绍兴，生于江苏扬州，现代著名散文家、诗人、学者，散文代表作有《背影》《荷塘月色》《匆匆》《春》等。1925年，时任清华大学教授的朱自清，接到父亲朱鸿钧的来信。信中说：「我身体平安，惟膀子疼痛厉害，举箸提笔，诸多不便，大约大去之期不远矣。」朱自清读信后泪如泉涌，忆起八年前（1917年）冬天在浦口车站与父亲分别的情景，遂写下《背影》。那年冬天，朱自清祖母病逝，父亲朱鸿钧也因故丢掉了徐州烟酒公卖局长的差事，家中变卖典质、光景惨淡——父亲为了给祖母办丧事和供儿子上学，四处借债，正是在这「祸不单行」的境况下，父亲在浦口车站送别北上求学的朱自清，并执意爬过铁道为他买橘子。这篇散文1925年11月发表于《文学周报》，1928年收入散文集《背影》。它是五四白话文运动后散文成熟期的代表作，也是中国现代文学中写父爱最动人的篇章，长期入选中学语文教材，成为几代中国人的共同记忆。
Art
As a recollective narrative essay, its art lies in 'writing the deepest feeling with the plainest brush.' Though only the opening three sentences, they already show Zhu's craft: first, an immediate, direct opening—'over two years since I saw my father… what I cannot forget is his back'—sets time, person, and the thread (the back) with no padding, the mark of his 'chatting-at-home' prose style; second, focus on 'the back'—the essay never shows the father's face or words, only his back, a choice of perspective of great ingenuity: the back is the last shape seen as the father sees him off, the frozen visual of parting, and the symbol of the father's silent love; third, plain sketch—later details like 'he tottered to the track, slowly lowering himself,' 'with both hands he clutched the top, his feet drew up' use the plainest verbs, no adornment, yet the weight of fatherly love lies in the motion; fourth, foreshadowing—the opening first writes 'grandmother died,' 'post relinquished,' 'misfortune not singly,' pushing the family plight to its height so the father's hardship and sacrifice gain a solid base, and the later moving scene of buying oranges follows naturally.
从文体看，《背影》是回忆性叙事散文，其艺术成就集中体现为「以最平易的笔墨写最深挚的情感」。选文虽只是开头三句，已尽显朱自清散文的章法：其一，开门见山、单刀直入——「我与父亲不相见已二年余了，我最不能忘记的是他的背影」，两句交代时间、人物与全文的线索（背影），不铺垫、不渲染，如家常话般自然，这正是朱自清「谈家常式」散文语体的标志；其二，以「背影」为聚焦——全文不写父亲的正面，不写父亲的语言，只写「背影」，这一视角的选择极具匠心：背影是「父亲送我」时最后看见的形态，是分别时刻的视觉定格，也是父亲「沉默的爱」的象征——中国式父亲不善言爱，子女能记住的，往往正是那个沉默劳碌的背影；其三，白描手法——后文写父亲「蹒跚地走到铁道边，慢慢探身下去」「他用两手攀着上面，两脚再向上缩」等细节，全用最朴素的动词，不加任何修饰，而父爱之重全在动作之中，所谓「不着一字，尽得风流」；其四，铺垫蓄势——选文先写「祖母死了」「差使交卸」「祸不单行」，把家庭困境推到顶点，父亲的艰难与牺牲便有了最坚实的现实底座，后文「望父买橘」的感动也因此水到渠成。
Allusions
Though a vernacular essay, its emotional core is rooted in China's long literary and ethical tradition. First, the 'back' and the 'farewell' motif: Chinese literature wrote partings early—the Shi Jing's 'I watch but cannot reach, tears like rain' writes gazing after a receding figure; Li Bai's 'a lone sail's far shadow vanishes in the blue, only the Yangtze's stream reaching the sky' writes watching a disappearing back; Zhu's 'back' inherits this 'gazing' motif but fixes the gazed-upon object as the father's back, giving the ancient farewell image the warmth of a modern family. Second, the 'tender father' tradition: the Lun Yu says 'while parents live, do not roam far,' and Chinese ethics rest on filial piety, yet the father's love was mostly expressed as 'stern father'—majestic, silent; The Back writes its other face: the father 'tottering' across the platform to buy oranges, that clumsy, dignity-forgetting love, is a tender demythologizing of the 'stern father,' making 'father's love unspoken' a modern Chinese emotional consensus. Third, an era metaphor: 'that winter, grandmother died, father's post was relinquished'—the grandmother's death is the family's pain, the lost post the era's pain (early Republican turmoil, widespread unemployment of officials); 'misfortune not singly' places personal and family suffering in the great backdrop of the age, making this family essay also a snapshot of Republican society.
《背影》虽为白话散文，其情感内核却深植于中国文学与伦理的悠久传统。其一，「背影」与「送别」母题：中国文学写离别极早，《诗经·邶风·燕燕》「瞻望弗及，泣涕如雨」，写的是目送远去的身影；李白《送友人》「孤帆远影碧空尽，唯见长江天际流」，写的是凝望消失的背影；朱自清写「背影」，正承此「目送」的母题，而将「所望之物」落实为父亲的背影，使古老的送别意象获得了现代家庭的体温。其二，「慈父」传统：《论语》「父母在，不远游，游必有方」，中国伦理以孝道为根本，而父爱的表达方式在传统文化中多为「严父」——不怒自威、沉默寡言；《背影》却写出了父爱的另一面：父亲「蹒跚」地爬过月台为儿子买橘子，那份笨拙的、不顾体面的爱，恰是对「严父」形象的一次温情祛魅，让「父爱无言」成为现代中国人的情感共识。其三，时代隐喻：「那年冬天，祖母死了，父亲的差使也交卸了」——祖母之死是家庭之痛，差使交卸是时代之痛（民国初期政局动荡，公务员失业是普遍现象），「祸不单行」四字把个人家庭的苦难放进时代的大背景，使这篇写亲情的散文同时成为民国社会生活的写真。
Commentary
The Back is among the most widely circulated and influential essays in modern Chinese literary history, valuable on three levels. Literarily, it is a milestone of mature vernacular prose—after May Fourth, the vernacular movement moved from 'can we write in vernacular' to 'how to write well in vernacular'; Zhu proved with The Back that plain vernacular, ordinary subject, and plain sketch can write something more moving than classical prose. Yang Zhensheng praised Zhu's prose as 'like the man, its elegance from plainness'; Ye Shengtao called The Back 'a wholly sincere essay'; for decades it has been a fixed middle-school text, the first modern essay for generations of students, its 'small seen through great, ordinary written with deep feeling' paradigm deeply influencing later prose. Emotionally, the word 'back' became, through this essay, a byword for Chinese fatherly love—when a Chinese says 'father's back,' he means not only Zhu's father but all silent, toiling fathers; the essay's taste of understanding parents only in middle age, of 'wishing to serve but the parent is gone,' crosses eras and strikes the heart. In character, Zhu refused American relief grain before his death in 1948, and Mao praised him for 'showing the heroic mettle of our nation'—the man's 'truth' and 'sincerity' match his writing; The Back moves because its author was first a man of deep feeling.
《背影》是中国现代散文史上传播最广、影响最深的篇章之一，其价值可从三个层面看。其一，文学层面：它是白话散文成熟期的里程碑——五四以后，白话文运动从「能不能用白话写」进入「如何用白话写好文章」的阶段，朱自清以《背影》证明：朴素的白话、平常的题材、白描的手法，足以写出比文言更动人的文章。杨振声评朱自清散文「文如其人，风华从朴素中来」，叶圣陶更称《背影》为「一篇至情文」，其后数十年，《背影》一直是中学语文的固定篇目，成为一代代学生接触现代散文的第一课，其「以小见大、以平常写深情」的范式，深刻影响了现当代散文的创作。其二，情感层面：「背影」一词因这篇文章而成为中国父爱的代名词——当一个中国人说「父亲的背影」，他说的不仅是朱自清的父亲，也是天下所有沉默劳作的父亲；文章写出的人到中年方懂父母、子欲养而亲不待的况味，跨越时代，直击人心。其三，人格层面：朱自清1948年病逝前拒领美国救济粮，毛泽东称赞他「表现了我们民族的英雄气概」，其人其文的「真」与「诚」互为表里——《背影》之所以感人，正因写它的人先是一个至情至性的人。
Prosody
Line by line
我与父亲不相见已二年余了，我最不能忘记的是他的背影。
It has been over two years since I last saw my father; what I can never forget is the sight of his back. — The framing sentence: 'have not seen' in colloquial tone carries a faint distance and care; 'what I cannot forget is his back' is the essay's thread and eye—why the 'back' and not the face? Because the back belongs to parting, the frozen visual of the father turning away, showing fatherly love hidden in action and revealed at leave-taking.
我和父亲不相见已经有两年多了，我最不能忘记的是他的背影。
It has been over two years since I last saw my father; what I can least forget is his back.
这是全文的「定调之句」，两句而尽显朱自清散文的功力。首句「我与父亲不相见已二年余了」，交代分别之久——「不相见」不说「没见面」，口语化中带着淡淡的疏离与牵挂；「已二年余了」的「了」字收尾，如一声轻叹，为全篇奠定了回忆的基调。次句「我最不能忘记的是他的背影」，是全文的线索与文眼：为什么是「背影」而不是「面容」或「话语」？因为面容与话语属于日常相处，而背影属于离别——背影是父亲转身离去、渐行渐远的形态，是「分别」的视觉定格；朱自清不写父爱的正面表达（那本就不多），而写送别时最后的背影，恰恰说明父爱之深藏于行动、显现于离别。同时，「不能忘记」四字直写记忆的深刻，一个「最」字点明其无可替代，为后文「望父买橘」那一幕的追忆蓄足了势。两句皆口语，无一字修饰，却字字深情，是「绚烂之极归于平淡」的白话散文典范。
The back. It has been over two years since I last saw my father; what I can least forget is his back. The not-seen-for-two-years and the least-forgotten back are the opening. To have remembered the back above all would be a memory; the it-has-been-over-two-years-since-I-last-saw-my-father-what-I-can-least-forget-is-his-back is the memory.
那年冬天，祖母死了，父亲的差使也交卸了，正是祸不单行的日子。
That winter, my grandmother died, and my father's post was also relinquished—truly a season when misfortune came not singly but in pairs. — The background in one breath writes the family's darkest hour: 'that winter' brings cold of season and of circumstance; 'grandmother died' is extreme plainness, grief showing without saying; 'also relinquished' marks misfortune on misfortune; the idiom 'misfortune not singly' closes like a long sigh, giving the later 'back' its key to reading.
那年冬天，祖母死了，父亲的差使也交卸了，正是祸不单行的日子。
That winter, my grandmother died, and my father was relieved of his post—truly a time when disasters never come singly.
这三句是全文的背景交代，短短一句（一句三短句）写尽家庭的至暗时刻。「那年冬天」以时间起笔，点出寒冷——既有季节之冷，更有家境之冷；「祖母死了」四字极简，不写悲伤而悲伤自见，这是朱自清「节制的抒情」：越是大悲，越不多言；「父亲的差使也交卸了」——「也」字点出祸不单行：祖母之丧尚未安顿，父亲又失业，双重打击接踵而至。「正是祸不单行的日子」以「正是」二字加强确认，以成语收束，如一声长叹。这短短三句至少有四重作用：其一，交代了后文父亲「满院狼藉」「变卖典质」的处境，为父亲的艰难与牺牲提供现实依据；其二，写出了父亲的形象底色——他不是春风得意的父亲，而是失业、负债、丧母的父亲，正是在这样的困境中他仍坚持送儿子、为儿子买橘子，父爱才格外动人；其三，为全文定下「沉郁」的基调，与后文「我」两次落泪的情感脉络相呼应；其四，以「家」写「国」——民国初期无数家庭的破产与动荡，在这三句中留下了时代的剪影。
The winter. That winter, my grandmother died, and my father was relieved of his post—truly a time when disasters never come singly. The grandmother's death and the father's lost post and the disasters-not-singly are the background. To have piled disaster on disaster would be a piling; the that-winter-my-grandmother-died-and-my-father-was-relieved-of-his-post-truly-a-time-when-disasters-never-come-singly is the piling.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Hurry and The Back are both Zhu Ziqing's masterpieces of the 1920s—one on time, one on family love. Hurry begins 'swallows go, and will return; willows wither, and will turn green; peach blossoms fall, and will bloom again,' then asks 'why are our days gone never to return,' lamenting 'my days drip into the stream of time, without sound, without shadow'—a philosophical meditation on time's passing; The Back dissolves time into family feeling—'over two years since I saw my father'—time's passing becomes the backdrop of longing, the back the most precious memory time leaves. Their shared bottom is Zhu's sensitivity to 'what is gone': hurrying days make him treasure the present, the receding father makes him remember the back. In style, Hurry uses parallelism and rhetoric near poetry; The Back uses plain sketch near everyday talk—one poem, one prose, the two wings of Zhu's prose, feeling and reason.
《匆匆》与《背影》同为朱自清1920年代的代表作，一写时间，一写亲情。《匆匆》以「燕子去了，有再来的时候；杨柳枯了，有再青的时候；桃花谢了，有再开的时候」起兴，追问「我们的日子为什么一去不复返呢」，感慨「我的日子滴在时间的流里，没有声音，也没有影子」，是对时间流逝的哲思；《背影》则把时间化入亲情——「我与父亲不相见已二年余了」，时间的流逝成为思念的背景，「背影」正是时间淘洗后留下的最珍贵的记忆。二文共同的底色是朱自清对「逝去」的敏感：匆匆而逝的日子让他珍惜当下，渐行渐远的父亲让他铭记背影。风格上，《匆匆》以排比、设问营造回环的韵律，近于诗；《背影》以白描、口语营造朴素的叙述，近于家常话。一诗一散文，恰见朱自清散文「情」与「理」的两翼。
陈情表 The Memorial of Filial Filiality (Chen Qing Biao) 李密 · 同为以血缘至亲为情感核心的传世名文，古今亲情的隔代呼应 Both are传世名文 with blood-kinship at the emotional core—an inter-generational echo of ancient and modern family loveLi Mi's Chen Qing Biao and Zhu Ziqing's The Back are fifteen hundred years apart—one a classical memorial, one vernacular prose—yet share the core of kindred love. Li Mi writes 'without grandmother I had not reached today; without me she cannot end her years,' begging to care for her with 'the crow's filial feeling, I pray to serve her to the end,' so moving Emperor Wu of Jin; Zhu writes the father's back buying oranges in hardship, 'I saw him in a black cloth cap, a black cloth mandarin jacket, a dark blue padded gown, tottering to the track,' all the silence and depth of fatherly love. One filial grandson, one loving father; one classical, one vernacular; both use the plainest language for the deepest blood-ties, both immortal through sincerity—Li's 'stating feeling' moved an emperor, Zhu's 'back' moved a century of readers.
李密《陈情表》与朱自清《背影》相隔一千五百年，一为文言奏章，一为白话散文，却共享一个情感内核——至亲之爱。《陈情表》写「臣无祖母，无以至今日；祖母无臣，无以终余年」，以「乌鸟私情，愿乞终养」辞官奉养祖母，情辞恳切，晋武帝读后为之动容；《背影》写父亲在困境中蹒跚买橘的背影，「我看见他戴着黑布小帽，穿着黑布大马褂，深青布棉袍，蹒跚地走到铁道边」，写尽父爱的沉默与深沉。一写孙孝，一写父慈，一个是「幼而孤」的感恩，一个是「中年」的体谅；一文言，一白话，却都以最朴素的语言写最深沉的血缘之情，都因「真」而传世——李密的「陈情」打动了皇帝，朱自清的「背影」打动了百年的读者。合观二文，可见中国文学写亲情的传统，从奏章到散文，从文言到白话，其动人的力量始终来自「至情无文」。
送东阳马生序 Preface to Ma Sheng of Dongyang 宋濂 · 同为追忆性散文名篇，父辈深情与勤学砥砺的对照 Both are recollective prose masterpieces—a contrast of fatherly devotion and diligent studySong Lian's Preface to Ma Sheng of Dongyang and Zhu's The Back are both 'recollection' masterpieces, both framed by 'remembering the past' and moved by 'deep feeling': the Preface recalls 'since childhood I loved study'—'poor, no way to get books, I borrowed from藏书 families, copied by hand, counting days to return,' 'carrying my satchel, dragging my shoes through deep mountains and great valleys'—writing the hardship of study and the care of teachers, urging the youth Ma Sheng to cherish his chance and strive; The Back recalls that winter of decline when the father saw him off, writing the silence and depth of fatherly love. The difference: the Preface's feeling points to 'the Way'—a senior's exhortation through his own experience; The Back's feeling points to 'kin'—a child's recognition of fatherly love. One a preface of reasoned prose, one a record of lyrical prose; one built on 'diligence,' one on 'family love.'
宋濂《送东阳马生序》与朱自清《背影》同属「追忆」体的名篇，都以「回忆往事」为框架，而以「深情」动人：《马生序》追忆「余幼时即嗜学」的苦读岁月——「家贫，无从致书以观，每假借于藏书之家，手自笔录，计日以还」「负箧曳屣行深山巨谷中」，写的是求学的艰辛与师长的关怀，勉励后辈马生珍惜条件、努力向学；《背影》追忆「那年冬天」家道中落时父亲送别的情景，写的是父爱的沉默与深沉。差异在：《马生序》的深情指向「道」——以自身经历立身教，是长辈对晚辈的勖勉；《背影》的深情指向「亲」——以瞬间的背影立记忆，是子女对父爱的体认。一为「序」体说理散文，一为「记」体抒情散文；一以「勤学」为骨，一以「亲情」为骨。合观二文，可见中国散文「追忆」传统的两种形态：忆苦以砺志，忆别以怀亲。