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十六字令三首

Three Lyrics to the Tune of 'Sixteen Characters'

毛泽东

Mao Zedong

名篇masterpiece 咏物object-chanting 长征Long March 革命豪情revolutionary heroism

山，快马加鞭未下鞍。
惊回首，离天三尺三。
山，倒海翻江卷巨澜。
奔腾急，万马战犹酣。
山，刺破青天锷未残。
天欲堕，赖以拄其间。

Mountains! I spur my swift horse, never once dismounting. Startled, I look back—three feet and three inches from the sky. Mountains! They overturn seas and churn rivers, rolling up giant waves. Rushing and galloping—ten thousand steeds still fiercely battle. Mountains! They pierce the azure sky, their blades unblunted. The heavens would fall, but on them it leans, propping up the space between.

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Meaning

Three linked lyrics chant the mountains from three angles—their height, their momentum, and their sustaining power—condensing the Long March's feat of crossing range after range into towering landscape imagery. Through the mountains' majesty the poet writes the Red Army's contempt for hardship and its heroic spirit of conquering nature.

山啊！骑着快马加鞭疾驰，都来不及下鞍；猛然回头一看，山势之高竟离天只有三尺三。山啊！连绵的群山像倒海翻江一般卷起巨大的波澜；奔腾得那样急促，恰似千万匹战马正在激烈地鏖战。山啊！像利剑一样刺破青天，剑锋却丝毫未损；天要塌下来了，全靠它支撑在天地之间。

Appreciation

The poems excel at 'writing the man through the mountain' and expressing ambition through the object: hyperbole of 'three feet from the sky,' synesthesia of 'overturning seas,' the metaphor of 'piercing the sky,' and the association of 'ten thousand steeds'—each line chants the mountain yet everywhere is the Red Army. The three share tune and rhyme, layer upon layer, language honed like a knife.

【白话串讲】毛泽东写《十六字令三首》：“山，快马加鞭未下鞍。惊回首，离天三尺三”——“山，倒海翻江卷巨澜”——“山，刺破青天锷未残。天欲堕，赖以拄其间”——他写山，写红军的豪情。【意象与手法】以山写人、托物言志：离天三尺三的夸张、倒海翻江的通感、刺破青天的比喻、万马奔腾的联想，句句咏山而处处是红军；三首同调同韵，层层递进，语言凝练如刀削。【情感与主旨】借山的雄奇险峻写红军藐视困难、征服自然的英雄气概，以「天欲堕，赖以拄其间」暗喻红军挽狂澜于既倒的历史担当。【名句点睛】常考「离天三尺三」的夸张手法与「天欲堕，赖以拄其间」的象征意义。

Background

The Three Lyrics to the Tune of 'Sixteen Characters' were written by Mao Zedong during the Long March (1934–1935), alongside 'Recalling Qin'e: Loushan Pass' and 'Qing Ping Le: Huichang' as representative Long March poems. In October 1934 the Central Red Army began the Long March, crossing the Xiang, Wu, and Loushan passes, the Jinsha and Dadu rivers, and the snow-covered Jiajin and other great mountains; as its leader, Mao experienced every hardship and wrote the feat of crossing ranges with majestic brush. The 'Sixteen Characters' tune is the shortest of the ci forms at just sixteen characters; Mao used three linked lyrics to write the mountain from three angles—the swift ride up (never dismounting), the surging momentum (ten thousand steeds), and the sustaining power (propping up the heavens)—in fact using the mountain to figure the Red March. The first writes the speed of the climb and the height of the mountain; the second the mountain's huge momentum like battling steeds; the third the mountain's sharpness like a sky-piercing sword and a pillar holding heaven—'the heavens would fall, but on it leans' even makes the mountain a pillar, hinting at the Red Army's historical burden of saving the falling sky. The three, pervaded by revolutionary heroism and optimism, make this set a poetic manifesto of the Long March spirit.

十六字令三首是毛泽东于长征期间（1934—1935）所作，与《忆秦娥·娄山关》《清平乐·会昌》等同为长征诗词的代表作。1934年10月中央红军开始长征，辗转湘江、乌江、娄山关、金沙江、大渡河，翻越终年积雪的夹金山与人迹罕至的大雪山；毛泽东作为红军领导者，亲历千难万险，以雄奇之笔写红军翻山越岭的壮举。十六字令词牌全词仅十六字，是词中体制最短的小令，毛泽东以三首联章，分别从快马加鞭的骑行、倒海翻江的声势、刺破青天的险峻三个角度写山，实则以山喻红军、以山写长征。其一写骑马上山之疾与山之高（离天三尺三），其二写群山起伏如万马奔腾之战势，其三写山的峭拔如利剑刺天、擎天柱地——天欲堕，赖以拄其间更以山为擎天柱，暗喻红军挽狂澜于既倒的历史担当。三首一以贯之的革命英雄主义与乐观主义，使这组小令成为长征精神的诗化宣言。

Art

The Three Lyrics are a masterpiece of Mao's object-chanting and ambition-expressing, their art lying in 'writing the man through the mountain,' startling imagery, and progressive linking. The 'Sixteen Characters' form is extremely short (sixteen characters: one-, seven-, three-, five-character lines); Mao uses three linked lyrics to compensate for the small capacity of a single one, forming a layered overall structure: the first writes the mountain's loftiness (never dismounting, three feet from the sky), the second its great momentum (overturning seas, ten thousand steeds still battle), the third its mighty use (piercing the sky, propping up the space between)—from height to momentum to use, layer upon layer to the climax. In technique, all three use hyperbole and metaphor: 'three feet from the sky' uses folk hyperbole for its height; 'overturning seas and churning rivers' writes the mountain as angry tides through motion; 'piercing the azure sky, blades unblunted' uses the sword for the mountain and its edge for sharpness; 'ten thousand steeds still battle' uses galloping warhorses for the rolling ranges—and each image secretly matches the Red Army: spurring the horse is the army's swift march, ten thousand steeds its fierce battle, piercing and holding the sky its pillar-like burden. Chanting the mountain yet never showing the mountain, every line a portrait of the man (the Red Army)—the highest realm of object-chanting, neither clinging nor distant. The language is honed like a knife, the rhythm short as drumbeats, condensing the vastness of the Long March into forty-eight characters, effortless despite the weight.

十六字令三首是毛泽东咏物言志的杰作，其艺术特色在以山写人、意象奇崛、联章递进。十六字令体制极短（十六字：一字句、七字句、三字句、五字句），毛泽东以三首联章弥补单首容量之小，形成层层递进的总体结构：其一写山之高峻（快马加鞭未下鞍、离天三尺三），其二写山之势大（倒海翻江、万马战犹酣），其三写山之用伟（刺破青天、赖以拄其间），由高而势、由势而用，层层推向全词的高潮。手法上，三首皆用夸张与比喻：离天三尺三以民谣极言其高，倒海翻江以动写山如怒潮，刺破青天锷未残以剑喻山、以锷（剑刃）写其锋锐，万马战犹酣以奔腾的战马喻起伏的群山；而每一意象皆暗合红军——快马加鞭是行军之疾，万马奔腾是鏖战之烈，刺天拄地是擎天之任。咏山而不见山，句句皆是人（红军）的写照，正是咏物诗不即不离的最高境界。全词语言凝练如刀削，节奏短促如鼓点，把长征的壮阔压缩进四十八个字中，举重若轻。

Allusions

Though short, the Three Lyrics fuse rich folk, historical, and mythic imagery. First, the folk source of 'three feet from the sky': a Guizhou folk rhyme says 'above is Skull Mountain, below is Treasure Mountain, three feet and three inches from the sky; man passing must bow, horse passing must dismount'—Mao adapts it with new meaning: the folk rhyme writes awed bowing, but the lyric instead writes 'never once dismounting,' a conquest—one lowered, one raised, the Red Army's contempt for difficulty leaps forth. Second, 'overturning seas and churning rivers': from ancient fiction and drama describing water's force (as in Journey to the West), Mao shifts it to write the ranges' undulation, using water's motion for the mountain's shape—a synesthetic wonder. Third, 'ten thousand steeds still battle': using galloping steeds for the连绵 ranges, both a visual spectacle and a hint of the battlefield—the word 'battle' points directly at the Red Army, the mountain's undulation exactly the melee of war, nature and humanity here one. Fourth, 'piercing the azure sky, blades unblunted': the sword (edge, the blade) for the mountain, inheriting the myth of the Pillar of Heaven from the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the tale of Gong Gong butting Mount Buzhou and Nüwa mending the sky—'the heavens would fall, but on it leans' is the modern transformation of Nüwa's myth, the mountain's heaven-holding power given world-creating, crisis-saving mythic color. Fifth, 'propping up the space between': 'prop' means to support; 'the space between' is between heaven and earth; making the mountain the pillar hints that the Red Army is the nation's pillar, raising the mountain-chant to a chant of history and will. Three short lyrics meld folk rhyme, myth, and war imagery, showing Mao's skill of new wine in old bottles.

十六字令三首虽短，却熔铸了丰富的民谣、历史与神话意象。其一是离天三尺三的民谣源头：黔地民谣有「上有骷髅山，下有八宝山，离天三尺三，人过要低头，马过要下鞍」之说，毛泽东化用其语而翻出新意——民谣写低头下鞍的敬畏，词中偏写快马加鞭未下鞍的征服，一抑一扬，红军藐视困难的气概顿出。其二是倒海翻江：此语出自古代小说、戏曲写水势之句（如《西游记》翻江搅海），毛泽东移以写群山之起伏，以水势写山势，是通感的妙用。其三是万马战犹酣：以万马奔腾写群山连绵，既是视觉的壮观，又暗含战场意象——战字直点红军，群山的起伏恰似战场的厮杀，山与战、自然与人事在此合一。其四是刺破青天锷未残：以利剑（锷，剑刃）喻山，承《山海经》不周山天柱神话及共工怒触不周山、女娲炼石补天的传说——天欲堕而山柱其间，正是女娲补天意象的现代转化，山的擎天之功被赋予开天辟地、力挽狂澜的神话色彩。其五是赖以拄其间：拄，支撑；其间即天地之间，以山为天柱，暗喻红军为民族之柱石，把咏山升华为咏史、咏志。三首小令，融民谣、神话、战争意象于一炉，可见毛泽东诗词旧瓶装新酒的化用功力。

Commentary

The Three Lyrics are the strangest in form and most distilled in language among Mao's Long March poems, valuable in three respects—literary, historical, and spiritual. Literarily, it writes the mountain's three postures in a sixteen-character tune, holding the greatest weather in the fewest words, the extreme of small-form-large-content in Chinese ci history; its startling imagery (three feet from the sky, piercing the sky blades unblunted) and apt metaphors (ten thousand steeds still battle) make the set unique among all Mao's ci, included in many anthologies and middle-school textbooks. Historically, it is a direct record of the Long March—the personal experience of crossing snow mountains and perilous passes condensed into mountain imagery, making the lyric a poetic history beside the written one. Spiritually, the contempt for difficulty, the heroism of conquering nature, and the burden of 'propping up the space between' are the most condensed literary expression of the Long March spirit and revolutionary optimism, influencing generations of Chinese. 'Mountains, piercing the azure sky, blades unblunted' and 'the heavens would fall, but on it leans' still stir the blood today, making the set one of the most spiritually resonant chapters of twentieth-century Chinese poetry.

十六字令三首是毛泽东长征诗词中体制最奇、语言最炼的一组，其价值可从文学、历史、精神三方面看。就文学而言，它以十六字小令写尽山的三种姿态，以最少的字数容纳最大的气象，是中国词史上体制与容量小中见大的极致；其意象之奇崛（离天三尺三、刺破青天锷未残）、比喻之贴切（万马战犹酣），使这组小令在毛泽东全部词作中独树一帜，被收入多种诗词选本与中学教材。就历史而言，它是长征这一人类壮举的直接记录——翻雪山、过险关的亲身经历凝为山的意象，使词成为信史之外的诗史。就精神而言，三首词所张扬的藐视困难、征服自然的英雄气概与赖以拄其间的担当意识，是长征精神与革命乐观主义最凝练的文学表达，影响了几代中国人。山，刺破青天锷未残的峭拔，天欲堕，赖以拄其间的擎天之力，至今读来仍令人热血沸腾，这组小令也因此成为二十世纪中国诗词中最具精神感召力的篇章之一。

Prosody

Form Ci (the 'Sixteen Characters' tune, the shortest of the short lyric forms)词（十六字令，小令中最短之体）

Rhyme All three lyrics share the an rhyme (saddle/three, waves/battle, unblunted/between), one rhyme throughout, bright and open; the form is fixed: a one-character line, a seven-character line (仄仄平平仄仄平), a three-character line, a five-character line, filled to rule with level rhyme each.三首同押an韵（鞍/三、澜/酣、残/间），一韵到底，音调响亮开阔；十六字令格律固定：一字句、七字句（仄仄平平仄仄平）、三字句、五字句，毛泽东依律填词，每首皆叶平韵。

Tone pattern Each lyric opens with the one-character 'Mountains' like a thunderclap, setting a tone of wonder; the seven-character line unfolds and gallops (never dismounting, overturning seas, piercing the sky), the three-character line halts (startled look back, rushing, heavens would fall), the five-character line closes (three feet from the sky, ten thousand steeds battle, propping up the space between), long and short interleaved, tense and relaxed by turns.每首以山字一字句领起，短促如惊雷，定下惊叹的基调；七字句舒展奔腾（快马加鞭未下鞍、倒海翻江卷巨澜、刺破青天锷未残），三字句顿挫（惊回首、奔腾急、天欲堕），五字句收束（离天三尺三、万马战犹酣、赖以拄其间），长短相间，张弛有度。

Reading note The 'Sixteen Characters' is the smallest ci form, only sixteen characters, with the pattern 'one, seven, three, five,' its rules extremely strict; precisely because it is short, every character must be hammered. Mao's three linked lyrics use the same tune and same rhyme class (an) for the same object (mountains), creating a special musical effect of same-tune-same-rhyme linking: the opening one-character 'Mountains' in each is like three bugle calls, each higher than the last; the seven-character line begins on an oblique tone, its syllables unfolding and galloping, writing the mountain's majesty; the three-character line halts powerfully like a interrupted beat, making a startled pause; the five-character line closes, one rhyme throughout, momentum unbroken. Read in sequence, the an rhyme (saddle, three, waves, battle, unblunted, between) echoes repeatedly, bright and open, matching the vastness of the Long March; and 'never,' 'still,' 'unblunted' echo across the three, forming a progressive sound-feeling—from galloping to battling to holding, the rhythm moving from urgent to fierce to steady. This musical design of winning through brevity and showing skill through distillation lets the sixteen-character lyric carry the weather of a long narrative song—a model of Mao's doctrine of old form, new content.十六字令是词中体制最小的词牌，全词仅十六字，句式为「一、七、三、五」，格律极严，正因其短，每个字都须千锤百炼。毛泽东三首联章，以同一词牌、同一韵部（an韵）写同一对象（山），形成同调同韵联章的特殊音乐效果：每首开头的山字一字句，如三声号角，一声比一声高亢；七字句以仄起，音节舒展而奔腾，写山势之雄；三字句顿挫有力，如节奏的中断，制造惊奇的停顿；五字句收束，一韵到底，气势贯通。三首连读，an韵（鞍、三、澜、酣、残、间）反复回响，音调开阔明亮，恰与长征的壮阔相配；而未下鞍、战犹酣、锷未残三处未或犹字遥相呼应，形成声情上的递进——由疾驰而鏖战而擎天，词的节奏也由急而烈而稳。这种以短制胜、以炼见工的音律设计，使十六字小令承载了长篇歌行般的气象，正是毛泽东旧形式、新内容词学主张的典范。

Line by line

山，快马加鞭未下鞍。惊回首，离天三尺三。

Mountains! I spur my swift horse, never once dismounting. Startled, I look back—three feet and three inches from the sky.

山啊！骑在快马上加鞭疾驰，都来不及下鞍；猛然回头一看，山势之高竟离天只有三尺三。

Mountain! Spurring the swift horse, I never dismount. Looking back in alarm, I am but three feet from the sky.

第一首写山之高，是全组的总起。山字一字句独立成拍，如一声惊叹，既是咏叹的对象，也是全组的领起；快马加鞭未下鞍以快、加两个急促的动作写驰行之疾，而未下鞍三字最妙——按民谣本说人过要低头，马过要下鞍，词中偏说未下鞍，翻民谣之敬畏为征服之豪迈，红军风驰电掣、无所阻挡的形象跃然纸上；惊回首三字一顿，写骑马者（红军）猛然回望的姿态，惊字既写山势之突兀带来的震动，又暗含原来已登此绝顶的豪情；离天三尺三化用民谣，以夸张之笔写山之高，仿佛伸手可及青天。四句一气呵成：疾驰、回望、惊叹，动态与静态、行动与感慨交织，把一座高不可攀的大山写得如在目前，而未下鞍的红军形象已先声夺人。

The height. Mountain! Spurring the swift horse, I never dismount. Looking back in alarm, I am but three feet from the sky. The spurred swift horse and the three-feet-from-the-sky are the height. To have spurred the horse would be a spurring; the mountain-spurring-the-swift-horse-i-never-dismount-looking-back-in-alarm-i-am-but-three-feet-from-the-sky is the spurring.

山，倒海翻江卷巨澜。奔腾急，万马战犹酣。

Mountains! They overturn seas and churn rivers, rolling up giant waves. Rushing and galloping—ten thousand steeds still fiercely battle.

山啊！连绵的群山像倒海翻江一般卷起巨大的波澜；奔腾得那样急促，恰似千万匹战马正在激烈地鏖战。

Mountain! Like sea overturned and river turned, it rolls great billows. Surging on, ten thousand horses fight still in full fury.

第二首写山之势，由静入动，是全组的转折与铺展。倒海翻江卷巨澜以水势写山势：起伏连绵的群山，在诗人眼中化作倒海翻江的巨澜，卷字写其汹涌翻腾的动态，山的静止被彻底激活——这是用想象与通感改造视觉的典范；奔腾急三字短促有力，如战鼓急擂，写山势（兼红军行进的态势）之迅疾；万马战犹酣是全首最警策之句：以千万匹酣战正烈的战马喻起伏的群山，既是形似（山脊起伏如马背），更是神似——战字直指红军，群山如万马奔腾，正是长征途中千军万马鏖战山河的壮景，犹酣二字更写出激战正烈、斗志正酣的状态。值得注意的是三首的递进：第一首写高，是静态的险；第二首写势，是动态的烈；山由景化为战，为第三首擎天柱地的升华作了情绪的蓄积。

The surging. Mountain! Like sea overturned and river turned, it rolls great billows. Surging on, ten thousand horses fight still in full fury. The overturned sea and the ten-thousand horses fighting are the surging. To have overturned the sea would be a overturning; the mountain-like-sea-overturned-and-river-turned-it-rolls-great-billows-surging-on-ten-thousand-horses-fight-still-in-full-fury is the overturning.

山，刺破青天锷未残。天欲堕，赖以拄其间。

Mountains! They pierce the azure sky, their blades unblunted. The heavens would fall, but on them it leans, propping up the space between.

山啊！像利剑一样刺破青天，剑锋却丝毫未损；天要塌下来了，全靠它支撑在天地之间。

Mountain! It pierces the blue sky, its edge unbroken. Heaven would fall, but for its pillar between.

第三首写山之用，是全组的升华与题旨所在。刺破青天锷未残以利剑喻山：山如巨剑直刺青天，而锷未残三字写剑刃的完好无损——剑锋刺天而利刃不卷，既写山势之峭拔锐利，更暗喻历经长征磨难的红军锐气未减、愈战愈强；天欲堕，赖以拄其间陡然推向神话的境界：天要塌陷，全靠这山柱支撑于天地之间。此句承共工怒触不周山、女娲补天的神话意象，把山升华为天柱——而赖以拄其间的，明写是山，实写是以山自况的红军：在民族危亡、国家将倾的时代，红军正是那擎天之柱。由高而势而用，三首层层递进，最终把咏物推向咏志，把山水推向历史，把长征推向民族命运的担当。至此，山与红军彻底合一，全组的精神高度在此定格，读来令人心潮澎湃。

The pillar. Mountain! It pierces the blue sky, its edge unbroken. Heaven would fall, but for its pillar between. The sky-piercing unbroken edge and the heaven-pillaring between are the close. To have pierced the sky would be a piercing; the mountain-it-pierces-the-blue-sky-its-edge-unbroken-heaven-would-fall-but-for-its-pillar-between is the piercing.

Study

Word focus

锷 In 'piercing the azure sky, blades unblunted,' the character 'edge' (锷) means the blade of a sword—the most accomplished refinement of the lyric. It originally means a sword's sharp edge; Mao says not 'the sword is unblunted' but 'the edge is unblunted,' with two subtleties: first, using the part for the whole—the edge is the sword's sharpest part, writing 'edge unblunted' shows keener than 'sword unblunted,' implying this sword (the mountain, also the Red Army) not only pierces the sky but remains unconquerable; second, 'edge' is archaic and elegant, matching the startling image, its syllable short (ancient entering tone), ringing like metal on metal. Deeper, 'edge unblunted' hints at tempering: the Long March is like whetting a sword, the greater the peril the sharper the Red Army's edge—three characters write both mountain and man, uniting image, sound, and meaning. 刺破青天锷未残之锷字，剑刃之意，是这首小令最见功力的炼字。锷本指刀剑的锋刃（《说文》：锷，刀剑刃也），毛泽东不直说剑未残而说锷未残，妙处有二：其一，以局部代整体，锷是剑最锋利的部位，写锷未残比写剑未残更见锋锐——剑身或可钝，而锋刃愈磨愈利，暗示这柄剑（山，亦红军）不仅刺破青天，而且锐不可当；其二，锷字生僻古雅，与刺破青天的奇崛意象相配，音调短促（古入声），读来铿锵有力，如金属相击。更深一层，锷未残暗写磨砺：长征如砺剑，越是险阻，越把红军的锋芒磨得锐利——锷未残三字，既是写山，更是写人，一字之炼，意象、音韵、寓意三者兼得。

酣 In 'ten thousand steeds still battle,' the character 'fiercely' (酣) originally means drinking one's fill, extended to 'to one's heart's content, intense'—a vivid word for the state of battle. Its wonder is threefold: first, writing battle-zest through wine-zest—battle like drinking, exactly at the height of pleasure, endless and joyful, writing the cruel war as exhilarating, just the bedrock of revolutionary optimism; second, 'still' with 'fiercely' writes the battle at its most intense, far from over, the will like wine, the more drunk the braver, the ranges' undulation and the battle's heat reaching their peak in these two words; third, 'fiercely' rhymes brightly with 'waves' (an rhyme), flowing in one breath, momentum galloping. This one character binds the steeds' form, the battlefield's force, and the Red Army's spirit—a model of conveying the whole through a single word. 万马战犹酣之酣字，本义为酒喝得尽兴，引申为尽情、激烈，是写战斗状态的传神之字。酣字写战的状态，妙在三点：其一，以酒兴写战兴——战如饮酒，正喝到兴头上，意犹未尽、乐在其中，把残酷的战争写得酣畅淋漓，正见革命乐观主义的精神底色；其二，犹字与酣字连用，犹酣写战斗正进行到最激烈处、远未结束，战意如酒意，愈饮愈酣、愈战愈勇，群山的起伏与鏖战的烈度在犹酣二字中达到顶峰；其三，酣字音韵响亮，与澜字押韵（an韵），读来一气流转，气势奔腾。这一字把万马的形、战场的势、红军的气全部凝在一起，是以一字传神的典范，难怪全首以此字作结，余味无穷。

拄 In 'the heavens would fall, but on it leans,' the character 'prop' (拄) means to support—the poem's closing eye and the key word raising the mountain to a pillar of heaven. The word is extremely steady and solid: not the strain of 'propping,' not the effort of 'bearing,' but standing steady between heaven and earth like a pillar—one 'prop' writes an immovable force and an enduring burden. The word comes from myth: Gong Gong butted Mount Buzhou, the pillar of heaven broke, Nüwa smelted stone to mend the sky; here 'on it leans' makes the mountain (the Red Army) the new pillar, saving the sky from falling; 'prop' is the mountain's support of heaven, and more the Red Army's support of nation and age—not passive bearing but active burden, and 'on it' writes the uniqueness of that burden (nothing else, only it). From 'pierce' (attack) to 'prop' (defense), one word shows the lyric's turn from sharp advance to steady close, the theme arriving naturally, weighty as a falling stone. 赖以拄其间之拄字，支撑之意，是全组收束的诗眼，也是把山升华为天柱的关键一字。拄字用得极稳、极实：它不是撑的勉强，不是支的吃力，而是如天柱般稳稳地立在天地之间——一个拄字，写出了不可动摇的力量感与持久的担当。此字承神话而来：共工怒触不周山，天柱折，女娲炼石补天，而此处赖以拄其间，把山（红军）写成了新的天柱，挽天于既堕；拄字既是山对天的支撑，更是红军对民族、对时代的支撑——在毛泽东笔下，这拄不是被动的承重，而是主动的担当，赖以二字更写出这种担当的唯一性（没有别的，只能靠它）。由刺（攻）到拄（守），一字而见全词由锐进到稳重的收束，全组的立意至此水到渠成，掷地有声。