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自嘲

Mocking Myself (Zichao)

鲁迅

Lu Xun

言志Declaring the Will 自嘲Self-Mockery 抗争Struggle 名篇Masterpiece

运交华盖欲何求，未敢翻身已碰头。
破帽遮颜过闹市，漏船载酒泛中流。
横眉冷对千夫指，俯首甘为孺子牛。
躲进小楼成一统，管他冬夏与春秋。

The luck of the flowery canopy, what would I seek? Before I have turned my head, I have already bumped my forehead.
With the tattered hat shading my face, I pass through the noisy market, in the leaking boat I carry the wine and drift on the midstream.
Frowning coldly at the thousand pointing fingers, bowing the head willingly as the willing ox of the child.
Hiding in the small tower, I unite into one, and manage it, whatever the winter and the summer and the spring and the autumn.

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Meaning

Written in October 1932, when the fifty-one-year-old Lu Xun was living in Shanghai. At that time the KMT authorities were tightening the oppression of the left-wing literary movement, and Lu Xun, for his support of the 'Left League' and his articles attacking the politics of the time, was hunted and besieged; in that year he was slandered by the newspapers of Shanghai, and there were also the factional disputes within the Left League; his friend Yu Dafu and his wife gave a dinner to console him, and Lu Xun improvised this poem at the table. The title 'Mocking Myself' is precisely the self-ridicule of the literatus of the troubled age under the heavy oppression: 'the luck of the flowery canopy, what would I seek? Before I have turned my head, I have already bumped my forehead' writes the real situation of his life of 1932; 'with the tattered hat shading my face, I pass through the noisy market, in the leaking boat I carry the wine and drift on the midstream' writes the image of his wandering in the danger; 'frowning coldly at the thousand pointing fingers, bowing the head willingly as the willing ox of the child' is the core of the whole poem: the hatred of the enemy and the love of the people in one personality, the most famous couplet of Lu Xun; and 'hiding in the small tower, I unite into one, and manage it, whatever the winter and the summer and the spring and the autumn' the self-preservation of the small tower and the self-persistence, the final self-mockery and the self-affirmation.

运交华盖欲何求，未敢翻身已碰头。破帽遮颜过闹市，漏船载酒泛中流。横眉冷对千夫指，俯首甘为孺子牛。躲进小楼成一统，管他冬夏与春秋。

Appreciation

This poem is a seven-character regulated verse, four couplets and eight lines, the meter strict and the antithesis precise, the representative of the maturity of Lu Xun's old-style poetry. In composition, the four couplets each have their division: the first couplet narrates the situation ('the luck of the flowery canopy, what would I seek? Before I have turned my head, I have already bumped my forehead'), setting the tone with the self-mockery; the second couplet writes the image with the metaphor ('with the tattered hat shading my face, I pass through the noisy market, in the leaking boat I carry the wine and drift on the midstream'), the air of the spirit in the distress; the third couplet shows the attitude with the contrast ('frowning coldly at the thousand pointing fingers, bowing the head willingly as the willing ox of the child'), the emotional peak of the whole poem; and the last couplet closes with the self-preservation ('hiding in the small tower, I unite into one, and manage it, whatever the winter and the summer and the spring and the autumn'), the self-mockery and the self-affirmation in one. In language, the whole poem is in the vernacular and the spoken phrases, yet the meter and the antithesis are precise, the 'the flowery canopy,' the 'the willing ox of the child,' and the 'the small tower' the allusions fused without the trace, the old-style poem of the new content, the mature model of Lu Xun's old-style poetry.

【白话串讲】鲁迅写《自嘲》：“运交华盖欲何求，未敢翻身已碰头”。“横眉冷对千夫指，俯首甘为孺子牛”——千古名句。“躲进小楼成一统，管他冬夏与春秋”——他说面对敌人的指责，甘愿做人民的牛。【意象与手法】七言律诗，对仗精工；以自嘲之笔写抗争之志，反语、比喻、对比并用，嬉笑怒骂中含深沉【情感与主旨】此诗是鲁迅人格的自我写照：对敌人的横眉冷对与对人民的俯首甘为交织，于自嘲自解中见出不可摧折的硬骨头精神【名句点睛】常考「横眉冷对千夫指，俯首甘为孺子牛」的对仗与人格内涵——它概括了鲁迅爱憎分明的全部态度，被毛泽东誉为「应该成为我们的座右铭」

Background

Lu Xun (1881–1936), originally named Zhou Shuren, courtesy name Yucai, a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, the founder of the modern Chinese literature, a thinker and a revolutionary. This poem was written in October 1932, when the fifty-one-year-old Lu Xun was living in Shanghai. At that time the KMT authorities were tightening the oppression of the left-wing literary movement, and Lu Xun, for his support of the 'Left League' and his articles attacking the politics of the time, was hunted and besieged: in that year he was successively slandered by the newspapers of Shanghai, and there were also the factional disputes within the Left League; his friend Yu Dafu and his wife gave a dinner to console him, and Lu Xun improvised this poem at the table. The title 'Mocking Myself' is precisely the self-ridicule of the literatus of the troubled age under the heavy oppression: 'the luck of the flowery canopy, moving and bumping the head' is the real record of his life situation of 1932.

鲁迅（1881—1936），原名周树人，字豫才，浙江绍兴人，中国现代文学的奠基人，思想家、革命家。此诗作于1932年10月，时年五十一岁的鲁迅定居上海。当时国民党当局对左翼文艺运动加紧压迫，鲁迅因支持「左联」、发表抨击时政的文章而遭通缉与围攻，处境艰危：是年他先后被上海各报造谣中伤，左联内部亦有宗派纷争，友人郁达夫夫妇设宴劝慰，鲁迅于席间即兴作此诗。诗题「自嘲」二字，正是乱世文人在重压之下的自我解嘲——运交华盖、动辄碰头，本是其1932年生活处境的实录：是年鲁迅因「一二八」事变避居内山书店，又屡遭文坛攻讦，几度搬家避祸。然而「自嘲」之中自有「自守」：末联「躲进小楼成一统」即其当时深居简出、坚持笔耕的真实写照。此诗后来收入《集外集》，是鲁迅旧体诗中最脍炙人口的一首，尤以颈联「横眉冷对千夫指，俯首甘为孺子牛」传诵最广，成为鲁迅精神的象征。

Art

The art is the four couplets each with their division and the allusions fused without the trace: the first couplet narrates the situation with the self-mockery, the second writes the image with the metaphor, the third shows the attitude with the contrast ('frowning coldly' against 'bowing the head'), the peak of the whole poem, and the last closes with the self-preservation, the self-mockery and the self-affirmation in one—the vernacular and the spoken phrases yet the meter strict and the antithesis precise, the mature model of the old-style poetry.

此诗为七言律诗，四联八句，格律严谨而对仗精工，是鲁迅旧体诗艺术成熟的代表作。章法上四联各有分工：首联叙事写处境（「运交华盖欲何求，未敢翻身已碰头」），以自嘲定调；颔联以比喻写形象（「破帽遮颜过闹市，漏船载酒泛中流」），困厄中见风神；颈联以对比亮态度（「横眉冷对千夫指，俯首甘为孺子牛」），是全诗的情感高峰；尾联以自守收束（「躲进小楼成一统，管他冬夏与春秋」），自嘲与自励浑然一体。手法上，反语（「自嘲」而实为自述）、比喻（破帽遮颜、漏船载酒）、对比（横眉与俯首、千夫指与孺子牛）、用典（华盖、孺子牛）熔于一炉，嬉笑怒骂之间自有沉郁顿挫的骨力。语言上庄谐杂出：「欲何求」「碰头」「管他」是口语化的自嘲，「横眉」「俯首」是凝练的警句，雅俗相济，正见鲁迅以旧体诗写现代精神的创造性——七律的格律框架内，装的是二十世纪战士的胸襟与幽默。全诗四联如四幕，自嘲、自况、自誓、自守次第展开，跌宕有致，读之如见其人。

Allusions

The allusions of the poem are precise and apt, every one with the source and every one the self. First, the 'flowery canopy': the flowery canopy is a Buddhist term, the canopy over the head of the Son of Heaven or the noble, and the common saying of the 'meeting with the luck of the flowery canopy' for the bad luck; Lu Xun, in the 'Record of the Flowery Canopy Collection,' explains that 'this luck, for the monk, is the good luck: with the canopy over the head, naturally the sign of the becoming the Buddha; but the common man cannot do with it, the canopy above, and he is to be covered and can only bump the nails.' Second, the 'willing ox of the child': from the 'left drive, right drive' of the words of Qi Jinggong to the child: the minister who bows his head like the ox of the child, the willingness of the sacrifice for the young; Lu Xun turns it to the willingness of the serving of the people, the 'bowing the head willingly as the willing ox of the child' the love of the people.

此诗用典精切而贴切，处处有出处，处处是己身。其一是「华盖」：华盖为佛家语，指天子或贵人头顶的伞盖，俗以「交华盖运」为倒霉运，鲁迅在《华盖集·题记》中自解「这运，在和尚是好运：顶有华盖，自然是成佛作祖之兆。但俗人可不行，华盖在上，就要给罩住了，只好碰钉子」，此处「运交华盖」正是自嘲遭逢困厄；其二是「碰头」：呼应当时通缉、围攻之下动辄得咎的处境，语带自谑；其三是「千夫指」：本《汉书·王嘉传》「千人所指，无病而死」，千夫指即众矢之的，鲁迅借以指敌人的围攻指责；其四是「孺子牛」：典出《左传·哀公六年》，齐景公尝衔绳装牛，让儿子牵着走，儿子跌倒，景公因此跌伤牙齿，鲁迅反用其意，以「孺子牛」自喻甘为民众之牛，化亲子之嬉为献身之志；其五是「躲进小楼成一统」：化用「一统」的帝王语汇，反语自嘲，写避居自守。四典皆出经史，而鲁迅以之写现代文人的处境与人格，古为今用，不着痕迹。

Commentary

The 'Mocking Myself' is the condensation of the personality of Lu Xun's whole life and one of the peaks of the old-style poetry of the modern Chinese poetry world. In the history of thought, the two lines of the 'frowning coldly at the thousand pointing fingers, bowing the head willingly as the willing ox of the child' place the hatred of the enemy and the love of the people side by side as the two faces of the same personality, praised by Mao Zedong in the 'Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art' as 'the model that all the revolutionary writers and artists should follow,' the two lines becoming the spiritual motto of the Chinese revolutionaries and the intellectual, and the 'hiding in the small tower' of the close the self-preservation and the self-persistence of the warrior in the dark age.

《自嘲》是鲁迅一生人格的凝缩，也是中国现代诗坛旧体诗创作的巅峰之一。思想史上，此诗以「横眉冷对千夫指，俯首甘为孺子牛」两句，把对敌人的恨与对人民的爱并置为同一人格的两面，被毛泽东在《在延安文艺座谈会上的讲话》中誉为「应该成为我们的座右铭」——「横眉」与「俯首」从此成为中国知识分子爱憎立场的经典表述，其影响远远超出文学领域。文学史上，此诗证明旧体诗在现代语境中依然保有强大的表现力：鲁迅以七律的严格格律承载二十世纪的革命内容，开旧体诗「旧瓶装新酒」的成功范例，与毛泽东诗词并列为现代旧体诗的双峰。传播上，「孺子牛」一词更由典故化为日常用语，凡言甘于奉献者皆引之；「管他冬夏与春秋」亦成口语，传写超然物外的倔强。此诗写于鲁迅被围攻最烈之时，而锋芒不减、幽默不衰，正是「横眉冷对」的硬骨头精神在文字中最生动的证明，历来被推为理解鲁迅其人的第一入口。

Prosody

Form Seven-character regulated verse, the tones regular and the middle couplets antithetical七言律诗，平仄合律、中二联对仗

Rhyme The whole on the level rhyme, the rhyme-words 'qiu, tou, liu, niu, qiu' of the eleventh rhyme of the level tone of the Pingshui rhymes, one rhyme to the end, the tone loud and long全诗押平声韵，韵脚「求、头、流、牛、秋」属平水韵下平十一尤部，一韵到底，音调洪亮悠长。尤韵的「悠、流、秋」等字音色圆润开阔，正合全诗于自嘲中见开阔的声情；「欲何求」「已碰头」的仄仄平平与「横眉冷对」「俯首甘为」的平仄交错，使诗句顿挫分明，诵读时先抑后扬、先谐后庄，声情随情感由自嘲转向自守。

Tone pattern The 'the luck of the flowery canopy' is ironic, the 'the tattered hat shading my face' is easy, the 'frowning coldly' is stern, and the 'hiding in the small tower' is reserved—the whole from the self-mockery to the self-affirmation, the struggle carried by the loud rhyme中二联对仗精工：颔联「破帽遮颜过闹市，漏船载酒泛中流」以「破帽/漏船」「遮颜/载酒」「过/泛」「闹市/中流」两两相对，喻象工整而意脉流动；颈联「横眉冷对千夫指，俯首甘为孺子牛」以「横眉/俯首」「冷对/甘为」「千夫指/孺子牛」严对，字字相扣。首尾两联则以口语化的散句出之，庄谐相济。

Reading note The loud and long rhyme carries the self-mockery and the struggle, the warrior's bearing of the troubled age.《自嘲》作为一首七言律诗，在严格格律的框架内实现了内容与形式的完美统一。格律上，全诗平仄合律、一韵到底（尤韵），属旧体诗的正格；但鲁迅的高明在于「以律驭气」而不为律所缚——中二联对仗精工而意象灵动，颔联「破帽遮颜过闹市，漏船载酒泛中流」的「过」「泛」两个动词打破静态对仗，使工对中见流动之势；颈联「横眉冷对千夫指，俯首甘为孺子牛」更是字字对、义亦对，对仗的工稳与人格的完整互为表里，堪称律诗对仗的典范。声调上，全诗平仄的调度服务于情感：首联「欲何求」「已碰头」以仄声收顿，写困厄的滞重；颈联「横眉冷对」「俯首甘为」平仄交错，如刀剑相击，铿锵有力；尾联「管他冬夏与春秋」以平声悠扬收束，把倔强化为洒脱。尤韵一韵到底，音色圆润开阔，恰与自嘲中见旷达的基调相应。此诗证明：旧体诗的格律在现代诗人手中非但不是束缚，反而是锤炼思想的利器——鲁迅以最严格的形式写出了最自由的灵魂，这是旧体诗在现代语境中生命力的绝佳证明。

Line by line

运交华盖欲何求，未敢翻身已碰头。

The luck of the flowery canopy, what would I seek? Before I have turned my head, I have already bumped my forehead. (The first couplet: the real situation of the life, the 'luck of the flowery canopy' the bad luck, the self-mockery setting the tone of the whole poem.)

命运交上了华盖运，还想要追求什么呢？还没敢翻身就已经碰了头。

What more seek, with this unlucky star? Before I dare turn over, my head is already knocked.

首联以自嘲起笔，写尽动辄得咎的困厄处境。「运交华盖欲何求」以问句自解：「华盖运」本是倒霉运，鲁迅却先自嘲「还求什么」——不是愤激的质问，而是看透之后的苦笑，幽默中含着辛酸；「未敢翻身已碰头」以夸张的白描写压迫之重：连翻身都不敢，一动就碰头，七个字把白色恐怖下文人的动弹不得写得如在目前。「未敢」二字尤见深意：不是「不能」，而是「不敢」，写的是被压制的生存状态，也暗示反抗的火种仍在——敢不敢是形势使然，甘不甘是气节所在。两句一问一答、一虚一实，自嘲的语气里藏着清醒的认知：华盖运不是偶然的时运，而是抗争的代价。此联定下全诗的基调——以游戏之笔写严峻之境，越是轻描淡写，越见处境之艰与骨气之硬。

The bump. What more seek, with this unlucky star? Before I dare turn over, my head is already knocked. The unlucky star and the dared-not-turn-but-head-knocked are the opening. To have knocked the head would be a knocking; the what-more-seek-with-this-unlucky-star-before-i-dare-turn-over-my-head-is-already-knocked is the knocking.

横眉冷对千夫指，俯首甘为孺子牛。

Frowning coldly at the thousand pointing fingers, bowing the head willingly as the willing ox of the child. (The third couplet, the peak of the whole poem: the hatred of the enemy and the love of the people in one personality, the most famous couplet of Lu Xun, the spiritual motto of the generations.)

横着眉毛冷冷地面对千夫所指的责难，低下头心甘情愿地做人民的孺子牛。

Brows bent, I coldly face a thousand pointing fingers; head bowed, I gladly be the calf for the children.

颈联是全诗的诗眼，也是鲁迅人格的巅峰写照，十四字写出爱憎分明的全部态度。「横眉冷对千夫指」写对敌人的态度：「横眉」以眉宇的姿态写凛然不可犯的怒目，「冷对」写面对围攻时的蔑视与镇定——不是以牙还牙的怒骂，而是冰山般冷静的对抗，「千夫指」即「千人所指」，敌人的指责越众，横眉越冷，语气越是从容；「俯首甘为孺子牛」写对人民的态度：「俯首」与「横眉」对照，一冷一温、一刚一柔，「甘为」二字以心甘情愿的主动姿态，把《左传》齐景公的亲子典故转化为献身民众的自觉，「孺子牛」从此由父子嬉戏的典故升华为奉献精神的象征。两句对仗极工：「横眉」对「俯首」（眉首相对）、「冷对」对「甘为」（冷甘相对）、「千夫指」对「孺子牛」（夫孺相对、指牛相映），而内容上的爱憎对照更在对仗之上。十四字，两种态度，一个人格——这就是鲁迅。

The ox. Brows bent, I coldly face a thousand pointing fingers; head bowed, I gladly be the calf for the children. The cold-browed-thousand-fingers and the bowed gladly-calf are the couplet. To have been the calf would be a being; the brows-bent-i-coldly-face-a-thousand-pointing-fingers-head-bowed-i-gladly-be-the-calf-for-the-children is the being.

躲进小楼成一统，管他冬夏与春秋。

Hiding in the small tower, I unite into one, and manage it, whatever the winter and the summer and the spring and the autumn. (The last couplet: the self-preservation of the small tower and the self-persistence, the self-mockery and the self-affirmation in one, the close of the whole poem.)

躲进小楼里自成一片天地，管他外面冬夏与春秋如何更替。

I hide in my small room and make it my whole realm; what care I for winter and summer, spring and autumn.

尾联以貌似消极的自嘲写坚定不移的自守，是全诗幽默感的顶点。「躲进小楼成一统」化用「一统」的帝王语汇写隐居斗室：不称「避居」而称「成一统」，把个人书房写成自成王国的独立天地，夸张的反语中见出傲骨——外面虽是天罗地网，小楼之中自有乾坤；「管他冬夏与春秋」以「管他」的口语一收，把政治环境的严酷更替（冬夏春秋暗喻时局的翻覆）一笔推开，语气轻蔑而倔强。「躲」字最耐寻味：表面是退缩自保，实则是战略的坚守——鲁迅晚年深居简出而笔耕不辍，小楼正是他继续战斗的堡垒，「躲」是姿态，「统」是主权。两句以嬉笑出之，而倔强愈显；与颈联的凛然正对，一庄一谐、一正一反，收束全诗于举重若轻之境。后世凡言「躲进小楼」者，皆引此联，其自守自立的姿态已成为中国知识分子精神气质的经典写照。

The room. I hide in my small room and make it my whole realm; what care I for winter and summer, spring and autumn. The small-room whole-realm and the what-care-for-the-seasons are the close. To have made the room a realm would be a making; the i-hide-in-my-small-room-and-make-it-my-whole-realm-what-care-i-for-winter-and-summer-spring-and-autumn is the making.

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横眉 To frown coldly (to knit the brows). The word of the hatred: 'frowning coldly at the thousand pointing fingers'—the cold frown at the enemy's thousand pointing fingers, the hatred of the enemy, the one face of the personality. 「横眉冷对千夫指」之「横眉」，是鲁迅人格最凝练的视觉符号。「眉」本是眉眼之眉，「横」则写眉宇之态：双眉横起、凛然作色，是怒目而视前的神情定格——不写怒骂，不写挥拳，单写眉毛的横亘之势，便把不可侵犯的威仪写得如在目前。这个字的妙处在于以静写动、以形写神：眉本细软之物，「横」字赋予它刀剑般的刚硬质感，读之如见鲁迅铜像般的面容。「横眉」与「俯首」对举，构成中国诗学中罕见的「眉首对」：一横一俯、一刚一柔、一对外一对内，同一副眉目，对敌则横，为民则俯，人格的两极在眉宇之间完成统一。此词一出，「横眉」遂成鲁迅的代称，后世凡写知识分子风骨者皆言「横眉」，其意象的强度已超出诗句本身，成为现代中国精神史的一个凝固的表情。

孺子牛 The willing ox of the child. The word of the love: 'bowing the head willingly as the willing ox of the child'—from the words of Qi Jinggong to the child, the willingness of the serving of the people, the love of the people, the other face of the personality. 「俯首甘为孺子牛」之「孺子牛」，是此诗化典为境的典范，也是现代汉语中最具生命力的典故之一。其源在《左传·哀公六年》：齐景公口衔绳子装牛，让儿子荼牵着玩，儿子跌倒，景公因此崩折了牙齿。「孺子牛」本指甘为儿辈嬉戏之牛，是亲子之爱的戏谑说法；鲁迅「俯首甘为孺子牛」却将其提升为献身民众的庄严自誓——「孺子」由「自己的儿子」扩为「人民大众」（毛泽东释为「无产阶级和人民大众」），「牛」由「游戏中的角色」升为「俯首奉献的象征」，一个戏谑典故由此获得全新的革命内涵。与「横眉冷对」连读，「孺子牛」的温顺恰成「横眉」之刚的对立面，刚柔相济，正是鲁迅「横眉俯首」双向人格的语言结晶。此后「孺子牛」在汉语中彻底完成词义转化，凡言甘于奉献、任劳任怨者皆谓之「孺子牛」，其影响之深，堪称用典的最高境界——化古为新，使一典故活成一代人的精神母题。

华盖运 The luck of the flowery canopy. The word of the situation: 'the luck of the flowery canopy, what would I seek'—the bad luck of the meeting with the flowery canopy, the real situation of the life of 1932, the beginning of the self-mockery. 「运交华盖欲何求」之「华盖运」，是鲁迅自嘲话语的独特创造。「华盖」本为佛家语，指佛或帝王头顶的宝盖，也指一种星座；俗语「交华盖运」指运气不好、到处碰壁。鲁迅在《华盖集·题记》中曾自解其妙：「这运，在和尚是好运：顶有华盖，自然是成佛作祖之兆。但俗人可不行，华盖在上，就要给罩住了，只好碰钉子。」——同一个「华盖」，佛家视为祥瑞，俗人遭其罩顶则处处碰壁，鲁迅以这层双关自嘲，既承认「碰钉子」的处境，又暗含「成佛作祖」的自我期许，自嘲之下藏着自得：这「华盖运」恰是反抗者的勋章。将宗教术语引入世俗自嘲，以庄语写谐趣，正是鲁迅语言的拿手好戏。此后「华盖运」随此诗流传，成为形容时运不济的常用词，其双关的智慧、苦中作乐的风趣，至今读来仍觉新鲜。

自嘲