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南北朝 Northern and Southern Dynasties · 诗 Poem

晚出新亭

Leaving the New Pavilion at Dusk

阴铿

Yin Keng

大江一浩荡，离悲足几重。
潮落犹如盖，云昏不作峰。
远戍唯闻鼓，寒山但见松。
九十方称半，归途讵有踪。

The great river is one wide heaving expanse; how many layers can parting grief amount to?
Where the tide falls, it still rises like a canopy; where the clouds darken, they do not gather into a peak.
In the far garrison one only hears the drum; on the cold hill one only sees the pine.
Not until the journey is ninety leagues does one deserve to call it half; and the road home, is there any track at all?
Listen

Meaning

The poet sets out from the pavilion as the day goes and faces the broad river with grief enough to be measured in layers. Tide and cloud, drum and pine, are all reduced to what they mechanically do; nothing returns and nothing signals. The closing couplet turns this into a reflection on the road itself: half the distance may be past, yet no trace of the way home can be found, and the poem leaves the question open.

大江一浩荡，离悲足几重。潮落犹如盖，云昏不作峰。远戍唯闻鼓，寒山但见松。九十方称半，归途讵有踪。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The opening line sets the whole poem in motion, a great river one heaving expanse and a parting grief that can be counted in layers. The next two couplets describe only what is in front of the eyes: the tide falls but still rises like a canopy, the clouds darken but make no peak, a drum is heard far off, a pine is seen on the cold hill. The last couplet turns and asks how far the journey is really from home. [Structure] The eight lines are a regulated poem in four couplets, each a complete picture; the third is the pivot where sound and sight become evidence of abandonment, and the fourth answers with a question. [Imagery] Canopy, peak, drum, pine: the images are chosen for what they refuse to do. Nothing here rises into a shape, and nothing calls back. [Reflection] The closing reference to ninety makes the poem's grief arithmetic rather than merely emotional: half of something may already be behind, and the rest cannot be located at all.

【白话串讲】 阴铿写《晚出新亭》：“大江一浩荡，离悲足几重”——“潮落犹如盖，云昏不作峰”——“远戍唯闻鼓，寒山但见松”——“九十方称半，归途讵有踪”——他晚出新亭——大江一浩荡。 【意象与手法】 “大江一浩荡，离悲足几重”以浩荡大江写离悲；“潮落犹如盖，云昏不作峰”以潮落云昏写暮景；“远戍唯闻鼓，寒山但见松”以鼓声寒松写苍凉；结以“九十方称半，归途讵有踪”以设问写归途渺茫。写景苍茫、造语精工。 【情感与主旨】 阴铿傍晚出新亭远行所作，写江上苍茫暮景与羁旅怀乡的离悲，是南朝诗人中“能作新体诗”的代表，对唐人近体诗有先导之功。 【名句点睛】 常考“大江一浩荡，离悲足几重”以浩荡大江写离悲；“远戍唯闻鼓，寒山但见松”以鼓声寒松写苍凉。

Background

Yin Keng (c. 511 to c. 563), courtesy name Zijian, was native of Guzang in Wuwei and served the Liang and then the Chen. Contemporaries credited him with the ability to write the new style, and he is often named as a forerunner of the Tang regulated poem because of his care with tones and his compact, concrete diction. This poem is dated by its setting, a late departure from a riverside pavilion, and is read as a parting or a journey piece. It has been anthologized since the Tang and is one of the few of his poems to stay in the mainstream of the tradition.

《晚出新亭》为南北朝诗人阴铿所作诗。阴铿（约511—约563），字子坚，武威姑臧人，南朝陈诗人。此诗写羁旅怀乡，为晚出新亭之作。诗中「大江一浩荡，离悲足几重」写大江一浩荡，离悲足几重；「潮落犹如盖，云昏不作峰」写潮落犹如盖，云昏不作峰；「远戍唯闻鼓，寒山但见松」写远戍唯闻鼓，寒山但见松；「九十方称半，归途讵有踪」写九十方称半，归途讵有踪。阴铿此诗以羁旅怀乡、归途讵有踪写其怀乡之情，苍凉怀乡，是阴铿诗中的名篇。此篇《晚出新亭》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。此篇《晚出新亭》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。

Art

The poem is a regulated verse of eight lines, and its craft lies largely in what it leaves out of the mechanics. Parallel couplets of five syllables are standard; here the second couplet is built as a pair of negations, the tide falls but still rises like a canopy, the clouds darken but make no peak, so the eye is given two things that will not stay put and will not take shape. The third couplet shifts the senses, since a drum is only heard and a pine only seen, and the adverbs reduce everything to the minimum the eye and ear can supply. Two figures give the poem its lasting lapidary feel: the simile comparing the tide to a canopy is unexpected and static, and the closing question, whether there is any track at all, turns an image into an argument that admits no answer.

此诗艺术上以「苍凉怀乡、以江写情」见长。全诗共八句四联，由大江一浩荡而潮落犹如盖而远戍唯闻鼓。起「大江一浩荡，离悲足几重」写大江一浩荡：大江一浩荡，离悲足几重；「潮落犹如盖，云昏不作峰」写潮落犹如盖：潮落犹如盖，云昏不作峰；「远戍唯闻鼓，寒山但见松」写远戍唯闻鼓：远戍唯闻鼓，寒山但见松；结「九十方称半，归途讵有踪」写归途讵有踪：九十方称半，归途讵有踪。全诗以江写情，由大江一浩荡而归途讵有踪，苍凉怀乡，是阴铿诗中的名篇。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。

Allusions

The closing couplet carries the poem's only explicit reference in the form of a number. Ninety, in the line about calling half, appears in the tradition as the measure of a journey's halfway point, and the line is usually understood as saying that only at ninety has half the road been walked; there is also the older sense of ninety as the full span of a long life, which would make the line a reflection on ageing as much as on distance. Xinting, the pavilion of the title, was on the south bank at Nanjing and was the gathering place of the displaced court of the Jin, where the northern exiles wept beside the river and were told to look up and see the river rather than the empire they had lost. Read with that in mind, the question about a road home is a question about a country.

诗中「大江一浩荡离悲足几重」「潮落犹如盖云昏不作峰」「远戍唯闻鼓寒山但见松」「九十方称半归途讵有踪」等语，皆含典故故实。「大江一浩荡离悲足几重」写大江一浩荡离悲足几重；「潮落犹如盖云昏不作峰」写潮落犹如盖云昏不作峰；「远戍唯闻鼓寒山但见松」写远戍唯闻鼓寒山但见松；「九十方称半归途讵有踪」用九十之典（九十写行路过半），写九十方称半归途讵有踪。诗人用九十之典入诗，不着痕迹，而把羁旅怀乡之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。

Commentary

The poem has been praised from the Tang onward for exactly the quality the sources call bleak and chill, achieved without a single word of mood. Where later imitators of the same subject add emotion, Yin Keng trusts negation: things are merely falling, merely dark, merely heard, merely seen. The famous closing couplet is the standard example used in commentaries on how to end a regulated poem, not with feeling but with a question that leaves the reader holding the problem. His reputation as a forerunner of the Tang new style rests largely on this restraint, which is why the poem continues to be reprinted in the Tang and later anthologies.

这首《晚出新亭》，是阴铿写羁旅怀乡之作，写大江一浩荡、潮落犹如盖、远戍唯闻鼓、归途讵有踪之情，苍凉怀乡。起「大江一浩荡，离悲足几重」——大江一浩荡，离悲足几重。写大江一浩荡：大江一浩荡、离悲足几重——一浩荡、足几重；「潮落犹如盖，云昏不作峰」——潮落犹如盖，云昏不作峰。写潮落犹如盖：潮落犹如盖、云昏不作峰——犹如盖、不作峰；「远戍唯闻鼓，寒山但见松」——远戍唯闻鼓，寒山但见松。写远戍唯闻鼓：远戍唯闻鼓、寒山但见松——唯闻鼓、但见松；结「九十方称半，归途讵有踪」——九十方称半，归途讵有踪。写归途讵有踪：九十方称半、归途讵有踪——方称半、讵有踪。这「九十方称半，归途讵有踪」，是全诗之结：以归途讵有踪写其怀乡。全诗苍凉怀乡，以江写情，正是阴铿诗中的名篇。综观全诗，情真、景切、理深，三者浑融无迹，故能于短短数语之中寄无限深意，令人百读不厌。其含蓄蕴藉之处，正是中国古典诗歌以少总多、言有尽而意无穷的美学精神的生动体现。

Prosody

Form Shi (five-character regulated verse)诗（五言律诗）
Rhyme An eight-line regulated poem in five syllables, rhyming on level tones in the dong branch: zhong (重), feng (峰), song (松), zong (踪). Only the second line of each couplet rhymes, as the form requires, and the long rounded vowel gives the verse its slow, open, river-wide cadence.此诗为五言律诗，共八句四联。押韵：「重」「峰」「松」「踪」押东部韵。平仄相间，对仗工整，正与写羁旅怀乡的苍凉怀乡相称，也见其以律诗写怀乡的凝练。
Tone pattern As a regulated poem it observes the patterns of level and oblique tones and keeps its second and third couplets in parallel. The sound-track is unusually even; nothing in the poem is hurried, and that evenness is the point, because the mood it holds is a grief that will not be sharpened into complaint. There is exactly one unexpected intrusion, the short decisive question at the close, and because the meter is so regular, that question lands as a departure from the poem's own order.句式上，「大江一浩荡，离悲足几重」写大江一浩荡，音节苍凉；「潮落犹如盖，云昏不作峰」写潮落犹如盖，音节低回；「远戍唯闻鼓，寒山但见松」写远戍唯闻鼓，音节沉郁；结「九十方称半，归途讵有踪」写归途讵有踪，音节悠长。全诗音节随情起伏，由苍凉而低回、由沉郁而悠长，正合律诗「凝练」之妙，读来如羁旅怀乡、归途讵有踪之音，苍凉而动人。
Reading note Yin Keng is one of the poets credited with experimenting with the new tonal rules that would become Tang regulated verse, so this poem is often quoted as evidence of that transition. What to look for in reading it is the parallelism of the middle couplets, where grammar and syntax mirror across the line break, and the way the constraint of evenness is used to hold feeling down. The poem also shows the form at its best: because every line is shaped alike, the single question in the final line stands out from the frame, and that contrast between the ordered verse and the unorderable grief is what readers have rewarded for centuries.此诗为五言律诗，是阴铿写羁旅怀乡之作，也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「苍凉怀乡、以江写情」：「大江一浩荡，离悲足几重」写大江一浩荡、「潮落犹如盖，云昏不作峰」写潮落犹如盖、「远戍唯闻鼓，寒山但见松」写远戍唯闻鼓、「九十方称半，归途讵有踪」写归途讵有踪。全诗苍凉怀乡，以江写情。尤为精妙者，是「大江一浩荡」写尽一浩荡；而「九十方称半」用九十之典，正是阴铿诗「苍凉怀乡」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《晚出新亭》一诗之所以读来声情并茂，正在于诗人以声韵配合情思、以节奏烘托意境，音节之长短、平仄之起伏，皆与诗意相为表里，此亦可见中国古典诗歌声律之美与匠心之工。

Line by line

大江一浩荡，离悲足几重。

The great river is one wide heaving expanse; how many layers can parting grief amount to?

大江一浩荡，离悲足几重。

The great river rolls on, vast; how many layers of parting grief?

起句写大江一浩荡，起笔即见其浩荡。「大江一浩荡」写大江一浩荡，「大江」写大江、「一浩荡」写一浩荡；「离悲足几重」写离悲足几重，「离悲」写离悲、「足几重」写足几重。一句写大江一浩荡离悲足几重，以大江一浩荡写一浩荡、以离悲足几重写足几重，写尽大江一浩荡、离悲足几重之情。以江起兴，苍凉而怀乡，是「以江起兴」的妙笔。

The river. The great river rolls on, vast; how many layers of parting grief? The vast river and the how-many-layers-of-grief are the opening. To have rolled vast would be a rolling; the the-great-river-rolls-on-vast-how-many-layers-of-parting-grief is the rolling.

潮落犹如盖，云昏不作峰。

Where the tide falls, it still rises like a canopy; where the clouds darken, they do not gather into a peak.

潮落犹如盖，云昏不作峰。

The fallen tide lies like an umbrella; the dimmed clouds form no peaks.

此句写潮落犹如盖，是全诗写潮落之态的关键。「潮落犹如盖」写潮落犹如盖，「潮落」写潮落、「犹如盖」写犹如盖；「云昏不作峰」写云昏不作峰，「云昏」写云昏、「不作峰」写不作峰。一句写潮落犹如盖云昏不作峰，以潮落犹如盖写犹如盖、以云昏不作峰写不作峰，写尽潮落犹如盖、云昏不作峰之情。以潮写景，苍凉而怀乡，是「以潮写景」的点睛之笔。

The tide. The fallen tide lies like an umbrella; the dimmed clouds form no peaks. The fallen-tide-like-an-umbrella and the dimmed-clouds-no-peaks are the scene. To have fallen like an umbrella would be a falling; the the-fallen-tide-lies-like-an-umbrella-the-dimmed-clouds-form-no-peaks is the falling.

远戍唯闻鼓，寒山但见松。

In the far garrison one only hears the drum; on the cold hill one only sees the pine.

远戍唯闻鼓，寒山但见松。

From the distant garrison only drums are heard; on the cold hills pines alone are seen.

此句写远戍唯闻鼓，是全诗写远戍之态的关键。「远戍唯闻鼓」写远戍唯闻鼓，「远戍」写远戍、「唯闻鼓」写唯闻鼓；「寒山但见松」写寒山但见松，「寒山」写寒山、「但见松」写但见松。一句写远戍唯闻鼓寒山但见松，以远戍唯闻鼓写唯闻鼓、以寒山但见松写但见松，写尽远戍唯闻鼓、寒山但见松之情。以戍写景，苍凉而怀乡，是「以戍写景」的点睛之笔。

The drums. From the distant garrison only drums are heard; on the cold hills pines alone are seen. The distant-garrison-drums-only and the cold-hills-pines-alone are the couplet. To have heard the drums would be a hearing; the from-the-distant-garrison-only-drums-are-heard-on-the-cold-hills-pines-alone-are-seen is the hearing.

九十方称半，归途讵有踪。

Not until the journey is ninety leagues does one deserve to call it half; and the road home, is there any track at all?

九十方称半，归途讵有踪。

At ninety li you call it halfway; how then shall the road home ever be traced?

结句写归途讵有踪，是全诗立意的落点。「九十方称半」用九十之典写九十方称半，「九十」写九十、「方称半」写方称半；「归途讵有踪」写归途讵有踪，「归途」写归途、「讵有踪」写讵有踪。一句写九十方称半归途讵有踪，以九十方称半写方称半、以归途讵有踪写讵有踪，写尽九十方称半、归途讵有踪之情。以途写情，苍凉而怀乡，是全诗最动人处，也是「以途写情」的点睛之笔。

The homeward road. At ninety li you call it halfway; how then shall the road home ever be traced? The ninety-li-halfway and the how-shall-the-road-home-be-traced are the close. To have called it halfway would be a calling; the at-ninety-li-you-call-it-halfway-how-then-shall-the-road-home-ever-be-traced is the calling.

Study

Word focus

大江 大江 (da jiang) means the great river, the Yangtze. Opening the poem with it fixes both the place and the scale, since the grief that follows is measured next to a river that cannot be crossed in a day and the speaker's own parting is a drop in that width. 「大江」写大江一浩荡，是写大江之态的关键。「大江一浩荡」着一「大江」，写大江——着一「大江」，写大江一浩荡，见其江之大。两字写尽大江之态，是「以词写江」的妙笔。「大江」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
离悲 离悲 (li bei) means grief at parting, the sorrow of being separated. The question of how many layers is the poem's first motion, and it is left in the form of a number rather than a word for sorrow, so the feeling is given a shape the reader can weigh. 「离悲」写离悲足几重，是写离悲之态的关键。「离悲足几重」着一「离悲」，写离悲——着一「离悲」，写离悲足几重，见其悲之离。两字写尽离悲之态，是「以词写悲」的点睛之词。「离悲」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
远戍 远戍 (yuan shu) means a distant garrison or frontier post. It carries the poem away from its own riverside into an imperial frontier where a drum is all that travels, and through it the private parting is placed inside a much larger withdrawal. 「远戍」写远戍唯闻鼓，是写远戍之态的关键。「远戍唯闻鼓」着一「远戍」，写远戍——着一「远戍」，写远戍唯闻鼓，见其戍之远。两字写尽远戍之态，是「以词写戍」的点睛之词。「远戍」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
归途 归途 (gui tu) means the road home. The poem sets it against the road out, and the closing question of whether any track of it can be found is what turns a description of a journey into a doubt about whether the journey can be completed at all. 「归途」写归途讵有踪，是写归途之态的关键。「归途讵有踪」着一「归途」，写归途——着一「归途」，写归途讵有踪，见其途之归。两字写尽归途之态，是「以词写途」的点睛之词。「归途」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

Related Reading

水调歌头·明月几时有 Shui Diao Ge Tou — 'When Will the Moon Be Bright?' 苏轼 · 同写怀乡感怀、苍凉旷达，一写人有悲欢离合、一写大江一浩荡离悲足几重，皆于怀乡之中见苍凉 Both open on a vast natural scene and turn it into a meditation on separation, both measure grief and then ask what it means for the life of the person carrying it.

Su Shi's tune opens by asking about the moon and works its way to a view of human partings as part of a law that has held since ancient times. Yin Keng's poem asks about a road and cannot find an answer. The difference is instructive, since Su Shi resolves by widening the pain into a principle while Yin Keng refuses to widen anything and lets the question stand. That refusal is what makes the five-syllable poem so much terser than the long tune, and it is why the comparison is more useful for the technique than for the sentiment.

苏轼《水调歌头·明月几时有》「人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全」，写怀乡感怀、苍凉旷达，是宋词长调的名篇；阴铿《晚出新亭》则以「大江一浩荡，离悲足几重」「九十方称半，归途讵有踪」写足几重、讵有踪。两诗同写怀乡感怀、苍凉旷达：一写人有悲欢离合、以悲欢写离合，一写大江一浩荡离悲足几重、以离悲写怀乡；一为苏轼之旷达、一为阴铿之苍凉，并读正可见诗写「怀乡感怀」的两种笔法，皆于怀乡之中见苍凉。

 八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Ba Sheng Gan Zhou — 'Dusk Rain Bathes the Sky Over the River' 柳永 · 同写江天凝望、苍凉清丽，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写潮落犹如盖云昏不作峰，皆于江天之中见凝望 Both are journeys beginning at dusk beside a river, both take their colour from weather and the look of a wide landscape, and both turn at the end toward the impossibility of going home.

Liu Yong's long tune gives the celebrated line about not daring to climb the tower and look toward the far horizon, where home is a blue haze that cannot be reached. Yin Keng's poem reaches the same knowledge in four words at the very end, whether there is any track. Where Liu Yong needs a whole city of detail to make the loneliness credible, the five-syllable poem needs one river, one tide, one drum and one pine. Read together they show the two standards of the tradition, the elaborate and the compressed, and how little the compressed one actually needs.

柳永《八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天》「对潇潇暮雨洒江天，一番洗清秋」，写江天凝望、苍凉清丽，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；阴铿《晚出新亭》则以「潮落犹如盖，云昏不作峰」「寒山但见松」写不作峰、但见松。两诗同写江天凝望、苍凉清丽：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写潮落犹如盖云昏不作峰、以潮落写怀乡；一为柳永之清丽、一为阴铿之苍凉，并读正可见诗写「江天凝望」的两种笔法，皆于江天之中见凝望。