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南北朝 Northern and Southern Dynasties · 诗 Poem

之零陵郡次新亭

On My Way to Lingling: Stopping at Xinting

范云

Fan Yun

江干远树浮，天末孤烟起。
江天自如合，烟树还相似。
沧流未可源，高帆去何已。

Beyond the river's edge distant trees float; at the end of the sky a lone wisp of smoke rises.>
River and sky blend of themselves; mist and trees are much the same.>
The dark stream cannot be traced to its source; how far away goes that high sail, and where does it stop?
Listen

Meaning

Fan Yun, on an official journey to the remote Lingling commandery, stops at a pavilion on the road and looks out over the river. The first couplet sets two distant things in motion — trees floating, a column of smoke; the second finds that river and sky, mist and trees, are indistinguishable; the third turns from what can be seen to what cannot be followed, the dark stream to its source and the high sail to its destination. The poem is quietly about departure: the traveller can watch a boat go but cannot know where it, or he himself, will end.

江干远树浮，天末孤烟起。江天自如合，烟树还相似。沧流未可源，高帆去何已。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The poem reports a view from a roadside pavilion and then refuses to say what it means.[Structure] Three couplets, each of two pentameters, in which the first line of each pair sets an image and the second extends or cancels it. The third couplet turns from sight to untraceable things.[Imagery] Distant trees float without wind; a lone wisp of smoke rises without being sent. The river and the sky, the mist and the trees, are all described as if they had no author: 'blend of themselves.'[Sentiment] The mood is cool rather than sad. Its edge is the final question about the sail: the poem can see the departure but not the arrival, and it leaves the reader with the same uncertainty. The 'high sail' is a metaphor for the road that Fan Yun himself must travel, and the poem never admits it.

【白话串讲】 范云写《之零陵郡次新亭》：“江干远树浮，天末孤烟起”——“江天自如合，烟树还相似”——“沧流未可源，高帆去何已”——他赴零陵，宿新亭——沧流未可源。 【意象与手法】 “江干远树浮，天末孤烟起”以远树孤烟写江天远景；“江天自如合，烟树还相似”以江天烟树写水天一色；结以“沧流未可源，高帆去何已”以沧流高帆写行旅无涯。写景清旷、意境空阔。 【情感与主旨】 范云赴零陵途中宿新亭所作，写江天苍茫的远行景象与羁旅之思，是南朝山水诗写景清旷的代表。 【名句点睛】 常考“江干远树浮，天末孤烟起”以远树孤烟写江天远景；“沧流未可源，高帆去何已”以沧流高帆写行旅无涯。

Background

Fan Yun (406–503) was a Jin-descended southerner who served the Song and then the Southern Qi and Liang, holding posts far from the capital and writing, as men of his circle did, on the small occasions of official travel. This poem is thought to belong to a journey to Lingling, in the far south of the present Hunan, and is one of the few of his pieces that survives with a place in the literary histories. The pentad poem on a journey and a view was by the fifth century an established genre, and Fan's contribution is remembered for the way it holds an observation without explaining it.

《之零陵郡次新亭》为南北朝诗人范云所作诗。范云（451—503），字彦龙，南乡舞阴人，南朝梁诗人。此诗写羁旅望远，为赴零陵途中停宿新亭之作。诗中「江干远树浮，天末孤烟起」写江干远树浮，天末孤烟起；「江天自如合，烟树还相似」写江天自如合，烟树还相似；「沧流未可源，高帆去何已」写沧流未可源，高帆去何已。范云此诗以羁旅望远、沧流未可源写其望远之情，清旷望远，是范云诗中的名篇。此篇《之零陵郡次新亭》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《之零陵郡次新亭》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's main device is cancellation. 'River and sky blend of themselves' takes two things that could be told apart and makes them one; 'mist and trees are much the same' does it again, this time between two things that are obviously different in kind. The effect is of a world with no edges, which is exactly what a traveller about to be sent somewhere would see. The second device is the transfer of the verb: the trees do not stand, they 'float'; the smoke does not drift, it 'rises'; nothing in the poem needs a cause. The third and last couplet keeps only two unanswerable questions — the source of a stream and the end of a voyage — and so turns the whole visible scene into a metaphor by leaving it undefined. The poem never says 'I am going,' and never needs to.

此诗艺术上以「清旷望远、以水写情」见长。全诗共六句三联，由江干远树浮而江天自如合而沧流未可源。起「江干远树浮，天末孤烟起」写江干远树浮：江干远树浮，天末孤烟起；「江天自如合，烟树还相似」写江天自如合：江天自如合，烟树还相似；结「沧流未可源，高帆去何已」写沧流未可源：沧流未可源，高帆去何已。全诗以水写情，由江干远树浮而沧流未可源，清旷望远，是范云诗中的名篇。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。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 end of the sky' (天末) and 'the river's edge' (江干) are stock expressions of the fifth-century landscape poem, and the 'lone wisp of smoke' is the signal fire or a distant village's chimney. The 'dark stream' (沧流) is the dark blue-green water of a river in the traditional colour-naming of 沧, and 'untraceable to its source' follows the old use of 源 for where a river begins. Most significantly there is no allusion at all: unlike Yu Xin's poems, nothing in this piece calls on a story, and its force comes precisely from depending on nothing but what the eye can be seen to do.

诗中「江干远树浮天末孤烟起」「江天自如合烟树还相似」「沧流未可源高帆去何已」等语，皆含典故故实。「江干远树浮天末孤烟起」写江干远树浮天末孤烟起；「江天自如合烟树还相似」写江天自如合烟树还相似；「沧流未可源高帆去何已」用沧流之典（沧流写沧江水流），写沧流未可源高帆去何已。诗人用沧流之典入诗，不着痕迹，而把羁旅望远之情写得真切可感，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。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

Readers have long singled out the couplet 'river and sky blend of themselves; mist and trees are much the same' as the poem's centre, and the last couplet as its point. Later anthologists placed Fan Yun among the poets of the Qian-Song period who prepared the way for the Tang by keeping the pentad line close to actual observation. In modern literary histories the poem is used as an example of how a journey poem can be made without any statement about the journey; the sail that goes 'where does it stop' is taken as unspoken reference to the poet's own office, and the reference is never confirmed.

这首《之零陵郡次新亭》，是范云写羁旅望远之作，写江干远树浮、江天自如合、沧流未可源之情，清旷望远。起「江干远树浮，天末孤烟起」——江干远树浮，天末孤烟起。写江干远树浮：江干远树浮、天末孤烟起——远树浮、孤烟起；「江天自如合，烟树还相似」——江天自如合，烟树还相似。写江天自如合：江天自如合、烟树还相似——自如合、还相似；结「沧流未可源，高帆去何已」——沧流未可源，高帆去何已。写沧流未可源：沧流未可源、高帆去何已——未可源、去何已。这「沧流未可源，高帆去何已」，是全诗之结：以沧流未可源写其望远。全诗清旷望远，以水写情，正是范云诗中的名篇。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。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 A six-line poem in the pentad old style (五言古体).诗（五言古体）
Rhyme The three rhymes are all on the -i group of the止 division (起, 似, 已), and the poem closes its line on each of the three couplets.此诗为五言古体，共六句。押韵：「起」「似」「已」押纸部韵。句句自然流转，声情清远，正与写羁旅望远的清旷望远相称，也见其以古体写望远的流转。
Tone pattern The rhyme vowel is close and drawn out, and the absence of any tonal contrast between the lines gives the poem its level, unhurried pace; there is no rhythm of ascent and repose, only a steady forward movement.句式上，「江干远树浮，天末孤烟起」写江干远树浮，音节清旷；「江天自如合，烟树还相似」写江天自如合，音节开阔；结「沧流未可源，高帆去何已」写沧流未可源，音节悠长。全诗音节随情起伏，由清旷而开阔、由开阔而悠长，正合古体「流转」之妙，读来如羁旅望远、沧流未可源之音，清旷而动人。
Reading note The poem is six pentameters in three rhymed couplets, rhymed on the narrow -i sound: qi, si, yi. That close vowel is the appropriate one for a poem about things that cannot be distinguished — the sound itself has no opening, no roundness, and resists relief. The old-style metrical allows the lines to run on, and they do: each couplet sets an image and then answers or cancels it, without changing speed. The last line, 'how far away goes that high sail,' leaves the rhyme outstanding in the reader's mouth. Read slowly and without stress, the even five-character feet imitate, in the smallest way, a road with no landmark at the end of it.此诗为五言古体，是范云写羁旅望远之作，也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「清旷望远、以水写情」：「江干远树浮，天末孤烟起」写江干远树浮、「江天自如合，烟树还相似」写江天自如合、「沧流未可源，高帆去何已」写沧流未可源。全诗清旷望远，以水写情。尤为精妙者，是「江干远树浮」写尽远树浮；而「沧流未可源」用沧流之典，正是范云诗「清旷望远」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《之零陵郡次新亭》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

江干远树浮，天末孤烟起。

Beyond the river's edge distant trees float; at the end of the sky a lone wisp of smoke rises.

江干远树浮，天末孤烟起。

By the riverbank distant trees float; at the sky's edge a lonely smoke rises.

起句写江干远树浮，起笔即见其远树。「江干远树浮」写江干远树浮，「江干」写江干、「远树浮」写远树浮；「天末孤烟起」写天末孤烟起，「天末」写天末、「孤烟起」写孤烟起。一句写江干远树浮天末孤烟起，以江干远树浮写远树浮、以天末孤烟起写孤烟起，写尽江干远树浮、天末孤烟起之情。以树起兴，清旷而望远，是「以树起兴」的妙笔。

The smoke. By the riverbank distant trees float; at the sky's edge a lonely smoke rises. The riverbank-distant-trees-floating and the sky's-edge-lonely-smoke-rising are the opening. To have floated would be a floating; the by-the-riverbank-distant-trees-float-at-the-sky's-edge-a-lonely-smoke-rises is the floating.

江天自如合，烟树还相似。

River and sky blend of themselves; mist and trees are much the same.

江天自如合，烟树还相似。

River and sky seem one; mist and trees look alike.

此句写江天自如合，是全诗写江天之态的关键。「江天自如合」写江天自如合，「江天」写江天、「自如合」写自如合；「烟树还相似」写烟树还相似，「烟树」写烟树、「还相似」写还相似。一句写江天自如合烟树还相似，以江天自如合写自如合、以烟树还相似写还相似，写尽江天自如合、烟树还相似之情。以江写景，清旷而望远，是「以江写景」的点睛之笔。

The oneness. River and sky seem one; mist and trees look alike. The river-sky-seem-one and the mist-trees-look-alike are the scene. To have seemed one would be a seeming; the river-and-sky-seem-one-mist-and-trees-look-alike is the seeming.

沧流未可源，高帆去何已。

The dark stream cannot be traced to its source; how far away goes that high sail, and where does it stop?

沧流未可源，高帆去何已。

The dark current has no known source; where will the tall sail's journey end?

结句写沧流未可源，是全诗立意的落点。「沧流未可源」用沧流之典写沧流未可源，「沧流」写沧流、「未可源」写未可源；「高帆去何已」写高帆去何已，「高帆」写高帆、「去何已」写去何已。一句写沧流未可源高帆去何已，以沧流未可源写未可源、以高帆去何已写去何已，写尽沧流未可源、高帆去何已之情。以流写情，清旷而望远，是全诗最动人处，也是「以流写情」的点睛之笔。

The sail. The dark current has no known source; where will the tall sail's journey end? The dark-current-unsourced and the tall-sail-where-ending are the close. To have unsourced would be an unsourcing; the the-dark-current-has-no-known-source-where-will-the-tall-sail's-journey-end is the unsourcing.

Study

Word focus

江干 River's edge (江干). 干 in this position means the bank or shore, so 江干 is the water's verge rather than the water — the place the poet stands on, and therefore the place from which the whole view is measured. 「江干」写江干远树浮，是写江干之态的关键。「江干远树浮」着一「江干」，写江干——着一「江干」，写江干远树浮，见其干之江。两字写尽江干之态，是「以词写干」的妙笔。「江干」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。
天末 End of the sky (天末), that is, the far horizon. It is the standard phrase for extreme distance in the fifth-century landscape poem, and here it supplies the vanishing point the trees are said to float toward. 「天末」写天末孤烟起，是写天末之态的关键。「天末孤烟起」着一「天末」，写天末——着一「天末」，写天末孤烟起，见其末之天。两字写尽天末之态，是「以词写末」的点睛之词。「天末」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。
沧流 Dark stream (沧流). 沧 is the traditional name for the deep blue-green of water; 流 is current. The phrase names the river's colour and motion at once, and is used in the last line to ask about a source that no eye can find. 「沧流」写沧流未可源，是写沧流之态的关键。「沧流未可源」着一「沧流」，写沧流——着一「沧流」，写沧流未可源，见其流之沧。两字写尽沧流之态，是「以词写流」的点睛之词。「沧流」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。
高帆 High sail (高帆). The tall square sail of a river boat. It is the poem's only moving object with a destination, and the question about it in the last line is what turns the whole still scene into a farewell. 「高帆」写高帆去何已，是写高帆之态的关键。「高帆去何已」着一「高帆」，写高帆——着一「高帆」，写高帆去何已，见其帆之高。两字写尽高帆之态，是「以词写帆」的点睛之词。「高帆」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: Whence So Bright a Moon? 苏轼 · 同写望远感怀、清旷旷达，一写人有悲欢离合、一写江干远树浮天末孤烟起，皆于望远之中见清旷 Both meditate on what is seen from a distance; one generalises into philosophy, this one refuses to generalise

Su Shi's masterpiece turns the pain of separation into a large formula — 'there are joys and sorrows among men, and waxing and waning of the moon; this has never been complete in any age' — and ends by turning the reader's attention from the moon to a long human life. Fan Yun's six lines do the opposite: they notice that river and sky cannot be told apart and stop there. The contrast is instructive, because it shows that the pentad poem of the sixth century had before it two available endings, one of which (the philosophical couplet) produces the Tang's greatest tune, and one of which (this refusal to conclude) produces poems like this one. Both are answers to the same question of what a view is for.

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」，写望远感怀、清旷旷达，是宋词长调的名篇；范云《之零陵郡次新亭》则以「江干远树浮，天末孤烟起」「沧流未可源，高帆去何已」写远树浮、去何已。两诗同写望远感怀、清旷旷达：一写人有悲欢离合、以悲欢写离合，一写江干远树浮天末孤烟起、以远树写望远；一为苏轼之旷达、一为范云之清旷，并读正可见诗写「望远感怀」的两种笔法，皆于望远之中见清旷。

 八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Ba Sheng Gan Zhou: Over the Drizzle-Drenched Autumn Sky 柳永 · 同写江天凝望、清旷清丽，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写江天自如合烟树还相似，皆于江天之中见凝望 Both are river journeys with no arrival; the tune spends length on the sorrow, the poem spends it on the sight

Liu Yong's famous long tune opens on the same scene — a river, an autumn, a traveller, a departing boat — and then describes the sorrow from every side: the silk garments damp, the nature of the office abandoned, the wine that cannot be drunk. Fan Yun's poem starts from that same river edge but spends its six lines on what can be seen and says nothing about what can be felt. Where Liu's rhymes cut on entering tones, Fan's hold a narrow -i vowel throughout, and that holding is the poem's argument with the tune: the pang is not expanded, it is examined at close range. Read after Liu's, the poem looks deliberately thin, and it is thin on purpose.

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、清旷清丽，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；范云《之零陵郡次新亭》则以「江天自如合，烟树还相似」「天末孤烟起」写烟树还相似、孤烟起。两诗同写江天凝望、清旷清丽：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写江天自如合烟树还相似、以烟树写望远；一为柳永之清丽、一为范云之清旷，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。