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南北朝 Northern and Southern Dynasties · 诗 Poem

重别周尚书

Farewell Again to Shangshu Zhou

庾信

Yu Xin

昨夜宿[祈]连，今朝过酒泉。
黄沙西际海，白草北连天。
愁里难消日，归期尚隔年。
阳关万里梦，知处杜陵田。

Last night I lodged at Qilian; this morning I pass Jiuyuan.
Yellow sand in the west reaches the sea; white grass in the north joins the sky.
In sorrow the days are hard to get through; the time to return is still a year off.
A dream of Yangguan a myriad li away — the place I know: the fields of Duling.
Listen

Meaning

Yu Xin takes leave of Zhou Hongzheng for the second time and lets the journey itself carry the grief. He moves across the northern frontier — Qilian, Jiuyuan, then yellow sand and white grass as far as the sea and the sky — and confesses that the days crawl by with no prospect of going home. The poem closes on a dream of Yangguan and the fields of Duling, which stand for the southern soil, the capital and the family from which he had been taken as a young man and never permitted to depart again.

昨夜宿[祈]连，今朝过酒泉。黄沙西际海，白草北连天。愁里难消日，归期尚隔年。阳关万里梦，知处杜陵田。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Yu Xin parting from Zhou for the last time lets the road do the work: ‘Last night I lodged at Qilian; this morning I pass Jiuyuan’ compresses a whole night of forced marching into ten characters. [Imagery] ‘Yellow sand in the west reaches the sea; white grass in the north joins the sky’ is pure landscape with not one emotion in it, and the desolation is total — there is nothing on this frontier but sand and grass, nothing for the eye to rest on. [Structure] The third couplet turns inward: the days will not pass, and the return is a year away. The fourth lifts the whole poem off the ground by dreaming: a dream of Yangguan, the fields of Duling. [Emotion] What moves us is the restraint. Yu Xin never says that he misses home; he only names the two places where home is not. Scenery and grief are fused without a seam, and the plainness of the lines is what makes them last.

【白话串讲】 庾信写《重别周尚书》：“昨夜宿祈连，今朝过酒泉”——“黄沙西际海，白草北连天”——“愁里难消日，归期尚隔年”——“阳关万里梦，知处杜陵田”——他再次送别周弘正——阳关万里梦。 【意象与手法】 “昨夜宿祈连，今朝过酒泉”以地名写行役之速；“黄沙西际海，白草北连天”以黄沙白草写塞外苦寒；“愁里难消日，归期尚隔年”写归期渺茫；结以“阳关万里梦，知处杜陵田”以阳关杜陵写故国之思。沉郁苍凉、情景交融。 【情感与主旨】 庾信再次送别周弘正之作，写塞外苦寒、归期无望与对故国（杜陵）的深切思念，是庾信后期乡关之思的代表。 【名句点睛】 常考“黄沙西际海，白草北连天”以黄沙白草写塞外苦寒；“阳关万里梦，知处杜陵田”以阳关杜陵写故国之思。

Background

Yu Xin (513–581), courtesy name Zishan, was born at Xindian in Nanyang and became the most important writer who moved from the south into the north in the sixth century. He was taken north in 554 after the fall of Jiangling and never saw home again. This parting poem belongs to those northern years, written when he saw Zhou Hongzheng, the Grand Secretary, off on his way back south. The lines trace a route through the frontier, then turn to Duling, the tomb district south of the capital. Yu Xin’s later verse, filled with what he called thoughts of home, works by plainness and density rather than by ornament, and it prepared the ground for the great tang poets — Li Shangyin above all.

《重别周尚书》为南北朝诗人庾信所作诗。庾信（513—581），字子山，南阳新野人，北周文学家，由南入北的重要作家。此诗写送别怀乡，为送别周弘正之作。诗中「昨夜宿[祈]连，今朝过酒泉」写昨夜宿[祈]连，今朝过酒泉；「黄沙西际海，白草北连天」写黄沙西际海，白草北连天；「愁里难消日，归期尚隔年」写愁里难消日，归期尚隔年；「阳关万里梦，知处杜陵田」写阳关万里梦，知处杜陵田。庾信此诗以送别怀乡、知处杜陵田写其怀乡之情，沉郁怀乡，是庾信诗中的名篇。此篇《重别周尚书》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《重别周尚书》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 four matched couplets in the strict five-character octave current in the southern and northern dynasties, each couplet complete in itself and yet running into the next. Its central device is travel by place-name: instead of narrating the march, Yu Xin names its stages, Qilian and Jiuyuan, and leaves the reader to supply the road between them. The second couplet is deliberately impersonal, and its whole effect depends on the reader noticing that nothing is said. The antithesis of yellow sand against white grass, west against north, is exact in sound as well as sense; ‘in sorrow the days are hard to get through’ turns an ordinary phrase into a statement about duration, for sorrow is here measured by days that refuse to end. The final couplet changes register entirely, from sand and grass to an interior geography of a dream, and the word for knowing — ‘the place I know’ — is quietly heartbreaking, since the poet knows the place only as a dream. The language is spare and unornamented, unusually free of the parallel-heavy decoration of contemporary palace verse, which is what lets the grief land so directly.

此诗艺术上以「沉郁怀乡、以沙写情」见长。全诗共八句四联，由昨夜宿[祈]连而黄沙西际海而愁里难消日。起「昨夜宿[祈]连，今朝过酒泉」写昨夜宿[祈]连：昨夜宿[祈]连，今朝过酒泉；「黄沙西际海，白草北连天」写黄沙西际海：黄沙西际海，白草北连天；「愁里难消日，归期尚隔年」写愁里难消日：愁里难消日，归期尚隔年；结「阳关万里梦，知处杜陵田」写知处杜陵田：阳关万里梦，知处杜陵田。全诗以沙写情，由昨夜宿[祈]连而知处杜陵田，沉郁怀乡，是庾信诗中的名篇。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

Three layers of classical reference carry the poem. The first is frontier geography: Qilian and Jiuyuan are real stations, but in verse both names belong to a stock vocabulary of exile, Jiuyuan recalling the marches beyond the pale. The second is Yangguan, the Han barrier in the west, which from the fourth century onward signified everywhere beyond the frontier — to speak of a myriad li of Yangguan is to say that home lies as far off as the old westernmarches. The third is Duling, the tomb district by Chang’an and, for a man of Yu’s background, the country seat of the capital itself, so that ‘the fields of Duling’ means both an estate and a lost city. The allusions are fused so completely that they read as plain description.

诗中「昨夜宿祈连今朝过酒泉」「黄沙西际海白草北连天」「愁里难消日归期尚隔年」「阳关万里梦知处杜陵田」等语，皆含典故故实。「昨夜宿祈连今朝过酒泉」用祈连、酒泉之典（祈连写祁连山，酒泉写边地），写昨夜宿祈连今朝过酒泉；「黄沙西际海白草北连天」写黄沙西际海白草北连天；「愁里难消日归期尚隔年」写愁里难消日归期尚隔年；「阳关万里梦知处杜陵田」用阳关、杜陵之典（阳关写边关，杜陵写故里），写阳关万里梦知处杜陵田。诗人用阳关、杜陵之典入诗，不着痕迹，而把送别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 is among the most frequently anthologized of Yu Xin’s northern works and is generally taken as representative of his style of thoughts of home. Tang and Song anthologists kept it beside the ‘Lament for Jiangling’ and ‘Late Spring’; later readers have especially valued how little it says. It records the experience of a southern writer carried north and never allowed home, and the frontier landscape he had to learn to describe from memory rather than from sight — the yellow sands and white grass of this poem came from a man who left the south in his late twenties and died a stranger. Modern readers also see in it an early model for what Wang Zhihuan, Cen Shen and Li Shangyin would make famous: the north seen through southern eyes.

这首《重别周尚书》，是庾信写送别怀乡之作，写昨夜宿祈连、黄沙西际海、愁里难消日、知处杜陵田之情，沉郁怀乡。起「昨夜宿祈连，今朝过酒泉」——昨夜宿祈连，今朝过酒泉。写昨夜宿祈连：昨夜宿祈连、今朝过酒泉——宿祈连、过酒泉；「黄沙西际海，白草北连天」——黄沙西际海，白草北连天。写黄沙西际海：黄沙西际海、白草北连天——西际海、北连天；「愁里难消日，归期尚隔年」——愁里难消日，归期尚隔年。写愁里难消日：愁里难消日、归期尚隔年——难消日、尚隔年；结「阳关万里梦，知处杜陵田」——阳关万里梦，知处杜陵田。写知处杜陵田：阳关万里梦、知处杜陵田——万里梦、杜陵田。这「阳关万里梦，知处杜陵田」，是全诗之结：以知处杜陵田写其怀乡。全诗沉郁怀乡，以沙写情，正是庾信诗中的名篇。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 Five-character regulated poem (wuyan lushi); eight lines in four matched couplets诗（五言律诗）
Rhyme The rhyme words are quan, tian, nian and tian, all belonging to the xian branch of the Tang rhyme tables; every line of each couplet is rhymed. The vowel is open and nasal, so each cadence ends in a long, low note that corresponds exactly to the mood.此诗为五言律诗，共八句四联。押韵：「泉」「天」「年」「田」押先部韵。平仄相间，对仗工整，正与写送别怀乡的沉郁怀乡相称，也见其以律诗写怀乡的凝练。
Tone pattern The regulated tones alternate as the form requires, and the two middle couplets are strictly antithetical in both part of speech and pitch. The pace slows at ‘in sorrow the days are hard to get through’ and lengthens again over the final line, where the three syllables of the close are prolonged; the result is a voice that falls from the quick marching beat of the opening to a lingering question.句式上，「昨夜宿祈连，今朝过酒泉」写昨夜宿祈连，音节沉郁；「黄沙西际海，白草北连天」写黄沙西际海，音节苍凉；「愁里难消日，归期尚隔年」写愁里难消日，音节低回；结「阳关万里梦，知处杜陵田」写知处杜陵田，音节悠长。全诗音节随情起伏，由沉郁而苍凉、由低回而悠长，正合律诗「凝练」之妙，读来如送别怀乡、知处杜陵田之音，沉郁而动人。
Reading note The poem shows the northern phase of the five-character octave at its leanest: every line is exactly five characters, the couplets are faultlessly parallel, and there is not a single wasted word. Because the rhyme is continuous and the tones do not swing wildly, the whole piece reads as one long exhale. The frame is narrow and firm enough to hold a grief that is never named, which is precisely the prosodic achievement.此诗为五言律诗，是庾信写送别怀乡之作，也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「沉郁怀乡、以沙写情」：「昨夜宿祈连，今朝过酒泉」写昨夜宿祈连、「黄沙西际海，白草北连天」写黄沙西际海、「愁里难消日，归期尚隔年」写愁里难消日、「阳关万里梦，知处杜陵田」写知处杜陵田。全诗沉郁怀乡，以沙写情。尤为精妙者，是「昨夜宿祈连」用祈连之典；而「知处杜陵田」用杜陵之典，正是庾信诗「沉郁怀乡」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《重别周尚书》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

昨夜宿[祈]连，今朝过酒泉。

Last night I lodged at Qilian; this morning I pass Jiuyuan.

昨夜宿[祈]连，今朝过酒泉。

Last night I camped at Qilian; this morning I pass Jiuquan.

起句写昨夜宿祈连，起笔即见其祈连。「昨夜宿祈连」用祈连之典写昨夜宿祈连，「昨夜」写昨夜、「宿祈连」写宿祈连；「今朝过酒泉」用酒泉之典写今朝过酒泉，「今朝」写今朝、「过酒泉」写过酒泉。一句写昨夜宿祈连今朝过酒泉，以昨夜宿祈连写宿祈连、以今朝过酒泉写过酒泉，写尽昨夜宿祈连、今朝过酒泉之情。以连起兴，沉郁而怀乡，是「以连起兴」的妙笔。

The camps. Last night I camped at Qilian; this morning I pass Jiuquan. The last-night-camped-Qilian and the this-morning-passed-Jiuquan are the journey. To have camped at Qilian would be a camping; the last-night-i-camped-at-qilian-this-morning-i-pass-jiuquan is the camping.

黄沙西际海，白草北连天。

Yellow sand in the west reaches the sea; white grass in the north joins the sky.

黄沙西际海，白草北连天。

Yellow sand westward meets the sea; white grass northward reaches the sky.

此句写黄沙西际海，是全诗写黄沙之态的关键。「黄沙西际海」写黄沙西际海，「黄沙」写黄沙、「西际海」写西际海；「白草北连天」写白草北连天，「白草」写白草、「北连天」写北连天。一句写黄沙西际海白草北连天，以黄沙西际海写西际海、以白草北连天写北连天，写尽黄沙西际海、白草北连天之情。以沙写景，沉郁而怀乡，是「以沙写景」的点睛之笔。

The sand. Yellow sand westward meets the sea; white grass northward reaches the sky. The yellow-sand-westward-sea and the white-grass-northward-sky are the expanse. To have met the sea would be a meeting; the yellow-sand-westward-meets-the-sea-white-grass-northward-reaches-the-sky is the meeting.

愁里难消日，归期尚隔年。

In sorrow the days are hard to get through; the time to return is still a year off.

愁里难消日，归期尚隔年。

In sorrow the days drag; the homeward date is still a year away.

此句写愁里难消日，是全诗写愁里之态的关键。「愁里难消日」写愁里难消日，「愁里」写愁里、「难消日」写难消日；「归期尚隔年」写归期尚隔年，「归期」写归期、「尚隔年」写尚隔年。一句写愁里难消日归期尚隔年，以愁里难消日写难消日、以归期尚隔年写尚隔年，写尽愁里难消日、归期尚隔年之情。以愁写情，沉郁而怀乡，是「以愁写情」的点睛之笔。

The days. In sorrow the days drag; the homeward date is still a year away. The sorrowful-days-dragging and the homeward-date-still-a-year-away are the grief. To have dragged would be a dragging; the in-sorrow-the-days-drag-the-homeward-date-is-still-a-year-away is the dragging.

阳关万里梦，知处杜陵田。

A dream of Yangguan a myriad li away — the place I know: the fields of Duling.

阳关万里梦，知处杜陵田。

A ten-thousand-li dream past Yang Gate; I know the fields at Duling.

结句写知处杜陵田，是全诗立意的落点。「阳关万里梦」用阳关之典写阳关万里梦，「阳关」写阳关、「万里梦」写万里梦；「知处杜陵田」用杜陵之典写知处杜陵田，「知处」写知处、「杜陵田」写杜陵田。一句写阳关万里梦知处杜陵田，以阳关万里梦写万里梦、以知处杜陵田写杜陵田，写尽阳关万里梦、知处杜陵田之情。以田写情，沉郁而怀乡，是全诗最动人处，也是「以田写情」的点睛之笔。

The dream. A ten-thousand-li dream past Yang Gate; I know the fields at Duling. The ten-thousand-li-Yang-Gate dream and the known-Duling-fields are the close. To have dreamed ten thousand li would be a dreaming; the a-ten-thousand-li-dream-past-yang-gate-i-know-the-fields-at-duling is the dreaming.

Study

Word focus

酒泉 Jiuyuan, the frontier commandery in the Hexi corridor where the poet passes this morning. In context it designates the whole western march and, by contrast with Duling, the home he can never reach again. 「酒泉」写今朝过酒泉，是写酒泉之态的关键。「今朝过酒泉」着一「酒泉」，写酒泉——着一「酒泉」，写今朝过酒泉，见其泉之酒。两字写尽酒泉之态，是「以词写泉」的妙笔。「酒泉」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。
黄沙 Yellow sand, the desert of the western frontier, named by colour before it is named by extent. Paired with white grass in the same couplet, the two words describe a landscape with neither shade nor water. 「黄沙」写黄沙西际海，是写黄沙之态的关键。「黄沙西际海」着一「黄沙」，写黄沙——着一「黄沙」，写黄沙西际海，见其沙之黄。两字写尽黄沙之态，是「以词写沙」的点睛之词。「黄沙」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。
归期 The appointed day of return. The poet says it is still a year off, so the word measures absence and not hope; it supplies the poem with its one piece of calendar. 「归期」写归期尚隔年，是写归期之态的关键。「归期尚隔年」着一「归期」，写归期——着一「归期」，写归期尚隔年，见其期之归。两字写尽归期之态，是「以词写期」的点睛之词。「归期」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。
杜陵 The tomb district south of Chang'an, associated with the Yu family's connections at the capital. Here it is the poet's home and the destination of his dream; later poetry makes Duling a byword for the capital. 「杜陵」写知处杜陵田，是写杜陵之态的关键。「知处杜陵田」着一「杜陵」，写杜陵——着一「杜陵」，写知处杜陵田，见其陵之杜。两字写尽杜陵之态，是「以词写陵」的点睛之词。「杜陵」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: How Rarely, O Bright Moon 苏轼 · 同写怀乡感怀、沉郁旷达，一写人有悲欢离合、一写昨夜宿祈连今朝过酒泉，皆于怀乡之中见沉郁 Same lyric mode, same meditation on absence: one on human parting and the moon, one on a night march through the frontier; in both, sadness is held inside a fixed and honourable form.

Su Shi asks of the moon what Yu Xin asks of the road. Su Shi's answer is consoling — that joys and sorrows are not the lot of any one person — and he ends by pledging himself to the moon for ages on ages. Yu Xin offers no redemption: the frontier simply is, and the dream is the only place left where the fields of Duling can still be found. Both poems make the formal frame do the work, so that the final line carries the whole weight: in Su Shi's case a promise shared across distance, in Yu Xin's a journey measured in a myriad li.

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、沉郁旷达，是宋词长调的名篇；庾信《重别周尚书》则以「昨夜宿祈连，今朝过酒泉」「愁里难消日，归期尚隔年」写过酒泉、尚隔年。两诗同写怀乡感怀、沉郁旷达：一写人有悲欢离合、以悲欢写离合，一写昨夜宿祈连今朝过酒泉、以酒泉写怀乡；一为苏轼之旷达、一为庾信之沉郁，并读正可见诗写「怀乡感怀」的两种笔法，皆于怀乡之中见沉郁。

 八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Eight Beats of a Gaṇzhou Song: Over the Drizzling Autumn Rain that Sweeps Sky and River 柳永 · 同写边关凝望、沉郁清丽，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写黄沙西际海白草北连天，皆于边关之中见凝望 Both stand looking out over a Northern Song frontier and pour a long complaint into a fixed lyric mode, one widening to a whole journey, one compressed into eight lines.

Liu Yong sets a traveller against weather that will not clear, and lengthens the medieval song until it holds an entire career of wandering; the landscape is wet, successive and undramatic. Yu Xin's frontier is colder and shorter and avoids weather altogether, giving only what touches the horizon: sand to the sea, grass to the sky. The two poems are the same sensibility answering the same landscape in the two great lyric forms of the period, the slow song and the regulated octave.

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」，写边关凝望、沉郁清丽，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；庾信《重别周尚书》则以「黄沙西际海，白草北连天」「阳关万里梦」写北连天、万里梦。两诗同写边关凝望、沉郁清丽：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写黄沙西际海白草北连天、以黄沙写怀乡；一为柳永之清丽、一为庾信之沉郁，并读正可见诗写「边关凝望」的两种笔法，皆于边关之中见凝望。