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南北朝 Northern and Southern Dynasties · 文 Prose

与朱元思书

Letter to Zhu Yuansi

吴均

Wu Jun

名篇Theme 写景Scenery 山水Landscape 书札Letter prose

风烟俱净，天山共色。
从流飘荡，任意东西。
自富阳至桐庐一百许里，奇山异水，天下独绝。
水皆缥碧，千丈见底。
游鱼细石，直视无碍。
急湍甚箭，猛浪若奔。

The wind and haze are all cleared away, and heaven and mountains have one colour.
Drifting with the stream, at ease whichever way it carries me.
From Fuyang to Tonglu, a hundred li and a bit,
strange hills, strange waters, unique under heaven.
The water is all pale blue; a thousand feet down you see the bottom.
Swimming fish and fine pebbles, you look straight through without obstruction.
The swift torrents outdo arrows; the great waves run like fleeing horses.

Listen

Meaning

Wu Jun writes to his friend Zhu Yuansi from a boat on the Fuchun. The air has cleared so completely that sky and mountain have become one colour; he is floating downstream, going east or west as it wishes. For a hundred li or so between Fuyang and Tonglu, the hills and the water are strange, and unlike anything else under heaven. The water is pale blue and transparent enough to reveal the bottom at a thousand feet; fish and pebbles are visible without the slightest obstruction. Where it quickens, the current is faster than an arrow; where it turns, the waves run like horses in flight. The letter both praises the river and, in the single phrase 'at ease whichever way it carries me,' offers a way of living.

风和烟雾都已消散净尽，天与山呈现同样的颜色。我乘船随着江流飘荡，任凭它向东或向西。从富阳到桐庐一百来里之间，奇异的山、奇异的水，天下独一无二。江水都是青白色的，千丈深也能看见水底；游动的鱼儿和细小的石头，一直看下去可以看得清清楚楚，毫无障碍。湍急的水流比箭还快，凶猛的巨浪就像飞奔的马。

Appreciation

[Structure] The letter is a small, perfectly ordered composition: a first sentence that clears the air, a second that puts the writer on the water, a third that judges the whole hundred li, and then six lines that describe nothing but water. Nothing in the arrangement is accidental; the reader is led from distance to nearness, from weather to water, from stillness to motion. [Economy] In a hundred and forty characters it manages sky, mountain, current, fish, speed and violence — and still leaves room for one phrase of feeling. This is the classic achievement of Chinese short prose: the fewer the characters, the more the world. [Imagery and motion] The two famous lines are built on similes of speed — the torrent as arrow, the wave as fleeing horse — and they stand in deliberate tension with the quiet line about fish and pebbles. The letter thus holds two waters at once: the water that is transparent and the water that is terrible. [Tone] The voice is that of a busy official writing casually, and its plainness is its beauty; Wu does not praise himself, does not exclaim, and does not claim that anyone should feel as he does. He simply describes, and lets the reader be convinced.

【白话串讲】吴均写《与朱元思书》给朋友：“风烟俱净，天山共色。从流飘荡，任意东西”。“自富阳至桐庐一百许里，奇山异水，天下独绝”——“水皆缥碧，千丈见底”——“蝉则千转不穷，猿则百叫无绝”——他写富春江的美景。【意象与手法】本文是南朝山水书札的名篇，以简驭繁，用笔极省而境界全出：前写天光山色之净，中写江流之自在，后写水之清与急，层层收拢；句式以四字为主，「缥碧」「千丈见底」「直视无碍」「甚箭」「若奔」皆以短句炼出，节奏明快，如清泉漱石。【情感与主旨】作者吴均身在仕途而心慕林泉，信中写「从流飘荡，任意东西」的逍遥，正是对自然之趣的倾心；山水之奇与游赏之乐交织，寄托了厌倦官场、向往自由的隐逸情怀。【名句点睛】「急湍甚箭，猛浪若奔」以「甚箭」「若奔」两个比喻写水势，一动一喻、气势飞动；「千丈见底」极言水之清，与「直视无碍」相足成趣，皆以夸张写实景，千古传诵。

Background

Wu Jun (469–520), courtesy name Shuxiang, was from Guzhang in Wuxing, modern Anji in Zhejiang. He came of a humble family, was stubborn by nature, loved learning and had exceptional talent, yet found the gates of the aristocratic world closed to him; only in the early Tianjian years did he get a post as secretary of Wuxing through the recommendation of Liu Yun, and he rose eventually to household gentleman. He wrote enormously, including a Comprehensive History left unfinished at his death; his prose and verse, mostly of mountains and rivers, was imitated so widely that it was named after him, the 'Wu Jun style,' and he is paired in literary history with He Xun. This letter is his work to a friend, written on the journey from Fuyang to Tonglu on the Fuchun. The region, with Yan Guang's fishing platform on its bank and the tomb of the coin-shaped hills near Tonglu, carried a deep tradition of reclusive hermits, and the river has been praised as a unique scene ever since.

吴均（469—520），字叔庠，吴兴故鄣（今浙江安吉）人，南朝梁著名文学家、史学家，出身寒门，性耿直，好学有俊才。他生活的时代正值齐梁之际，门阀制度森严，寒门士子仕进艰难；吴均虽才名远播，却长期沉沦下僚，直到天监初年才被柳恽荐为吴兴主簿，后官至奉朝请。他著述甚富，撰《通史》未竟而卒；其诗文多写山水，风格清拔有古气，时人效之，号为「吴均体」，与何逊并称「何吴」。本文是吴均写给友人朱元思（一作宋元思）的书信，全文仅一百四十余字，却是一篇精美的山水小品。六朝文人书信多喜描摹山水、寄寓情怀，如鲍照《登大雷岸与妹书》、陶弘景《答谢中书书》皆此类；吴均此札作于从富阳至桐庐的江行途中，其时作者或为仕途所困，面对富春江的奇山异水，不禁兴「从流飘荡，任意东西」之叹。信中以「奇山异水，天下独绝」总评富春江景色——富春江位于今浙江杭州西南，两岸峰峦夹峙，江流澄碧，向为天下胜景，严子陵钓台即在桐庐江畔，隐逸文化积淀深厚；吴均一纸书札，把富春江的清绝之美与自己的山林之思凝于其中，遂成千古传诵的山水名文。

Art

The letter rests on three words: briefness (jian), clarity (qing) and motion (dong). Briefness is not the same as brevity for its own sake — Wu chooses exactly the facts that will produce the largest effect, and discards everything that would merely be true. Clarity is achieved through the sense of sight: 'a thousand feet down you see the bottom,' and 'fish and pebbles, you look straight through' — the description of water is produced by describing what you can see through it. Motion is produced by two similes placed at the very end, so that the letter rises from a quiet opening to a sudden violent close. The sentence rhythm matches: four-character clauses as the backbone, a long sentence — 'from Fuyang to Tonglu, a hundred li and a bit' — let in between to draw breath, exactly as the river slackens. Wu's 'clear and forceful with an old man's plainness' is nothing other than this discipline: the simplest words in the hardest order.

本文是六朝骈散相间的山水书札，艺术上以「简、清、动」三字立骨。其一是简：全文一百四十余字，从「风烟俱净」的天光山色写起，经「从流飘荡」的舟行，至「奇山异水，天下独绝」的总评，再以六句专写水，无一赘语，而富春江的晴空、远山、清江、激流尽收笔底，真正做到了「以少总多」。其二是清：写天空则「风烟俱净」，写山水则「天山共色」，写江水则「缥碧」而「千丈见底」，「游鱼细石，直视无碍」以视线的无遮无碍写江水的澄澈空明，是体物入微的神来之笔。其三是动：「急湍甚箭，猛浪若奔」以「箭」与「奔马」两个比喻写水势之疾，与前文「静」的澄澈形成动静相映的张力——同一江水，静则清澈见底，动则势不可当，正写出富春江的千姿百态。章法上，全文由远及近、由天及水、由静及动，层次分明而一气流转；句式以四言为主，杂以长句，如「自富阳至桐庐一百许里」一长句间于其间，使节奏舒卷自如。吴均体「清拔有古气」的风貌，正体现在这种以简驭繁、清丽劲健的语言中。

Allusions

Beneath the description runs four traditions. First, the recluse culture of the Fuchun: Yan Guang of the Eastern Han refused the summons of Emperor Guangwu and fished on this very bank, and Fan Zhongyan's shrine inscription later called the place 'green mountains, great waters' — so Wu's line about drifting where the stream carries him is a nod to a man who chose not to be carried anywhere at all. Second, the self-awareness of landscape writing: since Xie Lingyun made landscape a subject in its own right, describing scenery had become a legitimate end in itself, and this letter is that sensibility in letter form. Third, the xiaoyao spirit of the Zhuangzi — riding the thing and wandering in the heart — of which 'at ease whichever way it carries me' is a plain-water version. Fourth, the letter genre itself: Bao Zhao's Letter to My Sister from Dachuan, and Tao Hongjing's Answer to a Letter from the Middle Secretary, are the two models Wu's letter works beside, and it is from letters like these that the later travel prose of Liu Zongyuan and Su Shi descends.

本文虽短，而山水书写背后的文化意蕴极为深远。其一是「富春江」的隐逸文化：桐庐境内的严子陵钓台，是东汉严光（子陵）拒绝光武帝刘秀征召、隐居垂钓之地，范仲淹《严先生祠堂记》称其「云山苍苍，江水泱泱」；吴均行经此地而写「从流飘荡，任意东西」，正是对这种「不事王侯、高尚其事」的隐逸传统的遥契。其二是六朝山水文学的自觉：自晋宋之际谢灵运开创山水诗，山水开始成为独立的审美对象，陶弘景《答谢中书书》「山川之美，古来共谈」、吴均此札，皆是山水审美自觉在书札文体中的结晶；信中「奇山异水，天下独绝」的赞叹，已把山水当作可以品鉴、值得记录的对象。其三是「从流飘荡」的逍遥意趣：语近《庄子》「乘物以游心」的逍遥精神，一叶扁舟任其东西，正是庄子「无待」「逍遥」之境在江行中的具象化，也暗含对尘网束缚的厌弃。其四是书札体的文化功能：六朝文人以书信谈山水、抒怀抱，是私人性文体承载公共性审美的典型，吴均此札与鲍照《登大雷岸与妹书》并为双璧，开启了后世游记小品（如柳宗元永州八记）的先声。

Commentary

This letter is the representative work of Six Dynasties landscape letters, and its reputation has not faded. In literary history it stands between the previous generation — Tao Hongjing and Bao Zhao — and the Tang and Song travel prose, of which Liu Zongyuan's Notes on the Eight Small Stone Places and Su Shi's Night Walk at Cheng Tian Temple are the heirs; the 'Wu Jun style,' with its clear and forceful plainness, also fed Tang parallel prose and landscape poetry. Aesthetically the letter is the extreme example of China's prose of few characters winning much: 'the water is all pale blue, a thousand feet down you see the bottom' and 'the swift torrents outdo arrows, the great waves run like fleeing horses' are quoted in every anthology of the period. Not included in the Guwen Guanzhi of the Qing compilers Wu Chucai and Wu Diaohou, it was nevertheless selected in the Liuchao Wenjie and the Pianti Wenchao, which tells us where its standing really lay. In modern times it entered school textbooks and made the phrase 'strange hills, strange waters, unique under heaven' a signature of the Fuchun. What makes the letter live is not its fame but its economy: nothing in it can be removed, and nothing in it asks to be admired.

《与朱元思书》作为六朝山水书札的代表作，其价值历久弥新。在文学史上，它上承陶弘景《答谢中书书》、鲍照《登大雷岸与妹书》的山水传统，下启柳宗元《小石潭记》、苏轼《记承天寺夜游》等唐宋游记，是山水散文从书札走向游记的中间环节；「吴均体」的清拔文风更直接影响唐代骈文与山水诗。在审美层面，全文以一百四十余字写出富春江的清、静、动、奇，是中国散文「以少胜多」的极致标本，「水皆缥碧，千丈见底」「急湍甚箭，猛浪若奔」等句，被历代文选家反复揄扬；清人吴楚材、吴调侯编《古文观止》虽未收此文，而《六朝文絜》《骈体文钞》皆录之，可见其在骈文传统中的地位。在现代传播中，本文因入选中学语文教材而家喻户晓，「奇山异水，天下独绝」成为富春江旅游的文化名片；其所寄寓的回归自然、摆脱尘累的情怀，与当代人的山水乡愁遥相呼应。此外，本文还保存了六朝书信的文体原貌——尺牍之短小精悍、随性自然，在此文中表现得淋漓尽致，为研究六朝士人生活与审美提供了鲜活样本。由一纸书札而传诵千年，可见真正的好文章不在篇幅长短，而在能否以最少的文字唤起最多的审美共鸣。

Prosody

Form Six Dynasties letter prose, alternating parallel and unparallel lines, with four-character clauses as the frame六朝骈散相间的山水书札（书信体散文）

Rhyme There is no rhyme scheme, and the music of the piece comes instead from the regular shape of its clauses: the four-character spine — 'the wind and haze are all cleared,' 'heaven and mountains one colour,' 'the water all pale blue,' 'a thousand feet you see the bottom' — with the longer sentence 'from Fuyang to Tonglu, a hundred li and a bit' let in between, so that the verse runs short and long like a stream over stones.本文不押韵，其音韵之美在句式的整饬与长短交错：以四字句为骨干（风烟俱净，天山共色；水皆缥碧，千丈见底），间以长句（自富阳至桐庐一百许里），读来短促明快、长句舒展，如清溪漱石、山泉跌宕，自成节奏。

Tone pattern Short clauses give the voice a quick, clean step; 'the swift torrents outdo arrows, the great waves run like fleeing horses' is eight closely packed characters and hurries the voice as if it were riding the current; the one long sentence lengthens the breath and lets the tone slacken, as the river does.句式以四言为主，短促有力，正合写景的明快；「急湍甚箭，猛浪若奔」八字连用短句，声调急促，如闻水声奔涌；「自富阳至桐庐一百许里」一长句间于其中，又使语气舒缓。全文短长相间、急缓交替，读之如乘舟江上，节奏随流而转。

Reading note Wu Jun's prose sounds like what it describes. The letter is built almost entirely out of four-character clauses — the cleared wind and haze, the shared colour of heaven and mountain, the pale water, the fish and pebbles — each one a breath, each one landing with the same measured weight. Against them the letter sets a handful of longer phrases, of which 'from Fuyang to Tonglu, a hundred li and a bit' is the most important: it is the sentence that stops the description from becoming a cascade of images, and it introduces the exact, unliterary information that the journey has a measurable length. That mixture — the rhythm of the four-character spine and the breath of the long sentence — is precisely why the prose is called 'clear, forceful, with an old-man's dryness.' Read the piece aloud at the pace of a boat going downstream: the short clauses quicken, the long sentence draws out, and the last two lines accelerate again. There is no rhyme to follow, but the ear is never at a loss.本文虽为书信散文，而其声律之美极为讲究。全篇以四字句为基调，如「风烟俱净，天山共色」「水皆缥碧，千丈见底」「游鱼细石，直视无碍」「急湍甚箭，猛浪若奔」，四字一顿，短促而整饬，恰与所写景物之清朗明快相应；其间插入「自富阳至桐庐一百许里」一长句，以「一百许里」的舒缓拉长语气，使节奏有张有弛，正如江流有缓有急。这种「四言为骨、长句间之」的句式安排，既保持了六朝骈文的整饬之美，又避免了骈文的堆砌板滞，是「吴均体」「清拔有古气」在声律上的体现。清人评六朝山水文字「清越可诵」，本文正以其短句之铿锵、长句之舒卷，成为山水书札中声情并茂的典范；诵读此文，如行富春江上，水声山色皆在字句节奏之中。

Line by line

风烟俱净，天山共色。从流飘荡，任意东西。

The wind and haze are all cleared away, and heaven and mountains have one colour. Drifting with the stream, at ease whichever way it carries me.

风和烟雾都已消散净尽，天与山呈现同样的颜色。我乘船随着江流飘荡，任凭它向东或向西。

Wind and mist are all cleared; sky and mountains share one hue. Drifting with the current, I let it carry me east or west.

开篇八字即勾勒出富春江上清朗澄净的远景：「风烟俱净」写空气之澄澈，风停烟散，视线毫无遮碍；「天山共色」写天与山浑然一色，极言晴空万里、远山如黛，天光山色融为一体。八字皆写「净」字，为下文江水的「缥碧」「见底」预设了清明的背景。「从流飘荡，任意东西」则从景物转入人，写乘舟随流、任其东西的自在——「从」字见顺水之势，「任意」二字见心无挂碍，舟行的逍遥正是心境的写照。此二句一写境之净、一写心之闲，情景相生，已为全篇「奇山异水」的游赏定下轻快悠然的基调，也暗示了作者厌倦尘网、向往自然的隐逸心绪。

The drifting. Wind and mist are all cleared; sky and mountains share one hue. Drifting with the current, I let it carry me east or west. The wind-mist-cleared-sky-mountains-one-hue and the drifting-current-let-go-east-west are the opening. To have drifted with the current would be a drifting; the wind-and-mist-are-all-cleared-sky-and-mountains-share-one-hue-drifting-with-the-current-i-let-it-carry-me-east-or-west is the drifting.

自富阳至桐庐一百许里，奇山异水，天下独绝。

From Fuyang to Tonglu, a hundred li and a bit, strange hills, strange waters, unique under heaven.

从富阳到桐庐一百来里之间，奇异的山、奇异的水，天下独一无二。

From Fuyang to Tonglu, some hundred li, the strange hills and wondrous waters are unmatched under heaven.

此句是全文的总纲，以「奇」「异」「独绝」三词为富春江山水定评。「自富阳至桐庐一百许里」先以地点与里程写游程之实，富阳、桐庐皆浙江地名，一在钱塘江南岸，一在富春江畔，中间一段正是富春江最秀美的峡谷，「一百许里」以虚数写游程之长，也为下文写水之清、之急预留了空间。「奇山异水」以「奇」「异」二字对举，山奇水异，总括富春江的独特之美；「天下独绝」四字以「天下」为参照，把这段山水推为独一无二的至美，是极力的推崇之辞，也见作者对此地山水的倾倒之情。此句承上启下：上文「风烟俱净」的净境是其铺垫，下文「水皆缥碧」的清景是其展开，有此一纲，后文写景便有了着落。

The praise. From Fuyang to Tonglu, some hundred li, the strange hills and wondrous waters are unmatched under heaven. The Fuyang-Tonglu-hundred-li and the strange-hills-wondrous-waters-unmatched-heaven are the thesis. To have been unmatched under heaven would be a being; the from-fuyang-to-tonglu-some-hundred-li-the-strange-hills-and-wondrous-waters-are-unmatched-under-heaven is the being.

水皆缥碧，千丈见底。游鱼细石，直视无碍。急湍甚箭，猛浪若奔。

The water is all pale blue; a thousand feet down you see the bottom. Swimming fish and fine pebbles, you look straight through without obstruction. The swift torrents outdo arrows; the great waves run like fleeing horses.

江水都是青白色的，千丈深也能看见水底；游动的鱼儿和细小的石头，一直看下去可以看得清清楚楚，毫无障碍。湍急的水流比箭还快，凶猛的巨浪就像飞奔的马。

The water is all a pale blue, a thousand fathoms to the bed; swimming fish and fine pebbles are seen straight down, unobstructed. Swift torrents outpace arrows, fierce waves race like galloping steeds.

此段是全文写水的精粹，以「清」与「疾」的对照写出江水的两种性格。「水皆缥碧，千丈见底」写江水之清：缥碧为青白色，写水的色泽；「千丈」极言水深，而「见底」写视线穿透之深，以夸张写清澈，与「游鱼细石，直视无碍」相足——游鱼之动、细石之静皆清晰可见，正见水之澄明空净，这是静的、清的水。「急湍甚箭，猛浪若奔」则笔锋一转写动的水：湍急处如离弦之箭，迅猛处如奔马脱缰，「甚箭」「若奔」两个比喻，以物状水，把水流之疾写得动感十足。同一江水，静则澄澈见底，动则势不可当，清与疾、静与动相映成趣，正写出富春江千姿百态的生命力。此段句式急促，四字连发，读来如见江流奔涌，是全篇最富声色的一段。

The water. The water is all a pale blue, a thousand fathoms to the bed; swimming fish and fine pebbles are seen straight down, unobstructed. Swift torrents outpace arrows, fierce waves race like galloping steeds. The pale-blue-thousand-fathoms and the fish-pebbles-unobstructed and the torrents-arrows-waves-steeds are the water. To have been pale blue would be a being; the the-water-is-all-a-pale-blue-a-thousand-fathoms-to-the-bed-swimming-fish-and-fine-pebbles-are-seen-straight-down-unobstructed-swift-torrents-outpace-arrows-fierce-waves-race-like-galloping-steeds is the being.

Study

Word focus

缥碧 'The water is all piāobì' — piāobì is a deep pale blue-green, the colour of clear mountain water seen from a height, and the word is doing double duty: it tells the reader what the water looks like and, by being a colour rather than a statement about depth, it leaves the actual colour of the water to the reader's own eyes. Combined with 'a thousand feet down you see the bottom,' the effect is that clarity is proved by transparency rather than by adjectives. 「水皆缥碧」之「缥碧」二字，是全文写水色的炼字之精。「缥」指青白色（淡青），「碧」指青绿色，二字连用，写出江水那种介于青白之间的清透色泽——不是浓绿，不是纯白，而是浅青中透着亮光的水色，正合富春江「水至清则色浅」的实景。这个双音节词的妙处在「色中含光」：「缥」偏白，写水的清亮；「碧」偏绿，写水的润泽，两色相参，恰写出阳光下清江的粼粼质感。与之相配的「千丈见底」，则把「缥碧」的色泽落实为可见的深度，色与清相互印证。「缥碧」一词在六朝诗文中屡见（如左思《吴都赋》「缥碧素玉」），而吴均此处以之写江，最得其神，正见「吴均体」炼字之精。后人写清水，「澄澈」「空明」皆不及「缥碧」之有色有声，此词遂成清江的代称。

甚箭 'The swift torrents — shenjian —' — shenjian (literally 'surpasses an arrow') is a compressed comparison, the classic Chinese way of expressing speed in two characters instead of a whole simile. The full image is 'faster than an arrow,' but Wu keeps only the two words that carry the comparison, so the sentence speeds up as it says speed. It is the pivot on which the letter turns from describing quiet water to describing dangerous water. 「急湍甚箭，猛浪若奔」之「甚箭」二字，以「甚于箭」的省略写急流之快，是全文最见气势的比喻。「甚」为「超过」之意，「甚箭」即快过离弦之箭，以箭之疾状水之疾，物象明快、力度十足；「若奔」以奔马状猛浪之雄，与「甚箭」对举，一以速度写湍之急，一以姿态写浪之猛，两喻并施，水流之飞动如在目前。其妙处在喻体的选择：箭取其直与疾，马取其奔与雄，皆以日常习见之物状不可名状之水势，化抽象为具体；且「甚」与「若」虚实相济，「甚」写其超过、「若」写其相似，一肯定一比喻，语气跌宕。与「千丈见底」的静美相对，这两句的动感把富春江写得生机勃勃，是全篇由静入动的转折，也是吴均「清拔有古气」文风中最有气势的一笔。

直视无碍 'Swimming fish and fine pebbles, zhǐ shì wú ài' — zhǐ shì wú ài ('a direct look without obstruction') describes the act of seeing rather than the water that is seen. Because there is nothing in the sentence about the water itself, the phrase has become the standard way of praising a clear stream in Chinese: the proof of purity is that one can see straight through it. The fish and the pebbles are there to catch the eye, and through them the reader knows the water. 「游鱼细石，直视无碍」之「直视无碍」四字，不直接写水之清，而写视线之无碍，是「从效果写本体」的高明笔法。若直言「水清见底」则坐实，此处却写「直视」这一动作的畅行无阻——目光直透水底，游鱼、细石一一分明，无一丝遮蔽，读者的视线仿佛也被带入水中，与作者一同直视江底。这个写法的妙处在于以「视」写「清」：水的清澈不是被说出来的，而是被「看见」的，视觉经验的真切使「清」获得了无可辩驳的说服力；「游鱼细石」一动态、一静态，皆纤毫毕现，更见水之空明。与「千丈见底」的夸张不同，「直视无碍」是写实，夸张与写实相济，水之清便既神奇又可信。后世写清澈（如柳宗元「潭中鱼可百许头，皆若空游无所依」），皆可见「直视无碍」这种以效果写本体的影响。