南邻

Meaning

This poem describes a neighbouring hermit, the 'gentleman of Jinli', who lives south of Du Fu's thatched cottage in Chengdu. He wears the black cap of a recluse and lives on taro and chestnuts from his garden, poor in substance but not in spirit. Du Fu records his simple hospitality — children delighted by visitors, sparrows tame enough to peck at scraps on the steps — and the shallow autumn ford crossed by a tiny boat. The closing couplet shows the poet himself seeing a friend off at the brushwood gate as moonlight rises over the white sand and green bamboo of the river village.

锦里先生头戴乌角巾，园中收的芋头和栗子，日子不算太贫寒。他惯于看着宾客到来儿童欢喜，阶前食物落地鸟雀也驯顺。秋天的溪水才深四五尺，野航的小船恰好能坐两三个人。白沙翠竹掩映着江村暮色，送客到柴门，月色清新。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The first couplet sets the man before us: the black turban cap marks him as a recluse, the taro and chestnuts mark him as poor but self-supporting. The second couplet fills his house with life — children who have grown used to guests, birds that have learned to trust the step. The third couplet narrows to water and boat, and the fourth opens the evening scene at the gate. [Structure] The four lines move from person to household to landscape to farewell, each couplet adding a layer. The middle two couplets are sharply antithetical: children against birds, four or five feet against two or three men. [Imagery] Du Fu paints rather than announces. Nothing is named as noble; instead we read it off the cap, the taro, the shallow ford, the two-or-three-man skiff, the white sand, the green bamboo, the moon. The effect is of a world quietly adequate to itself.

【白话串讲】 杜甫写《南邻》：“锦里先生乌角巾，园收芋栗不全贫”——“惯看宾客儿童喜，得食阶除鸟雀驯”——“秋水才深四五尺，野航恰受两三人”——“白沙翠竹江村暮，相送柴门月色新”——他写南邻的先生与江村。 【意象与手法】 此诗写锦里先生（南邻隐士）的生活与送别，是杜甫田园诗的名篇。起联「锦里先生乌角巾，园收芋栗不全贫」写南邻的装束与家境，以乌角巾写其隐者风度，以芋栗写其清贫自守；颔联「惯看宾客儿童喜，得食阶除鸟雀驯」写其待客之诚与居处之清幽，「儿童喜」「鸟雀驯」写出隐者家中的人情与生机；颈联「秋水才深四五尺，野航恰受两三人」是千古名句，写秋日溪水与野航小船，暗写送别之景；尾联「白沙翠竹江村暮，相送柴门月色新」写暮色中送客，白沙翠竹、柴门月色，画面清新。全诗以白描写隐者的生活与送别，正是杜甫「以画入诗」的本领。 【情感与主旨】 此诗约作于唐肃宗上元元年（760）至宝应元年（762）间，时杜甫寓居成都草堂。杜甫在成都浣花溪畔营建草堂，与左邻右舍交往，此诗所写的「南邻」，是其南边的邻居锦里先生。锦里先生是一位隐士，头戴乌角巾（隐者所戴的黑色头巾），园中收芋栗为生，清贫而自守。杜甫常与这位邻居往来，此诗写锦里先生的生活、待客与送别，正是杜甫「与邻为善」的田园生活的写照。诗中的「秋水才深四五尺，野航恰受两三人」写秋日溪水与野航小船，暗写锦里先生送客乘船的情景；「白沙翠竹江村暮，相送柴门月色新」更以白沙翠竹、柴门月色的清新画面，写出隐者居处的清幽与送别的温情。全诗以白描写田园邻里之乐，寄寓了杜甫在乱世中安顿于此的欣慰。 【名句点睛】 常考「秋水才深四五尺，野航恰受两三人」的千古名句，其以白描写秋溪野航之妙；「惯看宾客儿童喜，得食阶除鸟雀驯」写隐者家中的人情与生机；「锦里先生乌角巾」的隐者形象；尾联「白沙翠竹江村暮，相送柴门月色新」的清新画面；以及全诗以画入诗、白描传神的田园诗风。

Allusions

The diction sits deep in the recluse and pastoral tradition. The black turban cap recalls the hermit's costume — the jade-white and black turbaned caps worn by men who had left office — and the custom of laying aside one's cap to return home. Garden taro and chestnuts echo the plain subsistence of the withdrawal poets: the chrysanthemums picked east of the fence, the surplus vegetables of the hermit's plot. The children and tame birds recall the peach-blossom spring, where children sang and the old and young went out together. The little boat brings to mind the ferry crossing at a ford in the western hills, and the small boat that carries a man out onto river and sea. The brushwood gate is the poor man's door of the winter night scene, and the white sand and green bamboo name a south-of-the-Yangtze village. Du Fu recombines these inherited pieces into something that reads as observation rather than citation.

此诗的用语深植于隐逸与田园的传统。「乌角巾」是隐者所戴的黑色头巾，令人想到「角巾还第」的隐逸传统，也令人想到「白纶巾」「乌角巾」的隐者装束意象——乌角巾是隐逸之士的标志，令人想到「先生乌角巾」的隐者形象；「园收芋栗」写以芋栗为生，令人想到「采菊东篱下」的田园生活，也令人想到「园蔬有余滋」的隐者生计；「儿童喜」「鸟雀驯」写隐者居处的生机，令人想到「童孺纵行歌，斑白欢游诣」（陶渊明《桃花源记》）的桃源意象，也令人想到「鸟雀空庭」的田园意象；「野航恰受两三人」写小船，令人想到「野渡无人舟自横」（韦应物《滁州西涧》）的野舟意象，也令人想到「小舟从此逝，江海寄余生」（苏轼《临江仙》）的隐逸之舟；「柴门」写隐者的居门，令人想到「柴门闻犬吠，风雪夜归人」（刘长卿《逢雪宿芙蓉山主人》）的柴门意象，也令人想到「白沙翠竹」的江南村景。全诗化用隐逸、田园、柴门、野舟的传统意象，以白描写隐者生活，正是杜甫田园诗「以俗为雅」的本领。

Commentary

This has long been counted among Du Fu's pastoral poems and among the poems in which he writes of the people next door. Later critics praised its plain drawing and its completeness as a picture, and singled out the third couplet — the shallow autumn water and the boat that holds two or three men — as an example of vivid, unforced particularity. Its special value is that it is gentle: Du Fu, who elsewhere carries the weight of the empire in his verse, here spends four lines on one neighbour's cap, garden and ferry and lets contentment speak for itself. It may be read beside Guest Arrives, which treats the arrival of a visitor at the same cottage, and beside Meng Haoran's visit to an old friend's farmhouse, where the two poets writing plainly about village life meet in temper.

此诗历来被推为杜甫田园诗的名篇，也是其写邻里生活与隐逸情怀的代表作。历代论者对此诗评价极高：宋人评此诗「白描传神，画意盎然」；清人更指出「秋水才深四五尺，野航恰受两三人」以白描写秋溪野航，是千古名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以白描之笔写尽南邻隐士的生活与送别——那乌角巾的隐者，那园收芋栗的清贫，那儿童鸟雀的生机，那秋水野航的亲切，那柴门月色的清新，都写尽了这位「诗圣」乱世中安顿于草堂的欣慰；那「秋水才深四五尺，野航恰受两三人」以白描写景，更是千古名句。此诗与杜甫的《客至》（「舍南舍北皆春水」）同为写草堂邻里生活与待客的名篇，一写客至的欢愉，一写送客的温情；又与孟浩然《过故人庄》的田园诗一脉相承，可见杜甫田园诗「以画入诗」的风采。对于今日读者，此诗是理解杜甫草堂生活与田园诗风的窗口，也是中国诗写邻里情谊的经典——那秋水野航、柴门月色，穿越千年，仍在诉说着一位诗人与邻为善的温情。

Prosody

Line by line

Related Reading