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清 Qing · 文 Prose

狼

The Wolves

蒲松龄

Pu Songling

名篇Masterpiece 寓言Fable 叙事Narrative 讽刺Satire

一屠晚归，担中肉尽，止有剩骨。
途中两狼，缀行甚远。
屠惧，投以骨。
一狼得骨止，一狼仍从。
复投之，后狼止而前狼又至。
骨已尽矣，而两狼之并驱如故。

A butcher was returning home late in the evening. His load of meat was all gone; only a few bones remained. On the road two wolves followed him, keeping pace at a distance. The butcher was afraid and threw them a bone. One wolf got the bone and stopped; the other still followed. He threw another bone; the second wolf stopped and the first came on again. The bones were used up, and still the two wolves drove on side by side as before.

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Meaning

A late-evening butcher, his load empty but for a few bones, is followed home by two wolves. He throws them bones to buy them off, but the wolves take turns—one stops, the other follows—and when the bones are gone, both wolves still drive on together. The story exposes the greed of evil: appeasement cannot buy safety, and the wolves' unrelenting pursuit is a satire on the insatiable greed of the wicked, for whom every concession is only an invitation to demand more.

一个屠户傍晚回家，担子里的肉已经卖完了，只剩下一些骨头。路上遇到两只狼，紧跟着他走了很远。屠户害怕了，把骨头扔给狼。一只狼得到骨头停了下来，另一只狼仍然跟着。屠户又扔骨头，后面的狼停下了，前面的狼又追了上来。骨头已经扔完了，而两只狼还是像原来一样一起追赶。

Appreciation

The story is a miniature of Pu Songling's narrative art, 'the small seen in the great, the many mastered by the few.' First, the plot tightens step by step: in little more than eighty characters it moves through 'meeting the wolves, fearing the wolves, throwing a bone, throwing again, the bones exhausted, the wolves undaunted,' each link closing on the next like a bowstring drawn ever tighter. Second, the language is extremely spare and forceful, full of three-character clauses ('threw them a bone,' 'threw another') that strip away all ornament and present action directly. Third, the point of view is the butcher's throughout—his fear, his struggle, his despair emerge layer by layer, while the wolves' intent is shown through behavior alone, with no word of comment and the good and evil plain by themselves. Fourth, the closing turn: 'the bones were used up' sighs with the word 'up' at his hopelessness, then 'still the two wolves drove on side by side as before' abruptly opens a new crisis, driving the tension to its peak and preparing the butcher's counterattack.

【白话串讲】蒲松龄写《狼》：屠夫晚归，被两只狼跟着。“投以骨。一狼得骨止，一狼仍从”——骨头扔完了，狼还跟着。他跑到麦场，“弛担持刀”。“一狼洞其中，意将隧入以攻其后也”——一只狼在挖洞。“乃悟前狼假寐，盖以诱敌”——他杀了前狼，又杀了挖洞的狼。“禽兽之变诈几何哉？止增笑耳”——他叹狼再狡猾也斗不过人。【意象与手法】本文是《聊斋志异》中著名的短篇寓言，叙事精炼至极：以「缀行甚远」写狼的阴险盯梢，以「一狼得骨止，一狼仍从」「后狼止而前狼又至」写狼的轮番纠缠，两狼一前一后、此止彼从，配合默契如兵法；语言简劲，「投以骨」「复投之」三字一顿，节奏急促，如见其景。【情感与主旨】本文写狼的贪婪狡诈与屠户的险境，讽刺恶人的贪得无厌与得寸进尺，也暗示对待恶人不能心存幻想、一味退让，为后文屠户奋起杀狼张本。【名句点睛】「骨已尽矣，而两狼之并驱如故」一句，写尽退让的徒劳与恶的贪得无厌：「并驱如故」四字，狼的执拗、屠户的绝望尽在其中，是全篇叙事的转折点与点睛之笔。

Background

Pu Songling (1640–1715), courtesy name Liuxian, self-styled Liujuan Hermit, was a native of Zichuan, Shandong, and the author of the Liaozhai Zhiyi (Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio). Born to a declining landowner family, he earned a name for literature young but repeatedly failed the examinations, becoming a tribute scholar by special favor only at seventy-one. Long frustrated in his career and living among the villages, he gathered thirty years' material and wrote more than four hundred ninety tales, using ghosts and fox spirits to lash the world with his 'solitary fury.' 'The Wolves' is the second of the three wolf stories in the sixth juan of Liaozhai. Pu's wolves are not mere beasts but symbols of the greedy, cunning, cruel; his tales of butchers and wolves are tales of the weak against the wicked, exposing the greed of evil and the predicament of the weak. In the turbulent early Qing, when powerful families preyed on the people, such stories had the flesh and blood of reality.

蒲松龄（1640—1715），字留仙，一字剑臣，号柳泉居士，山东淄川（今淄博）人，清代杰出的文学家，《聊斋志异》的作者。他出身于渐趋败落的地主家庭，早年颇有文名，却屡试不第，直到七十一岁才援例成为贡生，一生郁郁不得志，长期在乡间设帐授徒、为幕僚，生活清苦。正是这种科场失意、久处乡野的经历，使他得以广泛接触民间生活，积三十年之力写成《聊斋志异》四百九十余篇，借谈狐说鬼、志怪传奇以「孤愤」之笔刺世。《狼》是《聊斋志异》卷六《狼三则》中的第二则，与「一屠晚归」的第一则、写狼假寐诱敌的第三则同咏屠户与狼的较量。蒲松龄笔下的狼，已不仅是自然界的野兽，而是贪婪、狡诈、凶狠的恶势力的象征；他写狼与屠户的周旋，实则在写恶人与弱者的较量，寄寓着对恶之贪婪本性的揭露与对弱者处境的关切。三则故事层层递进，本文居其中，写屠户退让而恶愈进、退无可退的绝境，正是为第三则屠户奋起搏杀蓄势。清初社会动荡，豪强劣绅鱼肉乡里，蒲松龄屡受其害，故此类故事实有现实的血肉。

Art

The art of the story lies in 'the small seen in the great, the many mastered by the few.' The plot advances through six tightly linked steps—meeting, fearing, throwing bones, throwing again, bones exhausted, wolves undaunted—like a bowstring drawn ever tighter. The two lines 'one wolf got the bone and stopped, the other still followed' and 'the second wolf stopped and the first came on again' write the wolves' cunning cooperation through the rotation of 'stopping and following,' the rhythm rapid and the layers clear. The language is extremely spare and forceful, with three-character clauses presenting action directly; 'followed at a distance' writes the wolves' patient shadowing, 'drove on side by side as before' their stubborn pursuit. The narrative keeps the butcher's viewpoint; the wolves' intent is shown through behavior alone, with no word of comment. The closing turn, 'the bones were used up' with its sigh and 'still drove on as before' with its abrupt reversal, lifts the contradiction to its peak and prepares the butcher's counterattack.

本文是《聊斋志异》叙事艺术的浓缩样本，其妙处在「以小见大、以简驭繁」。其一，情节的层层紧逼：全文仅八十余字，却写出「遇狼—惧狼—投骨—复投—骨尽—狼如故」六个环节，一环扣一环，如拉弓弦越拉越紧；「一狼得骨止，一狼仍从」「后狼止而前狼又至」两句，以「止—从」「止—至」的轮换写两狼配合的狡黠，节奏急促而层次分明。其二，语言的极简与劲健：多用三字短句（投以骨、复投之），省略一切修饰，直接呈现动作；「缀行甚远」四字写狼的盯梢，「并驱如故」四字写狼的执拗，皆以最少的字写尽情态。其三，叙事视角的巧妙：全篇以屠户为视点，他的恐惧、挣扎、绝望层层显露，而狼的意图通过行为暗示（缀行、得骨止、并驱如故），不着一字议论而善恶自明。其四，结尾的顿挫：「骨已尽矣」一句以「矣」字叹其绝望，随即「而两狼之并驱如故」陡然转出新的危机，文势一顿一挫，把矛盾推到顶点，为下文的屠户反击蓄足力量。这种「以退写进、以守写攻」的章法，正是蒲松龄「用传奇法，而以志怪」的高明处。

Allusions

The wolf is an image of long ancestry in Chinese culture. Since pre-Qin times the wolf has stood for greed and ferocity—the Zuozhuan's 'wolf-hearted ambition' and the 'Forgotten-Favor Wolf' of the Zhongshan Wolf tale both use the wolf for evil; Pu Songling's wolves 'following at a distance' and 'driving on side by side' continue this cultural type, the beast standing for the greedy and cunning man. The fable that satirizes the world is also an ancient tradition: pre-Qin fables and the Tang-Song animal fables of Liu Zongyuan's Three Warnings ('The Donkey of Qian' and 'The River Deer') use animal stories to mock mankind, and Pu Songling's 'Wolves' is the Qing representative of this line, using the butcher's struggle to teach that one must never yield to the wicked. The butcher himself, in folk stories, is a stock figure of the bold and cautious hero; the story's 'first fear, then fight' follows the folk ethic that evil fears the fearless.

本文的「狼」意象在中国文化中有着深长的渊源。其一是「狼子野心」的恶兽传统：自先秦以来，狼即被视为贪婪凶残的象征，《左传》「狼子野心」、《中山狼传》的忘恩负义，皆以狼喻恶；蒲松龄写狼之「缀行」「并驱」，正是这一文化定型的延续，狼不再是自然动物，而是贪婪狡诈之人的化身。其二是「寓言刺世」的传统：先秦寓言（《郑人买履》《刻舟求剑》）多以故事寄讽，唐宋以降柳宗元《三戒》（《黔之驴》《临江之麋》）以动物寓言讽刺世人，蒲松龄《狼》正是这一谱系的清代代表，以屠狼故事寄寓「对恶人不能退让」的处世智慧。其三是「屠户」形象的民俗内涵：屠户在民间故事中常以胆大心细的勇者形象出现（如鲁智深、武松皆与屠户结缘），本文写屠户先惧后奋，暗合民间「恶人怕横人」的朴素伦理。其四，「骨」与「止」的反复：屠户投骨求安而狼贪得无厌，正是「以肉饲狼」的徒劳之喻，讽刺一味退让、苟且求安者的愚昧，其文化批判的锋芒至今仍有现实意义。

Commentary

Though a short piece, 'The Wolves' has always been valued by readers and anthologists. In literary history, Pu Songling 'used the manner of the tale of the marvelous to write the strange,' and 'The Wolves' is a miniature of this art: it joins the brief narrative of the Six Dynasties tales of the strange with the intricate plot of Tang romances, and infuses it with the spirit of the fable, giving a hundred-character piece story, drama, and thought. Lu Xun, in his History of Chinese Fiction, praised Liaozhai for its 'intricate description and orderly narration'—'orderly narration' is exactly this story. In the history of its spread, the story entered middle-school textbooks and became a common memory of several generations; its 'then the butcher sprang up and split the wolf's head with his knife' follows in the third tale, but the 'bones gone, wolves undaunted' of this piece is the despairing groundwork that makes the three tales read together all the more significant.

《狼》虽为《聊斋志异》中的短章，却历来为读者与选家所重。在文学史上，蒲松龄「用传奇法，而以志怪」，《狼》正是这一手法的微缩样本：它把六朝志怪的简短叙事与唐人传奇的曲折情节结合起来，又以寓言的精神注入其中，使一篇百字小文兼具故事性、戏剧性与思想性；鲁迅《中国小说史略》评《聊斋》「描写委曲，叙次井然」，本文的「叙次井然」正是典型。在传播史上，本文因入选中学语文教材而家喻户晓，「狼」与「屠户」的较量成为几代人的共同记忆；其后的「屠暴起，以刀劈狼首」虽在第三则，但本文「骨尽狼如故」的绝境铺垫，使三则故事合观更见深意。在思想层面，本文对「恶的贪婪」与「退让的徒劳」的揭示，超越具体的清代背景而具有普遍性：无论是对待凶恶的敌人还是刁钻的恶人，「妥协换不来安宁」的教训至今发人深省。就艺术而言，全文无一字议论而善恶、智愚、强弱之别昭然若揭，是「寓褒贬于叙事」的典范；蒲松龄以「孤愤之书」自许，本文的冷峻笔触背后，正是一个屡遭世态炎凉的读书人对人心险恶的深刻体认。

Prosody

Form Qing classical-language short fable (tale of the strange and marvelous)清代文言短篇寓言小说（志怪传奇体）

Rhyme Unrhymed; the rhythm lies in short, clipped clauses—mostly three or four characters in rapid succession, drum-like, matching the tense atmosphere of a man in peril本文为文言叙事，不押韵，其节奏之美在句式的短促与顿挫：多以三字、四字短句连发（屠惧，投以骨；复投之；一狼得骨止，一狼仍从），如鼓点般急促，正合险境中人步步紧逼的紧张气氛。

Tone pattern Short and forceful clauses, particles omitted, action presented directly, making the narrative pace urgent; the sigh of 'up' in 'the bones were used up' breaks the urgency with despair; the 'and' of 'and still the two wolves drove on' turns the tone abruptly, like a clap of thunder句式短促有力，省略虚词、直呈动作，造成急迫的叙事节奏；「矣」字（骨已尽矣）一声长叹，于急促中顿出绝望；「而」字（而两狼之并驱如故）陡转语气，如惊雷乍起，文势由缓而急、由急而顿，抑扬分明。

Reading note The sound of the story matches the mood of peril: short clipped clauses, particles omitted, action presented directly, urgent as a man walking in fear; the sigh of 'up' in 'the bones were used up' breaks the urgency with a moment of despair, and the 'and' of 'and still the two wolves drove on' turns the tone abruptly, like a clap of thunder.本文声律之美，在于以句式的节奏模拟叙事的气氛。全篇以短句为骨：开头「一屠晚归，担中肉尽，止有剩骨」四句皆短，交代简洁，如说书人开篇；写交锋处「屠惧，投以骨。一狼得骨止，一狼仍从」更以三字句、四字句连发，节奏如连珠炮，正合两狼轮番纠缠、屠户手忙脚乱的紧张情境；「复投之」「骨已尽矣」句愈短，气愈促，险情愈紧。间以「缀行甚远」「并驱如故」等四字词组，音节整饬，读来铿锵。全文不用一个多余的虚词，叙事一气而下，至「骨已尽矣，而两狼之并驱如故」陡然一挫，长叹短转，把节奏推到顶点。这种「以短句造紧张、以顿挫造波澜」的声律经营，正是蒲松龄「文笔之简劲」的体现，读之如观短剧，声情并茂。清人评《聊斋》「文有剑气」，本文之节奏，正见其剑气之凛然。

Line by line

一屠晚归，担中肉尽，止有剩骨。途中两狼，缀行甚远。屠惧，投以骨。一狼得骨止，一狼仍从。

A butcher was returning home late in the evening. His load of meat was all gone; only a few bones remained. On the road two wolves followed him, keeping pace at a distance. The butcher was afraid and threw them a bone. One wolf got the bone and stopped; the other still followed. (The story opens with the meeting and the first struggle: the butcher's empty load foretells the coming crisis, the wolves' patient 'following at a distance' brings the terror into the atmosphere, and the one wolf stopping while the other follows shows the futility of appeasement from the start.)

一个屠户傍晚回家，担子里的肉已经卖完了，只剩下一些骨头。路上遇到两只狼，紧跟着他走了很远。屠户害怕了，把骨头扔给狼。一只狼得到骨头停了下来，另一只狼仍然跟着。

A butcher returning home at dusk found the meat sold out and only some bones left in his pole basket. On the road two wolves followed him at a distance for a long way. Fearful, he threw them a bone. One wolf stopped for the bone; the other still followed.

此段写遇狼与初斗，是全文叙事的起势。「一屠晚归」五字交代人物、时间、事由——屠户晚归，正是孤身走夜路的最险时机；「担中肉尽，止有剩骨」写其处境：肉已卖尽，只有骨头可以投喂，为后文「骨已尽矣」的绝境埋下伏笔。「途中两狼，缀行甚远」写狼的出场：不写狼的凶相，只写「缀行」——紧跟不舍、远远尾随，一个「缀」字写出狼的耐心与阴险，如影随形，恐怖已在气氛之中。「屠惧，投以骨」写屠户的应对：一个「惧」字见其畏怯，投骨求安是弱者的本能反应。「一狼得骨止，一狼仍从」是全文第一个转折：一狼止而一狼从，两狼交替追逐，配合默契——屠户的骨头只能喂饱一只狼，另一只仍在觊觎，退让的无效已初露端倪，文势开始收紧。

The passage writes the meeting with the wolves and the first struggle, the opening momentum of the tale. A butcher returning home at dusk, five characters, give the person, the time, the affair — the butcher homeward at evening, the most dangerous hour for walking the road alone. The meat sold out and only some bones left writes his plight: the meat gone, and only bones to toss, planting the foreshadowing of the bones are all gone below. On the road two wolves followed him at a distance for a long way writes the wolves' entrance: not their fierceness, but the following at a distance — clinging, trailing far behind; the single word trailed writes the wolves' patience and treachery, shadow-like, the horror already in the atmosphere. Fearful, he threw them a bone writes the butcher's response: the word fearful shows his dread, and throwing the bone for peace is the weak man's instinct. One wolf stopped for the bone; the other still follows is the tale's first turn: one stops, one follows, the two wolves taking turns in pursuit, as if in collusion — the butcher's bones can feed but one wolf, the other still covets, and the futility of retreat already glimpsed, the narrative beginning to tighten.

复投之，后狼止而前狼又至。骨已尽矣，而两狼之并驱如故。

He threw another bone; the second wolf stopped and the first came on again. The bones were used up, and still the two wolves drove on side by side as before. (The bones are exhausted and the wolves drive on together—the sigh of 'up' breaks the butcher's hope, and the wolves' 'driving on side by side as before' lifts the crisis to its peak, preparing the counterattack that follows.)

屠户又扔骨头，后面的狼停下了，前面的狼又追了上来。骨头已经扔完了，而两只狼还是像原来一样一起追赶。

He threw again, and the wolf behind stopped, but the wolf ahead came up once more. The bones were all gone, yet the two wolves still pursued side by side as before.

此段是全文的转折与点睛，「骨尽而狼如故」把矛盾推向顶点。「复投之」三字写屠户的第二次退让，一个「复」字见其别无他法；「后狼止而前狼又至」写两狼的轮番纠缠——前狼吃完又等后狼，后狼止而前狼至，此起彼伏，如拉锯战，狼的贪婪与狡诈在这「止—至」的循环中暴露无遗，也把屠户「以骨止狼」的幻想彻底打碎。「骨已尽矣」以「矣」字发叹，写尽屠户的绝望——最后的筹码也已耗尽，再无退路；「而两狼之并驱如故」以「而」字陡转，「并驱如故」四字写两狼毫不松懈、依旧并肩追赶，退让的徒劳与恶的贪得无厌在这一句里达到极致。此句是全文文势的最低点，也是下一段「屠大窘」乃至奋起搏杀的最高蓄势，叙事之妙，正在这「置之死地而后生」的顿挫。

The passage is the tale's turning point and its punch, the bones gone and the wolves as before pushing the conflict to its height. He threw again, three characters, write the butcher's second retreat, the word again showing he has no other way. The wolf behind stopped, but the wolf ahead came up once more writes the wolves' taking turns — the wolf ahead, having eaten, waits for the one behind; the one behind stops and the one ahead comes on, rising and falling like a saw, the wolves' greed and cunning fully exposed in the cycle of stop-and-arrive, and the butcher's fantasy of stopping wolves with bones thoroughly shattered. The bones are all gone ends in a sigh, writing the butcher's despair — the last chip spent, no way back. Yet the two wolves still pursued side by side as before turns abruptly with the word yet: pursued side by side as before, four characters, write how the two wolves slacken not, still running abreast; the futility of retreat and the insatiability of evil reach their limit in this line. The passage is the lowest point of the narrative momentum, and the highest stored force for the butcher's great distress and his rising to the fight below; the beauty of the storytelling lies precisely in the pause of setting the man in the deadliest place that he may live.

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Word focus

缀行 To follow, stitched on. The most spirited word for the wolves: 'followed him, keeping pace at a distance.' 'Stitched' (zhui) is to sew, to link; here the wolves do not race but cling to the butcher like threads, steadily, at a distance—following at a distance is more frightening than a pounce, and one word writes all the wolves' patience and cunning. 「途中两狼，缀行甚远」之「缀行」二字，是全文写狼最有神采的字眼。「缀」本义为缝合、连缀，此处移以写狼的跟随——两狼不是奔跑追赶，而是像被线缀着一样，紧紧贴在屠户身后，远远尾随。「缀」字的妙处在「以静写动」：狼的脚步不急不迫，却如附骨之疽，怎么甩也甩不掉，这种阴森绵长的跟随，比扑咬更令人恐惧；「缀行甚远」四字，既写距离之远（跟了很久、很远），又写执著之深（始终不弃），狼的耐心与阴险尽在其中。与「屠惧」相接，「缀行」正是恐惧的来源——不是被扑咬的恐惧，而是被盯上的恐惧。后文「并驱如故」与此呼应：由「缀行」的阴森到「并驱」的公开，狼的嚣张步步升级。一字之炼，写尽恶者的纠缠术，是蒲松龄叙事语言的典范。

止 To stop. The key of the wolves' tactics: one wolf stops when it gets a bone, the other still follows—the rotation of 'stopping and following' shows the wolves' cooperation, and the butcher's bones can only feed one wolf at a time; the futility of appeasement is plain from the first. 「一狼得骨止，一狼仍从」「后狼止而前狼又至」之「止」字，是全文结构的关键字，写两狼轮番纠缠的节奏。「止」本义为停止，此处写狼得骨而停——但一狼之「止」正为另一狼之「从」，后狼之「止」正为前狼之「至」，「止」与「从」「至」交替出现，两狼一停一跟、此停彼至，如车轮般循环往复，永不间断。「止」字的妙处在「以顿写续」：每一次「止」都是暂时的、有条件的（有骨才止），而「从」「至」则是无条件的，屠户的骨头只能买来片刻的喘息，买不来真正的安宁。这个字在全文中出现三次，一次比一次更显退让的徒劳：第一次「得骨止」尚有一线希望，第二次「后狼止」已见循环无端，至「骨已尽」则「止」之幻象彻底破灭。一字之复，见蒲松龄布局之精。

并驱如故 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 「而两狼之并驱如故」之「并驱如故」四字，是全篇文势的句眼，写尽退让的徒劳。「并驱」写两狼肩并肩一起追赶，队形严整、毫不慌乱；「如故」写它们与屠户投骨之前毫无二致——骨头扔完了，狼还是那两只狼，追赶还是那个追赶，仿佛一切退让都未曾发生。「如故」二字的妙处在「以不变写绝望」：屠户以全部骨头换来的，是一个「故」字——境况纹丝不动，损失却已殆尽，退让的无效在此被写到极致。这四个字还是全文的转折枢纽：此前屠户尚有骨头可投，尚有幻想可存；此句一出，幻想彻底破产，屠户被逼入绝境，下文「屠大窘，恐前后受其敌」乃至「乃奔倚其下，弛担持刀」的反击势在必行。「并驱如故」以最平静的字眼写最绝望的情境，是「冷笔写惊心」的典范。

狼