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清 Qing · 诗 Poem

秣陵

Molin (Nanjing)

屈大均

Qu Dajun

怀古伤今Nostalgia for the Past and Grief for the Present 亡国之痛The Pain of National Ruin

牛首开天阙，龙岗抱帝宫。
六朝春草里，万井落花中。
访旧乌衣少，听歌玉树空。
如何亡国恨，尽在大江东。

Ox-Head Peak opens the celestial gate,
Dragon Ridge embraces the imperial palace.
The Six Dynasties lie in spring grass,
ten thousand homes amid falling blossoms.
I seek old Wuyi friends—how few remain;
I listen for songs—the Jade Tree tune is silent.
Why must the grief of fallen states
be spent entirely east of the Great River?

Listen

Meaning

Qu Dajun mourns the ruin of Nanjing, where the splendor of the Six Dynasties is buried in grass and scattered petals. By evoking Wuyi Lane and the Jade Tree song, he laments lost aristocratic families and vanished court music, and asks why all the grief of dynastic downfall should rest on this city at the Great River.

牛首山双峰对峙，宛如拱卫天庭的阙楼；钟山龙蟠，紧紧环抱着帝王的宫城。六朝的繁华已没入萋萋春草，万户人家零落于纷纷落花之中。访寻旧日乌衣门第，故人已所剩无几；想听一曲《玉树后庭花》，也早已空寂无声。为何这亡国之恨，竟都让大江东岸的秣陵独自承担。

Appreciation

The poem opens with the majestic defenses of Ox-Head Peak and Dragon Ridge, then abruptly shifts to the desolation of spring grass and falling flowers. The allusions in the third couplet condense historical change into personal loss, and the closing question gathers the Six Dynasties and the Southern Ming into one unbearable regret. The contrast between the enduring landscape and fleeting human affairs gives the poem an austere, melancholy power.

【白话串讲】 “牛首开天阙，龙岗抱帝宫”——屈大均写南京：牛首山像天阙。“六朝春草里，万井落花中”——“访旧乌衣少，听歌玉树空”——“如何亡国恨，尽在大江东”——他写南京的亡国恨。明遗民眼中的金陵。【意象与手法】首联“牛首开天阙，龙岗抱帝宫”极写南京形胜；颔联“六朝春草里，万井落花中”笔锋一转写繁华尽付荒草落花；颈联“访旧乌衣少，听歌玉树空”借乌衣巷、玉树后庭花典故叹人事凋零；尾联“如何亡国恨，尽在大江东”卒章显志。运用对比与用典，一扬一抑形成强烈反差，格调苍凉沉郁。【情感与主旨】屈大均寓居南京、拜谒明孝陵后所作，以六朝与南明相继覆亡写亡国之恨。以江山永恒反衬人事倏忽、寄慨遥深，是屈大均怀古诗代表作，兼具地理形胜之壮与兴亡之叹。【名句点睛】常考“如何亡国恨，尽在大江东”以大江收束亡国之恨；“访旧乌衣少，听歌玉树空”以乌衣玉树典写人事凋零。

Background

Qu Dajun, a Ming loyalist from Panyu, Guangdong, lived through the fall of the Ming and devoted himself to restoration. He traveled north, stayed in Nanjing, and visited the tomb of the Hongwu Emperor on Mount Zhong, grieving over the ruined capital. Nanjing had been the seat of the Six Dynasties and later of the Southern Ming Hongguang court, which Qing forces swiftly destroyed. That ancient and recent ruin are superimposed in this poem, making it a lament not merely for one dynasty but for a whole cycle of history.

屈大均，字介子，号翁山，广东番禺人，明亡后曾更名今种，字一灵，一度出家为僧，后又还俗北游，一生以反清复明为志业。明亡时他才二十余岁，曾参与抗清义师，失败后浪迹江浙，寓居南京，登钟山，拜明孝陵，目睹故都残破与清兵劫后之痕，哀恸不已。秣陵即今南京，诸葛亮出使江东，曾望叹钟阜龙蟠、石城虎踞，真帝王之宅，自孙吴以来为六朝都会，南朝宫阙极盛，而侯景之乱、隋军平陈、南唐归宋，兴废相寻，血火屡经。更切近者，南明弘光政权建都于此，旋为清军攻破，城破之后，生灵涂炭，宫阙成灰，与六朝旧恨遥遥相叠。屈大均此诗，正是以金陵一地为聚焦点，将六朝之亡与南明之亡叠印于一纸，借江山形胜反衬人事倏忽，以遗民身份发为沉痛之音。他写此诗时，距明亡未远，新朝文网渐密，故其笔下的亡国之恨既指向历史，亦暗含当下，是不可明言的故国之思。一座秣陵城，装载的是千年兴废与一身飘零，这正是此诗背景中最为沉痛的张力所在。

Art

The poem is built on sharp contrast. The first couplet’s grand topography heightens the sense of loss in the second, which reveals only weeds and fallen petals. The third couplet turns from landscape to human fate through allusion, while the final rhetorical question converts history into an endless river of sorrow. The middle couplets are strictly antithetical, yet the poem breathes with grief rather than stiff formalism.

首联牛首开天阙，龙岗抱帝宫，以赋笔极写南京形胜。牛首山双峰对峙如天阙洞开，钟山龙蟠抱拥帝宫，气象雄伟，是地之壮；颔联六朝春草里，万井落花中，笔锋陡转，以春草落花写尽繁华零落、城市残破，是事之衰。一扬一抑，反差强烈，是为全诗骨架。颈联访旧乌衣少，听歌玉树空，借乌衣巷、玉树后庭花两典，叹故家零落、遗音空寂，由形胜转入人事，由宏观收向微观。尾联如何亡国恨，尽在大江东，以问句收束，将六朝与南明之亡一并收束于大江，亡国之痛如江水长流不尽。全诗句句写地，句句写恨，以景之恒常反衬世之倏忽，格调苍凉沉郁。其艺术之要，在于对比与用典的精当，在于以地理之壮写心理之悲，在于把千钧之恨压在一个问号上，举重若轻而不落议论之窠臼。中二联对仗工稳，然气脉流动，不为骈俪所缚，这正是遗民诗于法度中见血泪的独到之处。

Allusions

Wuyi Lane was the aristocratic quarter of the Wang and Xie families in the Eastern Jin; Liu Yuxi’s famous poem used swallows as witnesses to their decline. Qu Dajun’s “few old friends remain” recalls that loss. The “Jade Tree” is the decadent court song of Chen Houzhu, traditionally seen as a sign of dynastic doom; Du Mu also used it to criticize careless rulers. The Great River itself had long been a symbol of time’s relentless flow, as in Li Bai’s poetry, and here it becomes the permanent bearer of national grief.

诗中用典，集中在颈联与地名。乌衣，指南京乌衣巷，东晋王导、谢安等世家聚居之地，刘禹锡《乌衣巷》有旧时王谢堂前燕，飞入寻常百姓家，以燕子见证门第兴衰；屈大均访旧乌衣少，正用此典，言故家冠盖凋零殆尽，所剩无几。玉树，指陈后主所制《玉树后庭花》，向被视为亡国之音，杜牧《泊秦淮》商女不知亡国恨，隔江犹唱后庭花即本此；此处听歌玉树空，谓旧时靡音已寂，盛世之乐不可复闻，暗含对沉溺声色致亡的讽喻。地名上，大江即长江，自李白《金陵酒肆留别》流水无情去，一喻时间之无情、兴废之必然。牛首、龙岗（钟山）皆为实指，却因其帝王气象而成为权力符号。这些典故与地名，并非堆砌，而是各有指归：乌衣写人事代谢，玉树写靡音亡国，大江写恨之无尽。屈大均以遗民之身，用这些积淀了兴亡之痛的语汇，把自己的亡国体验接入一部千年的金陵伤史，使个人之悲获得历史的纵深，也使六朝与南明两度倾覆在同一意象中重叠回响。

Commentary

Shen Deqian praised the lofty resonance of Qu Dajun’s poetry, and modern critics rank Qu with Chen Gongyin and Liang Peilan as masters of the Lingnan school. This poem is often placed beside Li Bai’s Phoenix Terrace and Liu Yuxi’s Wuyi Lane as one of the greatest poetic elegies for Jinling. Its uniqueness lies in making a single city absorb the grief of many ruined dynasties, and in using a rhetorical question to carry a whole nation’s pain.

屈大均此诗，向与《南京六首》等怀古诸作并观，为其遗民诗之代表。清人沈德潜《明诗别裁集》虽多拘于时忌，于屈诗亦不能不称其高浑；近人论岭南三家，每以陈恭尹之苍凉、梁佩兰之清雅、屈大均之沉郁并提，而屈之民族气节尤为世所重。此诗之妙，前人多许其结句，如何亡国恨，尽在大江东，以大江收束亡国之恨，与李白凤凰台、刘禹锡乌衣巷遥相呼应，同为凭吊金陵之千古绝唱。其以江山永恒反衬人事倏忽，寄慨遥深，遂使六朝与南明之亡合为一恨。今之论者，更重其以问句作结、不落议论之窠臼，于怀古诗中别出沉痛一格。亦有学者指出，诗中形胜之壮与残破之景的对照，实寓故国不堪回首之痛，非徒咏史而已。读此诗者，当于苍凉字面下，听见一个遗民对故国未冷的血泪，以及那一代士人在鼎革之际无处安放的家国之思。屈子沉江、庾信哀江南，皆以此类文字寄其孤愤，而屈大均之于秣陵，更以遗民血泪为六朝与南明同铸一恨，其沉痛实有过之。

Prosody

Form Five-character Regulated Verse (Wuyan Lüshi; eight lines in four couplets, with the middle couplets formally antithetical)五言律诗（八句四联，属今体近诗；首联与中二联、尾联俱全，中二联对仗）

Rhyme Level-tone rhymes in the Upper-Ping 'One-East' group: 宫 (gong), 中 (zhong), 空 (kong), 东 (dong). The rhyme is consistent throughout and its deep, broad vowels suit the poem’s grand yet sorrowful mood.押平水韵上平一东：宫、中、空、东，一韵到底，四韵相承，音色宏阔低沉，恰配江山形胜与亡国之恨的双重基调。

Tone pattern 牛首开天阙 (平仄平平仄) / 龙岗抱帝宫 (平平仄仄平) / 六朝春草里 (仄平平仄仄) / 万井落花中 (仄仄仄平平) / 访旧乌衣少 (仄仄平平仄) / 听歌玉树空 (平平仄仄平) / 如何亡国恨 (平平平仄仄) / 尽在大江东 (仄仄仄平平). The pattern follows the standard tonal grammar of the five-character regulated verse.牛首开天阙，平仄平平仄；龙岗抱帝宫，平平仄仄平；六朝春草里，仄平平仄仄；万井落花中，仄仄仄平平；访旧乌衣少，仄仄平平仄；听歌玉树空，平平仄仄平；如何亡国恨，平平平仄仄；尽在大江东，仄仄仄平平。首联平起入韵，中二联两两相对，合五律正格。

Reading note This lüshi uses all four couplets, with antithesis in the second and third couplets, and strict tonal alternation throughout. The opening is sonorous and official, the middle shifts into sorrow, and the final couplet breaks from formality with a question. Qu Dajun works within classical discipline but lets emotion unsettle the surface, making the form itself expressive of loyalist grief.秣陵一诗，体为五律，八句四联，中二联六朝春草里，万井落花中、访旧乌衣少，听歌玉树空皆两两对仗，属今体近诗之正格。其韵脚宫、中、空、东同属平水韵上平一东，一韵到底，音色既宏阔又低沉，恰配金陵形胜与亡国之恨的双重基调。声调上，首联平起入韵，气象雍容；颔联以春草落花对举，由壮转衰；颈联以乌衣玉树用典，由景入史；尾联以问句出之，破工整为沉郁。律诗本贵浑成，屈大均此作却于严整中藏跌宕，对仗而不板滞，用典而不堆垛，结句以虚字如何领起，使全篇从怀古的庄重中透出遗民的血泪。读其声，先觉其壮，再觉其悲，正见五律体式与兴亡之慨相得益彰之妙，亦见遗民诗虽守法度而终以情胜的特质。

Line by line

牛首开天阙，龙岗抱帝宫。

Ox-Head Peak and Dragon Ridge form a celestial gate and embrace the imperial palace, showing Nanjing’s supreme strategic grandeur before it is undercut by ruin.

牛首山双峰对峙，宛如拱卫天庭的阙楼；钟山龙蟠，紧紧环抱着帝王的宫城。

The Ox Head peaks stand open like the gates of heaven; the Dragon Hill, coiled, embraces the emperor's palace.

这一联是全诗的起手，先以雄阔之笔写尽金陵形胜。牛首开天阙，言牛首山双峰如天阙洞开；龙岗抱帝宫，言钟山龙蟠环抱帝王宫城。二者一南一东，拱卫古都，气象极其雄伟，足见此地确为帝王之宅。然细味之，起笔之壮，恰是为后文之衰作反衬。越是极写江山之固、形胜之雄，越显出人事之脆弱——如此天险，六朝保不住，南明也保不住。一个开字、一个抱字，赋予山川以主动之势，仿佛天地有心护持此城，而人却不能守，反差之中已有亡国之叹的伏笔。写景至此，已非单纯地志，而是以地理之壮写心理之悲，为全篇埋下苍凉的底色。

The couplet is the opening of the poem, first writing to the utmost the grandeur of Jinling in a bold brush. The Ox Head peaks stand open like the gates of heaven says the twin peaks of Ox Head Mountain stand open like the gates of heaven. The Dragon Hill, coiled, embraces the emperor's palace says the Bell Mountain, coiled like a dragon, embracing the imperial city. The two, one south, one east, guard the ancient capital, the atmosphere extremely grand, showing this place indeed the site of emperors. Yet tasted closely, the splendor of the opening is precisely the foil for the decay that follows: the more the poem writes the firmness of the rivers and hills, the grandeur of the strategic site, the more fragile the human affairs appear — such natural barriers, the Six Dynasties could not hold, the Southern Ming could not hold. The words open and embrace give the mountains and rivers an active force, as if heaven and earth had a heart to guard this city, yet man could not keep it; within the contrast the foreshadowing of the grief of a fallen country already lies. Writing scene at this point is no longer mere topography, but writing the grief of the heart through the grandeur of the geography, laying the desolate ground tone of the whole.

访旧乌衣少，听歌玉树空。

On Wuyi Lane few old families remain, and the once-famous Jade Tree song is heard no more; allusion merges with private sorrow.

访寻旧日乌衣门第，故人已所剩无几；想听一曲《玉树后庭花》，也早已空寂无声。

Seeking the old Black Swallow Lane houses, few remain; listening for the song of the Jade Tree, only silence is left.

颈联由形胜转入人事，由宏观收向微观，是全诗最见工力的一转。访旧乌衣少，化用刘禹锡乌衣巷典故，言寻访旧日王谢门第，故家冠盖已凋零殆尽；听歌玉树空，用陈后主《玉树后庭花》故实，叹当年靡靡遗音早已寂灭无声。一访一听，一少一空，写尽人事代谢、繁华成空的况味。尤其空字，既是实写弦歌之不闻，亦是虚写故国之无可追寻——盛世之乐既不可复闻，则盛世之人亦不可复见。这两句把颈联的吊古，写得既具体又空灵，使前联的春草落花有了人事的着落，也为尾联的亡国恨做好了从景到情的过渡。

The third couplet turns from the strategic site to human affairs, from the macroscopic to the microscopic, the most masterful turning of the poem. Seeking the old Black Swallow Lane houses, few remain transforms Liu Yuxi's Black Swallow Lane, saying that seeking the old mansions of the Wang and Xie, the old families have all but withered. Listening for the song of the Jade Tree, only silence is left uses the tale of Chen Houzhu's Jade Tree Blossoms in the Rear Court, sighing that the languid airs of old are long since hushed. One seeking, one listening; few, empty: writing to the full the change of human affairs and the emptiness of splendor. Especially the word empty: at once the real writing of the song unheard, and the virtual writing of the old country beyond seeking — the music of the age of splendor cannot be heard again, and the people of the age of splendor cannot be seen again. The two lines write the mourning of the third couplet at once concrete and ethereal, giving the spring grasses and fallen flowers of the previous couplet their human ground, and preparing the transition from scene to feeling for the closing couplet's grief of the fallen country.

如何亡国恨，尽在大江东。

A rhetorical question: why must all the grief of fallen states rest east of the Great River? The river becomes both witness and infinity.

为何这亡国之恨，竟都让大江东岸的秣陵独自承担。

How is it that all the grief of a fallen kingdom falls on the eastward flowing great river?

尾联以一问收束，是全诗最重的一笔。如何二字，是沉痛的反诘而非真要答案；亡国恨三字，把前面六朝春草、万井落花、乌衣零落、玉树空寂所有意象，一并收拢到一个情感核心。尽在大江东，以浩荡江水象征恨之无尽、之不可掇拾，秣陵临江而立，独承此恨，仿佛江山有意、独谴此城。这一问一收，举重若轻：千钧之痛，不靠议论，不靠痛哭，只落在一个问号上。大江东去，恨亦东流而不可断，余痛溢于纸外，正是怀古诗以景结情、言有尽而意无穷的典范，亦与李白、刘禹锡凭吊金陵之作同一机杼。

The closing couplet ends in a question, the weightiest stroke of the poem. The two words how are the sorrowful rhetorical question, not a true desire for an answer; the three words grief of a fallen kingdom gather all the images above — the Six Dynasties spring grasses, the ten thousand courtyards' fallen flowers, the Black Swallow Lane's decay, the Jade Tree's silence — into one emotional core. Falls on the eastward flowing great river uses the rolling river as the symbol of grief's endlessness, beyond gathering; Moling stands by the river, alone bearing this grief, as if the rivers and hills deliberately condemned this city. This question and this close bear a weight lightly: the pain of a thousand jun, not through argument, not through weeping, but resting on a single question mark. The great river flows east, and the grief flows east unceasing, the after-pain overflowing the paper; precisely the model of the historical poem ending emotion in scene, words ended and meaning unending, the same loom as Li Bai's and Liu Yuxi's laments over Jinling.

Study

Word focus

开 / 抱 A key expression in this poem; read it with the Chinese note below. 开与抱是首联二字眼，亦全诗炼字之要。开，言牛首双峰如天阙洞开，是空间上的舒展与显豁；抱，言钟山龙蟠环拥帝宫，是姿态上的温厚与护持。二字一舒一敛，赋予静态山川以主动之势与生命之感，仿佛天地有心拱卫这座帝王之都。更妙在二字所造之反差：江山如此有情有意、固若金汤，而人事竟如此不堪，六朝与南明相继倾覆。以山川之壮衬人事之衰，开抱二字实为全诗抑扬张本的枢纽，看似写景，已暗藏亡国之叹于形胜之中，是起笔即含收笔之哀的妙手。

尽 A key expression in this poem; read it with the Chinese note below. 尽字在尾联如何亡国恨，尽在大江东中，是全诗力透纸背的一字。亡国之恨本抽象而弥散，六朝之亡、南明之亡，恨岂止一城？屈大均以一尽字，将千年兴废之痛全部压在秣陵临江一隅，使无形的恨有了具体的承受者。尽有全部、无可逃脱之意，既写恨之集中，亦写城之独担，更暗含一种宿命式的悲凉：江山永恒，而人事倏忽，所有的兴亡之痛仿佛都注定要由这座临江古城反复承受。一字收束全局，举重若轻，使全诗从怀古的庄重中透出遗民的血泪，余味不尽。

少 / 空 A key expression in this poem; read it with the Chinese note below. 少与空是颈联的二字眼，一写人、一写声，共同织成繁华落尽的空寂。少，是访旧而归的实感，乌衣门第故人零落，所剩无多，是人事的凋零；空，是听歌而得的虚寂，玉树遗音杳不可闻，是盛世的消歇。二字皆以否定式的留白收束：不是写尽繁华，而是写繁华之后的无——无人、无声。这种以空写满、以无写有的笔法，比直写残破更令人怅惘，因为读者自己会从空里想起曾经的满。少与空前后呼应，把颈联的吊古推向一种无声的哀恸，为尾联的亡国恨蓄足了势。

秣陵