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清 Qing · 诗 Poem

题画兰

Orchid, Inscribed on a Painting

郑燮

Zheng Xie

身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠。
非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留。

On the summit of a thousand peaks I stand,
In the deep crack of a jutting rock, where the sweet scent is thick.
Not that the clouds below are lacking in turmoil —
They come without being asked, and go without a parting word.
Listen

Meaning

The orchid grows on the top of a thousand mountains, rooted in a fissure of rock, and its fragrance is dense there. Below it the clouds gather and press and hurry, but they arrive uninvited and leave without taking leave. With these four lines Zheng Xie gives the flower nothing except its own position and its own perfume: the orchid is not protected, only unattached. The poem is a self-portrait of a man who kept his independence in an age of fashion, and the最后 line — that the clouds neither know nor care — is where the indifference becomes a choice.

身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠。非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留。

Appreciation

[Structure] The poem is a quatrain of four seven-character lines, and each line does one piece of work: place, fragrance, the clouds' behaviour, and the orchid's. [Imagery] The images are chosen for their severity — a thousand peaks, a jutting rock, a deep crack; and for their insubstantiality — cloud, drifting, pressing. [Technique] The most important move is the opening concession: `not that the clouds below are lacking in turmoil' grants the world its noise in order to be untouched by it. The final line completes the argument by refusing both attachment and resistance. [Mood] The voice is dry and level, and the ordinariness of the last words — `they come, and go' — does more than any adjective could. The poem's quietness is what makes its defiance effective.

【白话串讲】 郑燮（郑板桥）写《题画兰》：“身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠”——“非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留”——他题画兰——身在千山顶上头——来不相知去不留。 【意象与手法】 “身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠”以千山顶、突岩深缝写兰之居险香浓；“非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留”以浮云之闹反衬兰之超然。咏物言志、清峻高洁。 【情感与主旨】 郑板桥题画兰之作，借兰花生于绝顶、香气自持写自身孤高自守、不随流俗的品格，是“扬州八怪”郑燮咏物言志的代表。 【名句点睛】 常考“身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠”以千山顶写兰之孤高；“非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留”以浮云反衬超然。

Background

Zheng Xie (1693–1766), courtesy name Kerou, so-called Banqiao, was from Xinghua, Jiangsu, and is remembered as a painter, calligrapher and one of the `Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou'. He passed the degrees late and reached the rank of county magistrate only in middle age, and he resigned after the episode of the starving people of Shandong, refusing to deliver a case he thought unjust. His painting and his poetry share a single habit: he inscribes his pictures with the moral he finds in the thing painted, and he does not hide himself behind it. The orchid is his favourite subject precisely because it is seems to be a plain plant; this quatrain is one of some dozen inscribed on orchid paintings, and all of them turn the flower into a statement about where the painter stands.

《题画兰》为清代书画家、文学家郑燮所作诗。郑燮（1693—1766），字克柔，号板桥，江苏兴化人，清代书画家、文学家，为「扬州八怪」之一。此诗写咏物言志，为题画兰之作。诗中「身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠」写身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠；「非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留」写非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留。郑燮此诗以咏物言志、来不相知去不留写其言志之情，慷慨豪迈，是郑燮诗中的名篇。此篇《题画兰》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《题画兰》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's whole art is one gesture: it makes a claim by first conceding the opposite. `Not that the clouds below are lacking in turmoil' grants that the world is noisy, busy, urgent — and then answers with the fact that the orchid is not saved by anything and does not need anything. The contrast is not developed into a battle; it is stated as two facts observed side by side: the summit, the crack, the dense fragrance, the clouds coming and going. By giving the orchid only its position and its scent, Zheng refuses to make it a symbol that fights; its independence is not achieved by resistance, and that is why the poem feels calm rather than proud. The last two words are the ones that decide the tone: `they come, and go without a parting word' — the world has no interest in the orchid, and the orchid has no interest in the world. In four lines and twenty-eight characters the poem reaches a position that would have taken a longer poem to argue, and does it with a diction that never rises above plain speech.

此诗艺术上以「慷慨豪迈、以兰写志」见长。全诗共四句，由身在千山顶上头而突岩深缝妙香稠而非无脚下浮云闹。起「身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠」写身在千山顶上头：身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠；「非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留」写来不相知去不留：非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留。全诗以兰写志，由身在千山顶上头而来不相知去不留，慷慨豪迈，是郑燮诗中的名篇。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。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

The orchid is the older of China's flower symbols, and by the Qing it carried a whole literature: in the Ruan Ji and Tao Qian tradition it is a plant kept for its own sake, and in the Confucian manuals it is the emblem of the quietly-cherished virtue that does not seek reward. Zheng's use of it is here entirely unliterary — no earlier poet is quoted, no classic is summoned — and this restraint is in fact the allusion, since it returns the flower to the plainest level of meaning. The clouds below suggest the ordinary world of ambition and business; `coming uninvited and going without leave' describes how public attention behaves, and by giving it only that behaviour the poem avoids naming it. The depth of the poem is thus made of the absence of reference: there is nothing to look up, only two things seen from above.

诗中「身在千山顶上头突岩深缝妙香稠」「非无脚下浮云闹来不相知去不留」等语，皆含典故故实。「身在千山顶上头突岩深缝妙香稠」写身在千山顶上头突岩深缝妙香稠；「非无脚下浮云闹来不相知去不留」写非无脚下浮云闹来不相知去不留。诗人以千山、浮云等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把咏物言志之情写得慷慨淋漓，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。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 quatrain is among the most quoted of Zheng Xie's short poems, and it is commonly used to explain his character — a man who resigned office over an injustice and thereafter refused to perform for fashion. Readers of the modern period have especially valued the last couplet, in which the cloud's indifference is stated without any hardening of the voice, so that the poem's pride never becomes a quarrel. In the history of the花鸟 poem the piece stands as an example of the inscribed poem, the short verse written on a picture that must say what the picture cannot. It has also been a favourite of anthologies of the `Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou' because it shows how completely a painter's ethics can be compressed into four lines.

这首《题画兰》，是郑燮写咏物言志之作，写身在千山顶上头、非无脚下浮云闹、来不相知去不留之情，慷慨豪迈。起「身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠」——身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠。写身在千山顶上头：身在千山顶上头、突岩深缝妙香稠——千山顶上头、深缝妙香稠；「非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留」——非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留。写来不相知去不留：非无脚下浮云闹、来不相知去不留——脚下浮云闹、来去不留。这「非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留」，是全诗之结：以来不相知去不留写其言志。全诗慷慨豪迈，以兰写志，正是郑燮诗中的名篇。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。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 Poem (seven-character quatrain)诗（七言绝句）
Rhyme Four seven-character lines, rhyming throughout on the rounded finals of the 尤 group: `thick' and `stay without a word'. The rhyme is dense and on a long close vowel, which gives the quatrain its settled, closed sound; the second line is unrhymed and rings against the first, so the form sounds most firm at the couplet.此诗为七言绝句，共四句，两句一联。押平声韵：「稠」「留」押尤部韵。诗体依绝句而定，句式整齐，音节随情起伏，正与写咏物言志的慷慨豪迈相称，也见其以绝句写言志的自然。
Tone pattern The voice is level from beginning to end: the first line is high and open, rising to the summit; the third drops to the low, buoyant rhythm of the clouds' argument; the close is even and slow, as the longest vowel in the poem is drawn out. The regulated quatrain's pause before the last three characters throughout keeps the emphasis at the end of every line, and here the ends are exactly where the meaning lies.句式上，「身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠」写身在千山顶上头，音节豪迈；「非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留」写来不相知去不留，音节旷达。全诗音节随情起伏，由豪迈而旷达，正合绝句「含蓄」之妙，读来如咏物言志、来不相知去不留之音，慷慨而动人。
Reading note The poem is a regulated quatrain, and the form is entirely serviceable, but its distinction is that it uses all the resources of regularity to produce a feeling of stillness: the same rhyme runs through all four lines, the line-length never varies, and nothing in the sound suggests effort. The effect of that fixed frame is to put the reader in the same relation to the poem as the orchid is to the clouds — unmoved by what passes. The final vowel, held longer than the others, opens the poem out at the last moment into the drift of clouds without breaking the frame. This is the prosody of an inscribed picture: it must be short, it must stand still, and it must not raise its voice.此诗为七言绝句，是郑燮写咏物言志之作，也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「慷慨豪迈、以兰写志」：「身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠」写身在千山顶上头、「非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留」写来不相知去不留。全诗慷慨豪迈，以兰写志。尤为精妙者，是「身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠」写尽兰之高；而「非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留」写尽兰之洁，正是郑燮诗「慷慨豪迈」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《题画兰》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

身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠。

On the summit of a thousand peaks I stand, in the deep crack of a jutting rock, where the sweet scent is thick.

身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠。

It dwells on the highest summits of a thousand peaks, its fine fragrance dense in the deep crevices of the jutting crags.

首二句写身在千山顶上头，起笔即见其兰。「身在千山顶上头」写身在千山顶上头，「身在」写身居、「千山顶上头」写千山顶上；「突岩深缝妙香稠」写突岩深缝妙香稠，「突岩深缝」写突岩深缝、「妙香稠」写妙香稠。两句一写身在千山顶上头、一写突岩深缝妙香稠，以身在千山顶上头写身居山顶、以突岩深缝妙香稠写深缝香稠，写尽身在千山顶上头、突岩深缝妙香稠之情。以兰起兴，慷慨而豪迈，是「以兰起兴」的妙笔。

The opening two lines write dwelling on the highest summits, the orchid visible from the first stroke. It dwells on the highest summits of a thousand peaks writes the dwelling on the mountain tops. Its fine fragrance dense in the deep crevices of the jutting crags writes the deep crevices and the rich fragrance. Two lines: one of dwelling on the summits of a thousand peaks, one of the jutting crags' deep crevices and the dense fine fragrance. Writing the dwelling on the summits, writing the deep crevices' dense fragrance, exhausting the dwelling on the peaks and the crevice fragrance. Raising on the orchid, generous and heroic, the fine brush of raising feeling through the orchid.

非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留。

Not that the clouds below are lacking in turmoil — they come without being asked, and go without a parting word.

非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留。

Not that the floating clouds are not bustling beneath it; they come unknown to it, and it does not stay them when they go.

尾二句写来不相知去不留，是全诗立意的落点。「非无脚下浮云闹」写非无脚下浮云闹，「非无」写并非没有、「脚下浮云闹」写脚下浮云闹；「来不相知去不留」写来不相知去不留，「来不相知」写来不相知、「去不留」写去不留。两句一写非无脚下浮云闹、一写来不相知去不留，以非无脚下浮云闹写浮云闹、以来不相知去不留写来去不留，写尽非无脚下浮云闹、来不相知去不留之情。以兰写志，慷慨而豪迈，是全诗最动人处，也是「以兰写志」的点睛之笔。

The closing two lines write coming unknown and going unkept, the landing point of the poem's intent. Not that the floating clouds are not bustling beneath it writes the clouds' bustle below. They come unknown to it, and it does not stay them when they go writes the coming unknown and the going unkept. Two lines: one of the clouds bustling below, one of the coming unknown and going unkept. Writing the floating clouds' bustle, writing the coming and going unkept, exhausting the bustling clouds and the unkept coming and going. Writing resolve through the orchid, generous and heroic, the most moving passage of the poem, and the pointed brush of writing resolve through the orchid.

Study

Word focus

千山 A thousand peaks — not a count but an extremity; the phrase gives the orchid the highest and least sheltered ground on earth, and so makes its scent a matter of difficulty rather than of choice. 「千山」写身在千山顶上头，是写千山之态的关键。「身在千山顶上头」着一「千山」，写千山——着一「千山」，写身在千山顶上头，见其山之千。两字写尽千山之态，是「以词写山」的妙笔。「千山」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。
妙香 A marvellous, rare fragrance; the orchid's only possession, and therefore the whole of what it offers: the poem gives it no beauty of form and no companions, only its scent. 「妙香」写突岩深缝妙香稠，是写妙香之态的关键。「突岩深缝妙香稠」着一「妙香」，写妙香——着一「妙香」，写突岩深缝妙香稠，见其香之妙。两字写尽妙香之态，是「以词写香」的点睛之词。「妙香」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。
浮云 Drifting cloud, the emblem of the restless world below; here it also carries the older meaning of news and of transience, and is allowed to do its work without comment. 「浮云」写非无脚下浮云闹，是写浮云之态的关键。「非无脚下浮云闹」着一「浮云」，写浮云——着一「浮云」，写非无脚下浮云闹，见其云之浮。两字写尽浮云之态，是「以词写云」的点睛之词。「浮云」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。
不留 Does not stay, takes no leave; the two verbs of the cloud's coming and going are compressed here into a single characteristic, so that the world's inattention is stated as its custom rather than as an insult to the orchid. 「不留」写来不相知去不留，是写不留之态的关键。「来不相知去不留」着一「不留」，写不留——着一「不留」，写来不相知去不留，见其去之不留。两字写尽不留之态，是「以词写留」的点睛之词。「不留」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

山园小梅 The Small Garden of the Hills: The Plum 林逋 · 同写咏花言志、以物喻志，一写疏影横斜水清浅暗香浮动月黄昏、一写身在千山顶上头突岩深缝妙香稠，皆于咏花之中见言志 Both write of a flower and of the self, one by the lines of the plum's shadow and its hidden scent, the other by the summit and the drifting cloud; each puts a moral into a single observed quality of the plant.

Lin Bu's `The Small Garden of the Hills' gives two of the most famous lines in Chinese flower poetry: `its shadow leans and crosses the clear shallow water, its hidden scent floats in the moon of the dusk hour' — the plum praised for a beauty that cannot be taken hold of, and the poem ends by refusing either to name the flower or to sell the garden. Zheng Xie's orchid reaches a comparable place by other means: there is no shadow to describe and no moon, only `a thousand peaks' and `a deep crack', and the flower's whole claim is its scent in an unwelcoming place. One is the elegance of a retired scholar at his window, the other the roughness of a man who has resigned office; one is清逸, one is豪迈; both turn a plant into a statement about where the poet stands and what he refuses to do with it.

林逋《山园小梅》「疏影横斜水清浅，暗香浮动月黄昏」，写梅之清雅、言志，是宋诗咏物的绝唱；郑燮《题画兰》则以「身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠」「非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留」写千山顶上头、来去不留。两诗同写咏花言志、以物喻志：一写疏影横斜水清浅暗香浮动月黄昏、以梅写清雅，一写身在千山顶上头突岩深缝妙香稠、以兰写志；一为林逋之清逸、一为郑燮之豪迈，并读正可见诗写「咏花言志」的两种笔法，皆于咏花之中见言志。

 浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯 Silk-Washing Stream: A New Song, One Cup of Wine 晏殊 · 同写感怀言志、无可奈何，一写无可奈何花落去、一写非无脚下浮云闹来不相知去不留，皆于感怀之中见言志 Both turn on a helplessness that cannot be answered — the fall of the flowers on the one hand, the coming and going of the clouds on the other — and in both the poet declines to fight it.

Yan Shu's `Silk-Washing Stream' is built on the pair `the flowers fall with no recourse; the swallows return I seem to have known before' — loss and recurrence, and the poet's only resource is a cup of wine and a quiet courtyard. Zheng Xie grants the same disorder below (`the clouds below are full of turmoil') and then reports that he is untouched by it. The difference is in response: Yan accepts the cycle in a tone of gentle regret, whereas Zheng has already moved outside it, and does not quite say so. The two poems measure the same distance from the world by two different instruments — the regret of a man inside time and the equanimity of a man on a summit — and the comparison shows how much of the effect lies in the choice of tone.

晏殊《浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯》「无可奈何花落去，似曾相识燕归来」，写感怀言志，是宋词小令的名篇；郑燮《题画兰》则以「非无脚下浮云闹，来不相知去不留」「身在千山顶上头，突岩深缝妙香稠」写浮云闹、千山顶上头。两诗同写感怀言志、无可奈何：一写无可奈何花落去、以花落燕归写惜时，一写非无脚下浮云闹来不相知去不留、以浮云写言志；一为晏殊之温润、一为郑燮之豪迈，并读正可见诗写「感怀言志」的两种笔法，皆于感怀之中见言志。