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宋 Song · 诗 Poem

南安军

Nan'anjun (At Nan'an Garrison)

文天祥

Wen Tianxiang

爱国Patriotism 气节Moral Integrity 民族National Spirit

梅花南北路，风雨湿征衣。
出岭同谁出？
归乡如不归！
山河千古在，城郭一时非。
饿死真吾志，梦中行采薇。

Plum blossoms line the road from north to south; wind and rain soak the traveler's robe.
Who was it that crossed the ridge with me?
To come home is as if not coming home at all!
The mountains and rivers endure for a thousand ages; the city walls are for a moment no longer ours.
To starve to death is truly my resolve —
in my dreams I walk gathering ferns.

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Meaning

Written as a captive being marched north through his homeland, this regulated verse compresses a lifetime of loyalty into forty characters. Passing Mei Ridge in the rain, Wen Tianxiang mourns his lost companions and finds his homecoming no homecoming at all, since the dynasty he served is gone. Facing this collapse he holds to an ancient standard — the sages Boyi and Shuqi, who starved rather than serve a new order — and pledges to follow them even in his dreams.

一路行来，梅花开遍了梅岭的南北两侧，风雨打湿了远行人的征衣。我越过梅岭，是同谁一起出来呢？本想回归故乡，如今却如同不能归去一般！山河千古长存，城郭却一时变易、已非故国。宁可饿死，也不改我的志向，正如伯夷叔齐不食周粟，那是我梦中也愿追随的采薇之行。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Plum blossoms along the ridge road, rain-soaked robes: the captive traveler passes his own country. Who crossed the ridge with him? No one — his comrades are dead or scattered. And homecoming? A captive in a conquered land does not come home. Then the poem widens: mountains and rivers are eternal; it is only the dynastic city that has changed hands. Final vow: better to starve than submit — in his dreams he already walks with Boyi and Shuqi, gathering ferns on Shouyang Mountain. [Structure] The eight lines move from scene, to self-question, to historical vision, to vow — a ladder rising from the rain-soaked road to the plane of moral absolutes. [Imagery] The plum blossom — emblem of purity surviving winter — frames the poem, while soaked robes records the humiliation of captivity in two plain words. The mountains-and-rivers couplet is the poem's moral center: permanence and change measured against each other. And the ending's dream makes the pledge unconscious as well as conscious — fidelity so deep it inhabits sleep.

【白话串讲】文天祥写《南安军》：“梅花南北路，风雨湿征衣”——“出岭同谁出？归乡如不归”——“山河千古在，城郭一时非”——“饿死真吾志，梦中行采薇”——他被押北上，过南安军——饿死真吾志。【意象与手法】诗以梅花起兴，以风雨湿征衣写被俘北行的艰辛，以山河与城郭的对照写家国之痛，以采薇典故明志，意象鲜明而含蕴深厚。全诗以问答自问自答，情辞悲壮，气节凛然。【情感与主旨】这是一首以生命践行的绝命诗。文天祥以饿死真吾志的决绝，向天地宣告自己宁死不屈的忠义。山河千古在，城郭一时非，道出了对祖国永恒与王朝兴替的清醒认知；梦中行采薇，则把不食周粟的典故化为自己的精神归宿。全诗壮烈而不失沉痛，凛然之气千载犹存。【名句点睛】常考“山河千古在，城郭一时非”以山河与城郭的对照写家国之痛；“饿死真吾志，梦中行采薇”以采薇之典明志，情辞悲壮、气节凛然。

Background

Wen Tianxiang (1236–1283), courtesy name Songrui, was a native of Jizhou Luling (modern Ji'an, Jiangxi). Top graduate of 1256 and grand councilor of the Southern Song, he led resistance against the Yuan after the fall of the capital, was captured in 1278, and refused every inducement to surrender, dying in 1283. This poem was written as he was escorted north past Mei Ridge in Nan'an commandery (modern Dayu, Jiangxi) — his home territory — in the year after his capture. It stands with Crossing the Lonely Ocean and the Song of the Upright Spirit as one of his three great farewell-to-life works, and its blend of grief and defiance made it a scripture of loyalty for later China.

文天祥，字宋瑞，一字履善，号文山，吉州庐陵人，南宋末年杰出的民族英雄、爱国诗人。他二十岁状元及第，官至右丞相。德祐二年，元军兵临临安，文天祥出使元营谈判被扣，后脱险南归，起兵勤王，转战东南。景炎三年，他在广东海丰兵败被俘，元将劝降，他书过零丁洋以明志，留下人生自古谁无死、留取丹心照汗青的千古名句。此后他被押解北上，途经故乡吉州与梅岭。南安军即今江西大余县一带，宋时设南安军，梅岭正位于此，是岭南山脉的重要关隘，也是文天祥北上途中经过的家乡故土。此诗大约作于他被押解北行、经过南安军梅岭之时。一路上，他眼见山河破碎、故国沦亡，而自己身为俘虏，虽过故乡而不能归，心中悲愤交加，遂写下此诗。诗中梅花、风雨、山河、城郭，既是眼前实景，也寄寓着深重的家国之痛。此诗与过零丁洋、正气歌同为文天祥被俘后的绝命之作，以凛然的气节光照千古，是南宋末年爱国诗中最沉痛也最壮烈的篇章之一。

Art

The poem's power is its plainness. There is no ornament: wind and rain soak the traveler's robe reports a fact that is also a humiliation. The second couplet turns the language of the marketplace into agony — who crossed the ridge with me? is a real question with no real answer, and to come home is as if not coming home negates itself in the act of speaking. The fifth and sixth lines perform a historical shift of perspective in ten characters: permanence (mountains and rivers) against transience (city walls), grief enlarged into wisdom. The close welds fact to myth: to starve to death is truly my resolve states the decision flatly, and in my dreams I walk gathering ferns gives it a home in the unconscious. Restraint everywhere; grandeur nowhere forced.

此诗在艺术上最动人处，是以平实的笔调写极端的处境，于朴素中见出凛然的气节。首联梅花南北路、风雨湿征衣，写被俘北行、途经梅岭的实景，梅花与风雨一明一暗，既点出时令与地名，也暗含坚守与摧折的对照。颔联出岭同谁出、归乡如不归，以自问自答的句式写被掳北归、过乡不能归的沉痛，同谁出三字，写尽孤身被俘的凄凉；如不归三字，写尽有家难归的悲哀。颈联山河千古在、城郭一时非，以山河与城郭对照，道出对祖国永恒与朝代更替的清醒认识，是此诗的思想高峰。尾联饿死真吾志、梦中行采薇，以伯夷叔齐不食周粟的典故明志，把以死殉国的决心化为具体的精神归宿。全诗由景入情，由情入理，由理见志，层层推进，一气呵成。诗人不事雕琢，不用华辞，只以最朴素的语言写最沉重的处境，反而更见其志之坚、其情之真，正是至情无文、大悲无言的力量。

Allusions

The allusions are few and exact. Plum blossoms on the ridge: Mei Ridge took its name from the plums along its road, and the flower — blooming through frost — is the classical emblem of integrity under pressure, so the opening scene is also a self-portrait. The couplet on mountains and rivers echoes the Eastern Jin lament at Xinting over the barbarian invasion — the scenery is no different, only the mountains and rivers have changed — turning private grief into dynastic elegy. Gathering ferns is the story from Sima Qian's Biographies of Boyi: the brothers Boyi and Shuqi refused to eat the grain of the Zhou that had overthrown their Shang lords, and starved on Shouyang Mountain, gathering ferns to eat. Wen Tianxiang casts himself as their heir, and the fern becomes the badge of his refusal.

此诗用典不多而极深切。梅花南北路，梅岭因多梅而得名，宋时岭上有白梅夹道，南北行人经此，皆见梅花。文天祥以梅花起兴，既是写实，也暗合梅花凌寒傲雪、高洁不屈的象征意义，以梅花的品格自励。归乡如不归，如字写尽近乡情怯而又不能归的复杂心绪。山河千古在、城郭一时非，暗用世说新语中风景不殊、正自有山河之异的新亭对泣典故，以山河永恒与城郭变易对照，写故国沦亡之痛。饿死真吾志、梦中行采薇，用史记伯夷列传的典故：伯夷、叔齐不食周粟，隐居首阳山，采薇而食，终至饿死。文天祥以伯夷叔齐自比，表明宁死不降的志节，而梦中行采薇五字，更把这志节化为梦中也念念不忘的精神追求，比直说宁死不屈更见深沉。全诗典故皆切合身世处境，不事炫博而自然贴切，把个人的忠义与民族的气节、眼前的路程与千古的志节熔铸为一，正是文天祥诗以气节为骨、以学问为用的体现。

Commentary

From the Yuan dynasty onward this poem has been read as the testament of Southern Song loyalty. Critics have always given their deepest praise to the last two lines — to starve to death is truly my resolve; in my dreams I walk gathering ferns — which they rank beside leave a loyal heart to shine in the annals from Crossing the Lonely Ocean. The special achievement noted by commentators is the couplet on mountains and rivers and city walls: in ten characters it converts dynastic collapse into historical consciousness without weakening resolve by a hair. For later readers — through the Ming-Qing transition and into the modern era — the poem's fusion of personal fate with national survival has kept it among the most quoted verses in the Chinese canon of political loyalty.

文天祥此诗，历来被视为南宋遗民气节的绝唱。后人评此诗，最重其尾联饿死真吾志、梦中行采薇二句，以为把以死殉国的决心写得既决绝又深沉，直可与过零丁洋的留取丹心照汗青并观。论者以为，文天祥的过人之处，不仅在于抗元死节的行动，更在于他把这种气节升华为一种精神境界：山河千古在，城郭一时非，他看透了王朝兴替的必然，却仍以永恒的民族气节相砥砺；饿死真吾志，梦中行采薇，他把伯夷叔齐的古典精神化为自己梦中的归宿。这种清醒与决绝，使他的诗超越了个人遭遇的悲叹，而具有了民族精神史的永恒价值。历代评家每以文天祥与岳飞、陆游并举，以为皆是以生命谱写爱国诗篇的典范，而文天祥在国破家亡之际所写的气节诗，其沉痛与壮烈，又自有其不可替代的地位。要之，此诗以真情动人，以气节不朽，是南宋爱国诗史乃至整个中国文学史上最光辉的篇章之一。

Prosody

Form Five-character regulated verse (wulü), oblique-start with the first line unrhymed — the classic pattern for a solemn, restrained statement.五言律诗，仄起首句不入韵式

Rhyme The poem rhymes on the level-tone wei group: yi, gui, fei and wei, with the opening line deliberately left unrhymed so the rhyme only settles in with the second line. The level wei rhyme is low and prolonged, its drawn-out resonance suiting the poem's grief-laden, elegiac pace; the four rhyme words themselves move from soaked robes to blocked homecoming to lost city to vowed fidelity, so the rhyme marks the poem's argument.全诗押平声微韵，韵脚为衣、归、非、薇四字，首句不入韵。微韵音色低回绵长，正合全诗沉痛悲壮的基调。衣字写征衣湿透的屈辱，归字写有家难归的悲怆，非字写城郭易主的沉痛，薇字写采薇明志的高洁，四个韵脚由实入虚、由悲入志，韵随情转，把一位囚徒途经故土的心路历程，凝于绵长的微韵之中。

Tone pattern The tonal schemes follow the standard patterns: the first line (ping ping ping ze ze) against the second (ping ze ze ping ping) opens in a low, measured tread; the third (ze ze ping ping ze) and fourth (ping ping ping ze ping) twist into an aching question; the fifth (ping ping ping ze ze) and sixth (ping ze ze ping ping) widen into grave, spacious movement; and the seventh (ze ze ping ping ze) with the eighth (ze ping ping ze ping) close in clipped, vow-like cadence — the sound itself grows more erect as the will hardens.首句梅花南北路，平平平仄仄，次句风雨湿征衣，平仄仄平平，两句平仄谐畅而略带低沉；三句出岭同谁出，仄仄平平仄，四句归乡如不归，平平平仄平，于谐畅中见拗峭，正如归乡如不归的沉痛；五句山河千古在，平平平仄仄，六句城郭一时非，平仄仄平平，声调开阔沉稳，与山河永恒的思理相合；七句饿死真吾志，仄仄平平仄，八句梦中行采薇，仄平平仄平，仄起而结于平声，斩截中见凛然之气。全诗平仄谐畅中有拗峭，声调与情感起伏相合，读来既沉痛又凛然。

Reading note The prosody of this poem is a study in the matching of sound to moral stance. The unrhymed opening line leaves the first couplet oddly bare, as though the rain-soaked road admits no music; once the rhyme enters, it never leaves, binding grief and vow in one continuous low song. The middle couplet's broad, level pattern gives the historical vision room to breathe, while the final couplet's angular turns give the language the hardness of an oath. Throughout, the regulated verse's demand for order becomes the audible form of the prisoner's unbroken dignity.此诗为五言律诗，深得声情相谐之妙。首联梅花南北路、风雨湿征衣，以平缓低沉的声调起笔，如一位囚徒在风雨中踽踽独行，两句平平仄仄的交替，正合行路之艰辛；颔联出岭同谁出、归乡如不归，以拗峭的声调写沉痛的问答，归乡如不归五字，平仄拗折，读来如一声长叹，把有家难归的悲哀凝于声调之中；颈联山河千古在、城郭一时非，声调忽然开阔沉稳，平平平仄仄、平仄仄平平的流转，如山河之永恒与城郭之变易，一收一放，气象顿开；尾联饿死真吾志、梦中行采薇，仄仄平平仄、仄平平仄平，以拗峭之调收束，斩截有力，如誓言掷地。全诗声调由低沉到开阔再到斩截，与由景入情、由情入理、由理见志的结构相合，让读者在声音的起伏中，感受到一位英雄从屈辱到悲愤、从悲愤到觉醒、从觉醒到决绝的心路历程，是五律中声情并茂的典范。

Line by line

梅花南北路，风雨湿征衣。

Plum blossoms line the road from north to south; wind and rain soak the traveler's robe.

梅花开遍了梅岭的南北两侧，风雨打湿了远行人的征衣。

Plum blossoms line the road north and south of the ridge; wind and rain wet the traveler's robe.

首联写被俘北行、途经梅岭的实景，以景起兴，情景交融。梅花南北路，既写梅岭的地名由来，也写出这一路梅花夹道、南北皆见的景象，而梅花的凌寒傲雪、高洁不屈，正暗合诗人此时的心境。风雨湿征衣，写被掳北行途中的艰辛：风雨交加，打湿了征衣，一个湿字，既写实，也写尽此行的狼狈与屈辱。梅花是明，风雨是暗，一明一暗，一高一洁一凄冷，形成强烈的对照：梅花愈是高洁，愈反衬出征衣湿透的狼狈；风雨愈是凄冷，愈衬出诗人心中那份不曾被浇灭的坚守。两句看似写景，实则把一位囚徒经过故乡时的复杂心绪，都融进了这梅花与风雨之中。起笔不着一字悲愤，而悲愤自见，是此诗含蓄深沉处。

The opening couplet writes the real scene of the captive march north past the Plum Ridge, rising on scene, scene and feeling fused. The plum blossoms line the road north and south of the ridge at once names the ridge's toponym and writes the plum-lined road seen both north and south; the plum's braving of frost and snow, its purity and unyieldingness, secretly match the poet's mood. Wind and rain wet the traveler's robe writes the march's hardship: the wind and rain together wetting the robe, the one word wet at once the fact and the exile's humiliation. The plum is the bright, the wind and rain the dark, one bright one dark, one lofty one bleak, forming the sharp contrast: the purer the plum, the more it sets off the robe's soaked wretchedness; the bleaker the rain, the more it sets off the unquenched resolve. Two lines seeming to write scene, and yet fusing a captive's tangled feeling passing through his homeland. The opening not one word of grief, and the grief self-seen, precisely this poem's restrained depth.

出岭同谁出？归乡如不归！

Who was it that crossed the ridge with me? To come home is as if not coming home at all!

我越过梅岭，是同谁一起出来的呢？本想回归故乡，如今却如同不能归去一般！

I cross the ridge — with whom do I cross? Returning to my homeland, it is as though I never returned!

颔联以自问自答写尽被掳北归、过乡不能归的沉痛，是全诗最令人心碎的一笔。出岭同谁出，一个问句，写尽孤身被俘的凄凉：当年他从岭南起兵抗元，与多少志士一同转战；如今他被押解北归，身边却再无同伴，只剩他一人。同谁出三字，既是现实的写照，也暗含对当年并肩抗敌的战友的追念，更隐含着无人同路的悲怆。归乡如不归，如字是诗眼：他如今正经过故乡，这本是归乡，然而身为俘虏、山河易主，这哪里算得上归？有家不能归、归乡如不归，这种近乡情怯而终不能归的痛苦，比远在他乡的思乡更深一层。两句一问一叹，把一位英雄在故乡土地上的屈辱与悲愤，写得催人泪下。

The neck couplet, in the self-asked and self-answered, exhausts the captive-northbound, passing-home-and-yet-not-home grief, the poem's most heart-breaking stroke. I cross the ridge — with whom do I cross? a question, exhausting the lone-captivity's desolation: he once raised the army from the south of the ridge against the Yuan, fighting on with how many comrades; now escorted north, no comrade at his side, only himself. The three words with whom at once the fact's portrait, the secret longing for the fallen comrades, and the uncompanionable grief. Returning to my homeland, it is as though I never returned! the word as is the line's eye: he now passes through the homeland, this by nature the returning, and yet as a captive, the mountains changed hands — what returning is this? The home-returning-impossible, the home-returning-as-non-returning, this near-home shyness and yet the non-returning grief, one layer deeper than the far-away homesickness. Two lines, one question one sigh, writing a hero's humiliation and grief on his own home soil to the moving point.

山河千古在，城郭一时非。

The mountains and rivers endure for a thousand ages; the city walls are for a moment no longer ours.

山河千古长存，城郭却一时变易，已非故国。

The mountains and rivers endure through the ages; the walls and towers, for a moment, are no longer ours.

颈联是此诗的思想高峰，把个人的悲愤提升到对历史与民族的深沉认识。山河千古在，写山川大地永恒长存，不为朝代兴亡而改易；城郭一时非，写人间的城郭宫室却随王朝更替而变迁，已非故国旧观。一古一今，一永恒一短暂，以山河之永恒对照城郭之易主，道出了诗人对历史兴亡的清醒洞察：王朝可以灭亡，而山河不会；城郭可以易主，而民族精神不灭。这一句既有对故国沦亡的沉痛，更有对民族永恒的信念，是文天祥于绝境中仍不绝望的精神支柱。他之所以能立下饿死真吾志的誓言，正是基于这样清醒的历史观：正因看透了城郭一时非，才更要以永恒的志节相守；正因相信山河千古在，才甘愿以自己的生命为民族留一份正气。两句十字，沉雄有力，思理与情感并至，是千古传诵的名句。

The spine couplet is the poem's thought peak, raising the personal grief to the deep understanding of history and the nation. The mountains and rivers endure through the ages writes the land's eternity, unchanged by the dynasties' rise and fall; the walls and towers, for a moment, are no longer ours writes the human walls and palaces changing with the dynastic turns, no longer the old sight. One ancient one present, one eternal one brief, the eternal mountains set against the walls' changing hands, speaking the poet's lucid insight into the rise and fall: the dynasty may perish, and the mountains and rivers not; the walls may change hands, and the national spirit not die. This line at once the grief for the fallen old country, and the faith in the nation's eternity, the spiritual pillar of Wen Tianxiang's not-despairing in the dead end. His ability to swear the starving-to-death-is-my-resolve oath is based on such a lucid historical view: precisely because he sees through the walls'-momentary-change, the more he keeps watch with the eternal integrity; precisely because he believes the mountains and rivers endure, the more he offers his life that the nation's righteousness remain. Two lines, ten characters, somber and powerful, thought and feeling together, a famous verse through the ages.

饿死真吾志，梦中行采薇。

To starve to death is truly my resolve — in my dreams I walk gathering ferns.

宁可饿死，也不改我的志向，正如伯夷叔齐不食周粟，那是我梦中也愿追随的采薇之行。

Starving to death is truly my resolve; in my dreams I go gathering the fern shoots.

尾联以伯夷叔齐的典故明志，把以死殉国的决心化为具体的精神归宿，是全诗的升华。饿死真吾志，直陈宁可饿死也决不降敌的决心，一个真字，见出这不是一时激愤，而是经过深思的坚定志向。梦中行采薇，用伯夷叔齐不食周粟、首阳采薇的典故，表明他以两位古人为精神同道：伯夷叔齐宁可饿死也不食周粟，他文天祥宁可身死也不降于元。而梦中行采薇五字尤见深意：这采薇之行，不仅是他清醒时的选择，更是他梦中也念念不忘的归宿，把气节写进了灵魂深处。两句由直陈到用典，由现实到梦境，把个人的选择升华为对民族气节传统的自觉继承。一个文天祥，由此与千载之上的伯夷叔齐并肩而立，也让这首小诗，成为中国人气节精神的不朽注脚。

The tail couplet, in the Boyi and Shuqi allusion, declares the resolve, turning the death-for-the-country determination into the concrete spiritual home, the poem's elevation. Starving to death is truly my resolve states directly the determination to starve rather than surrender, the one word truly showing this not a moment's anger, but the deeply pondered resolve. In my dreams I go gathering the fern shoots uses the Boyi and Shuqi not-eating-the-Zhou-grain and Shouyang-mountain fern-gathering allusion, showing himself the two ancients' spiritual kin: Boyi and Shuqi starving rather than eating the Zhou grain, and he, Wen Tianxiang, dying rather than surrendering to the Yuan. The five words in my dreams I go gathering the fern shoots the deeper meaning: this fern-gathering way of life, not only his waking choice, but the dwelling his dreams keep returning to, the integrity written into the soul's depth. Two lines, from the direct statement to the allusion, from the reality to the dream, raising the personal choice to the conscious inheritance of the national-integrity tradition. One Wen Tianxiang, hence standing shoulder to shoulder with Boyi and Shuqi across the thousand years, and this small poem becoming the immortal footnote to the Chinese spirit of integrity.

Study

Word focus

同谁出 With whom did I cross? — the poet asks after companions instead of stating his solitude; the question's emptiness mourns the comrades who marched south to resist and are now gone, and turns a plain narrative line into the sound of heroic isolation. 同谁出三字是颔联之眼，写尽被俘北归的孤独与悲怆。出岭本是从岭南出来，诗人不写自己如何出岭，而问同谁出——与谁一同出来？这一问，问出了现实的凄凉：当年与志士们一同起兵抗元，如今被押解北归，身边再无同伴，只剩他孤身一人。同谁出三字，还暗含对当年并肩战友的追念与对如今孤军被俘的悲哀，更隐含着一种自责：一同出来的人，如今在哪里？这一问，比直写孤独更深一层，因为它把孤独放进了与过去的对照之中。三个字，一问而情至，把英雄末路的苍凉写得含蓄而深沉，是此诗最见功力的一笔。

如不归 As if not returning — he is passing his homeland, yet the word as if annuls the homecoming: a prisoner in a conquered country cannot truly return. Three characters hold the humiliation and the love of home in one breath, and are the most heartbreaking words in the poem. 如不归三字，写尽有家难归、归乡如囚的沉痛，是全诗最令人心碎的地方。他如今正被押解北行，途经故乡，这本是归乡，诗人却写道归乡如不归：回到家乡，却如同没有归来一般。一个如字，把眼前的归乡一笔否定了：因为山河易主，因为他是俘虏，因为这片土地已非故国，所以纵是经过故乡，也算不得归。如不归三字，含着两层悲哀：一是身为俘虏的屈辱，连归乡都成了一种耻辱；二是对故乡的深情，越是深情，越觉辜负。这一句与出岭同谁出相呼应，一问一叹，把一位英雄经过故土时的复杂心绪，凝于最朴素的语言之中，读来令人泫然。

千古在 Enduring through a thousand ages — the phrase lifts the mountains and rivers out of the present disaster into deep time: dynasties fall, but the land remains. It supplies the historical vision that steadies the poem's final vow, and gives personal loss a scale that defeat cannot touch. 千古在三字写山河之永恒，是此诗思想境界的支点。诗人不说山河犹在、山河如故，而说山河千古在：这山河，是千古以来的山河，它见证过多少王朝兴替，却始终屹立不倒。千古在三字，把眼前的故国放到漫长的历史时空中去看，立刻获得了一种超越一时一事的永恒感。正因山河千古在，诗人才能从城郭一时非的沦亡之痛中抽身出来，看到比王朝更恒久的东西；正因山河千古在，他才有底气立下饿死真吾志的誓言——他相信，自己以生命守护的，正是这千古不灭的山河与民族精神。三个字，气象阔大，思理深沉，把个人的悲剧升华为对民族永恒的信念，是此诗中最有分量的词语。

南安军