宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric
千秋岁引
Qianqiusuiyin (Prelude to a Thousand Autumns)
别馆寒砧，孤城画角。
一派秋声入寥廓。
东归燕从海上去，南来雁向沙头落。
楚台风，庾楼月，宛如昨。
无奈被些名利缚。
无奈被他情担阁。
可惜风流总闲却。
当初漫留华表语，而今误我秦楼约。
梦阑时，酒醒后，思量著。
A whole band of autumn sound enters the vast void.
Eastward-flying swallows leave over the sea; southward-coming geese drop down onto the sandbars.
The wind of the Chu terrace, the moon of the Yu tower — as if yesterday.
Helpless, I am bound by a little fame and gain.
Helpless, delayed by the claims of other affairs.
A pity that my free, romantic spirit has been left idle all along.
In those days I idly left words on the marble pillar; now they have spoiled my tryst in the Qin tower.
When the dream ends, when the wine sobers — I think it all over.
Meaning
On an autumn night, cold fulling-blocks and horns fill the sky with the sound of the season; swallows leave and geese arrive; old pleasures feel like yesterday. The poem turns from scene to confession: the poet, bound by fame and delayed by other duties, has wasted his truest years and broken both his promise of retreat and his private tryst. When dream and wine end, only thought remains — the late-life audit of a statesman counting what public life cost him.
别馆寒砧，孤城画角。一派秋声入寥廓。东归燕从海上去，南来雁向沙头落。楚台风，庾楼月，宛如昨。无奈被些名利缚。无奈被他情担阁。可惜风流总闲却。当初漫留华表语，而今误我秦楼约。梦阑时，酒醒后，思量著。
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] In a guest-lodge on an autumn night the wash-blocks are cold; over a lone walled city painted horns blow, and one broad band of autumn sound pours into the empty sky. Eastward swallows vanish over the sea; southward geese settle on the sandbars. The wind on the Chu terrace and the moon on the Yu tower feel as fresh as yesterday. Yet the poet is bound by a little fame and gain, delayed by the claims of others; his truest years have all been left idle; the retreat he once announced and the private tryst he promised have both been broken. When the dream ends and the wine sobers, he can only turn it over and over. [Structure] The upper stanza is pure scene and memory, wide and cold; the lower stanza turns inward to confession, with two identical sighs of 'helpless'; the closing three two-character beats ('dream's end, wine's waking, thinking it over') slow the rhythm to a hush. [Imagery] Sound dominates the upper stanza — pounding cloth, horns, wind, moon — so that the closing silence of thought is felt as a real drop in volume. The migrating birds, all going home, underline the one who cannot.
【白话串讲】 王安石写《千秋岁引》：“别馆寒砧，孤城画角。一派秋声入寥廓”——“东归燕从海上去，南来雁向沙头落”——“楚台风，庾楼月，宛如昨”——“无奈被些名利缚。无奈被他情担阁”——他写秋夜——无奈被些名利缚。 【意象与手法】 “别馆寒砧，孤城画角。一派秋声入寥廓”写秋景之苍凉；“东归燕从海上去，南来雁向沙头落”以燕雁写羁旅；“楚台风，庾楼月，宛如昨”用典忆旧；“无奈被些名利缚。无奈被他情担阁”写名利之缚；结以“梦阑时，酒醒后，思量著”写梦醒思量。感慨深沉。 【情感与主旨】 王安石写秋思感慨之作，写秋景苍凉与名利之缚、往事之慨，体现其晚年对人生得失的深沉体悟，是王安石词中的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“别馆寒砧，孤城画角。一派秋声入寥廓”以寒砧画角写秋声；“无奈被些名利缚。无奈被他情担阁”以名利缚写人生之累。
Background
Wang Anshi (1021-1086), courtesy name Jiefu, studio name Banshan, was a native of Linchuan in present-day Jiangxi. The great reforming chancellor of the Northern Song, he retired from power in 1076, settled at Jiangning, and was enfeoffed as Duke of Jing — hence 'Wang Jinggong.' Though celebrated as a prose master ranked among the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song, his short lyrics (ci) are fewer and are valued for exactly this grave, autumnal candor. This Qianqiusuiyin is traditionally read as a late-life meditation written after the reforms had been undone and his promises — to the state and to himself — had come to nothing.
《千秋岁引》为北宋政治家、文学家王安石所作词。王安石（1021—1086），字介甫，号半山，抚州临川（今江西抚州）人，北宋政治家、文学家、思想家，官至宰相，主持变法，晚年罢相退居，封荆国公，世称王荆公。此词写秋思感慨。词中「别馆寒砧，孤城画角。一派秋声入寥廓」写秋景之苍凉；「东归燕从海上去，南来雁向沙头落」写秋之归雁；「楚台风，庾楼月，宛如昨」写旧游之忆；「无奈被些名利缚。无奈被他情担阁」写名利之缚；「可惜风流总闲却」写风流闲却之叹；「当初漫留华表语，而今误我秦楼约」写往事之慨；「梦阑时，酒醒后，思量著」写梦醒思量。王安石一生操劳国事，晚年退居，此词以秋思写其对名利、往事的感慨，深沉蕴藉，是王安石词中的名篇。此篇《千秋岁引》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 lyric's craft lies in its sweep from scene to lament. It opens with two cold four-character couplets of sound — wash-blocks, horns — then widens them with 'one band of autumn sound enters the vast void,' letting private noises fill the sky. The swallow-and-goose couplet is a precise mirrored parallelism: east versus south, sea versus sandbar, leaving versus arriving, so that a whole season's migration passes in one breath. The memory line 'Chu terrace wind, Yu tower moon — as if yesterday' is the pivot, three beats that carry the past into the present. In the lower stanza the doubled 'helpless' gives the verse a sighing rhythm, and the ending's staccato two-character phrases land like a held breath released.
此词艺术上以「由景入慨、感慨深沉」见长。全词上片写秋景与旧游之忆，下片写名利之缚与往事之慨。上片「别馆寒砧，孤城画角。一派秋声入寥廓」写秋景之苍凉：别馆寒砧，孤城画角，一派秋声入寥廓；「东归燕从海上去，南来雁向沙头落」写秋之归雁：东归燕从海上去，南来雁向沙头落；「楚台风，庾楼月，宛如昨」写旧游之忆：楚台风，庾楼月，宛如昨。下片「无奈被些名利缚。无奈被他情担阁」写名利之缚：无奈被些名利缚，无奈被他情担阁；「可惜风流总闲却」写风流闲却之叹；「当初漫留华表语，而今误我秦楼约」写往事之慨；「梦阑时，酒醒后，思量著」写梦醒思量。全词由景入慨，感慨深沉，是王安石词中的名篇。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。
Allusions
'Cold wash-blocks' (han zhen) is the autumn sound of fulling cloth, a classical emblem of chill and homesickness; 'painted horn' (hua jiao) is a military horn of bleak voice. 'Chu terrace wind' alludes to Song Yu's 'Wind Rhapsody,' written for King Xiang of Chu as he cooled himself on the Lan Terrace; 'Yu tower moon' recalls the Eastern Jin minister Yu Liang climbing the South Tower with friends on a moonlit night. 'Hua-biao words' comes from the legend of Ding Lingwei of Liaodong, who became a crane and alighted on the marble pillar outside his city gate. 'Qin tower' points to the immortal marriage of Xiao Shi and Nongyu, whose flute duet summoned the phoenixes that carried the pair away — the emblem of a perfect private tryst.
词中「寒砧」「画角」「楚台风」「庾楼月」「华表语」「秦楼约」等语，皆含典故故实。「寒砧」写寒夜捣衣之声，古诗词多以砧声写秋之思；「画角」为军中号角，其声凄厉；「楚台风」用宋玉《风赋》楚襄王游兰台之宫、有风飒然而至之典，写昔日之乐；「庾楼月」用东晋庾亮登南楼赏月之典，写昔日之乐；「华表语」用《搜神后记》丁令威化鹤归辽、集于华表之典，写归乡之语、游仙之语，「当初漫留华表语」写当初空留归隐之语；「秦楼约」用萧史弄玉吹箫引凤、夫妇随凤凰飞去之典，写男女之约，「而今误我秦楼约」写如今误了我与佳人之约。词人以寒砧、画角、楚台风、庾楼月、华表语、秦楼约等典入词，不着痕迹，而把秋思感慨之情写得真切可感，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。
Commentary
Critics have long placed this among Wang Anshi's finest ci. Where most of his lyrics are spare and austere, this one is praised for entering from scenery into lament, with feeling deeply subdued. The double 'helpless' in particular is treated as the voice of the retired statesman himself: bound by fame he no longer wants, delayed by duties he can no longer perform. Later anthologists prized the closing 'when the dream ends, when the wine sobers, thinking it over' for its naked simplicity — the greatest political architect of his age ending his poem in wordless midnight arithmetic. It remains a touchstone for reading Wang Anshi beyond the reformer.
这首《千秋岁引》，是王安石写秋思感慨之作，写秋景与名利之缚、往事之慨，深沉蕴藉。上片写秋景与旧游之忆：「别馆寒砧，孤城画角。一派秋声入寥廓」——别馆寒砧，孤城画角，一派秋声入寥廓。写秋景之苍凉：别馆寒砧、孤城画角，一派秋声入于寥廓，一片苍凉；「东归燕从海上去，南来雁向沙头落」——东归燕从海上去，南来雁向沙头落。写秋之归雁：燕东归、雁南来，正是秋之归景；「楚台风，庾楼月，宛如昨」——楚台风，庾楼月，宛如昨。写旧游之忆：昔日楚台之风、庾楼之月，宛如昨日。上片由秋景而及旧游，为其感慨作铺垫。下片写名利之缚与往事之慨：「无奈被些名利缚。无奈被他情担阁」——无奈被些名利缚，无奈被他情担阁。写名利之缚：无奈被名利所缚、被他情所担阁，两个「无奈」，写尽身不由己之叹；「可惜风流总闲却」——可惜风流总闲却。写风流闲却之叹；「当初漫留华表语，而今误我秦楼约」——当初漫留华表语，而今误我秦楼约。写往事之慨：当初空留归隐之语，而今误了我与佳人之约——归隐未成、佳约已误；「梦阑时，酒醒后，思量著」——梦阑时，酒醒后，思量著。写梦醒思量：梦阑酒醒之后，思量著。这「思量著」，是全词之结：一番秋思、一番感慨，梦阑酒醒，思量着这一切——名利、情、风流、旧约。全词由景入慨，感慨深沉，正是王安石晚年退居后感慨之情的体现，也是其词中的名篇。
Prosody
Line by line
别馆寒砧，孤城画角。
In the guest-lodge the cold wash-blocks pound; in the lone walled city painted horns wail.
别馆寒砧，孤城画角。
The wayside inn and the cold washing-block, the lone city and the painted horn.
首二句写秋景之苍凉，起笔即见其境。「别馆寒砧」写别馆寒砧，「别馆」写客居之馆，「寒砧」写寒夜捣衣之声，写其声之清冷；「孤城画角」写孤城画角，「孤城」写城之孤，「画角」写号角之声，写其声之凄厉。两句以别馆寒砧、孤城画角写秋夜之声，一片清冷凄厉，写尽秋景之苍凉，起笔即定下苍凉之调，为全词写秋思感慨作铺垫，是「以声起兴」的妙笔。
The opening two lines writing the autumn scene's bleakness, the realm present at the first stroke. The wayside inn and the cold washing-block writes the lodging inn and the cold-night washing-block sound, writing the sound's coldness; the lone city and the painted horn writes the lone city and the horn's sound, writing the sound's shrillness. Two lines, the wayside inn and cold block, the lone city and painted horn, writing the autumn night's sound, a stretch of cold shrillness, exhausting the autumn scene's bleakness, the opening setting the bleak tone, storing the ground for the ci's autumn-thought sigh, precisely the wondrous brush of rising on sound.
东归燕从海上去，南来雁向沙头落。
Eastward-flying swallows leave over the sea; southward-coming geese drop down onto the sandbars.
东归燕从海上去，南来雁向沙头落。
The east-bound swallows rise from the sea; the south-bound geese descend to the sandbar.
此二句写秋之归雁，是全词写景的关键。「东归燕从海上去」写东归燕从海上去，「东归燕」写燕之东归，「从海上去」写其向海飞去；「南来雁向沙头落」写南来雁向沙头落，「南来雁」写雁之南来，「向沙头落」写其落于沙头。两句一写燕东归、一写雁南来，以燕雁之归写秋之时序——燕去雁来，正是秋之归景，而燕雁皆归，人何以归。以景写情，含蓄而有力，是「以归写思」的妙笔。
These two lines writing the autumn's returning geese, the ci's scenic key. The east-bound swallows rise from the sea writes the swallows' east return and their flight toward the sea; the south-bound geese descend to the sandbar writes the geese' south coming and their descent to the sandbar. Two lines, one the swallow's east return, one the goose' south coming, writing the autumn's season through the birds' return — the swallow gone and the goose come, precisely the autumn's return scene, and the birds all return, the man how to return. Writing feeling through scene, restrained and forceful, precisely the wondrous brush of writing longing through the return.
无奈被些名利缚。
Helpless, I am bound by a little fame and gain.
无奈被些名利缚。
Helpless, I am bound by some fame and gain.
此句写名利之缚，是全词写慨的关键。「无奈被些名利缚」写无奈被些名利缚，「无奈」写其无可奈何，「名利缚」写其被名利所束缚。一句以「无奈」起叹，写其被名利所缚、身不由己之叹——这「名利缚」，正是王安石一生操劳国事、晚年犹不得自由的感慨。以短句写叹，含蓄而深沉，是「以短句写慨」的点睛之笔，也是全词由写景转入写慨的枢纽。
This line writes the fame-and-gain binding, the ci's sigh key. Helpless, I am bound by some fame and gain writes the helplessness and the binding by fame and gain. One line rising on the helpless sigh, writing the binding and the body's non-free sigh — this fame-and-gain binding, precisely Wang Anshi's lifetime of the nation's toil and the late years' non-freedom sigh. Writing the sigh through the short line, restrained and deep, precisely the telling stroke of sigh-through-short-line, and the ci's scene-to-sigh hinge.
当初漫留华表语，而今误我秦楼约。
In those days I idly left words on the marble pillar; now they have spoiled my tryst in the Qin tower.
当初空留华表语，而今误了我与佳人之约。
In those days I idly left the pillar's words; now I have missed my tryst in the Qin tower.
此二句写往事之慨，是全词写慨的落点。「当初漫留华表语」写当初空留华表语，「当初」写其追忆，「漫留」写其空留，「华表语」用丁令威化鹤归乡之典，写归隐之语；「而今误我秦楼约」写而今误了我与佳人之约，「而今」与「当初」相对，「误我」写其被误，「秦楼约」用萧史弄玉之典，写男女之约。两句一写当初空留归隐之语、一写而今误了佳人之约，以「当初」与「而今」相对，写尽往事之慨——归隐未成、佳约已误，一生操劳，终无所成。以昔衬今，含蓄而深沉，是「以今昔对照写慨」的妙笔。
These two lines write the past affair's sigh, the ci's sigh landing. In those days I idly left the pillar's words writes the past and the idly left, the pillar's words using Ding Lingwei's crane-returning-home allusion, writing the hermit's words; now I have missed my tryst in the Qin tower writes the now and the then set against, the missed writing the being-missed, the Qin tower tryst using Xiao Shi and Nong Yu's allusion, writing the man-woman tryst. Two lines, one the then-idly-left hermit words, one the now-missed beloved tryst, the then and the now set against, exhausting the past affair's sigh — the hermitage unachieved and the love tryst missed, the lifetime's toil and the end's nothing. Setting the present against the past, restrained and deep, precisely the wondrous brush of present-past contrast writing the sigh.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Yan Shu's famous couplet 'Helplessly the flowers fall away; the swallows come back as if half-known' greets time with rueful grace; Wang Anshi's 'Helpless, I am bound by a little fame and gain' admits the same word but gives it the weight of a statesman's regret. One sigh is serenely resigned, the other bitterly self-accusing — read together they show two shades of 'helpless' in Northern Song ci.
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」，写时光流逝之无可奈何，是宋词写春逝的名篇；王安石《千秋岁引》则以「无奈被些名利缚。无奈被他情担阁」「当初漫留华表语，而今误我秦楼约」写名利之缚、往事之慨。两词同写时光之慨：一以花落燕归写春逝之叹、从容含蓄，一以名利之情写秋思之慨、深沉低回；一为宰相之温润、一为宰相之深沉，并读正可见宋代两位宰相词人写「无奈」的不同情味，皆于词中见身世之叹。
晏殊·蝶恋花·槛菊愁烟兰泣露 Dielianhua — 'Fence Chrysanthemums Grieve in Mist, Orchids Weep with Dew' 晏殊 · 同写秋日离愁之慨，一写槛菊愁烟之秋景与望尽天涯之怀、一写寒砧画角之秋声与名利往事之慨，皆于秋思中见深沉 Both write autumn scenes steeped in sorrow — Yan Shu's chrysanthemum mist and cold gauze curtains, Wang Anshi's cold wash-blocks and painted horns; both end in longing.Yan Shu looks out from a curtained chamber toward the endless horizon; Wang Anshi listens to sound itself flooding the sky. Yan Shu's sorrow is a lover's homesickness, Wang Anshi's a retired chancellor's audit of a life spent on public duty — the same autumn, two different griefs.
晏殊《晏殊·蝶恋花·槛菊愁烟兰泣露》「槛菊愁烟兰泣露，罗幕轻寒，燕子双飞去。明月不谙离恨苦，斜光到晓穿朱户」，写秋日离愁、望尽天涯，是宋词写秋愁的名篇；王安石《千秋岁引》则以「别馆寒砧，孤城画角。一派秋声入寥廓」「无奈被些名利缚」写秋声与名利之缚。两词同写秋日感慨：一写秋景离愁、以望尽天涯写怀，一写秋声感慨、以名利往事写叹；一为晏殊之婉约、一为王安石之深沉，并读正可见宋词写秋「离愁」与「身世」两种情怀，皆于秋思中见深沉。