宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric
绮罗香
Qiluoxiang (Qiluo Fragrance) — On the Red Leaves
万里飞霜，千林落木，寒艳不招春妒。
枫冷吴江，独客又吟愁句。
正船舣、流水孤村，似花绕、斜阳归路。
甚荒沟、一片凄凉，载情不去载愁去。
长安谁问倦旅。
羞见衰颜借酒，飘零如许。
谩倚新妆，不入洛阳花谱。
为回风、起舞尊前，尽化作、断霞千缕。
记阴阴、绿遍江南，夜窗听暗雨。
Maples chill the Wu river; the lone traveler chants sorrowful lines again.
Just as the boat moors by flowing water at a lonely village, petals seem to drift around the slanting-sun road home.
How desolate the deserted ditch, one stretch of grief — it cannot carry love away, only sorrow.
Who in Chang'an asks after the weary traveler?
Ashamed to face my withered face, I borrow wine; I have drifted rootless to such a pass.
Vainly dressed in fresh makeup, it enters not the Luoyang flower catalogue.
For the whirling wind it dances before the cup, all turning into a thousand strands of broken sunset clouds.
I remember the deep green spreading over Jiangnan, listening to the dark rain at a night window.
Meaning
Frost and falling leaves set the autumn; the red leaf — cold-brilliant, refused by the flower catalogues — is the poet himself, a remnant subject of the fallen Song. The deserted ditch's leaf can carry only sorrow, not love, and the poem closes with the memory of green Jiangnan and night rain. Its theme is exile: a life drifting like a leaf, a beauty and a dynasty both reduced to 'where are they now.'
万里飞霜，千林落木，那经霜的寒艳红叶，不招春天的嫉妒。枫冷吴江，独客的我又在吟咏愁句。正逢船只停泊、流水孤村，恰似花瓣飘绕、斜阳归路。怎奈那荒沟之中，一片凄凉，载不去情意，只载得动愁绪。长安城中，有谁来问候我这倦游的旅人。羞见衰颜，只好借酒浇愁，飘零竟到了这般地步。纵使谩倚新妆，也入不了洛阳的花谱。为回风起舞于尊前，尽化作断霞千缕。还记得那时阴阴绿意、绿遍江南，我在夜窗之下听着暗雨。
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] Frost flies for ten thousand miles; a thousand forests shed their leaves, yet the red leaf's cold brilliance does not court the envy of spring. The maples chill the Wu river, and the lone traveler chants his sorrowful lines again. His boat moors by flowing water near a lonely village; red leaves drift like petals around the slanting-sun road home. How desolate the deserted ditch — this stretch of grief cannot carry love away, it can only carry sorrow. Who in Chang'an asks after the weary traveler? Ashamed of his withered face, he borrows wine; he has drifted rootless to such a pass. Vainly arrayed in fresh makeup, the leaf enters not the Luoyang flower catalogue. For the whirling wind it dances before the cup, all turning into a thousand strands of broken sunset cloud. He remembers the deep green that covered Jiangnan, and the dark rain at his night window. [Structure] Autumn scene, drifting self, abandoned leaf, and a memory of green Jiangnan: four movements narrowing from sky to ditch to memory. [Imagery] The leaf is at once flower, sunset cloud, and unrecognized talent; green Jiangnan returns at the end as a ghost of the lost dynasty.
【白话串讲】 张炎写《绮罗香》：“万里飞霜，千林落木，寒艳不招春妒”——“枫冷吴江，独客又吟愁句”——“正船舣、流水孤村，似花绕、斜阳归路”——“长安谁问倦旅。羞见衰颜借酒，飘零如许”——他写红叶——独客又吟愁句。 【意象与手法】 上阕以“万里飞霜，千林落木”写秋景之肃杀，“寒艳不招春妒”写红叶之孤高；由枫冷吴江、独客愁句转入“载情不去载愁去”的飘零之叹。下阕以“长安谁问倦旅”写无人相问的孤寂，以“不入洛阳花谱”写身世之弃；终以“断霞千缕”“夜窗听暗雨”的苍凉作结。清空沉郁。 【情感与主旨】 张炎咏红叶之作，以秋日红叶起兴，寄寓身世飘零之慨，是张炎咏物词中托物写身世的佳作。 【名句点睛】 常考“万里飞霜，千林落木，寒艳不招春妒”以落木红叶写秋景；“长安谁问倦旅”以谁问倦旅写孤寂。
Background
Zhang Yan (1248-c.1320), courtesy name Shuxia, studio name Yutian, was a scion of a distinguished Lin'an family — a sixth-generation ancestor had won merit as a Song general. After the Mongol conquest of 1279 he lost home and status and wandered the southeast coast as a remnant subject of the dead dynasty. With Jiang Kui he is bracketed as 'Jiang-Zhang,' and his Yutian-ci is valued for its 'clear emptiness' (qingkong). This Qiluoxiang on red leaves is his most famous object poem: the frost-beaten leaf that will not flatter spring, will not enter the catalogue of famous flowers, is the poet's own portrait as a loyalist nobody wants.
此词为宋末元初词人张炎的咏红叶之作，写秋日飘零之景，寄寓身世之感。张炎（1248—约1320），字叔夏，号玉田，南宋末年的词坛巨擘，与姜夔并称「姜张」，词以清空骚雅著称。他出身临安世家，六世祖张镃为南宋名将，家世显赫；宋亡之后，家破国亡，飘零江湖，饱经丧乱，词风亦由贵胄公子的清雅转为遗民的苍凉。此词以红叶为咏写对象：首句「万里飞霜，千林落木」，写深秋霜降、千林落叶的肃杀景象，而红叶「寒艳不招春妒」——那经霜的红色，自有其孤高的美丽，不与春花争妍。这红叶，正是词人自身的写照：身在肃杀的时局之中，如红叶般经霜而艳，如红叶般飘零无依。「枫冷吴江，独客又吟愁句」，写吴江秋冷的独客之愁；「甚荒沟、一片凄凉，载情不去载愁去」，化用唐人红叶题诗之典，红叶本可载情（宫女题诗红叶，随御沟流出而结缘），而词人的红叶却只载得动愁；「长安谁问倦旅」，以长安喻故都临安，写无人问讯的孤寂；「不入洛阳花谱」，以牡丹之谱（洛阳牡丹甲天下）反衬红叶之不为世重。全词借红叶写身世，物我交融，正是张炎遗民心境的典型呈现。
Art
The poem's method is sustained double vision: every leaf-image is a self-image. 'Cold brilliance not courting spring's envy' gives the leaf integrity; 'enters not the Luoyang flower catalogue' gives it neglect; 'a thousand strands of broken sunset' gives it beauty in destruction. The emotional center is the inversion of the Tang red-leaf legend — where the palace lady's leaf carried love out of the forbidden moat to a happy marriage, the poet's leaf in a roadside ditch cannot carry love away, only sorrow. The contrast between 'love' and 'sorrow' in one line, with the verb 'carry' repeated, compresses the loss of a world into a handful of characters. The final memory of Jiangnan's green and night rain restores, for one beat, the country that the autumn frost destroyed.
此词艺术上以「物我交融」与「清空沉郁」为特色，在咏红叶的笔触中织入身世之感。上阕以「万里飞霜，千林落木」的阔大起笔，写秋景之肃杀；「寒艳不招春妒」，以「寒艳」写红叶经霜之红，「不招春妒」写其不与春花争妍的孤高，起笔即见红叶之品格。接着由景入情：「枫冷吴江，独客又吟愁句」，以「枫冷」呼应红叶，「独客」点出飘零之身，「又吟愁句」写愁之深重；「正船舣、流水孤村，似花绕、斜阳归路」，以「似花绕」写红叶飘落如花，以「斜阳归路」写归途之渺，意象清丽而苍凉。「甚荒沟、一片凄凉，载情不去载愁去」，是全词最沉痛的一笔——化用红叶题诗之典，红叶本可载情，而词人的红叶只载得动愁，情与愁的对照，写尽飘零之哀。下阕「长安谁问倦旅」，以「长安」喻故都，写无人相问的孤寂；「羞见衰颜借酒，飘零如许」，写借酒浇愁、羞见衰颜的窘迫；「谩倚新妆，不入洛阳花谱」，以牡丹之谱反衬红叶之弃，身世之感愈深；「为回风、起舞尊前，尽化作、断霞千缕」，写红叶在回风中起舞、化作断霞，凄美而壮烈；「记阴阴、绿遍江南，夜窗听暗雨」，以回忆中的江南绿阴与夜窗暗雨作结，把眼前的飘零与往昔的繁盛对照，苍凉中见沉郁。全词以红叶为线，由景入情、由物入我，层层推进而情思不断，是张炎咏物词「咏物而不滞于物」的典范。
Allusions
The core allusion is the 'red-leaf poem' legend: in the late Tang, the scholar Yu You found a red leaf in the palace moat bearing a palace lady's poem of loneliness; he answered on a leaf, and when the palace released its women the two married. Hence the red leaf 'carries love.' 'Luoyang flower catalogue' refers to the celebrated peony catalogues of Luoyang, the capital of flowers; a leaf absent from them is an unrecognized talent. 'Chang'an' stands by metonymy for the lost capital Lin'an. 'Maples chilling the Wu river' adapts Cui Xinming's line 'maple leaves fall, the Wu river chills.' 'New makeup' and 'flower register' borrow the vocabulary of ranked beauties to speak of the leaf's exile.
此词用典以「红叶题诗」为核心，织入身世之感。「载情不去载愁去」化用红叶题诗之典：唐僖宗时，宫女于祐于御沟中拾得红叶，上有题诗「流水何太急，深宫尽日闲。殷勤谢红叶，好去到人间」，后与题诗宫女结为良缘，故红叶有「载情」之说。词人反用此典：红叶本可载情、随流水而通情愫，而词人的红叶却「载情不去载愁去」——情无处可载，只载得动愁，正见其情之无所寄托、愁之无处排遣。「洛阳花谱」，指洛阳牡丹名甲天下，有《洛阳牡丹记》等花谱传世，以「不入洛阳花谱」写红叶不为世重，反衬其身世之弃，暗含遗民不为新朝所用的孤愤。「长安谁问倦旅」，以长安喻故都临安，「倦旅」写飘零倦游之身，「谁问」写无人相问，暗含故国之思与孤寂之感。「枫冷吴江」，化用唐崔信明「枫落吴江冷」之名句，以「枫冷」写秋意之深、江天之冷。「回风」「断霞」，则暗合红叶飘落如霞的意象，杜甫「无边落木萧萧下」的秋意、李商隐「断霞如烧」的霞光皆可通观。这些典故，或写红叶之缘、或写身世之弃、或写故国之思，皆围绕咏红叶而织入身世之感，正是张炎词「用事下语精严而不晦涩」的特点。
Commentary
Zhang Yan's red-leaf lyric is the crown of late-Song object poetry. Qing critics already read it as autobiography: the leaf that enters not the flower register is the remnant scholar whom the new dynasty will not use. The line 'cannot carry love away, only sorrow' has been called the single most concentrated statement of loyalist grief in all ci — the Tang legend of romantic rescue turned into a dirge. Modern scholarship links the ending's 'green Jiangnan' to Zhang's own youthful Lin'an, so the poem becomes a three-layer palimpsest: leaf, poet, dynasty. Read with his 'Lone Goose' (Jielianhuan), it forms the double portrait of the exile as a drifting thing.
读此词，最值得注意的是「甚荒沟、一片凄凉，载情不去载愁去」写出的情与愁之别。红叶题诗，本是唐人笔下最浪漫的传说——宫女的诗随红叶流出御沟，被人拾得，终于结为良缘，那红叶载的是情。而词人的红叶呢？「载情不去载愁去」——情无处可载，只载得动愁。这一反用典故，写尽了词人身世的悲凉：不是没有情，而是情已无所寄托；不是没有愁，而是愁满得装不下。红叶还是红叶，一样的飘零，而唐人笔下的红叶载的是情缘，词人笔下的红叶载的却是愁绪——同一意象，因身世不同而判然有别。这「载情不去载愁去」的怅惘，正是张炎作为遗民词人的独特心境：家国已亡，情爱已散，飘零如许，连那红叶载情的浪漫传说，也只能在笔下化作一片凄凉。而结句「记阴阴、绿遍江南，夜窗听暗雨」，以回忆中的江南绿阴反衬眼前的红叶飘零，更见今昔之别的沉痛：那时的江南是「绿遍」的繁盛，如今的孤客是「愁句」的吟咏。张炎以清空之笔写沉郁之情，红叶之咏，实为身世之叹，正是此词超越一般咏物词的地方，也是宋末遗民词「以物寓志」的典型。
Prosody
Line by line
寒艳不招春妒。
The cold brilliance of the red does not court the envy of spring.
那经霜的红叶虽有寒艳之美，却不招春天的嫉妒。
Its cold beauty draws no spring's envy.
这一句写红叶的品格，是全词咏物立骨的关键。「寒艳」二字，写红叶之美：红是艳的，而生于寒霜之中，便有了「寒」的品格——不是春花的秾艳，而是经霜之后的冷艳；「不招春妒」，写其不与春花争妍的孤高——春花争奇斗艳、彼此嫉妒，而红叶生于秋深，自有一种遗世独立的清冷，无需争春，也无惧春妒。「寒艳」与「不招春妒」，一写其美，一写其格，正是红叶之为红叶的所在。此句既咏红叶，也写词人自己——张炎身经亡国之痛，如红叶般经霜而艳，也如红叶般不与世俗争妍，孤高自守。以「寒艳不招春妒」写红叶，物我交融，是此词咏物言志的枢机，也为其后的飘零之叹作了品格的铺垫。
This line writes the red leaf's character, the ci's thing-ode-backbone key. The two words cold beauty, writing the red leaf's beauty: the red is the gorgeous, and born within the frost, hence the cold character — not the spring flower's lushness, but the cold beauty after the frost; draws no spring's envy, writing its not-contending-with-spring-flowers loftiness — the spring flowers contend in rivalry and envy each other, and the red leaf born in the deep autumn, of itself a world-abandoning coldness, no need to contend, and no fear of the envy. The cold beauty and the no-spring-envy, one the beauty, one the character, precisely the red leaf's being-a-red-leaf. This line at once the red leaf ode, and the poet himself — Zhang Yan through the national perishing's pain, like the red leaf through the frost and yet beautiful, and like the red leaf not contending with the world, the loftiness self-kept. Writing the red leaf through the cold beauty draws no spring's envy, the thing-and-self fused, this ci's thing-ode-and-will key, and storing the character ground for the below's drifting sigh.
载情不去载愁去。
It cannot carry love away, only sorrow.
那红叶载不去情意，只载得动愁绪。
It cannot carry the love away, and carries only the grief.
这一句是全词最沉痛的警句，也是反用红叶题诗典故的妙笔。红叶题诗的传说中，红叶载着宫女的诗情流出御沟，被人拾得而结良缘，故红叶可「载情」；词人反其意而用之：「载情不去载愁去」——红叶载不去情，只载得动愁。这一反用，写尽了词人身世的悲凉：不是没有情，而是情已无所寄托；不是没有愁，而是愁满得无处安放。以「情」「愁」对举，「不去」「去」相映，正是「此情可待成追忆，只是当时已惘然」的怅惘的变奏。唐人笔下红叶载情的浪漫，到了张炎笔下只余载愁的凄凉，同一意象、同一流水，因身世不同而判然有别。此句以最简的语言写最深的哀愁，是此词的情感之眼，也是理解张炎遗民心境的钥匙。
This line is the ci's most grief-stricken warning line, and the reverse use of the red-leaf-verse allusion's wonder. In the red-leaf-verse legend, the red leaf carrying the palace woman's poetic feeling flows out of the imperial moat, picked up by a man and the happy match made, hence the red leaf can carry the love; the poet reversing the meaning: it cannot carry the love away, and carries only the grief — the red leaf cannot carry the love, and carries only the grief. This reverse use exhausting the poet's fate bleakness: not the absence of love, but the love's nowhere to lodge; not the absence of grief, but the grief's fullness and nowhere to place. Setting the love and the grief against, the not-go and the go answering, precisely the this-feeling-worthy-of-memory, and-yet-in-the-utterly-void-the-wistfulness's variation. The Tang writers' red-leaf-carries-love romance, to Zhang Yan's pen only the carries-grief bleakness remains, the same image and the same flowing water, and yet the fate's difference making the judgment unlike. This line writing the deepest grief in the simplest language, this ci's emotional eye, and the key to understanding Zhang Yan's leftover-subject mood.
记阴阴、绿遍江南，夜窗听暗雨。
I remember the deep green spreading over Jiangnan, listening to the dark rain at a night window.
还记得那时绿阴阴的、绿遍江南的景色，我在夜窗之下听着暗雨。
I remember the deep shade, green over all Jiangnan, the night window listening to the hidden rain.
这一句是全词的结穴，以回忆中的江南绿阴反衬眼前的红叶飘零，今昔对照而见沉痛。「记阴阴、绿遍江南」，写回忆中的江南——那时绿意盎然、绿遍江南，是一派繁盛的夏景或春景，与眼前的「万里飞霜，千林落木」形成鲜明的对照；「夜窗听暗雨」，写那时夜窗听雨的清寂——「暗雨」二字，写夜雨之幽暗，也暗含心境之暗。这一结句，把眼前的飘零与往昔的繁盛并置：江南还是那个江南，而词人已从「绿遍江南」的故国旧梦中，飘零到「千林落木」的异乡秋日。以「记」字领起回忆，以「暗雨」收束全词，正见其情之沉郁——那绿遍江南的故国，那夜窗听雨的往昔，都已成了追忆中不可复得的旧梦。此句苍凉入骨，余韵悠长，是张炎词「于清空中见沉郁」的典型结尾。
This line is the ci's knot, using the remembered Jiangnan green shade to set off the present red-leaf drifting, the present-past contrast and the grief seen. I remember the deep shade, green over all Jiangnan, writing the remembered Jiangnan — that time's lush green, green over all Jiangnan, a stretch of lush summer or spring scene, forming the sharp contrast with the present's ten thousand li flying frost and the thousand woods' falling leaves; the night window listening to the hidden rain, writing that time's night-window rain-listening solitude — the two words hidden rain, writing the night rain's dimness, and secretly the mood's dimness. This closing line placing the present drifting and the past lushness side by side: Jiangnan still that Jiangnan, and the poet already from the green-over-all-Jiangnan old-country dream, drifted to the thousand-woods-fallen-leaves foreign autumn. The one word remember leading the memory, the hidden rain closing the whole ci, precisely showing the feeling's somberness — the green-over-all-Jiangnan old country, that past of the night window's rain, all become the unrecoverable old dream within memory. This line's bleakness to the bone, the aftertone long, Zhang Yan's ci's the somberness-within-the-clear-and-void typical close.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
The frightened, separated goose of 'Jielianhuan' earned Zhang Yan the nickname 'Zhang the Lone Goose'; the frost-beaten red leaf here is the same self in another season. Read together they show his method: never describe the thing for its own sake, always let the thing carry loneliness, weariness, and drifting.
张炎《解连环·孤雁》以离群孤雁自况，写「楚江空晚，怅离群万里」的惊散飘零，因咏孤雁而被称为「张孤雁」；此词咏红叶，「万里飞霜，千林落木」的肃杀与「载情不去载愁去」的哀愁，同样是遗民身世的写照。一以孤雁写惊散之悲，一以红叶写飘零之叹，皆以物自况、借物抒怀。并读两作，可见张炎咏物词「咏物而不滞于物」的手法，也可见其宋亡后「孤」「倦」「飘零」的心境——孤雁、红叶，皆是其自身形象的投射，读来令人恻然。
高阳台·西湖春感 Gaoyangtai — 'Feelings on West Lake in Spring' 张炎 · 同出张炎之手，一咏西湖春感一咏秋日红叶，故国之思一以贯之 One mourns West Lake in spring, one drifts in autumn frost; the grief for the lost country runs through both.In 'Gaoyangtai' Zhang begs the spring wind not to blow toward the palace steps; here he asks who in Chang'an asks after the weary traveler. Spring's desolation and autumn's drift are the same homesickness seen in two seasons — the loyalist poet mapping his grief onto the whole year.
张炎《高阳台·西湖春感》「接叶巢莺，平波卷絮，断桥斜日归船」，写西湖春日的荒凉，以「春风且莫定，吹向玉阶飞」的痴语寄寓故国之思，是张炎写黍离之悲的名作；此词咏秋日红叶，「长安谁问倦旅」「不入洛阳花谱」，同样暗含故国之思与身世之弃。一写春之荒凉，一写秋之飘零，季节不同而故国之思一以贯之。并读两作，可见张炎词中「故国」意象的一贯性，也可见其春词之哀婉与秋词之沉郁，正是遗民词人「以四季写故国之思」的典型手法。
齐天乐·蝉 Qitianle — 'The Cicada' 王沂孙 · 同为宋末遗民咏物词，一咏红叶一咏寒蝉，咏物寓志异曲同工 Both are late-Song loyalist object-poems — one on the red leaf, one on the cold cicada — using the creature to voice the fallen dynasty's grief.Wang Yisun's cicada carries 'the remnant rancor of a palace soul'; Zhang Yan's leaf 'cannot carry love away, only sorrow.' The cicada's cry and the leaf's drift are two faces of the same loyalist heart: one keeps singing to the dead palace, the other floats away with its grief.
王沂孙《齐天乐·蝉》以寒蝉自况，「一襟余恨宫魂断」，借咏蝉寄寓亡国之痛，是宋末遗民咏物词的代表作；张炎此词咏红叶，「寒艳不招春妒」的孤高与「载情不去载愁去」的哀愁，同样是遗民身世的咏叹。张炎与王沂孙同列宋末四大家，同为遗民词人，同以咏物写故国之思。并读两词，可见宋末遗民词「以物寓志」的普遍手法，也可见两位词人一咏红叶、一咏寒蝉的不同选择——红叶之艳与寒蝉之哀，正是遗民心灵的两副面孔。