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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

苏幕遮·碧云天

Su Muzhe · Azure Sky and Yellow Leaves

范仲淹

Fan Zhongyan

秋思Autumn Reflection 羁旅Sojourn 怀乡Homesickness 离愁Parting Sorrow

碧云天，黄叶地。
秋色连波，波上寒烟翠。
山映斜阳天接水。
芳草无情，更在斜阳外。
黯乡魂，追旅思。
夜夜除非，好梦留人睡。
明月楼高休独倚。
酒入愁肠，化作相思泪。

An azure sky with clouds, a yellow-leafed ground.
Autumn colors merge with waves; over the waves cold mist hangs green.
Hills mirror the setting sun; the sky meets the water.
The fragrant grass is heartless, stretching still beyond the setting sun.
Homesick, my soul is dimmed; travel-longing presses after me.
Night after night, only good dreams can let me fall asleep.
In the bright moonlight, do not lean alone from the high tower.
Wine enters my sorrowing heart, transforming into tears of longing.

Listen

Meaning

The lyric paints a vast autumn landscape of blue sky, yellow leaves, river mist, hills and setting sun, then turns inward to a traveller's homesickness. Night after night only a good dream brings sleep; wine poured into a sorrowing heart changes into tears of longing.

碧蓝的云天，枯黄的叶地。秋色连接着水波，波上飘着寒翠的烟霭。远山映着斜阳，天与水相接。芳草全不解情，更延伸到斜阳之外。黯然销魂的思乡梦，紧追着羁旅的愁思。每夜除非有好梦，才能留人安睡。明月下楼阁高耸，不要独自去倚栏。酒进了愁肠，化作了相思的泪。

Appreciation

The poem is celebrated for its balanced two-stanza structure: the upper stanza paints a wide, luminous autumn scene, while the lower stanza lets the buried homesickness surface. The cold green mist, the heartless fragrant grass, and the high tower in moonlight all intensify distance, and the final transformation of wine into tears makes grief tangible. With its broad horizon and restrained masculine feeling, it moves beyond the narrow, ornate style of late Tang and Five Dynasties ci and is often seen as pointing toward the heroic school of Song lyric.

【白话串讲】 “碧云天，黄叶地。秋色连波，波上寒烟翠”——范仲淹写秋景。“芳草无情，更在斜阳外”——“明月楼高休独倚”——“酒入愁肠，化作相思泪”——酒入愁肠，都化作相思的泪。范仲淹也有柔情。【意象与手法】上片纯写秋景，“碧云天，黄叶地”六字对句拉开阔远秋空，“秋色连波、波上寒烟翠”写水天一色的苍翠寒意，“芳草无情，更在斜阳外”以无知之草反衬有恨之人；下片“黯乡魂，追旅思”直点题目，“酒入愁肠，化作相思泪”收束。上景下情、景阔情深。【情感与主旨】范仲淹镇守西北边塞时所作，写羁旅乡思。于秾丽秋色中寄沉郁乡忧，一反晚唐五代词绮靡窄小之习，格局宏阔，被誉为开豪放词先声之作。范仲淹以边帅写柔情，刚柔相济，是宋词抒写羁旅的经典。【名句点睛】常考“碧云天，黄叶地。秋色连波，波上寒烟翠”以六字对句写阔远秋景；“酒入愁肠，化作相思泪”以酒化泪写乡思之深。

Background

Fan Zhongyan wrote this lyric around 1040–1043 while commanding the Song frontier in Shaanxi, defending against the Western Xia. Although he was a native of Suzhou, he was stationed for a long time in the desolate northwest. One autumn, ascendant on a tower and gazing south, he voiced this homesickness. The alternate title 'Huaijiu' ('Remembering the Past') in fact points toward his distant hometown and family. The poem reveals the tender side of a statesman known for the motto 'worry before the world worries; rejoice only after the world rejoices.'

此词约作于宋仁宗康定元年到庆历三年间，范仲淹以龙图阁直学士经略陕西，主持防御西夏的战事，驻节延州一带。身为边帅，常年身处荒寒塞外，秋来登楼，望断南天，遂有此羁旅怀旧之作。题中怀旧，实即怀念远在江南的故乡与亲人。范仲淹本苏州吴县人，幼年随母迁居，仕途辗转，此时已届中年，功业未竟而身羁边徼，故秋士之悲与乡关之思并作。北宋与西夏开战后，陕甘边境战云密布，词人于军旅倥偬中写此柔情小令，恰见其刚毅外表下的细腻心肠。理解这一背景，方能懂碧云黄叶并非闲笔，而是边塞秋空下望乡人的真实视野；芳草斜阳外之远，正是故乡不可即之远。后世多以先忧后乐概范仲淹，此词却补出其先己后公、刚中有柔的一面，是边塞词中难得的乡思绝唱。作为边帅，范仲淹于军旅倥偬中写此柔情小令，恰见其刚毅外表下的细腻心肠，也补出先忧后乐之外先己后公、刚中有柔的一面，是边塞词中难得的乡思绝唱。

Art

The art lies in the 'scene above, feeling below' structure and in a style that is both colorful and sinewy. The contrasting 'azure' and 'yellow' creates a luminous yet autumnal wide-angle view; the line about heartless fragrant grass beyond the setting sun quietly introduces emotion into landscape. Diction such as 'cold mist green,' 'dimmed soul,' and 'transforms into' welds visual coldness to emotional weight. The broad composition breaks with the narrow, ornate convention of the Five Dynasties xiaoling and anticipates the expansive manner of later heroic ci.

此词艺术首在以上景下情、景阔情深的章法，打破五代小令局促纤媚的格局。上片写景，碧云天，黄叶地以两个三字句对起，色彩明丽而气象开阔，一扫悲秋的衰飒；秋色连波、波上寒烟翠由天及地、由地及水，层层晕染出秋江寒翠；山映斜阳天接水以远山斜阳接水天，把空间推到无垠。最妙在芳草无情，更在斜阳外，以草之无知反挑人之有恨，景中已伏乡思之脉。下片抒情，黯乡魂，追旅思以丽字写哀（黯、追皆锤炼），夜夜除非，好梦留人睡用排除句式极写无梦不眠；明月楼高休独倚以劝语折入，酒入愁肠，化作相思泪以愁化泪收束，柔情遂入骨髓。全词炼字精警（寒烟翠、黯、追、化），设色秾丽而骨力遒劲，刚柔互见，是宋词由晚唐婉约转向阔大沉郁的关键作品。上片设色丽而气象阔，下片抒情沉而骨力遒，刚柔相济，突破五代令词窄境，开后来豪放词先声，其炼字如寒烟翠、黯、化，皆丽中见刚，最见宋词炼字设色之妙。

Allusions

The image of fragrant grass is a traditional sign of parting, originating in the Chuci line 'The prince roams and does not return, spring grass grows lush.' 'Anran xiaohun' ('darkly soul-destroying') comes from Jiang Yan's Fu on Parting. The motif of wine turning to tears echoes Li Bai's 'raising the cup dispels sorrow, yet sorrow grows more sorrow.' Fan Zhongyan reworks these old allusions under a northern frontier autumn sky, turning spring-parting conventions into a homesickness of the border.

词中意象多有所本而能翻新。碧云天，黄叶地化用《诗经》与江淹《别赋》秋日萧索之意，又近李清照碧云笼晓的设色。寒烟翠承《九歌》袅袅兮秋风、洞庭波兮木叶下的秋水意象。芳草无情，更在斜阳外，芳草本《楚辞》招隐士王孙游兮不归，春草生兮萋萋的离别符号，又承杜牧借问酒家何处有、白居易远芳侵古道的传统；以芳草无情写乡思之远，暗用李白春风明月、欧阳修芳草无情之诉。黯乡魂出于江淹《别赋》黯然销魂者唯别而已矣，追旅思写羁旅之愁相缠。相思泪则化用李白弃我去者、李白夜曲中折柳的故园之思。这些故实经范仲淹以边塞秋空重新组织，遂使传统春草离情变为秋塞望乡，意象虽旧而情境全新，最见宋人融化唐诗、自铸伟词的本领。碧云黄叶承楚辞秋意，芳草斜阳化离情传统，黯乡魂出江淹别赋，相思泪承太白愁肠，诸典经边塞秋空重新组织，使春草离情变为秋塞望乡，意象虽旧而情境全新。

Commentary

The upper stanza is pure autumn scene, yet feeling hides in every image. Azure sky and yellow leaves set the season and space; autumn color linking the waves and cold green mist over the water create a cool, boundless river image. Hills reflecting the slanting sun and the sky touching the water push the view outward, while the heartless fragrant grass stretching beyond the setting sun becomes a silent reproach to human feeling. In the lower stanza, the poet speaks directly: a dimmed homesick soul pursued by travel-longing, sleepless nights that only a good dream can soothe, and a warning not to lean alone from the bright moon tower. The final lines, wine in a sorrowing gut turning into longing tears, gather the entire landscape into one tear. The wider the scene grows, the deeper the feeling becomes; this is the supreme achievement of writing tender homesickness with a stern hand.

上片全写秋景而景中含情。碧云天，黄叶地，先以天之碧、地之黄拉开秋的阔远，对句短促有力，如油画铺底。秋色连波，波上寒烟翠，由高阔收到江面，秋色与水波相连，寒烟笼翠，冷意渐浓。山映斜阳天接水，写远山斜阳与天光水色相接，空间愈推愈远，为乡思蓄势。芳草无情，更在斜阳外，笔锋暗转：芳草本无知，却蔓延到斜阳之外，仿佛故意把人的视线引向不可及的远方，以草之无情反衬人之有恨，上片于此由景入情。下片正面抒愁。黯乡魂，追旅思，以江淹别赋语写思乡销魂、旅愁相追。夜夜除非，好梦留人睡，用除非表唯一慰藉，极写长夜无眠之苦。明月楼高休独倚，由夜入月，劝莫独倚高楼，因倚则望乡更愁。酒入愁肠，化作相思泪，终以饮酒浇愁、愁反化泪作结，柔情透纸。通篇景愈阔而情愈深，刚笔写柔，遂成绝调。由碧云黄叶到芳草斜阳，由黯魂追思到酒化泪，景愈阔而情愈深，刚笔写柔，遂成宋词羁旅相思的巅峰，也最见范仲淹以边帅之笔写儿女之情的独到处。

Prosody

Reading note The tune name 'Su Muzhe' originally refers to a felt hat from Central Asia and entered Chinese music through the Tang court. Fan Zhongyan's solemn frontier mood gives the melodious tune an unexpectedly broad and masculine scope.《苏幕遮》本唐教坊曲，双调六十二字，上下片各五句、四仄韵（此词上片用碧云天、黄叶地等，押仄声韵；通行以上去声为主）。范仲淹此首上片碧云天，黄叶地，秋色连波，波上寒烟翠，山映斜阳天接水，芳草无情、更在斜阳外，以三字、四字、七字句错落，节奏由紧促（碧云天，黄叶地）渐舒宽（秋色连波），再展为长句（山映斜阳天接水），如镜头由远拉近又推远。下片黯乡魂，追旅思，夜夜除非、好梦留人睡，明月楼高休独倚，酒入愁肠、化作相思泪，多用四字句与七字句，声情由沉抑（黯、追）转低回（夜夜除非），终以化作相思泪宕开。句式上片短长相济、下片整散间出，韵密情长，符合《苏幕遮》婉转悱恻的声情；而设色之丽、气象之阔，又突破令词窄境，开后来豪放词先声，故其音节虽婉而骨力自遒。

Line by line

碧云天，黄叶地。

An azure sky above, yellow leaves below: a six-character couplet that fixes the vast autumn scene through color and vertical contrast.

Blue clouds in the sky, yellow leaves on the ground.

这是全词的开篇，也是宋词中写秋最负盛名的一联。碧对黄、云对叶、天对地，两个三字句严整对仗，色彩上碧云之清远对黄叶之枯落，空间上高天对大地，仅六字便铺开一幅阔远明净的秋空秋野图。它脱胎于《楚辞》与江淹《别赋》的秋意，却以鲜明设色与开阔构图一扫前人以悲秋为窄的传统，气象宏朗，被人誉为开豪放词先声。更妙在碧黄对照暗含节序流转：天尚碧而地已黄，秋之将至、岁之将晚已在其中，为后文乡思伏脉。这两句看似纯景，实则以景之阔反衬后文情之深，是范词刚柔相济的起点，也是中国古典诗词炼景设色的典范之笔，后世元曲碧云天，黄花地直袭其调。

This is the whole ci's opening, and the Song ci's autumn most famed couplet. The blue-to-yellow, cloud-to-leaf, sky-to-earth, the two three-character lines' strict parallel, the color's blue-clouds' clarity-and-distance against the yellow-leaves' withered-falling, the space's high-sky against the broad-ground, only six characters and unrolling a vast clear autumn-sky-and-autumn-field picture. It derives from the Elegies of Chu and Jiang Yan's Rhapsody on Parting autumn feeling, and yet using the bright color and open composition to sweep away the predecessors' grief-autumn narrow tradition, the grand tone, praised as opening the bold-ci vanguard. The further wonder in the blue-yellow contrast's hidden season's turning: the sky still blue and the ground already yellow, autumn's coming and the year's late already within, storing the ground for the below homesickness. These two lines seeming the pure scene, and yet using the scene's vastness for the below's feeling's depth's setting-off, Fan's ci's firm-and-soft meeting point, and the Chinese classical poetry's scene-refining-color-setting model stroke, the later Yuan-song's blue-clouds-in-the-sky-yellow-flowers-on-the-ground directly inheriting its tune.

酒入愁肠，化作相思泪。

Wine reaches the sorrowing gut and directly changes into tears of longing, the climax of suppressed homesickness.

Wine enters the grieving bowels and turns into tears of longing.

这是全词的结穴，也是乡思的最终落点。前以夜夜除非好梦留人睡写无梦难眠，以明月楼高休独倚劝莫凭栏，皆试图排遣；至此却以酒入愁肠，化作相思泪作决绝收束：本欲以酒浇愁，孰料愁深，酒到愁肠竟直接化为相思之泪，排遣不成反更沉溺。化字极警，把无形的愁写成可质的泪，酒与泪的转化极具张力，也与李白举杯消愁更愁同一机杼而更凄婉。它呼应上片芳草无情之远与下片黯乡魂之深，把边塞望乡的柔情写到透骨。范仲淹以边帅写此丽句，刚中藏柔，遂使此词超越一般艳科，成为宋词抒写羁旅相思的巅峰，也是秋思题材中最动人的收尾。

This is the whole ci's closing point, and the homesickness's final landing. Before it, the unless-the-nightly-good-dreams-keep-you-writing the no-dream hard-sleep, the beneath-the-bright-moon-lean-not-alone-from-the-high-tower's admonition, all the attempt at the dispelling; to here and yet using the wine-enters-the-grieving-bowels-and-turns-into-tears-of-longing for the decisive close: the original wish to use wine for the grief, who would have thought the grief's deep, the wine to the grieving bowels and yet directly turning into the longing tears, the dispelling's non-success and yet the deeper sinking. The hua word especially alert, turning the shapeless grief into the substantial tears, the wine-and-tear transformation's tension, and with Li Bai's raising-cup-to-douse-grief-grief-the-more same loom and yet the more plaintive. It echoes the first stanza's heartless-fragrant-grass distance and the below's darkened-homesick-soul depth, writing the frontier gazing-home tender feeling to the bone. Fan Zhongyan the frontier commander writing this beautiful line, firm-within-hidden-soft, hence making this ci surpass the ordinary amorous genre, become the Song ci's traveler-longing peak, and the autumn-thought subject's most moving ending.

Study

Word focus

寒烟翠 Cold-mist green: a coined image of autumn river mist whose 'cold' tints the green with desolation, making it feel both translucent and remote. 寒烟翠写秋江上雾气如烟、色呈寒翠，寒字既写秋气之凉，也写心境之凄；翠本暖色，着寒字便成冷翠，设色矛盾而恰好状出江雾迷蒙、清冷可触的质感。这个意象由《九歌》洞庭波兮木叶下化出，却以寒烟二字点出边塞秋江的荒寒，比单纯写烟水更有骨力。它上承秋色连波，使水波与烟霭浑成一片，拉开上片的冷色调，为芳草无情之远作铺垫。若易为寒烟碧便平熟，唯翠字带着秋木的暗绿，与黄叶、碧云构成丰富的秋色层次，最见范词炼字设色、于丽中见刚的本领，也是宋词善写江天秋景的一例。

黯 Dimmed or darkened: transferred from visual darkness to emotional dejection, recalling Jiang Yan's phrase 'anran xiaohun' (darkly soul-destroying). 黯本义深黑，引申为心神沮丧，江淹《别赋》黯然销魂者唯别而已矣，范仲淹黯乡魂即黯然伤于乡魂，写思乡之深几乎销魂。这个字下得极重，以视觉之黯写心理之黯，把抽象的乡愁写成可感的暗色，炼字如铸。它与下句追字（旅思相追不舍）相配，一静一动，写尽边塞长夜中乡思的缠绞。在婉约词多写闲愁的语境里，黯字带一点沉郁的骨力，恰合范仲淹边帅的身份——刚毅人写柔情，故愁而不媚、怨而不弱。若用悲或伤便流于常套；唯黯字，既丽且重，最见宋人融化辞赋、以雅字写至情的手段，也是全词下片抒情力度之所系。

化 To transform: turns abstract sorrow into concrete tears, the verbal hinge that clinches the whole lyric. 化字在酒入愁肠，化作相思泪中是全结的眼。愁本无形，酒本浇愁，苏轼谓酒兵久不胜，范仲淹却翻进一层：酒非但未能消愁，反在愁肠中化作相思之泪，把心理的愁转为生理的泪，化字使虚实之间发生质的转换，极具想象张力。它上承李白举杯消愁更愁，却以化作写出具体的物化过程，比李诗更细腻凄婉。这个字也呼应全词由景入情、由情入泪的脉络：碧云黄叶的阔景，终于凝为一滴相思泪，刚柔收束于此一字。化的选用，显示范仲淹不徒以景胜，更以巧思结情，使寻常浇愁题材出新意于法度之中，是宋词炼虚为实、以巧济厚的范例。