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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

望海潮·东南形胜

Watching the Tide·Scenic Splendor of the Southeast

柳永

Liu Yong

都市City Life 写景Scenery 赠友To a Friend

东南形胜，三吴都会，钱塘自古繁华。
烟柳画桥，风帘翠幕，参差十万人家。
云树绕堤沙，怒涛卷霜雪，天堑无涯。
市列珠玑，户盈罗绮，竞豪奢。
重湖叠巘清嘉，有三秋桂子，十里荷花。
羌管弄晴，菱歌泛夜，嬉嬉钓叟莲娃。
千骑拥高牙，乘醉听箫鼓，吟赏烟霞。
异日图将好景，归去凤池夸。

Southeast enjoys scenic splendor, metropolis of Sanwu, Qiantang has been prosperous since old days.
Misty willows, painted bridges, windblown curtains and emerald screens, ten thousand houses scatter.
Cloudy trees surround the riverbank sand, angry waves roll up frost and snow, the natural moat is limitless.
Markets display pearls and jade, households full of silk and brocade, vying in luxury.
The double lake and layered hills are clear and fair, with osmanthus in autumn, lotus in summer.
Qiang flutes play in fine weather, water-chestnut songs float at night, the old fisherman and lotus girl enjoy.
Thousands of riders follow high banners, drunk listening to pipes and drums, reciting and admiring mist and clouds.
One day he will paint the fine scene, returning to Phoenix Pool to boast.

Listen

Meaning

This poem depicts the prosperity of Qiantang (Hangzhou) and the beauty of West Lake, praising the region's natural and urban splendor while expressing admiration for the local official Sun He.

东南的形胜之地，三吴的都会，钱塘自古便繁华。如烟的柳色、彩画的桥梁，风帘翠幕之间，参差住着十万人家。高耸的云树环绕江堤沙路，怒涛卷起霜雪般的浪花，这天然的险阻浩渺无涯。市上陈列珠玉，户户充盈罗绮，竞相豪奢。里湖外湖与层叠山峦清丽佳美，有三秋的桂子、十里的荷花。晴日里羌笛悠扬，夜间菱歌飘荡，钓鱼老翁与采莲姑娘嬉笑自在。千骑簇拥着高扬的牙旗，乘醉听箫鼓，吟赏烟霞。他日把这好景画成图卷，归朝去中书省夸赞。

Appreciation

The poem uses a descriptive fu-style technique with vivid parallelism and imagery, especially the famous line 'osmanthus in autumn, lotus in summer', which captures the beauty of Hangzhou's scenery in all seasons.

【白话串讲】柳永写杭州的繁华，“三秋桂子，十里荷花”，据说连金主完颜亮看了都起兵南侵——这首词太美，美到成了传说。柳永用一首词，让一座城名垂千古。【意象与手法】慢词长调，铺叙工丽。上片由地理形胜入都市繁华，下片由湖山清嘉入市井游乐，由宏观到细部，层层铺排如汉赋【情感与主旨】此词约作于宋真宗景德、祥符年间，柳永初游杭州，结识两浙转运使孙何，因作此词赠之，以铺陈杭州（钱塘）与西湖的繁华盛景【名句点睛】常考铺陈（赋法）手法与“三秋桂子，十里荷花”的名句；亦考都市繁华的描写层次

Background

This poem was likely composed during Liu Yong's early visit to Hangzhou, when he presented it to Sun He, the transport commissioner (two Zhejiang route). It reflects the prosperity of the Northern Song dynasty and serves as a piece of salutation to a patron.

柳永（约九八七—约一〇五三），字耆卿，崇安人，北宋婉约词大家，尤工慢词长调，开拓铺叙之法，世称柳七。此词题《望海潮·东南形胜》，约作于宋真宗景德、祥符年间（一〇〇四—一〇一六），柳永初游杭州，结识两浙转运使孙何，因作此词赠之，以铺陈杭州（钱塘）与西湖之繁华盛景，暗含称美主人、希求知遇之意。词中所咏钱塘，即今浙江杭州，自隋开运河、唐为东南名郡，至北宋已成甲于东南之都会。三吴之称本于《水经注》以吴郡、吴兴、会稽为三吴，钱塘处其腹心。就文学传统而言，都市繁华之咏自汉大赋（如班固《两都》、张衡《二京》）已然，柳永以词体写都市，实将赋法移入词中，开宋词都市题材之先。版本上，此词异文不多，凤池一作凤皇池，指中书省，今从常本。其词虽为投赠，然铺叙之工、气象之宏，已足自立为千古名篇。柳永此词虽为投赠孙何之作，然其铺陈都市之宏阔笔力，已远超一般干谒文字，成为五代以来都市词中罕见的大制作，奠定其慢词巨匠之地位。

Art

A long tune (manci) with elaborate description: the first stanza covers geography and urban prosperity, the second stanza moves to lake and mountain scenery and leisurely life. The poem uses parallel couplets and number words (e.g., 'three autumns, ten miles') to create a spacious and grand effect, pioneering the Song dynasty urban ci.

此词艺术之最著者，在于以赋法铺叙都市繁华，结构宏阔而层次井然。全词双调长调，上片由地理形胜入都市繁华：起三句提纲挈领，东南形胜、三吴都会、钱塘繁华如三段判语；继以烟柳画桥、风帘翠幕写市井之丽，云树怒涛写江天之壮，市列珠玑写商贸之盛，由宏观到细部，层层铺排如汉赋。下片由湖山清嘉入市井游乐：重湖叠巘写自然，羌管菱歌写人间，千骑高牙写官游，异日图将收束寄赠之意。章法上，景、市、人、官四层递进展开，时空交错而脉络清晰。修辞多用对仗与列锦，三秋桂子，十里荷花以数量对写尽西湖风物，竞豪奢三字点出时代风气。语言富丽堂皇而不堆砌，是柳永慢词铺叙工力的代表，亦见长调体式铺陈之能事。铺叙之中，丽而不浮、密而不塞，时空转换自如，由上古形胜直写当今繁华，章法俨然有汉赋之骨，而声情仍属词体之婉，是赋法入词之成功典范。

Allusions

'Natural moat' (tianqian) refers to the Yangtze River but here describes the Qiantang River's formidable barrier. 'Phoenix Pool' (fengchi) refers to the Central Secretariat (Zhongshu Sheng), the highest administrative body, implying Sun He's future promotion to the court. The allusions are seamlessly embedded in praise.

词中多用故实与地理典故。东南形胜本于《荀子》「王者之政」及历代形胜之说的地理观念；三吴出《水经注》，指吴郡、吴兴、会稽，标钱塘为江东腹心。天堑用《隋书》载隋文帝以长江为天堑之说，本指长江，柳永移以写钱塘江之险，亦合其浩渺无涯之状。重湖谓西湖以白堤、苏堤分里湖外湖，叠巘指周围群山，皆实写杭州地理。三秋桂子暗点杭州赏桂之风（灵隐、满觉陇），十里荷花写西湖荷事，皆为地方风物之典。凤池即凤凰池，本为禁苑池沼，魏晋以来指中书省，此处代指朝廷，异日图将好景，归去凤池夸，既称美孙何政绩，亦寓己之希冀。羌管弄晴之羌管，指西北羌族乐器，入词写杭州晴日之乐，见都市多元气息。凡此地理风物，皆信手拈来而各得其所。三吴、天堑、凤池等典，皆随手驱遣，切合杭州地理与孙何官职；用典而不泥古，于富丽中见雍容气度，非深于学力者所不能到。

Commentary

The Song scholar Luo Dajing recorded in 'He Lin Yu Lu' that the Jin ruler Wanyan Liang, upon hearing 'three autumns of osmanthus, ten miles of lotus', was inspired to invade the south. Though possibly apocryphal, it shows the power of the imagery. Liu Yong's ci were widely sung, and this piece exemplifies both his popular appeal and literary sophistication.

此词历来被誉为柳永都市词之冠，亦宋词铺叙工丽之典范。宋人罗大经《鹤林玉露》载「此词流播，金主亮闻之，欣然起投鞭渡江之志」，虽或小说家言，亦见其感染力之强。近世论者多以赋法入词评之，以为柳永将汉赋铺排移入词体，开拓慢词新格局。三秋桂子，十里荷花一联，尤为千古名句，苏轼亦叹其写尽西湖。此词因气象宏阔、语言华美，历来入选总集与教材，现代传播甚广。在经典地位上，它标志柳永对都市题材与慢词体式的双重开拓，与《雨霖铃》一写离情一写都景，共见其长调功力；而论宋词中都市书写之工，则足与辛弃疾《青玉案·元夕》、周邦彦《瑞龙吟》并峙。学者或以柳词多俚俗而轻之，不知此篇雅丽如此，足称一代之雄。自宋迄今，此词几为杭州之文学名片，西湖之盛誉亦与之呼应；其文化辐射远超词坛之外，足证名篇与名城可以互相成就，流传愈久愈显其辉。

Prosody

Form ci·Watching the Tide (double-stanza, 107 characters, level-tone meter, created by Liu Yong)词（长调慢词）·《望海潮》

Rhyme Level-tone rhyme (Xia ping liu ma): 华, 家, 涯, 奢, 嘉, 花, 娃, 牙, 霞, 夸此词押平声家麻韵（华、家、涯、奢、嘉、花、娃、霞、夸等），一韵到底，声情宏畅富丽。

Tone pattern Double-stanza, 107 characters, level tone throughout (Ma rhyme); mostly four-character phrases, with three-, four-, and five-character lines interspersed.双调一百七字，上片十一句五平韵，下片十一句五平韵，句式以四、三、五、四错落铺排，平仄协调，宜于铺叙。

Reading note Liu Yong created this meter, using fu-style description to unfold Qiantang's geography, prosperity, lake-mountain scenery, and feasting, layer by layer, making it a prototype for early Song manci description.《望海潮》为柳永创调之长调，句式长短错落，最宜铺陈都市宏大之景。此词上下片对称，上片由形胜入市井江天，下片由湖山入游乐官游，结构如汉赋之铺排，由总到分、由景到政。押韵上，全词落脚于平声家麻韵，一韵贯通，声情宏畅富丽，与都市繁华之题相协，读来顿挫有力而不失华美。平仄方面，四字句领起，继以三、五、四字句层层铺展，节奏舒卷有致，至结句归去凤池夸以三字短收，疏朗作结。整体格律与铺叙内容相生，是柳永以声调助长调铺陈的典范，亦见宋词长调炼韵之工。其韵宽而声宏，正配钱塘之盛。

Line by line

东南形胜，三吴都会，钱塘自古繁华。

A general statement: the southeast is a strategic area, the metropolis of Sanwu, and Qiantang has been prosperous since ancient times.

东南的形胜之地，三吴的都会，钱塘自古便繁华。

The southeast's strategic site, the capital of the Three Wu, Qiantang has been prosperous since of old.

起笔三句，是柳永以赋法立纲的范例。东南形胜写地理之要，三吴都会写政区之重，钱塘自古繁华写历史之积，三句如三段判语，层层递进，一笔勾出杭州的雄阔底气。自古二字尤其吃紧，将眼前繁华溯及千年，赋予城市以历史纵深。这三句不事描摹而气势已立，为下文烟柳画桥、市列珠玑的铺陈张本，是长调开篇提纲挈领的典范，亦见柳永驾驭慢词结构之老练。其用笔如史家叙地理，简而能赅，先立其大而后及其细。

The opening three lines, Liu Yong's fu-method-establishes-outline example. The southeast's-strategic-site writing the geography's importance, the Three-Wu-capital writing the administrative district's weight, Qiantang-has-been-prosperous-since-of-old writing the historical accumulation, three lines like three judgments, layer on layer's advance, one stroke's outlining Hangzhou's grand foundation. The since-of-old two words' especially tight, pulling the present prosperity back to the thousand years, granting the city the historical depth. These three lines' no depiction and yet the momentum's already established, storing the ground for the below's mist-willows-painted-bridges and market's-pearls layering, the long-verse opening's outlines-the-whole model, and seeing Liu Yong's slow-verse-structure command's skill. His brush like the historian's geography-narration, the concise and yet comprehensive, first establishing the great and then approaching the fine.

云树绕堤沙，怒涛卷霜雪，天堑无涯。

Cloud-like trees surround the sandy embankment; angry waves roll up frost and snow; the natural moat is boundless.

高耸的云树环绕江堤沙路，怒涛卷起霜雪般的浪花，这天然的险阻浩渺无涯。

Cloud-wreathed trees ring the sand of the causeway; angry waves roll up frost and snow; the natural moat is boundless.

此句写钱塘江天之壮，于满纸软媚繁华间插入一笔刚健，使词境不致一味香软。云树绕堤写江岸之静美，怒涛卷霜雪写江潮之汹涌，一静一动、一柔一刚，而天堑无涯以大江之浩渺收束，气象开阔。霜雪喻浪花之白，设色清峻，与上文烟柳风帘的暖丽形成冷暖对照。柳永于此以雄笔写自然之险，既实写钱塘江观潮之胜，亦暗喻江天为东南之屏障，铺叙中见筋骨。其以刚济柔，使全词骨力不弱，是慢词铺陈中难得的健笔。

This line writing the Qiantang-river-heaven's grandeur, amid the paper-full soft-glamour's inserting one vigorous stroke, making the ci-realm's not one-sidedly fragrant-soft. The cloud-wreathed-trees-ring-the-sand writing the river-bank's static beauty, the angry-waves-roll-up-frost-and-snow writing the river-tide's surging, one-static-one-motion, one-soft-one-vigorous, and the natural-moat-is-boundless using the great-river's vastness for the close, the atmosphere open. The frost-and-snow's metaphor for the wave's white, the color's clear-and-steep, with the above's mist-willows-wind-curtains's warm-glamour's cold-warm contrast. Liu Yong here using the bold brush for the nature's peril, at once the real writing of the Qiantang tide-viewing's triumph, and secretly the river-and-sky's metaphor for the southeast's barrier, the narrative's within seeing the bone. His vigorous-aids-soft, making the whole ci's bone-strength's not weak, the slow-verse layering's rare vigorous brush.

重湖叠巘清嘉，有三秋桂子，十里荷花。

The double lakes and layered hills are clear and fine; there are osmanthus flowers in autumn and lotus flowers for ten miles in summer.

里湖外湖与层叠山峦清丽佳美，有三秋的桂子、十里的荷花。

Linked lakes and layered peaks are fair; here are autumn's cassia and ten li of lotus.

此句为下片写西湖风物之纲，亦全词最脍炙人口的一联。重湖叠巘以四个字概括西湖山水之形胜，清嘉二字总评其美；继以三秋桂子，十里荷花，以时间（三秋）与空间（十里）对举，数量词精切，写尽杭州春秋两季之胜。桂子荷花一秋一夏，包举一年风物，设色淡雅而境界开阔。此联不仅对仗工稳，更以极省之笔写极丰之景，遂成西湖千古定评，东坡所谓写尽西湖者，正指此类。其清词丽句，至今犹为西湖广告之祖。

This line the second stanza's West-Lake-scenery outline, and the whole ci's most famed couplet. The linked-lakes-and-layered-peaks four words' summary of the West-Lake mountains-and-waters' form, the fair two words' total praise of its beauty; then the autumn's-cassia and ten-li-of-lotus, using the time (autumn) and space (ten-li) parallel, the quantity words' precision, exhausting Hangzhou's spring-and-autumn two seasons' triumph. The cassia-and-lotus's one-autumn-one-summer, the whole year's scenery's inclusion, the color's plain-elegant and the realm's open. This couplet's not only the parallel's firmness, and yet the extreme-concise-brush's extreme-rich-scene writing, hence becoming the West-Lake's through-the-ages settled judgment, Su Shi's write-the-West-Lake's-complete's precisely referring to this. Its clear words-and-lines, still today the West-Lake-advertising's ancestor.

异日图将好景，归去凤池夸。

In the future, he will paint this fine scene and go back to the Phoenix Pool to boast.

他日把这好景画成图卷，归朝去中书省夸赞。

Another day I will paint this fair scene, and take it back to the Phoenix Pool to boast.

结句收束全篇，点出赠孙何之本意。异日图将好景，设想孙何异日离杭入朝，以图卷携此湖山之胜；归去凤池夸，凤池代指中书省，既称美主人政绩可邀朝眷，亦暗寓柳永自身希求知遇之微意。此句将前面铺陈之景收束为一幅可携之图，由实景转入设想，章法圆融。作为投赠之作，结以颂扬而不失雅正，是柳永干谒词中得体的一首，亦见长调收束需有归宿之法则。其结而不露，谀而不佞，婉而能尽，是投赠词的上乘手笔。

The closing line gathering the whole piece, pointing out the Sun-He-gift original intention. The another-day-I-will-paint-this-fair-scene's conceiving Sun He's another-day's Hangzhou's leaving for the court, with the scroll's carrying this lake-and-hill triumph; take-it-back-to-the-Phoenix-Pool-to-boast, the Phoenix Pool's borrowing for the Central Secretariat, at once praising the host's achievement's worth-the-court-favor, and secretly carrying Liu Yong's own hoped-for-recognition faint meaning. This line turning the above's layered scene into a carryable picture, from the real scene to the conceiving, the craft's rounded. As the presented work, closing on the praise and yet not losing the elegant rectitude, Liu Yong's plea-visit ci's the one in good form, and seeing the slow-verse-close's must-have-destination rule. Its close and yet not revealing, the flattering and yet not fawning, the gentle and yet complete, the presentation ci's top hand.

Study

Word focus

形胜 'strategic and scenic land' – this term sets up the geographical framework of the entire poem. 形胜二字是起笔立骨之词，本指地势优越、山川壮固之处，出《荀子》及历代地理书。柳永以东南形胜冠于篇首，不写繁华而先写地利，是为全词定下雄阔基调。形胜一词既实指杭州襟江带湖之险要，亦虚含历史文化的厚重，使后文繁华之咏有了地理凭借。一词而提纲挈领，可见长调谋篇需有总挈之眼的法则，亦见柳永炼题之精。其后千载，论杭州者犹多祖此二字，足见其定评之力。

竞 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 市列珠玑，户盈罗绮，竞豪奢，竞字是全词写时代风气的点睛之笔。前文铺陈珠玑罗绮之富，至此以一竞字写出市民与士庶争奇斗富的动态，使静态的物象转为社会的风气。竞者，争也，既写都市经济的繁盛，亦微露柳永对奢靡世风的冷眼。一字而富中见活、丽中见骨，是铺叙长调中不可少的提掇之笔，避免流于平板罗列。其以一字振起全段，使铺陈由静转动，章法为之一活。

凤池 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 凤池即凤凰池，本为禁苑池沼，魏晋以来以为中书省之别称，指中央朝廷。结句归去凤池夸，以凤池代孙何将入朝之地，既颂其政绩可邀眷顾，亦暗含柳永自托知遇的微意。用典雅正而含蓄，不直白干谒而投赠之意自明。一词收束全篇的都市铺陈，将地方之景升格为可献之图，章法圆融，亦见柳永长调收结需有归宿的匠心。其用典不滥，恰如其分，是投赠词炼字炼意的范型。