宋 Song · 文 Prose
醉翁亭记·版本四
The Record of the Pavilion of the Old Toper (Version IV)
醉翁之意不在酒，在乎山水之间也。
山水之乐，得之心而寓之酒也。
若夫日出而林霏开，云归而岩穴暝。
Meaning
The famous lines of the 'Record of the Pavilion of the Old Toper,' written in the fifth and sixth years of Qingli (1045–1046) when Ouyang Xiu was demoted to the prefecture of Chuzhou. 'The meaning of the Old Toper is not in the wine, but in the mountains and the waters' breaks the theme with the negation: the 'not in the wine' first draws the expectation of the reader to the wine, then 'in the mountains and the waters' swings open, revealing the true meaning of the drunkenness—the intoxication of the landscape, the joy of the mountains and the waters. 'The joy of the mountains and the waters, received in the heart, is entrusted to the wine' supplements the argument: the 'received in the heart' (comprehended in the heart) against the 'entrusted to the wine' (lodged in the wine), one real and one void, one inner and one outer, the joy of the landscape received in the heart and expressed through the wine. 'Then when the sun rises and the mists of the grove part, and the clouds return and the rock caves darken' then the landscape writing: the morning and the evening of the mountain, the sunrise parting the mists and the clouds returning darkening the caves, the change of the light and the dark of the four seasons of the mountain.
醉翁的情趣不在于喝酒，而在于山水之间。欣赏山水的乐趣，领会在心里，寄托在喝酒上。至于太阳升起，林间的雾气散开；云雾聚拢，山谷就昏暗了。
Appreciation
This piece is the prose of the Northern Song landscape travel record, its art most strikingly the 'the joy as the bone, the 'ye' sentences as the rhyme, and the loose and the even mutually aiding' of the composition. The three sentences of the excerpt advance layer on layer: the first, 'the meaning of the Old Toper is not in the wine, but in the mountains and the waters,' breaks the theme with the negation—the 'not in the wine' first draws the expectation to the wine, then 'in the mountains and the waters' swings open, revealing the true meaning of the drunkenness, the wonder of the breaking of the theme and the turn, none like it in a thousand years; the second, 'the joy of the mountains and the waters, received in the heart, is entrusted to the wine,' supplements the argument, the 'received in the heart' and the 'entrusted to the wine' against each other, one real and one void, one inner and one outer, the joy of the landscape clear; and the third, 'then when the sun rises and the mists of the grove part, and the clouds return and the rock caves darken,' the landscape writing, the 'sunrise' against the 'clouds returning,' the 'mists parting' against the 'caves darkening,' the change of the light and the dark of the mountain, the scene in the two lines, the beginning of the landscape of the whole record.
【白话串讲】 欧阳修写《醉翁亭记》的名句：“醉翁之意不在酒，在乎山水之间也”——醉翁的心思不在酒上，在山水之间。“山水之乐，得之心而寓之酒也”——“日出而林霏开，云归而岩穴暝”——他把山水之乐写进了千古。 【意象与手法】 此为北宋山水游记散文，以「乐」为骨、以「也」字收束：首句用否定句式破题，妙语惊人；次句以「得之心」「寓之酒」对举，虚实相生；末句骈散相间，「日出」「云归」对仗工整而气韵流动。句式长短错落、语气舒徐，是欧阳修散文「纡徐委备、往复百折」的典范。 【情感与主旨】 借醉翁亭之游写贬谪中的超脱与旷达：被贬滁州而不以己悲，寄情山水、与民同乐，把政治失意化为山水之乐。醉翁之意不在酒，在乎山水之间——更在山水之外的那份从容与自适。 【名句点睛】 常考「醉翁之意不在酒，在乎山水之间也」的破题之妙——一个「意」字揭出全文之纲，以醉写醒、以酒写乐，是千古传诵的名句，也是理解全文「乐」之真谛的钥匙。
Background
The 'Record of the Pavilion of the Old Toper' was written in the fifth and sixth years of Qingli (1045–1046), when Ouyang Xiu was demoted to the prefecture of Chuzhou (present-day Chuzhou, Anhui). Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072), courtesy name Yongshu, styled the Old Toper and the Retiree of Six-One, a native of Yongfeng, Jizhou (present-day Yongfeng, Jiangxi), the leader of the Northern Song prose-poetry reform, one of the Eight Masters of the Tang and Song. In the third year of Qingli (1043), he participated in the 'Qingli New Policies' presided over by Fan Zhongyan, advocating the reform of the ills of the times; after the failure of the New Policies, Fan Zhongyan and others were demoted, and Ouyang Xiu was also demoted to Chuzhou on the charge of the 'faction.' Though the place of the demotion was desolate, Ouyang Xiu did not sink: the next year (the fifth year of Qingli) he often wandered on Mount Langya, in the company of the mountain monk Zhixian, who built a pavilion on the mountain for his rest; Ouyang Xiu styled himself the 'Old Toper,' named the pavilion the 'Pavilion of the Old Toper,' and wrote the 'Record of the Pavilion of the Old Toper.' The whole is threaded with the 'joy': first the site of the pavilion, then the landscape of the morning and the evening and the four seasons, then the drinking of the traveling guests and the joy of the crowd, and the close 'the Old Toper' at once the joy of the landscape and the joy of the people.
《醉翁亭记》作于北宋庆历五年至六年（1045—1046），时欧阳修贬知滁州（今安徽滁州）。欧阳修（1007—1072），字永叔，号醉翁、六一居士，吉州永丰（今江西永丰）人，北宋诗文革新运动领袖，唐宋八大家之一。庆历三年（1043），他参与范仲淹主持的「庆历新政」，主张改革时弊；新政失败后，范仲淹等被贬，欧阳修亦以「朋党」之罪名被贬滁州。贬所虽荒僻，欧阳修却未消沉：次年（庆历五年）他常游琅琊山，与山僧智仙交游，智仙在山中建亭供其歇息，欧阳修自号「醉翁」，名亭曰「醉翁亭」，并作《醉翁亭记》。全文以「乐」为线索：先写亭之所在与命名之由，再写朝暮四时之景，继写滁人游、太守宴、众宾欢，末以「太守之乐其乐」点明「与民同乐」的主旨。本节选正是全文的核心段落：首两句破题，揭示「醉翁之意不在酒」的深意；末句转入写景，写朝暮之变的自然之乐。此文的创作背景，是中国士大夫「处江湖之远」时的典型姿态：以山水之乐化解贬谪之忧，以与民同乐寄托政治理想——醉翁之「醉」，实为一种清醒的旷达。
Art
The art is the 'the joy as the bone, the 'ye' sentences as the rhyme, and the loose and the even mutually aiding': the negation breaks the theme, the 'received in the heart' and the 'entrusted to the wine' against each other, and the landscape writing of the sunrise and the clouds returning—the three sentences advance layer on layer, the scene, the argument, and the joy in one, the beginning of the landscape of the whole record.
本篇为北宋山水游记散文，艺术上最突出的是「以乐为骨、以也字句为韵、骈散相济」的章法。节选三句，层层递进：首句「醉翁之意不在酒，在乎山水之间也」以否定破题——「不在酒」三字先把读者的期待引向酒，随即「在乎山水之间也」一笔宕开，揭出醉之真谛，破题之妙、转折之奇，千古无两；次句「山水之乐，得之心而寓之酒也」补充论证，「得之心」（领会在心）与「寓之酒」（寄托于酒）对举，一实一虚、一内一外，把「乐」的层次写透——乐在山水中，心领之；酒只是媒介，托之——醉翁非醉于酒，乃醉于山水也；末句「若夫日出而林霏开，云归而岩穴暝」转入写景，「若夫」一词领起，是古文转承的典型标记，「日出」「云归」「林霏开」「岩穴暝」四景两两对仗，一明一晦、一开一瞑，写出朝与暮的两种山色。句式上，三句皆以「也」字收束，语气舒缓悠长，形成欧阳修散文特有的「也」字韵律——全文二十一个「也」字，此处已见其端；骈散相间，首两句为散句，末句为对句，整齐与错落互济。这种「破题—释理—写景」的三层结构，正是《醉翁亭记》「一乐到底、愈转愈深」的缩影。
Allusions
This passage condenses the three great cultural motifs of the Chinese scholar-official's 'drunkenness,' 'joy,' and 'landscape.' First, the 'drunkenness' of the 'Old Toper': the drunkenness in the Chinese culture has never been merely the drunkenness of the drinking, but the transcendent drunkenness of the 'the meaning of the Old Toper is not in the wine'—Tao Yuanming's wordless drunkenness of the 'in this there is the true meaning, desiring to distinguish it, already forgotten the words,' Li Bai's world-resenting drunkenness of the 'would that I might always be drunk and never wake'—none of them the true drunkenness; Ouyang Xiu inherits this tradition and styles himself the 'Old Toper,' with the 'drunkenness' as the appearance of the carefree and the wakefulness as the substance. Second, the 'joy': the joy of the mountains and the waters of the Chinese literati, from the 'the wise delight in the waters and the benevolent delight in the mountains' of Confucius, the joy of the landscape of the scholars, and Ouyang Xiu's 'the joy of the mountains and the waters, received in the heart' the very tradition. Third, the 'landscape': the sunrise parting the mists and the clouds returning darkening the caves, the change of the light and the dark of the mountain, the tradition of the landscape writing from the 'Xie Lingyun' and 'Wang Wei.'
此段凝聚着中国士大夫「醉」「乐」「山水」三大文化母题。其一，「醉翁」之「醉」：醉在中国文化中从来不只是饮酒之醉，而是「醉翁之意不在酒」的超脱之醉——陶渊明「此中有真意，欲辨已忘言」的忘言之醉、李白「但愿长醉不复醒」的愤世之醉，皆非真醉；欧阳修承此传统而自号「醉翁」，以「醉」为旷达之表、清醒之里，其「醉」实为对贬谪厄运的超越性回应。其二，「山水之间」：山水之乐自《庄子》「山林与！皋壤与！使我欣然而乐与」、谢灵运山水诗以来，一直是士大夫安顿身心的精神家园；欧阳修「在乎山水之间也」，正是承六朝山水文学、唐代柳宗元永州山水记的「山水以娱情」传统，而更进一层——他的山水之乐不止于审美，更含「与民同乐」的政治情怀。其三，「得之心而寓之酒」：心物相得、寓情于物的思想，可溯《庄子》「得鱼忘筌」、陶渊明「得心」之论，欧阳修把它化为「得之于心、寓之于酒」的日常哲学，使高深的玄理落地为醉翁亭前的一杯酒。三句之中，儒道之思、山水之趣、酒中之乐浑然一体，正是宋代士大夫「内圣外王」人格的缩影。
Commentary
The 'Record of the Pavilion of the Old Toper' is the representative work of Ouyang Xiu's prose and a monument in the history of the Chinese landscape travel record. In literature, the whole is threaded with the 'joy,' the twenty-one 'ye' sentences like the pearls on the string, forming the unique rhythm of the 'one sentence one meaning, one meaning one turn,' praised by the later ages as the 'the variation of the rhapsody, the correct form of the travel record'; and the 'the meaning of the Old Toper is not in the wine, but in the mountains and the waters' has become the eternal phrase, and the 'the Old Toper's meaning is not in the wine' the idiom of the Chinese for the ulterior intent, the saying itself the most widely quoted line of the whole record.
《醉翁亭记》是欧阳修散文的代表作，也是中国山水游记文学史上的一座丰碑。就文学言，此文以「乐」字贯穿全篇，二十一个「也」字句如珠串玉，形成「一句一意、一意一转」的独特韵律，被后世评为「赋体之变调、游记之正格」；其「醉翁之意不在酒，在乎山水之间也」一语，更成为千古传诵的名句，凝为「醉翁之意」的成语，泛指言在此而意在彼。就思想言，此文体现了中国士大夫「处逆境而不失其乐」的精神高度：欧阳修以贬谪之身，在滁州「与民同乐」，把个人的失意升华为群体的欢愉，这种「乐其乐」的襟怀，与范仲淹「先天下之忧而忧，后天下之乐而乐」互为表里，共同塑造了北宋士大夫「以天下为己任」的精神气象。就影响言，此文与《岳阳楼记》并称宋文双璧，是「唐宋八大家」古文运动的标志性成果；其「醉翁亭」更成为滁州的文化地标，历代题咏不绝，欧阳修「六一居士」的雅号、醉翁亭的胜迹，皆因斯文而名传千古。此文的价值，正在于把一次贬谪写成一场山水之乐，把个人的忧伤酿成千古的酒香。
Prosody
Line by line
醉翁之意不在酒，在乎山水之间也。
The meaning of the Old Toper is not in the wine, but in the mountains and the waters. (The breaking of the theme with the negation: the 'not in the wine' draws the expectation, then the 'in the mountains and the waters' swings open, the true meaning of the drunkenness revealed.)
醉翁的情趣不在于喝酒，而在于山水之间。
The Drunken Old Man heart is not in the wine; it lies among the hills and streams.
此句是全文的破题之笔，也是千古传诵的名句。「醉翁之意不在酒」以否定破题——世人皆以为醉翁之「醉」在酒，作者偏偏说「不在酒」，一个「不」字，把读者的期待引向歧路，随即「在乎山水之间也」一笔宕开，揭出醉之真谛：「意」字是全句的纲——醉翁之醉，醉的不是酒，而是山水；「在乎山水之间也」以「乎」字舒缓语气，点明醉翁的精神归宿。此句的深意有三：其一，以「醉」写「醒」——醉翁看似沉醉，实则清醒，其醉是对贬谪厄运的超越性回应；其二，以「酒」写「乐」——酒只是媒介，山水之乐才是本体，「不在酒」三字把酒从目的降为手段；其三，「山水之间」四字，把个人的情趣与自然的怀抱相连，见出中国士大夫「寄情山水」的安身之道。一句破题，全篇之「乐」由此生发，是「卒章显志」之前的最高纲领。
This line breaks open the essay theme and is a famous maxim across the ages. The Drunken Old Man heart is not in the wine opens with a negation: all men suppose his drunkenness lies in wine, yet the author says not in it, and the single not redirects the reader expectation before it lies among the hills and streams reveals the truth of his intoxication. The word heart is the key: he is drunk not on wine but on the landscape. The meaning has three layers: first, writing sobriety through drunkenness - seemingly intoxicated, he is actually lucid, his drunkenness a transcendent response to the blow of exile. Second, writing joy through wine - wine is only the medium, the joy of landscape the reality. Third, among the hills and streams binds personal delight to the embrace of nature, revealing the Chinese scholar way of dwelling by entrusting the heart to scenery. One line breaks the theme, and all the essay joy grows from it.
山水之乐，得之心而寓之酒也。
The joy of the mountains and the waters, received in the heart, is entrusted to the wine. (The supplementing of the argument: the 'received in the heart' against the 'entrusted to the wine,' one real and one void, the joy of the landscape clear.)
欣赏山水的乐趣，领会在心里，寄托在喝酒上。
The joy of hills and streams is grasped in the heart and entrusted to wine.
此句承上句破题而进，解释「醉翁之意不在酒」的机理，是全段由「意」入「乐」的枢纽。「山水之乐」四字点明乐之本体——乐不在酒而在山水；「得之心」写乐之所得——山水之美被心灵领会，是内在的、精神的；「寓之酒」写乐之所托——这份快乐又通过酒来寄托、来表达，是外在的、行为的。一「得」一「寓」，一内一外，把「乐」的层次写得极为分明：心领神会的是真乐，杯中寄托的是表达——醉翁之饮，饮的是山水，不是酒。此句还暗含一层深意：「得之心」是「醉翁之意」的内化，「寓之酒」是「醉翁之意」的外化，内外相济，醉翁之「醉」便既是精神的沉浸，又是行为的表演——一个「寓」字，写出酒在醉翁生活中的真实位置：不是目的，而是载体。两句对举，虚实相生，把玄妙的「意」落到实处，是欧阳修散文「以浅语写深意」的典范。
This line follows the theme-breaking above, explaining the mechanism of the Drunken Old Man heart is not in the wine, the pivot from heart to joy. The joy of hills and streams names the reality of the joy - it lies in landscape, not wine. Grasped in the heart gives where the joy is received: the beauty of hills and waters is apprehended inwardly, spiritually. Entrusted to wine gives where it is placed: that joy is then expressed and embodied through drinking, outwardly, actively. One grasped, one entrusted, one inner, one outer, lay the layers of joy bare: what the heart seizes is true joy; what the cup holds is expression - the Drunken Old Man drinks the landscape, not the wine. The hidden depth is that grasped in the heart is the inward turn of his heart, while entrusted to wine is its outward turn; the two work together, so his drunkenness is both spiritual immersion and performed act. The single word entrusted fixes wine true place in his life: not an end, but a vehicle. Paired lines, the real and the illusory giving rise to each other, landing the abstract heart on something solid - a model of Ouyang way of writing deep meaning in plain words.
若夫日出而林霏开，云归而岩穴暝。
Then when the sun rises and the mists of the grove part, and the clouds return and the rock caves darken. (The landscape writing: the morning and the evening of the mountain, the sunrise parting the mists and the clouds returning darkening the caves, the change of the light and the dark.)
至于太阳升起，林间的雾气散开；云雾聚拢，山谷就昏暗了。
As for sunrise dispersing the forest mists, and clouds gathering back to darken the rocky caves.
此句由「乐」转入「景」，是全段写景之始，也是朝暮之变的浓缩。「若夫」是文言转承语，训「至于」，领起另一层意思，语气舒缓，如展画卷；「日出而林霏开」写朝景——太阳升起，林间晨雾散开，一个「开」字，写雾气之消散与山林之苏醒，明朗清新；「云归而岩穴暝」写暮景——云雾聚拢，山谷渐渐昏暗，一个「暝」字，写光线之收敛与山林之入夜，幽深静穆。两句对仗工整：「日出」对「云归」、「林霏」对「岩穴」、「开」对「暝」，一明一晦、一开一瞑，朝与暮的两种山色在两两对照中呈现，如电影之剪辑，镜头切换间，一日之景尽收眼底。此句的深意在于：写景不是孤立的，而是「山水之乐」的具体展开——醉翁之乐，就乐在这一开一瞑、一明一晦的山色流转中；同时「若夫」领起，为后文「四时之景不同，而乐亦无穷也」的铺写张本，是全篇由议论入写景的转关。
This line turns from joy to scenery, the start of the descriptive passage, and a condensation of dawn-and-dusk change. As for is a classical transitional phrase meaning turning to, opening a new layer of meaning in an unhurried tone like unrolling a scroll. Sunrise disperses the forest mists is dawn: as the sun climbs, the morning vapors part, and disperse gives the dissolving mist and the waking forest, bright and fresh. Clouds gather back to darken the rocky caves is dusk: as cloud closes in, the valley dims, and darken gives the gathering of light and the forest entry into night, deep and still. The two lines are a crafted parallel - sunrise against cloud-return, forest mist against rocky caves, disperse against darken - the two mountain airs set off each other in contrast, like film cuts between frames, and the whole day passes before the eye. The hidden depth is that the scenery is not isolated but the concrete unfolding of the joy of hills and streams: his joy lies precisely in this turning of light. The transitional as for also prepares the later passage on the scenery of the four seasons differing, and joy without end - the hinge from argument to description.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Fan Zhongyan's 'Record of the Yueyang Tower'—'to be worried before the world worries, and to delight after the world delights'—is the monument of the scholar-official's 'worry and delight,' the lofty ideal of the concern for the state and the people. Ouyang Xiu's 'Record of the Pavilion of the Old Toper,' written in the same demotion, 'the meaning of the Old Toper is not in the wine, but in the mountains and the waters,' 'the joy of the mountains and the waters, received in the heart, is entrusted to the wine,' the ease of the demoted and the joy of the landscape. One the 'worry first and delight after' of the political ideal, one the ease of the landscape of the demoted; one the lofty and one the carefree—the two monuments of the prose of the demotion of the Northern Song, the two faces of the scholar-official's bearing: Fan Zhongyan the worry and Ouyang Xiu the joy, both the eternal spiritual resources of the Chinese literati.
《岳阳楼记》与《醉翁亭记》并称宋文双璧，同作于庆历新政失败、作者贬谪之际：范仲淹贬邓州而作《岳阳楼记》，欧阳修贬滁州而作《醉翁亭记》。二文同写山水楼台之游，而精神取向迥异：范仲淹以「先天下之忧而忧，后天下之乐而乐」立骨，是「忧」的担当；欧阳修以「醉翁之意不在酒，在乎山水之间也」破题，是「乐」的超脱——一忧一乐，恰构成中国士大夫处逆境的两极姿态。就文体言，岳阳楼记骈散相间、气势磅礴，醉翁亭记以「也」字句贯串、纡徐委备；就襟怀言，范文正忧以天下，欧阳永叔乐在山水，而「与民同乐」与「乐其乐」实有内在相通——皆以苍生为念。合观二文，可见北宋士大夫「不以物喜，不以己悲」的精神气象。
前赤壁赋·版本二 The Red Cliff Rhapsody (The Second Version: The Meditation) 苏轼 · 同为贬谪中的山水之乐，一醉一游，共见「处逆境而自适」的传统 Related readingCompare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
《前赤壁赋》与《醉翁亭记》同属贬谪文学中的山水名篇：欧阳修贬滁州，醉于醉翁亭之山水；苏轼贬黄州，游于赤壁之下，「惟江上之清风，与山间之明月」——一醉一游，皆以山水之乐化解贬谪之忧。差异在精神层次：欧阳修之乐是「与民同乐」的从容，重在现实的自适；苏轼之乐是「变与不变」的哲思，重在宇宙的超脱——前者以酒寓乐，后者以水月悟道。二文皆作于作者政治失意之时，皆以「乐」为主调，而一乐在当下、一乐在永恒，恰见中国士大夫「处逆境而自适」传统的两种形态。欧阳修启其端（醉翁亭），苏轼扬其波（赤壁赋），宋代贬谪文学的山水之乐由此蔚为大观，而醉翁亭前的「在乎山水之间也」，正是这一传统最凝练的宣言。