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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

浣溪沙

Huanxi Sha (Silk-Washing Stream)

李清照

Li Qingzhao

宋词Song lyric 婉约graceful 闺情boudoir 闲愁idle sorrow 易安体Yi'an style

莫许杯深琥珀浓。
未成沈醉意先融。
□□已应晚来风。
瑞脑香消魂梦断，辟寒金小髻鬟松。
醒时空对烛花红。

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Meaning

A lonely woman in her chamber tries to drown sorrow in wine but cannot reach drunkenness before her mood dissolves; incense burns out, a dream breaks, and she wakes to face alone the red blossom of the candle. The poem renders quiet, solitary melancholy without ever naming 'sorrow.'

吩咐不要斟满那杯色如琥珀的浓酒。酒还没喝到沉醉，心绪却先已松散消融。醒来时独自面对那盏结着红花的蜡烛。

Appreciation

The lyric layers sorrow through boudoir objects—wine, incense, candle—moving from outer to inner, from drinking to dreaming to waking. 'Before drunkenness, mood melts' inverts the usual 'wine to drown sorrow,' and 'empty I face the red candle's flower' ends on scene rather than statement, a model of 'say nothing, yet win all.'

【白话串讲】李清照写浣溪沙：“莫许杯深琥珀浓。未成沈醉意先融”——她借酒消愁。“瑞脑香消魂梦断，辟寒金小髻鬟松”——“醒时空对烛花红”——她写孤独。【意象与手法】以酒、香、烛三项闺阁物事层递写愁，由外入内；「未成沈醉意先融」反写借酒消愁，「空对烛花红」以景结情。【情感与主旨】把把酒、梦断、烛对之境写得幽微孤寂，不著愁字而满纸皆愁，是易安体清丽深婉的代表。【名句点睛】「醒时空对烛花红」着一「空」字，喜兆成虚，孤寂陡增；「未成沈醉意先融」以冰消融状心绪涣散，活而有趣。

Background

This Huanxi Sha is a famous boudoir lyric by Li Qingzhao, writing a young wife alone, drowning sorrow in wine yet unable to rejoice in drink, her dream broken and soul strayed in loneliness. Its lines 'Do not let them fill deep the cup of amber-thick wine,' 'calambac incense spent,' 'tiny cold-warding gold' are typical boudoir objects; it was likely written during her secluded life at Qingzhou or her idle-sorrow period before the southward crossing, though some scholars take it as a late lonely work. The upper stanza writes drinking: she bids them not fill the deep amber cup, yet before drunkenness her mood already melts and loosens; the lower stanza writes the broken dream: incense spent, soul-dream startled awake, chignon loose, waking to the candle flower. The whole moves from outer (wine, incense, candle) to inner (mood, dream, soul), using exquisite objects to write subtle feeling—representative of the 'Yi'an style's' clear, deep grace, and showing Song women poets' power to refine daily life into luminous mood. Though a small boudoir lyric, its scenes of drinking, broken dream, and candle-facing transcend the ordinary dressing-table, bearing a universal loneliness. Li wrote her own female psyche without a male ventriloquist's voice, rare in the Northern Song. In her wandering late years this lyric may even prefigure her loneliness; even if written in early idle sorrow, it reveals her naturally sensitive, solitary clarity.

此阕《浣溪沙》为李清照闺情名作，写少妇独处、借酒浇愁而醉不成欢、梦断魂消的孤寂。词中「莫许杯深琥珀浓」「瑞脑香消」「辟寒金小」皆闺阁典型物事，约作于李清照屏居青州或南渡前之闲愁时期，亦有学者以为晚岁孤寂之作（参王仲闻《李清照集校注》相关按语）。上片写把酒：命人莫斟满琥珀深杯，然未及沉醉，心绪已先消融松散；下片写梦断：瑞脑香尽、魂梦惊回，髻鬟松散，醒对烛花。全词由外（酒、香、烛）入内（意、梦、魂），以精致物色写幽微心绪，是「易安体」清丽深婉的代表，亦见宋代闺秀词将日常生活点化为幽美意境的本领。此词虽为闺情小令，而所写把酒、梦断、烛对之境，实已超越寻常香奁，具一种普遍性的人生孤寂感。李清照以女性词人写自我心境，不假男子的代言口吻，在北宋词坛尤为难得。其晚年漂泊，此词或亦预为其孤寂之谶，然即作于早年闲愁时期，亦足见其天性中敏感孤清的一面。读易安词，宜知其以平常物事写不平常之情，此即「易安体」所以卓然成家之由。

Art

The lyric layers sorrow through boudoir objects, from wine to incense to candle, from drinking to dreaming to waking, with very clear thread yet very fine feeling. The upper opens with a prohibition 'do not let them fill deep,' seeming restraint yet revealing deep sorrow; 'before drunkenness mood melts' writes wine not intoxicating, mood already scattered, boredom in contradiction. The turn 'calambac incense spent, soul-dream breaks' uses smell (incense spent) to bring the dream's break; 'tiny cold-warding gold, chignon loose' uses slackened adornment to write lone repose; the close 'waking, empty I face the red candle's flower' ends on scene, a red candle alone, faced by no one, loneliness filling the page. Throughout no 'sorrow' or 'resentment' appears, yet wine, incense, dream, candle all are tinged with sorrow—a model of 'say not a word, yet win all,' and showing the Yi'an style's gift of 'plain words, fresh thought.' The little lyric worst fears is flatness, yet it turns through wine, incense, candle, from outer beauty to inner solitude, orderly yet ethereal. Its close 'empty I face the red candle's flower' ends in scene without argument, loneliness on the page—a model of 'say not a word, yet win all.' Li shows here the power of writing deep feeling in shallow words, seemingly casual yet deliberate, splendor returned to plainness, not easily attained.

此词以闺阁物事层递写愁，由酒而香而烛，由饮而梦而醒，脉络极清而情致极细。上片「莫许杯深琥珀浓」以禁令起笔，似欲节制，反见愁深；「未成沈醉意先融」写酒未醉人、意已先散，矛盾中见无聊。过片「瑞脑香消魂梦断」以嗅觉（香消）带出梦境之断，「辟寒金小髻鬟松」以妆饰之懈写独卧之慵；结句「醒时空对烛花红」以景结情，红烛一朵，空对无人，孤寂满纸。通篇不着「愁」「怨」字面，而酒、香、梦、烛无不染愁，是「不著一字，尽得风流」的范例，亦见易安体「用浅俗之语，发清新之思」的妙处。小令最忌平直，此词却以酒、香、烛三项物事，层层递转，由外物之丽转入内心之孤，脉络井然而笔致空灵。其结句「空对烛花红」以景语收，不著议论而孤寂满纸，是「不着一字，尽得风流」的范例。易安于此词中展示的，正是一种以浅近语写深微心的本领，看似随意，实则经营，所谓绚烂之极归于平淡，非率易可到。

Allusions

'Amber-thick' compares wine's deep red to amber; Li Bai's 'While Traveling' already used amber for wine ('the jade bowl brings amber light'), this inherits it. 'Calambac' (ruinao) is dragon-brain incense, common in Li's lyrics (e.g., 'calambac spent on the gold beast' in 'Intoxicated Under Flowers'), typical boudoir incense. 'Cold-warding gold' comes from the Shu Yi Ji tale of the Kunming Kingdom presenting cold-warding golden birds of constant warmth; later 'cold-warding gold' means gold cold-warding ornaments (also seen in Wen Tingyun's 'carved jade props the curtain, gold cries cold-warding'); here 'tiny cold-warding gold' writes the small gold hairpin, contrasting the lone cold. 'Red candle flower' means the candle wick blooms like a flower; ancients divined fortune by the candle flower, here facing it empty, the good omen void, hinting quiet grievance. All allusions are boudoir commonplaces, refined by the poet into sheer beauty. Amber, calambac, cold-warding gold, candle flower—all everyday boudoir sights—once refined by Li become poignant images. Song lyrics favor boudoir objects; Li especially renews the familiar, as 'tiny cold-warding gold' contrasting lone cold, 'red candle flower' contrasting empty facing—finding the unusual sorrow in the usual thing. Her allusive craft lies not in obscurity but in fitness and reversal, exactly the Yi'an style's 'plain words, fresh thought' in its use of allusion.

「琥珀浓」以琥珀喻酒色之深红，李白《客中作》「兰陵美酒郁金香，玉碗盛来琥珀光」早以琥珀状酒，此承其意。「瑞脑」即龙脑香，李清照词中屡见（如《醉花阴》「瑞脑消金兽」），为闺阁熏香之典型。「辟寒金」典出《述异记》昆明国贡辟寒金鸟、温度常暖之说，后世以「辟寒金」指金质辟寒首饰（亦见温庭筠诗「雕玉押帘额，金鸣辟寒」之意），此处「辟寒金小」写头上金钗之小，反衬孤寒。「烛花红」则谓烛芯结蕊如花，古人每以烛花卜喜，此处空对烛花，喜卜成空，暗含幽怨。数典皆闺阁常事，经词人点化，自成凄美。上述诸典，琥珀、瑞脑、辟寒金、烛花，皆闺阁日常所习见，而一经易安点化，便成凄美意象。宋人词好以闺物入咏，易安尤能于熟典中出新意，如「辟寒金小」之反衬孤寒，「烛花红」之反衬空对，皆于常物中见反常之悲。其用典之妙，不在僻远，而在贴切与翻案，此即易安体「用浅俗之语，发清新之思」在隶事上的体现，足为学词者法。

Commentary

This lyric has long been valued by anthologists; the Ming 'Caotang Shiyu' included it, as did Qing 'Ci Zong' and 'Li Dai Shi Yu.' Shen Jifei's 'Caotang Shiyu Zheng Ji' says Li's lyrics 'open their own path, truly worth seeing,' and moderns citing the 'Yi'an style' often take her boudoir lyrics as paradigm. This lyric's 'before drunkenness mood melts' is witty, its 'waking empty I face the red candle's flower' is lone, of a piece with 'Intoxicated Under Flowers' ('the west wind rolls the curtain, she is thinner than the yellow flower') in writing loneliness through scene. Yang Shen's 'Ci Pin' says Li 'uses much that is fine,' most fitting for such clear, deep, graceful works. Modern readers should, amid the beauty of amber, calambac, and candle flower, appreciate a Song woman poet's power to refine fragmentary boudoir feeling into eternal mood, not merely read it as a dressing-table piece. Li's lyrics have been valued since the Southern Song; Wang Zhuo's 'Biji Man Zhi,' Yang Shen's 'Ci Pin,' Shen Jifei's 'Caotang Shiyu' all judged them, and moderns have the specialized 'Li Qingzhao Ji Jiao Zhu.' This lyric is clear, deep, graceful; critics chiefly view it under the 'Yi'an style.' Its value lies not only in the small lyric's craft but in founding a tradition of women's lyric writing the self, freeing boudoir feeling from male ventriloquy. Modern readers should, amid amber and calambac's beauty, know its lone, clear essence, to honor Li's life of writing lyrics in blood and tears.

李清照此词历来为选家所重，明人《草堂诗余》即收之，清人《词综》《历代诗余》亦录。沈际飞《草堂诗余正集》评易安词「独辟门径，居然可观」，近人论「易安体」每举其闺情小令以为范式（参王灼《碧鸡漫志》「易安自少年便有诗名」及今人《李清照集校注》之笺）。此词「未成沈醉意先融」之隽、「醒时空对烛花红」之孤，与《醉花阴》「帘卷西风，人似黄花瘦」同一以景写孤的本领。杨慎《词品》谓易安「用修多佳」，于此类清丽深婉之作最宜。今人读之，当于琥珀、瑞脑、烛花之丽中，体贴宋代女词人将细碎闺情提炼为永恒意境的才力，不当仅作香奁体观。李清照词自南宋以来即为评家所重，王灼《碧鸡漫志》、杨慎《词品》、沈际飞《草堂诗余正集》等皆有评骘，近人更有《李清照集校注》专书考订。此词清丽深婉，论者多以「易安体」之范目之。其价值不仅在小令之工，更在开创女性词书写自我之传统，使闺情不为男性代言所垄断。今人读之，当于琥珀瑞脑之丽中，识其孤清本色，方不负易安以血泪写词之一生。

Prosody

Form Song lyric, xiaoling (double-tone Huanxi Sha)词·小令（双调《浣溪沙》）

Rhyme Level rhymes (nong, rong, feng, song, hong, in the first bu dong-zhong of Ci Lin Zheng Yun).平韵（浓、融、风、松、红，词林正韵第一部东冬）

Tone pattern Upper stanza three level rhymes, lower stanza two level rhymes; level tones gentle and mild.上片三平韵、下片两平韵，平声和婉

Reading note Huanxi Sha is a double-tone forty-two-character lyric: upper stanza three lines three level rhymes, lower stanza three lines two level rhymes (first line unrhymed, last rhymed), among the most common short tunes since Tang and Five Dynasties. Li's lyric rhymes upper 'nong, rong, feng,' lower 'song, hong,' all in the first bu (dong-zhong) of the Ci Lin Zheng Yun, one rhyme throughout, its sound gentle, clear, and moist, born with the boudoir idle-sorrow's subtle feeling. In structure the upper three lines are all seven-character; the lower 'calambac incense spent, soul-dream breaks' is seven-character, 'tiny cold-warding gold, chignon loose' is seven-character, 'waking empty I face the red candle's flower' is seven-character; the lower's first two lines often require antithesis, and though this one is not strictly antithetical it is naturally neat (incense spent vs. gold tiny, soul-dream breaks vs. chignon loose, the sense matching). Level rhymes drift like soft talk, best for boudoir feeling, proving Li's mastery of the short tune's sound and nature, and showing Huanxi Sha's fitness for clear, small pieces. Huanxi Sha's level rhymes are gentle, best for boudoir idle-sorrow; this lyric keeps one rhyme without feeling flat, relying on the upper-lower image shifts and rhythmic density. The lower's first two lines, though not strictly antithetical, 'calambac incense spent, soul-dream breaks' against 'tiny cold-warding gold, chignon loose' match in sense, with natural neatness. The small lyric's sound prizes flow; Li's is wavering within peace, closing on a level rhyme with lingering taste—showing her mastery of the tune's nature, also evidence for speaking of Huanxi Sha's sound.《浣溪沙》为双调四十二字，上片三句三平韵、下片三句两平韵（首句不押，末句押），是唐五代以来最通行的令曲之一。李清照此词上片押「浓」「融」「风」，下片押「松」「红」，皆隶词林正韵第一部东冬韵，一韵到底，声情和婉清润，与闺阁闲愁的幽细情绪相生。句式上片三句皆为七言，下片「瑞脑香消魂梦断」为七言、「辟寒金小髻鬟松」为七言、「醒时空对烛花红」为七言，其中下片前两句常要求对仗，此词于不对仗中亦自工整（香消对金小、魂梦断对髻鬟松，意脉相称）。平韵悠扬，如絮语娓娓，最宜写闺情，足证易安于令曲声情体性之熟稔，亦见《浣溪沙》宜于清丽小品的体用。《浣溪沙》平韵和婉，最宜写闺情闲愁，此词一韵到底而不觉平板，赖上下片意象之转换与节奏之疏密。下片前两句虽不要求严格对仗，而「瑞脑香消魂梦断」对「辟寒金小髻鬟松」，意脉相称，自有工整之致。小令声情本贵流转，易安此词于平和中见摇曳，结句以平韵收，余味悠然，正见其于令曲体性之精熟，亦可为说《浣溪沙》声情者之一证。

Line by line

莫许杯深琥珀浓。

Do not let them fill deep the cup of amber-thick wine.

吩咐不要斟满那杯色如琥珀的浓酒。

Bid them not fill the cup deep with amber wine.

起句以一「莫许」的禁令领起，似在节制饮酒，实则反写愁深——正因愁不可堪，才怕深杯添醉。以「琥珀浓」状酒色，承李白「琥珀光」之典，设色华美而带冷意。「莫许」二字有娇嗔亦有无奈，活画出闺中人对酒的矛盾心理：欲借酒遣愁，又恐醉后更愁。小令起笔即见性格与情态，是易安体「用语浅而用意深」的范例，于寻常吩咐中暗藏一段幽怀。

The opening is led by the prohibition bid them not, seeming to restrain the drinking, really writing grief so deep that it fears a deep cup will add drunkenness. Amber thick colors the wine, following Li Bai's amber light, the coloring sumptuous yet touched with cold. The words bid them not hold a tender pique and a helplessness, drawing the contradiction of the chamber woman toward wine: she would use wine to dismiss grief, yet fears that after drunkenness grief will be worse. The short song shows character and mood from the first stroke, a model of Li Qingzhao's style - shallow in words, deep in purpose - hiding a secret longing in an ordinary order.

未成沈醉意先融。

Before deep drunkenness comes, my mood has already melted away.

酒还没喝到沉醉，心绪却先已松散消融。

Before deep drunkenness comes, the heart has already melted.

此句紧承上句，写饮酒之效与愿违。「未成沈醉」言酒力未足，「意先融」谓心绪先已融化松散——愁未遣去，神已先懈，一种百无聊赖之状跃然。「融」字炼得极活，状意之涣散如冰消融，不着「愁」「倦」而倦愁自见。与下片「魂梦断」呼应：昼则意融，夜则梦断，终日无俚。一句之中，将「借酒消愁愁更愁」反写为「不待醉而意已散」，别出一境，足见易安体于常语中翻新的聪慧。

This line follows the last, writing the effect of drinking against its wish. Before deep drunkenness comes means the wine's strength is not enough; the heart has already melted means the feelings have first dissolved and slackened - grief not dismissed, the spirit already limp, a state of total listlessness rising to the eye. The word melted is wrought alive, describing the dispersal of feeling like ice melting, without writing grief or weariness yet weariness and grief appearing of themselves. It answers the lower stanza's broken soul-dreams: by day the feeling melts, by night the dream breaks, idle the whole day. In one line the drowning-sorrow-in-wine motif is reversed into the heart dispersed before drunkenness, opening a new realm, showing the wit of Li's style in renewing common words.

醒时空对烛花红。

Waking, I face empty the red candle's flower.

醒来时独自面对那盏结着红花的蜡烛。

When I wake, I face alone the red flower of the candle.

结句以景收束全词，孤寂之意至此饱满。「醒时」呼应上片「未成沈醉」与下片「魂梦断」，点明一夜辗转、终归独醒；「空对烛花红」以烛花之红暖反衬人之清冷，「空」字最重——花红而人独，卜喜成空，满室温馨唯剩一烛相对。易安最善以景结情，此与《声声慢》「梧桐更兼细雨」、《醉花阴》「帘卷西风」同一以物写孤之法。红烛本暖，着一「空」字便成冷局，是小令「于结处见力」的极高明处。

The closing ends the piece in scenery, the loneliness now complete. When I wake answers the upper stanza's before deep drunkenness and the lower's broken soul-dreams, marking the night of tossing and the final waking alone. I face alone the red flower of the candle sets the candle's warm red against the person's cold, and the word alone is heaviest - the flower red and the person solitary, the omen of happiness turned void, the warm room left with only a candle opposite. Li is finest at ending feeling in scenery; this shares the method of her Slow, Slow Tune's plane trees and fine rain and the Thin, Thin Tune's west wind rolling the curtain, writing solitude through objects. The red candle is warm, yet the single word alone turns it into a cold scene - the highest skill of the short song showing its force at the close.

Study

Word focus

琥珀浓 In 'do not let them fill deep the cup of amber-thick wine,' amber-thick compares the wine's deep red to amber (a Li Bai echo), writing both the wine's richness and, by the word 'thick,' the density of the sorrow it cannot dissolve. 「琥珀浓」三字以宝玉之色状酒，既写酒之深红如琥珀，又暗含酒之醇浓。「琥珀」本松脂化石，温润而透，用以喻酒，设色古雅华贵，承李白「琥珀光」一脉。词人特言「浓」而非「满」，是写酒质之酽，亦暗透愁绪之浓——酒愈浓而愁愈不可解。一词之中，物色与心境相映，是易安体「以丽笔写愁」的典型。于闺阁浅饮中见精巧设色，足见其炼字之雅，不似豪放派之以力胜，而以韵胜。

融 In 'before deep drunkenness comes, my mood has already melted away,' rong (melt) vivifies a slipping, loosening mood as ice thawing—without 'sorrow' or 'weary' the boredom and grief show; it inverts 'wine to drown sorrow' into 'mood scatters before drunkenness.' 「融」本义为消融、和融，此词「意先融」写心绪之涣散松弛，如冻释冰消。一字极活，将不可捉摸的心理状态化为可感的物理意象，与「未成沈醉」形成奇特的悖反：身未醉而意已融，愁未去而神先懈。易安炼字最重「活」，此「融」字正得其妙，与她「绿肥红瘦」之「肥」「瘦」同属以寻常字写意外之意。一词之炼，使全句于矛盾中见真趣，可见宋人小令「于淡语中藏巧思」的普遍追求。

空 In 'waking, I face empty the red candle's flower,' kong (empty) is the poem's eye: a red candle blooming is a good omen, but 'empty' voids it, leaving only the speaker alone—one character turns warmth into cold loneliness. 「空对烛花红」之「空」，是全词诗眼，亦易安惯用之字（如「独自怎生得黑」之孤、「只恐双溪舴艋舟」之怯，皆近此「空」）。「空」者，徒然、无人与共也，将前面所有物色（琥珀、瑞脑、辟寒金、烛花）的温馨一笔抹去，露出「独自」的真相。红烛结花本为喜兆，着「空」字则喜兆成虚，反差强烈，孤寂陡增。一字收束，力重千钧，是小令结句「立片言以居要」的典范，亦见易安于寻常形容字中寄深沉身世之感的天才。

浣溪沙