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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

醉花阴·薄雾浓云愁永昼

Intoxicated at the Flower Shade

李清照

Li Qingzhao

宋词Theme 婉约Refined style 闺情Theme 重阳Theme 相思Longing

薄雾浓云愁永昼。
瑞脑消金兽。
佳节又重阳，玉枕纱厨，半夜凉初透。
东篱把洒黄昏后，有暗香盈袖。
莫道不消魂，帘卷西风，人似黄花瘦。

Thin mist and thick clouds grieve the long daylight.
Dragon-brain incense melts in the golden beast.
Again the fine festival of Double Yang; on the jade pillow, behind the gauze screen, at midnight the cool first seeps through.
After dusk I lift the wine cup by the eastern fence, and a faint fragrance fills my sleeve.
Do not say the soul is not dissolved - the curtain rolls up in the west wind, and the one I am is thin as the yellow flower.

Listen

Meaning

Alone at the Double Ninth festival, Li Qingzhao grows thin as the chrysanthemum with longing.

薄薄的雾、浓浓的云，伴着我漫漫长昼里的愁绪。瑞脑香在兽形的金铜香炉中悄然燃尽消散。又到了重阳佳节，躺在玉枕纱帐里，半夜里凉意刚刚透入肌骨。不要说这不算销魂，当帘幕被西风卷起，人竟像那黄菊一般清瘦。

Appreciation

Li Qingzhao does not describe her grief so much as embody it: by the last line she has become the chrysanthemum, slender and chill, the festival's own image of absence.

【白话串讲】李清照写醉花阴：“薄雾浓云愁永昼。瑞脑消金兽”。“佳节又重阳，玉枕纱厨，半夜凉初透”——“东篱把洒黄昏后，有暗香盈袖”——“莫道不消魂，帘卷西风，人似黄花瘦”——她写思念丈夫，人比黄花瘦。【意象与手法】以景写愁、以物写人层层烘托。「瑞脑消金兽」以香消写时间无声消磨；「人似黄花瘦」将人与菊互拟，花人合一。【情感与主旨】写新婚少妇重阳思念远人的寂寞，是真切口吻的闺情，奠定易安体在婉约词中的巅峰地位。【名句点睛】「人似黄花瘦」一字千金，把相思憔悴凝为可视形体；「莫道不消魂，帘卷西风」断语加画面，余味无穷。

Background

Li Qingzhao (1084-c.1155), the foremost woman poet of China, reportedly sent this to her traveling husband Zhao Mingcheng. It is the archetypal Song lyric of conjugal longing.

李清照，号易安居士，济南人，北宋末南宋初最杰出的女词人，与赵明诚结为夫妇，伉俪情深，共研金石书画。此词《醉花阴·薄雾浓云愁永昼》约作于徽宗崇宁年间，时清照与赵明诚新婚未久，明诚或因出游、或因宦游在外，清照独居青州（或汴京）度过重阳，怀人而作。词写闺中少妇在重阳佳节思念远人的寂寞，是易安早期婉约词的代表。关于此词，宋元笔记有一则著名本事：伊世珍《琅嬛记》引《外传》云，易安以此词寄明诚，明诚叹赏，务欲胜之，闭门谢客、废寝忘食三日夜得五十阕，杂易安作以示友人陆德夫，德夫玩味再三，曰「只三句绝佳」，正是「莫道不消魂，帘卷西风，人似黄花瘦」。虽此本事未必尽实，却道出了此词在易安集中的突出地位。北宋词坛，柳永、晏几道、秦观皆写离情，而清照以女性之笔写女性之思，天然真切，不假雕饰，于婉约中别立「易安体」。此词虽承闺怨传统，却因出自女性手眼而免去男性词人拟女的隔靴之感，是其「本色」所在，亦见北宋后期词风由应歌向个性化抒情的转关，开南宋女性书写之先声。

Art

Every image cools and thins: long day, melting incense, midnight chill, then the famous close where she compares herself to the yellow chrysanthemum - feeling made flesh.

此词艺术之妙，在「以景写愁、以物写人」的层层烘托，将抽象的闺怨写得可触可感。起句「薄雾浓云愁永昼」七字，以天气之阴霾写心境之惨淡，「愁」字点题而「永昼」二字道尽独处之苦——白昼本当欢聚，偏偏漫长难挨，云雾之浓正喻愁之密。「瑞脑消金兽」以香炉中瑞脑香悄悄燃尽写时间之流逝与孤寂之无声，金兽是香炉形状，瑞脑是香料，一「消」字暗喻青春与欢情在等待中消磨。过片「佳节又重阳，玉枕纱厨，半夜凉初透」，以「又」字点出年年离索，「玉枕纱厨」写居处之精致而反衬人之孤，「凉初透」由身及心，凉意侵骨正是孤寒之喻。下片「东篱把洒黄昏后，有暗香盈袖」化陶渊明「采菊东篱下」与汉诗「馨香盈怀袖」，写独酌赏菊，暗香满袖而无人共嗅，寂寞自深。结拍「莫道不消魂，帘卷西风，人似黄花瘦」三句，以「瘦」字收束全篇，将人之憔悴与菊之消瘦合而为一，是炼字之千古绝唱。全词由昼至夜、由外而内、由景及人，脉络如织，清空婉转，无一字不工，是婉约章法的教科书式呈现。

Allusions

Double Yang is the Double Ninth, when chrysanthemums are drunk and viewed. 'Eastern fence' echoes Tao Yuanming's chrysanthemum stanza. Dragon-brain is a rare incense; the golden beast the burner.

此词用典与化用极见匠心，最要者有二脉。其一为「东篱」与「暗香」，皆源于陶渊明与汉诗。「东篱」直用陶潜《饮酒》「采菊东篱下，悠然见南山」，点出重阳赏菊的雅事；「暗香盈袖」则化用《古诗十九首·庭中有奇树》「攀条折其荣，将以遗所思……馨香盈怀袖，路远莫致之」——原诗写折花寄远而路远难达，清照易「怀袖」为「盈袖」、易「折荣」为「把酒」，将寄远之思化为独酌之怅，暗香满袖却无人可遗，寂寞更深（此句传世或作「把酒」，与「把洒」音近而形讹，义则一也）。菊之为重阳符号，更自陶渊明而定型，清照于此承文人雅集之传统。其二为「黄花瘦」之喻，黄花即菊，以菊之瘦写人之瘦，本于古诗「形容瘦损」之常，而「人似黄花瘦」将人与菊互拟，是花人合一的当行本色。又「瑞脑消金兽」中，瑞脑即龙脑香，金兽指兽形铜香炉，皆宋人富贵闺阁常物，折射清照出身士大夫之家的生活质地。至若「消魂」一语，则出江淹《别赋》「黯然销魂者，唯别而已矣」，清照以「莫道不消魂」反挑，将别赋之典化为闺中口语。诸典皆熟，而清照点化如己出，不堆垛、不滞涩，是善用故实而能「水中着盐」的典范。

Commentary

The last line is among the most famous in all Chinese poetry; its wit is that she rivals the very flower of the festival in slender sorrow.

李清照此词在词史上地位崇高，尤以其结拍三句闻名千古。宋元以来选家无不录之，伊世珍《琅嬛记》所载赵明诚、陆德夫评词本事，虽属小说家言，却使「人似黄花瘦」成为易安标志。明人杨慎《词品》、清人王士禛《花草蒙拾》皆极称此词，王士禛谓「人似黄花瘦」七字「化工之笔」，非人力所能到。近人沈雄《古今词话》亦重其「瘦」字之工。今人唐圭璋《唐宋词简释》析其章法：「上片写昼愁、夜凉，下片写黄昏把酒，结以瘦损，由外而内，由景及情，一气呵成。」夏承焘论「易安体」，以为其「用寻常语度入音律」「以俗为雅、以故为新」，此词「瑞脑消金兽」「帘卷西风」皆其例。王国维《人间词话》论「境界」主张「不隔」，此词「人似黄花瘦」正是不隔之句。综之，诸家共识在：此词以女性本色的真切写离愁，炼字（愁、消、凉、瘦）与章法（由昼入夜、由景及人）俱臻上乘，是婉约词中「易安体」的定鼎之作，亦宋词写闺情的最高代表之一，其「瘦」字至今仍为汉语形容相思憔悴的终极意象，影响及于后世无数怀人篇章。

Prosody

Form Lyric in Zui Hua Yin (Intoxicated at the Flower Shade) tune词·醉花阴（双调五十二字，上下片各五句）

Rhyme Rhymes on 'daylight' (zhou), 'beast' (shou), 'through' (tou), 'sleeve' (xiu), 'thin' (shou) - level/oblique in the you group.押仄声韵，上片昼、兽、透，下片后、袖、瘦，皆去声，一韵到底，属词韵第十二部（尤、侯诸韵去声）

Tone pattern Song lyric; the final triplet is its emotional climax.仄韵体，句式长短相间，上下片皆为七、五、九（三、四、五）、五、五之错落

Reading note A perfect miniature of longing; the 'thin as the yellow flower' line is iconic.《醉花阴》为北宋盛行的小令，双调五十二字，上下片各五句、三仄韵，是易安最擅用的令词体之一。此词上片「薄雾浓云愁永昼。瑞脑消金兽。佳节又重阳，玉枕纱厨，半夜凉初透」，于首句「昼」、次句「兽」、五句「透」押韵；下片「东篱把洒黄昏后。有暗香盈袖。莫道不消魂，帘卷西风，人似黄花瘦」，于首句「后」、次句「袖」、五句「瘦」押韵，共六仄韵，一韵到底。其韵字昼、兽、透、后、袖、瘦，在《词林正韵》中近属第十二部（尤、侯韵之去声宥、候），北宋词人于令词中每押同部去声，此词即其例，声情清峭而带幽咽，与闺怨之凄婉相称。句式上，醉花阴以七言起、五言承，中幅「佳节又重阳，玉枕纱厨，半夜凉初透」为九字句以「三、四、五」读断（或「四、五」），下片「莫道不消魂，帘卷西风，人似黄花瘦」则为「四、四、五」的蝉联鼎足，长短错落而气脉不断。易安于此调，以寻常语、自然韵，于平仄法度中纵笔写心，使声律不为束缚反助情韵，足见其「倚声」之妙——所谓易安体，正在于声情与辞情的天衣无缝。

Line by line

薄雾浓云愁永昼。

Thin mist and thick clouds grieve the long daylight.

薄薄的雾、浓浓的云，伴着我漫漫长昼里的愁绪。

Thin mist and thick cloud sadden the endless day.

起句「薄雾浓云愁永昼」七字，是易安以景起情、情景交融的典范，妙在把无形的「愁」锚定在有形的天气之中。「薄雾」与「浓云」本是对举的两种天象，一淡一浓，叠在一起便织成一张密不透风的阴郁之网，恰似词人心中化不开的离愁；而「愁」字置于「永昼」之前，则把天气与心境完全打通——不是雾云使人愁，而是愁使人觉得雾云都含着愁，且这愁绵亘于「永昼」（漫长的白昼）之久。值得玩味的是「永昼」二字：白昼本是光天化日、应当欢聚之时，对独守空闺的少妇而言却格外难熬，一个「永」字写出时间被拉长、被煎熬的主观感受，与下片「半夜凉初透」的夜相呼应，构成一整天的孤寂。此句不做任何叙事，只以天气设色，便将重阳前夕的闷郁、闺中的寥落一网打尽，是易安「用浅俗之语发清新之思」的起手式，也为全词定下幽愁的基调，后文瑞脑、玉枕、暗香、黄花皆由此「愁」字生出。

The opening seven words are Li Qingzhao's model of rising feeling from scenery and fusing the two, the beauty being anchoring the invisible grief in visible weather. Thin mist and thick cloud are paired weathers, one faint one dense, woven together into an airtight web of gloom, exactly the grief in the poet heart that will not dissolve; and grief placed before the endless day fuses weather and mood - it is not the mist and cloud that make her sad, but her sadness that makes the mist and cloud seem sad, and the grief stretches across the long day. The word endless is worth savoring: daylit day should be the time of gathering joy, yet to the young wife alone in her chamber it is hardest to bear; the single word endless writes the subjective feeling of time dragged out and tortured, answering the lower stanza's midnight cold piercing through and making the loneliness of a whole day. The line tells no story, only colors with weather, nets at once the stifling eve of the Double Ninth and the desolation of the chamber - Li's opening of fresh thought in shallow words, fixing the ci's mournful key, from which the eaglewood, jade pillow, faint scent and yellow flower all grow.

瑞脑消金兽。

Dragon-brain incense melts in the golden beast.

瑞脑香在兽形的金铜香炉中悄然燃尽消散。

The eaglewood slowly burns away in the gold beast burner.

「瑞脑消金兽」五字，是全词写「时间流逝」与「孤寂无声」最精微的一笔。「瑞脑」即龙脑香，唐宋闺阁常用的名贵香料；「金兽」指兽形（多为狻猊）铜香炉，是宋人富贵家居的陈设。此句写香料在炉中慢慢燃尽，表面是叙事，实则是以「消」字写时间的无声消磨——女主人公百无聊赖，唯盯着香炉看香一寸寸烧完，这「消」既是香的消散，也是青春、欢情与耐心的消磨。五个字勾勒出一幅极静极孤的画面：无人语、无世事，只有香烟袅袅与香烬悄然，衬托出等待者被抛掷在静止时间里的虚空。尤为巧妙者，「金兽」的华贵与「消」的虚无形成反差——居处越是精致（金兽、玉枕），人之孤寂越显刺目，这是以物之富反衬心之贫的典型手法。此句承上句「永昼」而来，把「愁」从天气拉入室内、拉入日常，使抽象之愁有了可触摸的物象载体，亦为下片「半夜凉初透」由昼入夜的时间推进埋下伏笔，是全词空间（闺阁）与情绪（消磨）的交汇点。

The five words are the finest stroke of writing time's passage and soundless solitude. Eaglewood is the costly incense of Song chambers; gold beast is the bronze burner in beast shape. The line writes the incense slowly burning out: on the surface narrative, really using the word consume to write time's soundless wasting - the heroine, bored to idleness, stares at the burner and watches the incense burn inch by inch; this consuming is at once the scattering of incense and the wasting of youth, joy and patience. Five words sketch an utterly still and lonely picture: no voice, no affairs, only the curling smoke and the quiet ash, setting off the void of the waiting woman cast up in motionless time. The cleverness is the contrast between the gold beast's luxury and the consume's void - the finer the dwelling (gold beast, jade pillow), the more glaring the solitude, the typical method of setting the heart's poverty against the thing's wealth. Following the endless day above, the line draws grief from weather into the room, into the everyday, giving abstract grief a tangible object; it also lays the thread for the lower stanza's turn from day to night at midnight cold piercing through - the meeting point of the ci's space (the chamber) and its emotion (wasting).

佳节又重阳，玉枕纱厨，半夜凉初透。

Again the fine festival of Double Yang; on the jade pillow, behind the gauze screen, at midnight the cool first seeps through.

又到了重阳佳节，躺在玉枕纱帐里，半夜里凉意刚刚透入肌骨。

The Double Ninth comes round again; on the jade pillow, behind the gauze curtain, at midnight the cold first pierces through.

「佳节又重阳，玉枕纱厨，半夜凉初透」三句，由白昼转入深夜，是上片时空收束与情感深化的关键。「又」字极重——重阳本是与所欢共赏菊、共登高的佳节，偏偏「又」是一人独过，这一个字便写尽年复一年的离索，与起句「永昼」的漫长感一脉相承。「玉枕纱厨」写居处的精致清雅（玉枕为瓷枕，纱厨即纱帐），看似富贵安适，实则越是精美的卧具越衬出枕边人之缺席，是以乐景写哀的反衬。「半夜凉初透」五字收束上片，由身及心：凉意自半夜的纱帐透入，先是肌肤之凉，随即化为心头之凉，这「凉」既是节候之凉（重阳近寒露），更是孤栖之凉、相思之凉。一个「透」字写出凉意无孔不入、直抵骨髓的力道，较之「生凉」「觉凉」更为沉锐。三句从节令（又重阳）到空间（玉枕纱厨）到体感（凉初透），层层收束、由外入内，把白日的闷与夜半的寒织成一张孤单的网，既完成上片的章法闭环，又自然过渡到下片黄昏把酒、人比花瘦的更深层憔悴，是易安「脉络分明而又吞吐含蓄」笔法的绝佳示范。

These three lines turn from day to deep night, the key convergence of time and space and the deepening of feeling. The word again is heavy - the Double Ninth should be the festival of viewing chrysanthemums and climbing heights with the beloved, yet again she spends it alone, and this one word writes the year-by-year separation, continuous with the endless day above. Jade pillow and gauze curtain write the refined, elegant dwelling (jade pillow is porcelain, gauze curtain the mosquito net); seemingly rich and comfortable, the finer the bedding the more it sets off the absence at the pillow, a contrast writing grief through a joyous scene. The five words midnight the cold first pierces through close the upper stanza, from body to heart: the cold enters through the gauze curtain at midnight, first the skin's cold, then at once the heart's cold - this cold is both the season's (the Double Ninth nears the Cold Dew) and the cold of solitary dwelling and of longing. The word pierce writes the cold's reaching every crack and straight to the bone, deeper than grows cold or feels cold. The three lines gather from the season (again the Double Ninth) to space (jade pillow, gauze curtain) to bodily feeling (cold first pierces), closing layer by layer from outside in, weaving the day's stifling and the midnight's chill into a single net of loneliness, completing the upper stanza's closed structure and passing naturally to the deeper wasting of dusk wine and thinner-than-flower below - a perfect demonstration of Li's clear thread and reserved utterance.

莫道不消魂，帘卷西风，人似黄花瘦。

Do not say the soul is not dissolved - the curtain rolls up in the west wind, and the one I am is thin as the yellow flower.

不要说这不算销魂，当帘幕被西风卷起，人竟像那黄菊一般清瘦。

Say not it does not unmake the heart: when the west wind rolls up the curtain, the person is thin as the yellow chrysanthemums.

结拍「莫道不消魂，帘卷西风，人似黄花瘦」三句，是全词的诗眼与千古绝唱，其妙在三层递转。「莫道不消魂」先以反挑之笔总束前文种种愁态——你若说我不曾销魂，那便错了；「消魂」出自江淹《别赋》「黯然销魂者，唯别而已矣」，词人将典雅的别赋语化为闺中口语，举重若轻。「帘卷西风」四字陡起一幅动态小景：西风卷起帘幕，恍若替人探看那萧瑟的秋光，亦暗喻人的心绪被风掀起；「帘卷西风」四字对仗工稳而意象疏朗，是易安「以故为新」的当行。「人似黄花瘦」五字收煞，将全词推向高潮——黄花即菊，词人把自身因相思而憔悴的身躯与秋风中凋瘦的菊花互拟，花人合一，瘦字既写菊之瓣瘦，更写人之腰瘦、心瘦。这一「瘦」字的炼，妙在它不只是形貌描写，而是把无形的相思之苦凝缩为一个可视、可感的形体符号，遂成汉语中形容离愁憔悴的终极意象。三个短句，由断语而画面而点睛，戛然而止而余味无穷，诚如王士禛所评「化工之笔」，非人力可及，亦奠定了「易安体」在婉约词中不可动摇的巅峰地位。

The closing three lines are the ci's poetic eye and an immortal verse, their beauty in three rising turns. Say not it does not unmake the heart first gathers all the grief above in a reverse challenge - if you say I have not been unmade by grief, you are wrong; unmaking the heart comes from Jiang Yan's Farewell Ode, of all griefs the most heart-breaking is only parting, and the poet turns the elegant ode's phrase into boudoir speech, light as a feather for such weight. The west wind rolls up the curtain suddenly raises a little living scene: the western wind lifts the drapes, as if peering for her at the bleak autumn, and secretly compares her heart stirred by the wind. The west wind rolls up the curtain is a steady parallel with sparse imagery, Li's way of making the old new. The five words thin as the yellow chrysanthemums close and push the ci to its height - the yellow flower is the chrysanthemum, and the poet sets her own longing-wasted body against the chrysanthemum thinning in the autumn wind, flower and person as one; the word thin writes both the chrysanthemum's slender petals and the person's wasted waist and heart. The crafting of thin lies in its being no mere description of shape but the condensation of invisible lovesickness into a visible, tangible symbol, becoming the ultimate image of parting's wasting in Chinese. Three short lines, from judgment to picture to the piercing point, stopping short with endless aftertaste - as Wang Shizhen called it, a work of creative nature, beyond human skill, and it secures the unassailable peak of the Li Qingzhao style in the graceful school.

Study

Word focus

瘦 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 「人似黄花瘦」之「瘦」字，是全词也是中国词史上最负盛名的炼字，其妙在以一字总摄无形之相思。「瘦」本状形体之清减（如「衣带渐宽」），词人却用以写因离别而憔悴的少妇，并以前置的「似黄花」将人与菊绾合——秋风中的黄菊花瓣纤瘦、精神萧索，恰恰是人的相思之态的物化。这一比喻的精绝处，在于「瘦」既是菊的客观形貌，又是人的主观感受，花人至此完全合一，比单纯说「人瘦」多了三层意蕴：一是以菊之高洁自况（不堕凡艳），二是以菊之经霜不死写相思之持久，三是以「黄花」的时令（重阳）呼应全词的节序。更值得注意的是，「瘦」字把前面铺陈的「愁永昼」「凉初透」等种种情绪，统统收束、凝定为一个可视可感的形体符号，使抽象情感获得重量与轮廓，遂成汉语形容离愁憔悴的终极意象，后世「为伊消得人憔悴」亦不能夺其席。若易「瘦」为「悴」「弱」「倦」，意味皆减；唯「瘦」字清、峭、冷，最合易安清空婉约之本色，是所谓「篇终出于无名，而一字千金」的炼字极则。

消 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 「瑞脑消金兽」之「消」字，是上片写孤寂最耐寻味的一字，其妙在「以动写静、以物写心」。消，本义为消融、消散，用于香料燃尽，本属常语；然而置于「瑞脑（名贵香料）」与「金兽（华贵香炉）」这一富贵闺阁的特定语境中，便生出不寻常的张力——香是慢慢烧没的，时间也随之无声流逝，一个「消」字把女主人公整日枯坐、目送香烟、任凭青春与欢情在等待中一点点耗尽的状态写得纤毫毕现。「消」与起句「愁永昼」的「永」恰成互补：永写时间被拉长之难熬，消写时间被消耗之无声，一显一隐，共同构成「漫长的空虚」这一心理真实。尤为精微的是，「消」字隐含「不可逆」之意——香既消尽便不可复燃，正如被离愁消磨的年华与相聚的机缘，透出淡淡的无力与哀伤。五个字中，金兽之「贵」反衬消之「空」，华屋之中的这点香消，写尽富家少妇精神上的贫瘠与囚笼感。这一「消」字，是易安体「用寻常字而意态无穷」的代表，亦可见宋词炼字重「虚字实写、实字虚用」的辩证。

凉初透 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 「半夜凉初透」之「凉初透」三字，是全词由身及心、由景及情的关键炼象，其妙在把生理之感写成心理之喻。「凉」本指秋夜的寒意，词人却使之成为孤栖之愁的化身——重阳近寒露，夜半纱厨之内自生凉意，这凉先是肌肤所感，随即渗入心头，化作「无人共枕」的凄凉。「初透」二字尤见锤炼：「初」言凉意方起、恰到好处，不是凛冽而是悄然袭来；「透」言凉意无孔不入、直抵骨髓，比「生」「觉」「侵」更具穿透力与宿命感，仿佛这凉是注定要透过纱帐、透过肌肤、直透进孤寂的灵魂。三个字构成「凉」由外而内、由浅入深的运动轨迹，与起句「愁永昼」的静态闷郁形成昼夜呼应：昼是愁云惨雾的长，夜是凉意侵骨的透，一外一内，把一整天的孤单写足。更深层者，「凉初透」暗喻青春与欢情的消逝如夜凉之不可拒，与「瑞脑消金兽」的「消」遥相呼应，共同指向「美好事物在等待中无声消散」的悲剧感。三字收束上片，声情凄婉而余味悠长，是易安「以景语结情、不著一字哀而哀自远」的范例。