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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

清平乐

Qingpingyue (Pure Peace Music)

谢逸

Xie Yi

宋词Song lyric (ci) 婉约graceful-restrained (wan-yue) 闺怨boudoir lament 相思lovesickness 春愁spring melancholy

晓风残角。
月里梅花落。
宿酒醒时滋味恶。
翠被轻寒漠漠。
梦回一点相思。
远山暗蹙双眉。
不觉肌肤瘦玉，但知带减腰围。

The dawn wind, a fading bugle's note.
Beneath the moon the plum blossoms fall.
Sober now from last night's wine, a bitter taste remains.
Beneath the green quilt, a faint cold spreads everywhere.
Waking from dreams, a thread of longing stirs.
Her distant-hill brows knit, a secret worry folds.
Unaware her jade-like flesh has grown so thin, she only knows her sash has loosed about the waist.

Listen

Meaning

A woman lies alone on a cold spring morning, wakes from wine to a bleak emptiness, and finds her thoughts turning to her faraway love. Through fading bugle, falling plum, and a loosened sash, the lyric traces the quiet bodily toll of longing. It is a quintessential boudoir lament of the 'wasting for you' type, rendered in Xie Yi's spare, fresh manner.

月光里梅花纷纷飘落。昨夜借酒入睡，此时酒醒，心中滋味难堪。不知不觉肌肤如玉般消瘦，只晓得衣带一天天宽松了腰围。

Appreciation

Purely in the woman's own voice, the lyric never names the beloved yet conveys everything through scene and posture. The opening pairs sound and sight to set a chill dawn; the close uses 'thin as jade' and 'loosened sash' to show lovesickness by its physical trace alone. Short and indirect, it epitomizes the restrained grace of the Northern Song minor lyric.

【白话串讲】谢逸写清平乐：“晓风残角。月里梅花落”。“宿酒醒时滋味恶。翠被轻寒漠漠”——“梦回一点相思。远山暗蹙双眉”——“不觉肌肤瘦玉，但知带减腰围”——他写相思瘦。【意象与手法】纯以女子口吻写相思，通篇不着伊人二字。「月里梅花落」兼实景与曲名双关；「带减腰围」化用古诗写因思成瘦。【情感与主旨】写唐宋闺怨中「为伊消得人憔悴」一脉，于浅淡笔墨状深挚相思，是布衣词人清婉本色的代表。【名句点睛】「不觉肌肤瘦玉，但知带减腰围」消瘦不自知、唯从衣带验出，含蓄见工；「宿酒醒时滋味恶」以俗字写深愁，真切可感。

Background

Xie Yi (courtesy name Wuji, style Xitang), of Linchuan, was an important poet of the Jiangxi school in the mid-to-late Northern Song who never held office and lived by his writing, famed with his brother Xie Kuo as the 'Two Xies of Linchuan.' His lyrics are clear and graceful, mostly on boudoir feeling, longing, and leisure; though listed for poetry in Lü Benzhong's 'Chart of the Jiangxi Poetic Lineage,' his small lyrics were also much admired. This Qingpingyue depicts a woman alone on a cold spring night, waking to longing—a common boudoir-lament theme from his occasional compositions. 'Dawn wind, fading bugle' and 'plum blossoms fall' mark the turn from deep winter to spring, while 'sober from wine' and 'green quilt, light cold' voice the loneliness of an empty chamber. Moving from outer cold to inner yearning, ending in 'thin as jade' and 'loosened sash,' it belongs to the 'wasting away for him' line of Tang-Song boudoir song, and as a commoner poet Xie kept a fresh, unaffected color untouched by the entertainment-hall manner.

谢逸，字无逸，号溪堂，临川人，北宋中后期江西诗派重要诗人，终身未仕，以诗文自娱，与弟谢薖并称「临川二谢」。其词清丽婉约，多写闺情、相思与闲适，吕本中《江西诗社宗派图》虽列其诗名，其小词亦为时所称。《清平乐》此阕写闺中女子春寒独卧、梦回相思之态，约作于宴游唱和之余，属其常见的闺怨题材。词中「晓风残角」「月里梅花落」点出残冬将尽、春意萌动之时，而「宿酒醒时」「翠被轻寒」则写独守空闺的孤寂。全词由外景之清寒转入内情之相思，终以「瘦玉」「带减腰围」写因思成瘦，是唐宋闺怨词中「为伊消得人憔悴」一脉的典型表达。谢逸虽以布衣终老，其词却自有婉妙之致，足与晏几道、秦观辈并观，于北宋小令多元格局中别具清新本色。北宋词坛台阁与布衣分流，谢逸以布衣处江湖之远，其清新本色不为应歌习气所染，故能于闺怨常题中翻出新意。其《清平乐》一组多写春闺，而此首尤能以浅淡笔墨状深挚相思，于晏秦诸家之外别立一清婉面目。读谢词，宜知其植根江西诗法之瘦劲，而又以词笔出之以柔婉，刚柔互济，此其所以能自立于北宋小令之林，而为后世选家所不废也。

Art

The song is spoken entirely in a woman's voice and perspective, yet never writes the word 'beloved'; all feeling is carried by scenery and bodily posture—a model of reserve. The first couplet sets a clear, cold dawn through sound (bugle) and sight (falling plum); 'bitter taste' turns wine's aftermath into a flavor of grief; 'spreads everywhere' uses reduplication for the pervasive chill. The lower stanza opens with 'a thread of longing,' then 'distant-hill brows knit' turns formless worry into a visible frown. The closing antithesis 'thin as jade…loosened sash' ends without naming longing, yet longing shows itself; scene-dream-posture advance from object to person, outside to in, a brief but deeply indirect piece.

此词纯以女子口吻与视角写相思，却通篇不着「伊人」二字，全借景物与体态传情，是含蓄蕴藉的妙法。起二句「晓风残角。月里梅花落」以听觉（残角）与视觉（梅落）并列，营造清晓寒寂之境；「宿酒醒时滋味恶」以味觉写愁，别开生面；「翠被轻寒漠漠」以叠字状寒之弥漫。过片「梦回一点相思」点题，「远山暗蹙双眉」则以眉山之蹙写心之忧，化无形之愁为有形之颦。结句「不觉肌肤瘦玉，但知带减腰围」以「瘦玉」喻肌肤之莹白消瘦，以「带减腰围」这一经典意象收束，不言相思而相思自见。全词景—梦—态三层递进，由物及人，由外而内，短幅之中具见委婉深致，是清平乐小令的精品，亦见谢逸体物写心之细。更可注意者，词之上片写境、下片写人，而「梦回」一转实为全篇枢纽，将外景收摄为内省，章法暗合由物及心之序。其白描之笔不假烘托，而孤寂自深，于短幅之中具见层次。谢逸为诗本属江西流派，以枯劲为宗，而其词独尚清婉，诗笔词心，各有其境，故此词虽写儿女情，而骨子里仍有诗人之冷静观察，非徒恃姿媚者所能到，诚小令中含蓄有品之作，足与晏秦并立于北宋小令之林。

Allusions

Its imagery follows the traditional boudoir-lament canon. 'Plum blossoms fall' is both literal and a pun on the Han yuefu tune 'Plum Blossoms Fall,' long used since the Six Dynasties to figure passing spring and a missed tryst. 'Distant hills' refers to the 'distant-hill brows' of ladies' makeup, from the tale that Zhuo Wenjun's brows 'looked like far mountains,' later a metonym for a beauty; here the knitting brows figures sorrow. 'Sash loosed at the waist' derives from the Nineteen Old Poems ('parted day by day, the sash daily slackens') and Liu Yong's 'the sash grows loose, I never regret'), the settled image for wasting with longing. The allusions are fused so naturally they seem salt dissolved in water—typical Song dexterity with allusion.

词中意象多沿传统闺怨书写之典。「梅花落」既写实景，亦暗合汉乐府横吹曲《梅花落》之曲名，六朝以降每以梅落喻春光流逝、佳期难再，如陆游「零落成泥碾作尘」即承此意。「远山」指女子眉妆，典出《西京杂记》载卓文君「眉色如望远山」，后世以「远山眉」为美女代称，此处「远山暗蹙双眉」既写眉妆，更以蹙眉状愁。「带减腰围」则源自古诗「相去日已远，衣带日已缓」（《古诗十九首·行行重行行》）与柳永「衣带渐宽终不悔，为伊消得人憔悴」，以衣带宽松写因思消瘦，已成相思书写的定型意象。数典经词人融裁，自然贴合闺中独守之境，可见宋词用典「水中着盐」之法，浑化无迹。又「残角」暗关戍角，与闺中相望之意相映，虽未明写征人，而边角之声已暗示远别，用典之隐，尤见含蓄之妙。宋人闺怨每好以边塞意象反衬深闺，谢逸此词虽不着一「征」字，而「残角」二字已足唤起千里之思，所谓不写之写，正其善于用典处。故论此词用事，不当仅数其明引，更当察其暗伏，方见小令含蓄之能事，亦知谢逸虽为布衣而用典自有斤两。

Commentary

Xie Yi's lyrics enjoyed repute even in the Song; Huang Tingjian praised his poetry, and later anthologists valued his small lyrics. Modern scholars of Northern Song graceful lyrics center on Yan Jidao, Qin Guan, and He Zhu, yet Xie's 'Xitang manner' is clear, natural, and worth notice. Lines like 'waking, a thread of longing; distant-hill brows knit' echo Yan Shu's 'leaning alone by the west tower, distant hills just meet the curtain hook,' while 'loosened sash' descends from Liu Yong. Readers should note Xie's fresh commoner's voice—neither the courtly richness nor the exilic gloom, but a spare, rivers-and-lakes restraint that enriches the wan-yue lineage.

谢逸词在宋代即享清誉，黄庭坚曾称赏其诗，而其小词亦为后世选家所重。唐圭璋《全宋词》据《溪堂词》等辑录其作，使之得传。近人论北宋婉约小令，多以晏几道、秦观、贺铸为宗，然谢逸「溪堂体」清丽天然，亦有可观（参薛砺若《宋词通论》对江西词人之评骘）。此词「梦回一点相思，远山暗蹙双眉」之婉，与晏殊「斜阳独倚西楼，遥山恰对帘钩」同写远山与相思之绾合；其「带减腰围」则直承柳永「衣带渐宽」一脉。今人读谢逸词，当注意其布衣文人的清新本色——不似宫廷词之浓艳，亦不似骚客词之沉郁，而以清婉自守，于宋词多元格局中别具一格，足补婉约一脉之丰富性。若以婉约正宗绳之，谢逸之清非温庭筠之秾，亦非李清照之凄，而是一种江湖布衣的疏淡，此正其不可及处。北宋小令名家如林，而谢逸能于晏殊之雍容、欧阳修之深婉、秦观之凄美之外，以布衣之眼写闺情，自成清浅一脉。今人辑录宋词，于台阁巨公之外亦当存此溪堂清音，而后宋词之广大可知，亦整理乡邦文献者所宜留心也。

Prosody

Form Ci lyric, short tune (double-tone 'Qingpingyue')词·小令（双调《清平乐》）

Rhyme First stanza uses entering-tone oblique rhyme (jiao, luo, e, mo; Cilin Zhengyun 16th bureau); second stanza switches to level rhyme (si, mei, wei; 3rd bureau).前段入声仄韵（角、落、恶、漠，词林正韵第十六部），后段平韵（思、眉、围，第三部）

Tone pattern Oblique opening, level close; oblique first then level, the mood turning from sharp to gentle.仄起平收，前仄后平，声情由峭转婉

Reading note Qingpingyue is a double-tone short lyric of forty-six characters: four lines in the first stanza, four in the second; the first stanza takes oblique rhyme, the second changes to level rhyme—a rare Tang-Five-Dynasties form alternating oblique and level. Xie's first stanza rhymes jiao, luo, e, mo, all entering-tone yao rhyme (Cilin 16th bureau), held throughout, its crisp, cold tone suiting the 'dawn wind, fading bugle' and 'green quilt, light cold' mood; the second stanza turns to si, mei, wei in level-tone wei rhyme (3rd bureau), the tone growing gentle and long, as the outer cold gives way to inner tenderness. In structure the first stanza alternates lines of six, five, six, four characters, the second unfolds in five, six, six, six, the rhythm tightening then relaxing. The close 'thin as jade…loosened sash' lands on level rhyme via antithesis, its aftertaste lingering. The whole, oblique and level balanced, rises and falls within a brief span, proving Xie's mastery of tonal propriety and showing how a short lyric's sound and sense mirror each other. Note especially that the entering-tone first rhyme is short and urgent, fitting the chill of sobering; the level second rhyme is slow, fitting the softness of dreamlonging—sound and sense mutually embodying each other.《清平乐》为双调小令，四十六字，前段四句、后段四句，前段押仄韵、后段换平韵，是唐五代词中少见的仄平递换体。谢逸此词前段「角」「落」「恶」「漠」皆入声药韵（词林正韵第十六部），一韵到底，声情峭拔清寒，与「晓风残角」「翠被轻寒」的凄冷意境相生；后段「思」「眉」「围」转平声微韵（第三部），声情渐趋和婉悠长，恰如由外在寒境转入内心柔情。句式上前段以六、五、六、四错落，后段以五、六、六、六展开，节奏由紧锐而舒缓。「不觉肌肤瘦玉，但知带减腰围」以对句收束，平韵落脚，余味绵长。整体仄平相济，短幅中具起伏，足证谢逸于音律体性之熟稔，亦见小令声情与文意相表里之妙。更可注意者，前段入声韵短促急切，恰肖酒醒寒生之凛；后段平韵舒徐，恰肖梦回相思之柔，声情与文意互为表里，乃小令选韵之精例。唐五代《清平乐》多写愁苦，而谢逸此阕以仄起平收写春闺，声情由峭入婉，正合先境后情之结构。学者读小令，往往重意而轻声，不知韵之转换即情之转换，此词仄平递换，实可为说词者之一证，亦见宋人于令曲声情体性之精熟。

Line by line

月里梅花落。

Beneath the moon the plum blossoms fall.

月光里梅花纷纷飘落。

Plum blossoms fall amid the moonlight.

此句承「晓风残角」而来，由听觉转入视觉，写清晓月下梅花飘零之景。「梅花落」三字兼实写与曲名双关，既状眼前花瓣纷坠，又暗扣汉乐府横吹曲《梅花落》，平添一缕时光流逝、芳景难留的怅惘。月色本静，梅花本洁，而「落」字一动，便将静谧化为残损，恰如女子独守空闺、青春暗逝的隐喻。一笔景物，已暗藏全词伤春念远之旨，是「一切景语皆情语」的范例，以极清之景写极婉之情。

This line follows the dawn wind and remnant horn, turning from hearing to sight, writing the plum blossoms falling in the clear dawn moonlight. The three words plum blossoms falling are both description and a pun on the tune title - at once the petals dropping before the eyes and a hidden allusion to the Han yuefu wind-blow tune Plum Blossoms Falling, adding a thread of grief at time's passage and the fleeting beauty of spring. Moonlight is still, plum blossoms are pure; the single word falling turns stillness to ruin, like the metaphor of a woman alone in her chamber, her youth silently fading. One stroke of scenery already hides the whole ci's theme of grieving spring and longing afar - a model of all scenery words are feeling words, writing the tenderest feeling in the clearest scene.

宿酒醒时滋味恶。

Sober now from last night's wine, a bitter taste remains.

昨夜借酒入睡，此时酒醒，心中滋味难堪。

When the night-before wine wears off, the taste in the heart is bitter.

此句由外景折入内情，以「宿酒醒」点出昨夜借酒浇愁、今朝酒醒愁更愁的循环。「滋味恶」三字极朴拙，却道尽醒后孤寂、空虚、怅惘交织的复杂心绪——酒未能真正遣愁，反添一身慵懒与凄楚。一个「恶」字，是口语化的直陈，不事雕饰而真切可感，正见谢逸小词「以浅语写深愁」的本领。它也巧妙交代了前二句清寒之景，原是酒醒人儿眼中所见，景与情至此绾合无间，章法极见细密。

This line turns from outer scene to inner feeling, using the night-before wine wearing off to name the cycle of drowning grief in drink last night and waking to deeper grief today. The three words the taste is bitter are utterly plain, yet they exhaust the tangled mood after waking - loneliness, emptiness, regret interwoven: wine did not truly dismiss grief, it only added lassitude and misery. The word bitter is colloquial plain statement, unadorned yet vivid, showing Xie Yi's skill in writing deep grief in shallow words. It also cleverly explains that the clear, cold scenery of the two lines above is what the sobered man sees; scene and feeling now weave without a seam, the structure finely wrought.

不觉肌肤瘦玉，但知带减腰围。

Unaware her jade-like flesh has grown so thin, she only knows her sash has loosed about the waist.

不知不觉肌肤如玉般消瘦，只晓得衣带一天天宽松了腰围。

Unwittingly the flesh has thinned like jade; I only know the belt has loosened round my waist.

结句以体貌变化写相思之深，是全词情感的落点。「瘦玉」以玉喻肌肤，既状其莹白，更写其清减，一「瘦」字见憔悴；「带减腰围」则化用《古诗十九首》与柳永名句，以衣带日缓写因思成病。「不觉」「但知」四字尤妙：消瘦而不自知，惟从衣带之松验出，足见思虑之深、日子之长。全词不言「思念」二字，而思念之浓已跃然纸上，是唐宋闺怨词「含蓄见工」的最高明处，于平淡收束中蓄无尽之情。

The closing writes the depth of longing through the change of the body, the landing of the ci's feeling. Thinned jade compares the flesh to jade, writing both its whiteness and its wasting; the single word thin shows the emaciation. The belt has loosened round the waist transforms the old poem and Liu Yong's famous line, writing illness from longing through the belt day by day slackening. The words unwittingly and only are subtlest: wasting without knowing it, verified only from the loosened belt, showing how deep the thought and how long the days. The whole ci never speaks the word longing, yet longing's intensity springs to the page - the highest art of the Song boudoir lament, restrained and finely wrought, holding endless feeling in a plain close.

Study

Word focus

漠漠 Here 'momo' describes the light cold spreading pervasively beneath the green quilt, turning a faint chill into something inescapable that envelops the lonely sleeper. 「漠漠」本形容广远、密布之貌，王维「漠漠水田飞白鹭」用以写空间之广，此处「翠被轻寒漠漠」则用以写寒意之弥漫无解。轻寒本细，着一「漠漠」，便觉寒从四壁涌来、无处遁逃，正衬独眠人之孤怯。叠字本身具音韵回环之美，读来如寒意层层包裹。词人偏以「翠被」之暖色反衬「轻寒」之冷，暖冷相激，孤寂更甚。一字之炼，见其体物之细与设色之巧，于寻常形容词中见出层次。

蹙 'Cu' means to knit or furrow; here the distant-hill brows knit with longing, giving the static makeup a worried, living motion that externalizes inner sorrow. 「蹙」者，皱也、迫也，此处「远山暗蹙双眉」写女子因相思而眉峰紧锁。「远山」本指眉妆之形（卓文君远山眉），「蹙」则赋静妆以动态与愁容，使远山不再是装饰，而成为内心忧悒的外化。一字由形入神，化美为愁，恰如温庭筠「懒起画蛾眉，弄妆梳洗迟」之以态写心。「暗」字尤工——愁不自知而眉先皱，所谓「眉头眼底，不期然而然」，足见相思之深入骨髓，炼字之妙全在传神。

恶 Read 'e' (fourth tone) meaning unbearable or nasty; 'bitter taste' names the wretched aftertaste of sobering—a plain colloquial word that makes the grief bodily and real. 「恶」字在此作「难受、不堪」解（去声），「滋味恶」即心中滋味难堪。此字本是口语俗字，谢逸用以写酒醒后的复杂心绪，朴拙直率，毫无脂粉气。宋词好以俗字入雅词，如李清照「守着窗儿，独自怎生得黑」之「黑」，皆以看似不经意之字收束沉郁。「恶」字置于「宿酒醒时」之后，将抽象的愁化为具体的身体感受，使读者如亲历其醒后空洞凄楚，是小令「以俗为雅」的妙用，于浅近中见真味。

清平乐