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宋 Song · 诗 Poem

悯牛行

The Song of Pitying the Ox

许及之

Xu Jizhi

咏物Poem on Objects 悯农Pitying the Farmer 畜类Beasts 仁爱Benevolence

牢牛得肉那忍吃，匪论阳报谈阴德。
忆牛初生成犊时，随母耕田眼先识。
茧栗渐长初胜犁，脱轭项间染能赤。
一行错误随后鞭，习得犁行如界直。
耕来耕去禾稻成，得闲放食行田塍。
稻秫掠嘴不敢食，自啮枯草甘如饧。
马终蒙帷犬蒙盖，牛岂无功遭横害。

The ox in the pen has meat—who can bear to eat it?
Not for reward of good, nor talk of hidden merit.
I remember when the ox was first born, a calf,
Following its mother to the field, its eye knowing the land from the first.
The budding horns grow, at last strong enough for the plow;
The yoke leaves its neck, and the mark can dye it red.
One mistake in the row, and the whip follows;
It learns to plow straight, like the edge of a field.
Plow after plow, the grain and rice grow;
In its leisure it grazes along the ridges.
Grain and millet brush its mouth—it dares not eat;
Itself it chews the dry grass, sweet as malt sugar.
The horse at last gets its curtain, the dog its cover;
Has the ox, without merit, then met with its cruel harm?

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Meaning

A Song poem of pitying the ox. The poet sees an ox penned for slaughter and cannot bear the thought of eating its meat, not from a wish for reward or hidden merit but from pure compassion. He recalls the ox's whole life: the calf following its mother to the field, its eye knowing the land from the first; the horns budding, the yoke and the whip, learning to plow straight as a ruler; plowing year after year so that the grain and rice may grow, yet in its leisure it dares not touch the grain and millet that brush its mouth, but chews the dry grass as sweet as malt. And at the end: the horse gets its curtain, the dog its cover, but the ox, whose toil feeds a hundred households, meets the knife. 'Has the ox, without merit, then met with its cruel harm?'—the poem's cry of pity and injustice.

宰了养肥的老牛取肉,那肉哪里忍心下咽;更不消去谈什么阳世报应、阴间积德的因果话头。回想牛刚出生还是小犊的时候,便跟着母牛下田,那双眼睛仿佛早已认得耕作的活计。田里的稻禾秫穗掠过嘴边,牛也不敢吃一口,只去啃那枯草,竟还觉得甘甜如饴糖一般。马死了终究有帷布裹尸,狗死了还有车盖覆体,牛难道没有功劳,竟要横遭宰杀的大祸。

Appreciation

The whole poem is plain description, unadorned, with time as the warp and the ox's life as the weft, advancing levelly until the feeling, accumulated through the stanzas, bursts out in the final couplet—the classic 'rising straight, ending straight' of the narrative old-style poem. The opening, 'the ox in the pen has meat—who can bear to eat it?' stands the poem up with a rhetorical question; the two words 'who can bear' seize the heart at once, fixing the whole poem's intent. Then 'I remember when the ox was first born, a calf' leads the flashback, and with the details of farm life—'its eye knowing the land from the first,' 'at last strong enough for the plow,' 'the mark can dye it red,' 'straight as the edge of a field'—draws the calf from the simple innocence of following its mother to the trained obedience of the yoked ox, every word solid, neither vague nor empty. 'One mistake in the row, and the whip follows' writes the ox whipped into learning, the scene before the eyes; 'grain and millet brush its mouth—it dares not eat; itself it chews the dry grass, sweet as malt sugar' sets 'dares not' against 'sweet,' writing the ox's self-denial and obedience—already from the thing into the feeling, the deepest point of the whole poem. The last four lines turn sharply, setting the horse's curtain and the dog's cover against the ox's fate.

【白话串讲】许及之写《悯牛行》：“牢牛得肉那忍吃，匪论阳报谈阴德”——牛老了有肉，他不忍吃。“忆牛初生成犊时，随母耕田眼先识”——“耕来耕去禾稻成”——他写牛的辛劳。【意象与手法】全诗以白描叙事为主,按牛的成长时间线展开:从「随母耕田眼先识」的幼犊,到「一行错误随后鞭」的驯熟,再到「自啮枯草甘如饧」的克己。末联以马狗「蒙帷」「蒙盖」作反衬,古礼中马狗尚得送终之仪,力耕一生的牛反遭宰杀,反用《礼记》之典,以「那忍」「岂无」两处反诘立骨,怨而不怒,痛彻心脾。【情感与主旨】此诗作于南宋民间耕牛常被征用、宰牛难以禁绝的背景之下。许及之以仁者之心代牛立言,追忆其从幼犊到力耕的劳苦一生,字里行间满是对耕牛的怜惜与敬重。结句「牛岂无功遭横害」一声质问,表面为牛鸣冤,实亦寄托对劳而不获、安分守贫者命运的深切悲悯,仁爱之怀,溢于言表。【名句点睛】「稻秫掠嘴不敢食,自啮枯草甘如饧」:稻禾拂嘴而不敢食,枯草在口而甘如饴,一「不敢」一「甘」,写尽耕牛的驯良守分,愈驯良愈见结局之惨,为结句的愤怒质问蓄足最沉痛的力量。

Background

Xu Jizhi, courtesy name Shenfu, a native of Yongjia, Wenzhou, passed the jinshi examination in the first year of Longxing (1163), and rose to Minister of Rites and Privy Councilor; he was of the Yongjia school and held high office, and left the collected works Shezhai ji. The title 'The Song of Pitying the Ox' suggests the poet, having witnessed the slaughtering of oxen among the people, could not bear it and, recalling the ox's whole life, wrote on its behalf. In the mid-Southern Song, war-horses were scarce and the farmers' plow-oxen were often requisitioned for labor, their burden heavier than in peaceful times; and though the slaughtering of oxen in the taverns and kitchens had long been forbidden, it was never wholly stopped. The Neo-Confucians held 'benevolence to the people and love of things,' and the Buddhist doctrine of abstaining from killing and liberating life was also current among the scholar-officials—cherishing animal life and pitying the plow-ox became one form of the object-singing poem. Xu Jizhi, though high in office, kept his attention on the people's hardships, and this poem, wholly in plain realistic strokes, writes the toilsome life of the ox from birth to its end.

许及之,字深甫,温州永嘉人,南宋孝宗隆兴元年进士,历官吏部尚书、知枢密院事兼参知政事,为永嘉学派出身而通显于朝者,著有《涉斋集》。其生平事迹《宋史》无专传,略见《咸淳临安志》《宋会要辑稿》诸书所载。此诗题作「悯牛行」,当是诗人目击民间宰牛而心有不忍,遂追忆牛之一生,代牛立言而作。南宋中世,战马奇缺,民间耕牛每被征调服役,牛之负担甚于承平之时;而酒肆庖厨宰牛之事,虽历有禁令,终难禁绝。理学家主「仁民而爱物」,佛门戒杀放生之说亦盛行于士大夫间,惜物命、悯耕牛遂成为当日咏物诗之一体。许及之身居高位而留心民瘼,此诗纯以白描纪实之笔,写犊牛自初生至终老的劳苦一生,末以马犬蒙帷蒙盖作衬,揭出「牛岂无功遭横害」之不平,仁爱之怀,溢于言表。读此诗,既可想见南宋农事之艰,亦可见士大夫恻隐之心未泯,是一篇以仁心为骨、以纪实为肉的咏物悯农佳构。

Art

The art lies in the level advance of plain description and the burst of the final couplet. The opening rhetorical question 'who can bear to eat it?' stands the poem up, seizing the heart. The flashback led by 'I remember' fills the calf's life with the details of farm life, solid and vivid. 'The grain and millet brush its mouth—it dares not eat; itself it chews the dry grass, sweet as malt sugar' is the deepest point, the ox's self-denial written through the contrast of 'dares not' and 'sweet,' already from the thing into the feeling. The last four lines turn sharply, setting the horse's curtain and the dog's cover against the ox's fate and closing on the rhetorical question 'has the ox, without merit, then met with its cruel harm?'—the accumulated feeling bursting out, the poem's injustice plain. The whole is a narrative poem of 'rising straight, ending straight,' its feeling the bone and its realism the flesh.

全诗纯用白描,不假雕饰,以时间为经、以牛之一生为纬,平铺直叙,层层推进,而情感蓄积至尾联骤然爆发,是古体叙事诗「直起直收」的典型章法。起句「牢牛得肉那忍吃」以反问立骨,「那忍」二字直攫人心,如当头棒喝,立定全诗机括。其后「忆牛初生成犊时」一句领起倒叙,以「眼先识」「初胜犁」「染能赤」「如界直」等来自田间生活的细节,活画出犊牛从依母而生的憨态到服轭成犁的驯熟,字字落实,不隔不空。「一行错误随后鞭」写牛受鞭而习犁,状物如见;「稻秫掠嘴不敢食,自啮枯草甘如饧」以「不敢」与「甘」对举,写牛之克己守分,已由写物进入写情,是通篇神理最深处。末四句笔锋陡转,以马犬之「蒙帷」「蒙盖」衬牛之「遭横害」,将前文蓄积的怨愤一笔点破,戛然而止,余味惨然。全诗叙事、状物、议论熔于一炉,而以仁爱之怀贯穿始终,深得杜甫「以物观物」「见物起兴」之神理,是宋人古体中咏物悯农的力作。

Allusions

The poem's allusions, though few, all have their source. 'Reward of good and hidden merit' is grounded in the Buddhist doctrine of cause and effect, also joining the meaning of the Book of Changes' 'a house that accumulates good is sure to have abundant felicity'—common in the Tang-Song writings of exhortation; the poet sets them aside with 'not for reward, nor talk of,' declaring plainly that this is no seeking of reward or blessing but pure compassion of the moment—the more sincere for it, a 'turning the allusion inside out.' The closing couplet, 'the horse gets its curtain, the dog its cover,' covertly uses the Record of Rites: Confucius said 'a worn curtain should not be thrown away, for burying a horse; a worn cover should not be thrown away, for burying a dog,' the ancient rite of sending off the horse and dog with the worn curtain and cover, holding the meaning of benevolence; the ox, whose toil of plowing is a hundred times the horse's and dog's, yet gets no curtain or cover but meets the knife—the very rite of ancient benevolence is used to indict the world's ingratitude.

此诗用事虽不多,而皆有本源,且善于化用。「阳报阴德」云云,本于佛教因果报应之说,亦通于《易》「积善之家必有余庆」之义,唐宋劝善文字中习见;诗人用「匪论」二字轻轻撇开,明言此举非关报应、非为求福,纯出当下不忍之心,反而更见赤诚,是「翻案用典」之法。末联「马终蒙帷犬蒙盖」,暗中反用《礼记·檀弓》之典:孔子谓「敝帷不弃,为埋马也;敝盖不弃,为埋狗也」,古礼以敝帷敝盖为马狗送终,存仁厚之意;今牛之一生,力耕稼穑,其功百倍于马狗,竟无帷盖之庇而横遭刀俎,正用古礼之仁,反衬时人之忍,典之反用,愈见沉痛。「自啮枯草甘如饧」之句格,盖脱胎于《诗经》「周原膴膴,堇荼如饴」,以苦物而甘之,极写牛之驯顺与处境之可哀。又「牢牛」之称,亦见《礼记·郊特牲》「馈兽之礼,牛曰一元大武」而外,民间牢养之牛遂以「牢」名之,语涉俚俗而见乡土气息。全篇用典皆融化于叙事之中,不着痕迹,如盐著水,味在咸酸之外,正是宋人「以故为新、借事抒情」的典型法度。

Commentary

This poem, a work of pitying things from Xu Jizhi's collection, has rarely been specially noticed by the poetic commentaries, but set in the tradition of Tang-Song poems pitying the farmer and the beast, it holds a place not to be ignored. The Siku General Catalogue lists the Shezhai ji and calls its poetry 'clear and plain' and readable; though not said of this poem in particular, it fits this piece's pure, natural, unornamented manner very well. In theme, Li Gang's 'The Sick Ox' writes the ox as himself, with 'but may all living beings be fed, and I care not to lie weak in the setting sun'—the dedication of the self; this poem speaks for the ox, exposing the injustice of 'without merit, yet cruelly harmed'—one self-encouraging, one speaking for another, read together two feelings of the ox.

此诗为许及之集中悯物之作,历代诗话对此诗本身少有专评,然置诸唐宋悯农悯畜诗的传统中,自有不可忽视的地位。《四库全书总目》著录《涉斋集》,谓其诗「清疏」可诵,虽非专就此诗而言,移以论此作之清真自然、不尚藻饰,亦甚惬当。就题材言,李纲《病牛》以牛自喻,抒「但得众生皆得饱,不辞羸病卧残阳」之献身襟抱;此诗则代牛陈情,揭「无功遭横害」之不平,一扬一抑,一自勉一代鸣,可并读而见两般情怀。《礼记》「敝帷不弃」之训,为儒家爱物传统所自出,后世咏物悯畜诗多承其绪,元结《系乐府》悯农诸作、宋人梅尧臣等咏物之篇,皆以悲悯之笔写物命之微,许作继其流响,虽不以辞采奇警取胜,而情真语挚、坦率如话,自足以动人心魄。所谓「仁者之言蔼如」,读此诗者,当于此领会许及之宅心仁厚、忧切民瘼的性情。此外,此诗不写士大夫之闲情,而写田家之生计,与《涉斋集》中诸多纪游酬赠之作迥异其趣,正可见诗人于朝堂高华之外,尚有一副真正关心下民疾苦的肝肠,弥足珍贵。

Prosody

Form Seven-character old-style poem (narrative)七言古体

Rhyme The first eight lines rhyme on entering-tone rhymes (de, shi, chi, zhi, of the zhi-xi group), the middle two lines turn to level rhymes (cheng of the zheng group, tang of the geng group), and the last two lines rhyme on the falling tone (hai of the tai group)—an old-style poem that changes rhymes前八句押入声韵(德、识、赤、直,职昔部),中二句转平声(塍,蒸部;饧,庚部),末二句押去声(害,泰部),古体换韵

Tone pattern Not bound by level and oblique tones; the lines use many clashing, harsh notes, matching the melancholy and indignant feeling with a heavy, depressed cadence不拘平仄,句内多用拗峭之音,以沉郁顿挫之声配其悲愤悯恻之情

Reading note A seven-character old-style poem that does not avoid oblique rhymes and changes rhymes through the piece, its clashing notes fitting the pity and indignation of the theme.此诗为七言古体,通篇不避仄韵,亦不拘粘对,是古体「以意运声」的写法。前四联连押入声「德、识、直」及「赤」字,入声短促、迫塞、激楚,恰好传达出「那忍吃」的惊心与对牛劳苦的痛惜;入声韵一押到底,音节密而不舒,如人扼腕,如石压胸,为全诗营造出沉重悲哽的基调。至「耕来耕去禾稻成」以下,忽然转押平声「塍、饧」,音节由迫转舒,若久羁之人得喘息,正配牛之「得闲放食」、枯草甘饧的片刻安宁,声情相生,妙合无垠。末联再转去声「害」字,去声激越清冽,一落千丈,把「遭横害」的愤慨喷薄而出,如高屋建瓴,戛然收住。一诗三转韵,由促而舒而激,情绪随声律起伏,正见古体诗以韵转情、以声写意的独特魅力,亦见诗人对音声节奏的精心调度。

Line by line

牢牛得肉那忍吃，匪论阳报谈阴德。

The ox in the pen has meat—who can bear to eat it? Not for reward of good, nor talk of hidden merit. (The opening rhetorical question stands the poem up, seizing the heart; the denial of reward and merit declares the pure compassion, the poem's whole intent fixed.)

宰了养肥的老牛取肉,那肉哪里忍心下咽;更不消去谈什么阳世报应、阴间积德的因果话头。

The stall ox butchered for meat - how could I bear to eat? I speak not of worldly retribution or hidden virtue.

起句以「那忍」二字反诘,直揭全诗主旨,恻隐之心扑面而来。「牢牛」指圈养日久之家牛,与主人朝夕相伴、终岁服劳,一旦得肉,情何以堪。次句「匪论」尤其关键:时人戒杀,多托因果报应、阴德阳报之说,诗人却明言自己此举非关报应、非求阴德,纯是发乎本心的不忍之情。如此排开功利之念,悲悯便显得更为纯粹、更为高贵。两句一热一冷,将「吃」与「不忍吃」的尖锐矛盾摆在读者面前,也为下文铺叙牛之劳苦一生张本蓄势,起手便见作者的仁爱之性与谋篇之工,是全诗立意所在。

The opening line uses the two words how could bear to ask, directly revealing the poem's bent, the heart of compassion striking the face. The stall ox means the household ox penned long, companion to the master morning and evening, toiling all the year; once it yields meat, how could one bear it? The second line's words not to speak are especially key: the men of the time forbid killing, mostly leaning on the sayings of cause and retribution, hidden virtue and worldly reward; the poet yet plainly says this act of his concerns not retribution, nor seeks hidden virtue, purely the feeling of not bearing it from the heart. Thus sweeping aside the thought of profit, the compassion appears the purer and nobler. The two lines, one warm one cold, set the sharp contradiction of eat and not bear to eat before the reader, and lay a ground for the later spread of the ox's toiling life, the opening at once showing the author's loving nature and the craft of the plan, the seat of the poem's bent.

忆牛初生成犊时，随母耕田眼先识。

I remember when the ox was first born, a calf, following its mother to the field, its eye knowing the land from the first. (The flashback led by 'I remember,' the calf's simple innocence and its knowing the land from the first, the beginning of the ox's toilsome life.)

回想牛刚出生还是小犊的时候,便跟着母牛下田,那双眼睛仿佛早已认得耕作的活计。

I recall the ox when first born a calf, following its mother to plough, its eyes already knowing.

由「忆」字领起,转入倒叙追忆,笔致从当下的惨然折回往日的温存,一张一弛,顿挫有致。「初生」「随母」写犊牛依恋母牛、耳濡目染的憨态,画面温馨;「眼先识」三字尤妙,未学而似已会,活画出耕牛世家的宿命意味——生于田亩,长于田亩,一生注定与犁耙为伴。这「先识」既是一种天性的聪慧,又是一种无从逃脱的悲凉,将温情与宿命交织在一起。诗人以极温柔、极家常的笔触写牛之初生,正是为后文写其终老被宰蓄足情感的落差,欲抑先扬、以乐衬哀,情味之深,全在这看似平淡的追忆之中。

The word recall leads, turning to a flashback of memory, the brush turning from the present's grief back to the past's warmth, one stretch one relaxation, the pauses and turns well ordered. The words just born and following the mother write the calf's clinging to the mother, its naive posture of absorbing by ear and eye, the picture warm; the three words eyes already knowing are most fine, untrained yet as if already able, vividly drawing the fatal meaning of the plough-ox line - born in the fields, grown in the fields, a lifetime destined to companion the plough and harrow. This already knowing is at once a native cleverness and an inescapable grief, weaving warmth and fate together. The poet writes the ox's birth in the most tender and homely brush, precisely to gather the emotional gap for its later being slaughtered in old age, first raising then depressing, setting off grief with joy, the depth of affection all within this seemingly plain recollection.

稻秫掠嘴不敢食，自啮枯草甘如饧。

Grain and millet brush its mouth—it dares not eat; itself it chews the dry grass, sweet as malt sugar. (The deepest point of the poem: the contrast of 'dares not' and 'sweet' writes the ox's self-denial and obedience, the plainest and most moving stroke.)

田里的稻禾秫穗掠过嘴边,牛也不敢吃一口,只去啃那枯草,竟还觉得甘甜如饴糖一般。

The rice and millet brush its mouth, yet it dares not eat; it chews the dry grass of itself, sweet as syrup.

此联是写牛德性的点睛之笔。「掠嘴」写稻禾拂过嘴边,近在咫尺,唾手可得,而牛「不敢食」,一个「不敢」,写尽牛的驯良守分与对主命之敬畏;后句更进一层,「自啮枯草」而「甘如饧」,以「甘」字反衬其处苦而甘、以苦为甘的麻木与克己,读之令人心酸。「不敢」与「甘」一抑一扬,把牛既守本分又无从选择的生存状态写得入木三分。此联表面写牛,实暗含对劳而不获、安分守贫者的悲悯,恰为结尾「牛岂无功」的质问埋下最有力的伏笔,是通篇情味最浓、最见体物之工的一联。

This couplet is the eye that writes the ox's virtue. The word brush its mouth writes the rice and millet brushing the mouth, near at hand and easily got, yet the ox dares not eat; the single word dares not writes to the full the ox's tameness and keeping its station, and the awe at the master's command. The second line steps further, it chews the dry grass of itself, sweet as syrup; the word sweet sets off its finding sweetness in hardship, its taking hardship as sweetness, the numbness and self-denial that make the reader's heart ache. The words dares not and sweet, one depressing one raising, write to the bone the ox's lot of keeping its station yet having no choice. This couplet on the surface writes the ox, really secretly holding the compassion for those who toil without gain and keep their station in poverty, exactly laying the most powerful ground for the closing question of how has the ox, without merit, the couplet of the whole poem's thickest affection and most showing the skill in observing things.

马终蒙帷犬蒙盖，牛岂无功遭横害。

The horse at last gets its curtain, the dog its cover; has the ox, without merit, then met with its cruel harm? (The closing sets the horse's curtain and the dog's cover against the ox's fate and cries out the injustice: the ox, whose toil feeds a hundred households, meets the knife—the Record of Rites' benevolence used to indict the world's ingratitude.)

马死了终究有帷布裹尸,狗死了还有车盖覆体,牛难道没有功劳,竟要横遭宰杀的大祸。

The horse at last is wrapped in a shroud, the dog covered with a canopy; how has the ox, without merit, met this cruel harm?

末联陡然振起,以反诘收束全篇,是全诗词眼所在。「蒙帷」「蒙盖」用《礼记·檀弓》马狗葬埋之典,古人尚以敝帷敝盖为马狗送终,存仁厚之心;而牛之力耕,其功远过马狗,反落得身首异处、供人啖食,两相比照,天理何存?「岂无」二字以问句出之,不作判断而判断自在,怨愤之情喷薄而出,力重千钧。此诗前半极写牛之劳苦驯良,至此忽然发难,如千里来龙,至此结穴,戛然而止,余响不绝。掩卷犹闻那一声不平之鸣,悯牛悯人,浑然莫辨,实为宋人咏物诗中少见的见肝胆、见性情的佳作。

The closing couplet suddenly rises, gathering the whole in a rhetorical question, the poem's eye. The words wrapped in a shroud and covered with a canopy use the Book of Rites' Tan Gong allusion to the burial of the horse and dog; the ancients still sent off the horse and dog with the worn shroud and canopy, keeping a heart of kindness; yet the ox's toil of ploughing, its merit far beyond the horse and dog, on the contrary ends with head and body parted, for men to eat; the two set against, where is the heaven's order? The words how has without merit come out in a question, no judgment yet the judgment of itself present, the feeling of grievance bursting out, the force of a thousand jun. The first half of the poem writes to the utmost the ox's toil and tameness, and here suddenly raises the challenge, like a dragon come from a thousand li, here gathering the knot, stopping abruptly, the afterecho unending. Closing the book, one still hears that cry of injustice; pitying the ox and pitying man, blended and undistinguished, really a rare fine work among Song object-singing poems that shows the gall and the character.

Study

Word focus

那忍 Who can bear. The opening cry: 'who can bear to eat it?' seizes the heart at once, standing the whole poem up on the poet's compassion at the sight of the ox in the pen. 「那忍」二字置于起句,是全诗感情的总闸门。「那」为反诘副词,「忍」为忍心之意,合而言之,「怎忍心下咽」,一种既见牛肉、复念牛功,心口相斗、欲食而不能的复杂情态,尽在二字之中。若直说「不忍食」,便落言筌;着一「那」字,以问代答,感情由被动的不忍转为主动的诘问,张力顿生。且此二字定下全篇语气:后文所有追忆、铺叙、议论,皆由此一问引出,正是古人所谓「一字立骨」。后文「岂无」「遭横害」等反诘与激愤之语,其声口皆由「那忍」而来,首尾呼应,气脉贯通,可见诗人炼字之精与谋篇之密。

先识 Knowing from the first. 'Its eye knowing the land from the first'—the calf, from the moment of birth, knows the field and follows its mother to plow; the ox's toilsome destiny written as if it knew from the beginning. 「眼先识」之「识」,是写犊牛最见神髓的一字。「先」字言其早,「识」字言其悟,合而观之,写小犊初生即似乎认得耕作之事,仿佛农耕的天性早已刻入血脉。此字妙在亦实亦虚:实者,写牛自幼随母下田,耳濡目染,自然熟习;虚者,暗寓牛的命运生来注定,一生勤苦无可逃避,有一种深沉的宿命感。着一「识」字,牛由被动受训之物升华为「知其然且安其命」的灵性生命,读者对牛的同情便不觉加深一层。此字与下文「一行错误随后鞭」之驯,「自啮枯草」之甘,参互映照,共同完成对牛之「驯良」「认命」性格的塑造。

不敢 Dares not. 'Grain and millet brush its mouth—it dares not eat'—the ox's self-denial and obedience, the most moving contrast of the poem, the 'dares not' against the 'sweet as malt sugar.' 「稻秫掠嘴不敢食」之「不敢」,是通篇最令人心折的一字。稻秫掠嘴,食物已在唇边,牛却「不敢」下口,这个「不敢」写得极有层次:既写牛之驯良,知稼穑为生民之本而不敢亵渎;亦写牛之守分,畏主人之命而不敢逾矩;更暗写其「知足」,宁自啮枯草而「甘如饧」。一字而数意并包,牛的道德化形象由此树立。诗人不写鞭笞之严、缰索之固,只写一个「不敢」,便写尽了牛所受的约束与自觉,以最小之笔写最大之驯,正是「状难写之景,如在目前」的功夫。这「不敢」越深,后文「遭横害」的对照便越惨,悲愤也越烈。

横 Cruel, unjust. 'Then met with its cruel harm'—the injustice of the ox's fate, 'without merit, yet cruelly harmed,' the closing word of the poem's indignation. 结句「牛岂无功遭横害」之「横」字,是全诗怨气所聚、点睛收束之处。「横」有枉、逆、无端之义,言牛之被害,非其罪也,非其时也,纯是飞来横祸。一个「横」字,将前文写尽的劳苦、驯良、克己,与眼前被宰的结局之间的荒谬落差,一笔道破,怨愤而不失含蓄,痛切而不流于叫嚣。且「横害」与上文「蒙帷」「蒙盖」之礼遇恰成鲜明对照:马狗有帷盖,老牛遭横害,用一「横」字把这种不公钉在读者心头。字面极平,分量极重,正是所谓「于平淡处见奇崛」。此字一出,全诗由叙入议,由柔转刚,收束得干净利落而又余味不尽。

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