唐 Tang · 诗 Poem
悲秋
Lamenting Autumn
凉风动万里，群盗尚纵横。
家远传书日，秋来为客情。
秋窥高鸟过，老逐众人行。
始欲投三峡，何由见两京。
The bandits still roam unchecked.
Letters from home arrive on rare days;
Autumn comes, and the traveller's heart.
Autumn peers as a high bird passes;
Old age follows the common crowd.
I had thought to flee into the Three Gorges—
But how can I ever see the Two Capitals again?
Meaning
Du Fu laments autumn amid the An Lushan-era chaos: bandits roam, letters from home are rare, and old age finds him a displaced traveller. He had hoped to retreat to the Three Gorges but despairs of ever seeing Chang'an and Luoyang, the lost heart of the empire.
凉风动万里，群盗尚纵横。家远传书日，秋来为客情。秋窥高鸟过，老逐众人行。始欲投三峡，何由见两京。
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] A cold wind moves across the vast land while rebels still run rampant. News from his distant family reaches him only now and then; autumn deepens his exile's sorrow. He watches a high bird glide past, himself an old man swept along with the crowd, and wonders how he will ever behold the Two Capitals again. [Structure] The octet opens on the public crisis (wind, bandits), narrows to private grief (letters, traveller's feeling), then to the poet's aging body (bird, crowd), and closes on hopeless geographic yearning (Three Gorges, Two Capitals). [Imagery] 'Cool wind over ten thousand miles' sets a vast, chilled stage; the 'high bird' and the 'crowd' figure his isolation within motion. [Tone] Heavy, grieved, restrained—classic Du Fu (the 'tense, depressed' manner), where personal age and public ruin interpenetrate.
【白话串讲】 杜甫写《悲秋》：“凉风动万里，群盗尚纵横”——“家远传书日，秋来为客情”——“秋窥高鸟过，老逐众人行”——“始欲投三峡，何由见两京”——他写悲秋——凉风动万里。 【意象与手法】 “凉风动万里，群盗尚纵横”写凉风群盗；“家远传书日，秋来为客情”写家远客情；“秋窥高鸟过，老逐众人行”写老病；结以“始欲投三峡，何由见两京”写不得归两京。沉郁悲秋。 【情感与主旨】 杜甫写悲秋感怀之作，写凉风万里、群盗纵横之乱与家远客情、不得归京之悲，体现杜甫忧国忧民之情，是杜甫悲秋诗的代表。 【名句点睛】 常考“凉风动万里，群盗尚纵横”以凉风群盗写乱世；“始欲投三峡，何由见两京”写不得归京之悲。
Background
Du Fu (712–770), the 'Poet Sage,' wrote this during the turmoil following the An Lushan Rebellion (755–763), when the empire fractured and the Two Capitals (Chang'an and Luoyang) fell repeatedly to insurgents. Living as a displaced refugee in the southwest, Du Fu produced a stream of autumn and exile poems articulating both personal decrepitude and national catastrophe. 'Lamenting Autumn' belongs to this late, sombre phase.
《悲秋》为唐代诗人杜甫所作诗。杜甫（712—770），字子美，号少陵野老，巩县人，唐代诗人。此诗写悲秋感怀，为悲秋之作。诗中「凉风动万里，群盗尚纵横」写凉风动万里，群盗尚纵横；「家远传书日，秋来为客情」写家远传书日，秋来为客情；「秋窥高鸟过，老逐众人行」写秋窥高鸟过，老逐众人行；「始欲投三峡，何由见两京」写始欲投三峡，何由见两京。杜甫此诗以悲秋感怀、何由见两京写其感怀之情，沉郁悲秋，是杜甫诗中的名篇。此篇《悲秋》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。此篇《悲秋》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。
Art
The poem's craft is Du Fu's signature fusion of cosmic scale and intimate grief. The first couplet throws the cool wind across 'ten thousand miles' while bandits 'still roam'—public catastrophe stated in vast, flat strokes. The second turns inward: rare letters and the autumn traveller's feeling. The third couplet is subtle: 'autumn peers as a high bird passes' personifies the season as a watcher, and 'old age follows the crowd' renders his subjection to circumstance with quiet bitterness. The closing 'Three Gorges / Two Capitals' contrasts a desired refuge with an unreachable homeland, the geographical chiasmus sealing despair. Tense, depressed diction and firm regulated form hold the sorrow without rupture.
此诗艺术上以「沉郁悲秋、以秋写情」见长。全诗共八句四联，由凉风动万里而家远传书日而秋窥高鸟过。起「凉风动万里，群盗尚纵横」写凉风动万里：凉风动万里，群盗尚纵横；「家远传书日，秋来为客情」写家远传书日：家远传书日，秋来为客情；「秋窥高鸟过，老逐众人行」写秋窥高鸟过：秋窥高鸟过，老逐众人行；结「始欲投三峡，何由见两京」写何由见两京：始欲投三峡，何由见两京。全诗以秋写情，由凉风动万里而何由见两京，沉郁悲秋，是杜甫诗中的名篇。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。
Allusions
The 'Two Capitals' denotes Chang'an and Luoyang, the dual seats of Tang imperial power, here standing metonymically for the broken realm Du Fu longs to see restored. 'The Three Gorges' refers to the Yangtze gorges, a real refuge region where Du Fu actually lived (Kuizhou). 'The high bird' evokes the freed or lofty soul contrasted with the poet's earthbound old age, a motif recurring in Du Fu's exile verse.
诗中「凉风动万里群盗尚纵横」「家远传书日秋来为客情」「秋窥高鸟过老逐众人行」「始欲投三峡何由见两京」等语，皆含典故故实。「凉风动万里群盗尚纵横」写凉风动万里群盗尚纵横；「家远传书日秋来为客情」写家远传书日秋来为客情；「秋窥高鸟过老逐众人行」写秋窥高鸟过老逐众人行；「始欲投三峡何由见两京」用两京之典（两京写长安洛阳），写始欲投三峡何由见两京。诗人用两京之典入诗，不着痕迹，而把悲秋感怀之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。
Commentary
'Lamenting Autumn' is esteemed as a distilled sample of Du Fu's late 'autumn lament' manner, where the season is never mere weather but a register of national and personal decline. Critics note how seamlessly public rebellion and private aging are braided: the bandits and the grey hairs are the same sorrow. It sits among his many qiu (autumn) poems that transform a conventional topic into testimony of an age's ending.
这首《悲秋》，是杜甫写悲秋感怀之作，写凉风动万里、家远传书日、秋窥高鸟过、何由见两京之情，沉郁悲秋。起「凉风动万里，群盗尚纵横」——凉风动万里，群盗尚纵横。写凉风动万里：凉风动万里、群盗尚纵横——动万里、尚纵横；「家远传书日，秋来为客情」——家远传书日，秋来为客情。写家远传书日：家远传书日、秋来为客情——传书日、为客情；「秋窥高鸟过，老逐众人行」——秋窥高鸟过，老逐众人行。写秋窥高鸟过：秋窥高鸟过、老逐众人行——高鸟过、众人行；结「始欲投三峡，何由见两京」——始欲投三峡，何由见两京。写何由见两京：始欲投三峡、何由见两京——投三峡、见两京。这「始欲投三峡，何由见两京」，是全诗之结：以何由见两京写其感怀。全诗沉郁悲秋，以秋写情，正是杜甫诗中的名篇。综观全诗，情真、景切、理深，三者浑融无迹，故能于短短数语之中寄无限深意，令人百读不厌。其含蓄蕴藉之处，正是中国古典诗歌以少总多、言有尽而意无穷的美学精神的生动体现。
Prosody
Line by line
凉风动万里，群盗尚纵横。
A cool wind moves across ten thousand miles; the bandits still roam unchecked.
凉风动万里，群盗尚纵横。
The cool wind stirs ten thousand li; the bandits still range at large.
起句写凉风动万里，起笔即见其凉风。「凉风动万里」写凉风动万里，「凉风」写凉风、「动万里」写动万里；「群盗尚纵横」写群盗尚纵横，「群盗」写群盗、「尚纵横」写尚纵横。一句写凉风动万里群盗尚纵横，以凉风动万里写动万里、以群盗尚纵横写尚纵横，写尽凉风动万里、群盗尚纵横之情。以风起兴，沉郁而悲秋，是「以风起兴」的妙笔。
The opening line writes that the cool wind stirs ten thousand li, the cool wind at once. The words cool wind write the autumn breeze; stirs ten thousand li writes its reach. The bandits still range at large writes the rebels still rampant. The line writes to the full the feeling of the wind stirring ten thousand li and the bandits ranging. Rising through the wind, melancholy and grieving autumn, the fine brush of rising through the wind.
家远传书日，秋来为客情。
Letters from distant home arrive on rare days; autumn comes, and the traveller's feeling.
家远传书日，秋来为客情。
Home is far, the day of a letter sent; autumn comes, the traveler's feeling.
此句写家远传书日，是全诗写传书之态的关键。「家远传书日」写家远传书日，「家远」写家远、「传书日」写传书日；「秋来为客情」写秋来为客情，「秋来」写秋来、「为客情」写为客情。一句写家远传书日秋来为客情，以家远传书日写传书日、以秋来为客情写为客情，写尽家远传书日、秋来为客情之情。以家写情，沉郁而悲秋，是「以家写情」的点睛之笔。
This line writes home is far, the day of a letter sent, the key of the whole's writing the letter-sending posture. The words home far write the distance; the day of a letter sent writes the day's message. Autumn comes, the traveler's feeling writes the autumn-arrived guest's mood. The line writes to the full the feeling of the distant home and the letter's day, and the autumn's guest feeling. Writing feeling through the home, melancholy and grieving autumn, the eye-dotting brush.
秋窥高鸟过，老逐众人行。
Autumn peers as a high bird glides past; old age follows the common crowd.
秋窥高鸟过，老逐众人行。
In autumn I watch the high birds pass; in age I follow the crowd along.
此句写秋窥高鸟过，是全诗写高鸟之态的关键。「秋窥高鸟过」写秋窥高鸟过，「秋窥」写秋窥、「高鸟过」写高鸟过；「老逐众人行」写老逐众人行，「老逐」写老逐、「众人行」写众人行。一句写秋窥高鸟过老逐众人行，以秋窥高鸟过写高鸟过、以老逐众人行写众人行，写尽秋窥高鸟过、老逐众人行之情。以鸟写景，沉郁而悲秋，是「以鸟写景」的点睛之笔。
This line writes in autumn I watch the high birds pass, the key of the whole's writing the high birds. The words autumn watch write the autumn gaze; high birds pass writes the birds above. In age I follow the crowd along writes the old man following the throng. The line writes to the full the feeling of watching the high birds in autumn and following the crowd in age. Writing scenery through the bird, melancholy and grieving autumn, the eye-dotting brush.
始欲投三峡，何由见两京。
I had thought to flee into the Three Gorges—but how can I ever see the Two Capitals again?
始欲投三峡，何由见两京。
I was about to make for the Three Gorges; how shall I ever see the two capitals?
结句写何由见两京，是全诗立意的落点。「始欲投三峡」写始欲投三峡，「始欲」写始欲、「投三峡」写投三峡；「何由见两京」用两京之典写何由见两京，「何由」写何由、「见两京」写见两京。一句写始欲投三峡何由见两京，以始欲投三峡写投三峡、以何由见两京写见两京，写尽始欲投三峡、何由见两京之情。以京写情，沉郁而悲秋，是全诗最动人处，也是「以京写情」的点睛之笔。
The closing line writes how shall I ever see the two capitals, the landing of the whole's bent. The words I was about to write the intention; make for the Three Gorges writes the refuge. How shall I ever see the two capitals uses the allusion to the Eastern and Western capitals. The line writes to the full the feeling of being about to make for the Gorges and asking how to see the capitals. Writing feeling through the capital, melancholy and grieving autumn, the most moving place of the whole and the eye-dotting brush.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Su Shi's lyric comforts separation with cosmic perspective ('though miles apart, we share the moon'); Du Fu's octet admits no such solace, only the unreachable Two Capitals. Both measure personal grief against immensity, but one reconciles, the other despairs.
苏轼《水调歌头·明月几时有》「人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全」，写悲秋感怀、沉郁旷达，是宋词长调的名篇；杜甫《悲秋》则以「凉风动万里，群盗尚纵横」「何由见两京」写尚纵横、见两京。两诗同写悲秋感怀、沉郁旷达：一写人有悲欢离合、以悲欢写离合，一写凉风动万里群盗尚纵横、以凉风写悲秋；一为苏轼之旷达、一为杜甫之沉郁，并读正可见诗写「悲秋感怀」的两种笔法，皆于悲秋之中见沉郁。
八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Ba Sheng Gan Zhou: Facing the Rivulets of Dusk Rain Falling on River and Sky 柳永 · 同写秋日凝望、沉郁清丽，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写凉风动万里群盗尚纵横，皆于秋日之中见凝望 Both voice autumn melancholy by riversideLiu Yong's slow lyric lingers on autumn rain and a wanderer's sorrow with pretty grief; Du Fu's poem sets autumn against rebellion and old age with historic weight. Both are autumn laments, but Du Fu's carries the fall of an empire.
柳永《八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天》「对潇潇暮雨洒江天，一番洗清秋」，写秋日凝望、沉郁清丽，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；杜甫《悲秋》则以「凉风动万里，群盗尚纵横」「家远传书日」写尚纵横、传书日。两诗同写秋日凝望、沉郁清丽：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写凉风动万里群盗尚纵横、以凉风写悲秋；一为柳永之清丽、一为杜甫之沉郁，并读正可见诗写「秋日凝望」的两种笔法，皆于秋日之中见凝望。