唐 Tang · 诗 Poem
登峨眉山
Climbing Mount Emei
蜀国多仙山，峨眉邈难匹。
周流试登览，绝怪安可息。
青冥倚天开，彩错疑画出。
泠然紫霞赏，果得锦囊术。
云间吟琼箫，石上弄宝瑟。
平生有微尚，欢笑自此毕。
烟容如在颜，尘累忽相失。
傥逢骑羊子，携手凌白日。
But Emei stands remote, beyond compare.
I wandered about and tried the ascent,
And found its wonders past all resting.
The blue vault leans against the sky and opens,
Confused colour as if brushed by a painter.
Lightly I delight in the purple cloud-rim,
And truly obtain the art of the brocade bag.
Among the clouds I play a jade flute,
Upon the rock I finger a precious zither.
All my life I have held a humble aspiration,
And laughter and joy here reach their end.
The aspect of mist seems painted on my face,
The burdens of the dust suddenly fall away.
Should I meet the lad who rode a sheep,
I would take his hand and mount into the white sun.
Meaning
Li Bai declares that among the many holy mountains of Shu, Emei is unmatched, and describes his climb: the sky opening against the peak, the colours so fabulous they seem painted, the purple mists, the music he imagines playing among the clouds. At the summit the dust of the world drops away from him, and he ends with a wish - that he may meet the immortal who rode a sheep and go up with him into the sunlight. The poem is a complete ascent, from admiration to transport, written as though the mountain were a vehicle rather than a place.
蜀国多仙山，峨眉邈难匹。周流试登览，绝怪安可息。青冥倚天开，彩错疑画出。泠然紫霞赏，果得锦囊术。云间吟琼箫，石上弄宝瑟。平生有微尚，欢笑自此毕。烟容如在颜，尘累忽相失。傥逢骑羊子，携手凌白日。
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] Shu has many immortal mountains, but Emei is remote and unmatched; he wanders and climbs, and finds its marvels too great to exhaust. The blue sky rests against the mountain and opens, and the riot of colour looks painted; he delights in the purple haze and truly receives the art of the brocade bag; he plays a jade flute among the clouds and a jewelled zither on the rocks. His long-held modest wish is fulfilled here, and laughter and joy are complete; mist seems to settle on his face and the dust of the world falls away. If he should meet the sheep-riding immortal, he will take his hand and rise into the white sun. [Structure] the poem moves steadily upward: praise, ascent, vision, music, purification, and finally departure. [Imagery] the imagery is the stock of the immortality cult - purple vapour, jade instruments, brocade bags, a sheep-riding immortal - and Li Bai handles it without irony, which is what makes the poem exhilarating rather than quaint. [Feeling] the great line is the one about dust: the burdens of the world simply drop away, and they are described as dust, meaning something that was only ever clinging to the surface.
【白话串讲】 李白写《登峨眉山》：“蜀国多仙山，峨眉邈难匹”——“青冥倚天开，彩错疑画出”——“云间吟琼箫，石上弄宝瑟”——“烟容如在颜，尘累忽相失”——他登峨眉山——峨眉邈难匹。 【意象与手法】 “蜀国多仙山，峨眉邈难匹”写峨眉之奇；“青冥倚天开，彩错疑画出”写山势高峻；“云间吟琼箫，石上弄宝瑟”写仙游之乐；“烟容如在颜，尘累忽相失”写忘尘；结以“傥逢骑羊子，携手凌白日”写仙游之愿。豪迈飘逸。 【情感与主旨】 李白写登峨眉山之作，写峨眉仙山的高峻奇丽与求仙之愿，以“携手凌白日”写凌云之志，体现李白诗豪迈飘逸的风格。 【名句点睛】 常考“蜀国多仙山，峨眉邈难匹”写峨眉之奇；“云间吟琼箫，石上弄宝瑟”写仙游之乐。
Background
Li Bai (701-762), courtesy name Taibai, styled the Hermit of the Green Lotus, was born in central Asia and grew up in Shu, in what is now Sichuan; he is the most famous poet in the language and was called the Immortal of Poetry within his own lifetime. He never sat the examinations, entered the Hanlin Academy in 742 on reputation alone, and left it two years later, spending the rest of his life travelling, drinking and writing. Mount Emei, in the south of Shu, was already one of the great Buddhist and Daoist mountains of the empire, dotted with temples and caves, and it was the mountain of Li Bai's boyhood horizon - he wrote of the moon of Emei elsewhere with an exile's tenderness. Shu itself had an old reputation as a land of holiness, of wonder-workers and of immortals, so the opening line is not a compliment but a shared assumption. Climbing poems in the Tang were a well-established genre, but this one belongs rather to the youxian or roaming-with-immortals tradition inherited from the Han and the Six Dynasties, which Li Bai revived with unique energy.
《登峨眉山》为唐代诗人李白所作诗。李白（701—762），字太白，号青莲居士，陇西成纪（今甘肃秦安）人，唐代大诗人，被誉为「诗仙」。此诗写景山水，为登峨眉山之作。诗中「蜀国多仙山，峨眉邈难匹」写蜀国多仙山，峨眉邈难匹；「周流试登览，绝怪安可息」写周流试登览，绝怪安可息；「青冥倚天开，彩错疑画出」写青冥倚天开，彩错疑画出；「泠然紫霞赏，果得锦囊术」写泠然紫霞赏，果得锦囊术；「傥逢骑羊子，携手凌白日」写傥逢骑羊子，携手凌白日。李白此诗以写景山水、携手凌白日写其山水之情，豪迈飘逸，是李白诗中的名篇。此篇《登峨眉山》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《登峨眉山》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 governing movement is elevation, and almost every line contributes a verb or an image of rising: the sky leans and opens, colour spreads, mists are savoured, instruments sound in the clouds, dust falls away, and finally two figures mount into the sun. Li Bai sustains this by keeping the metre rough and free: the piece is in the old style, not the regulated one, and its loose lineation lets him pile clause on clause without the discipline of antithesis - appropriate to a subject that is supposed to exceed order. The diction is deliberately gorgeous: purple, jade, brocade, precious, white - a palette of liturgical colours rather than of landscape. The most effective technical stroke is the couplet about laughter and joy ending here, which by declaring the climax of his life to be a moment on a mountain makes everything after it anticlimactic and so licenses the leap into fantasy at the close. The ending itself - should I meet him, I would take his hand - is conditional rather than triumphant, which is what keeps the poem a wish instead of a boast.
此诗艺术上以「豪迈飘逸、以景写情」见长。全诗共十六句，由蜀国多仙山而周流试登览而青冥倚天开。起「蜀国多仙山，峨眉邈难匹」写蜀国多仙山：蜀国多仙山，峨眉邈难匹；「周流试登览，绝怪安可息」写周流试登览：周流试登览，绝怪安可息；「青冥倚天开，彩错疑画出」写青冥倚天开：青冥倚天开，彩错疑画出；「泠然紫霞赏，果得锦囊术」写泠然紫霞赏：泠然紫霞赏，果得锦囊术；结「傥逢骑羊子，携手凌白日」写携手凌白日：傥逢骑羊子，携手凌白日。全诗以景写情，由蜀国多仙山而携手凌白日，豪迈飘逸，是李白诗中的名篇。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
Every element is drawn from the Daoist vocabulary of immortality. The brocade bag is the satchel in which esoteric methods were carried, so obtaining its art means being entrusted with a revealed technique. The purple haze is a standard sign of the presence of the blessed, being the colour of the highest heavens in Daoist cosmology. The jade flute and the jewelled zither are the instruments of the immortals, and making music among the clouds identifies the poet with them. The phrase used for his light, skimming delight alludes to the Zhuangzi, where a man rides the wind with such ease, so Li Bai's ascent is philosophically as well as physically airborne. The sheep-riding lad is the Shu immortal Ge You, who in legend led a sheep up into the mountains and was never seen again, and to meet him is to be recognised as a fellow traveller. The dust that falls away is the standard Buddhist and Daoist figure for worldly attachment - the point being that it was never part of him, only something clinging to the outside.
诗中「蜀国多仙山峨眉邈难匹」「周流试登览绝怪安可息」「青冥倚天开彩错疑画出」「泠然紫霞赏果得锦囊术」「云间吟琼箫石上弄宝瑟」「平生有微尚欢笑自此毕」「烟容如在颜尘累忽相失」「傥逢骑羊子携手凌白日」等语，皆含典故故实。「蜀国多仙山峨眉邈难匹」写蜀国多仙山峨眉邈难匹；「周流试登览绝怪安可息」写周流试登览绝怪安可息；「青冥倚天开彩错疑画出」写青冥倚天开彩错疑画出；「泠然紫霞赏果得锦囊术」用锦囊之典（锦囊为仙人之术），写泠然紫霞赏果得锦囊术；「云间吟琼箫石上弄宝瑟」写云间吟琼箫石上弄宝瑟；「平生有微尚欢笑自此毕」写平生有微尚欢笑自此毕；「烟容如在颜尘累忽相失」写烟容如在颜尘累忽相失；「傥逢骑羊子携手凌白日」用骑羊子之典（骑羊子为仙人葛由骑羊），写傥逢骑羊子携手凌白日。诗人以锦囊、骑羊子等典入诗，不着痕迹，而把写景山水之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。
Commentary
Among Li Bai's mountain poems this one is usually grouped with the Dreaming of Tianmu and the Difficult Road pieces as evidence of his lifelong attachment to the religion of the immortals. Later readers have divided over it: some find it too thoroughly stocked with conventional paraphernalia to be moving, while others - notably the Ming and Qing anthologists who shaped the modern canon - argue that Li Bai's uniqueness lies precisely in believing the machinery, so that a purple mist is not a decoration in his hands but an event. The conditional close has been especially admired, on the grounds that it leaves the apotheosis hypothetical and therefore keeps the poem human: the poet does not claim to have ascended, only to be ready to. Modern scholarship has also stressed the Shu connection, since Emei was the mountain of his youth, and has read the poem as a return as much as a departure. It is regularly taught as the clearest short example of the roaming-with-immortals mode in the hands of its greatest practitioner.
这首《登峨眉山》，是李白写写景山水之作，写蜀国多仙山、周流试登览、青冥倚天开、泠然紫霞赏、携手凌白日之情，豪迈飘逸。起「蜀国多仙山，峨眉邈难匹」——蜀国多仙山，峨眉邈难匹。写蜀国多仙山：蜀国多仙山、峨眉邈难匹——多仙山、邈难匹；「周流试登览，绝怪安可息」——周流试登览，绝怪安可息。写周流试登览：周流试登览、绝怪安可息——试登览、安可息；「青冥倚天开，彩错疑画出」——青冥倚天开，彩错疑画出。写青冥倚天开：青冥倚天开、彩错疑画出——倚天开、疑画出；「泠然紫霞赏，果得锦囊术」——泠然紫霞赏，果得锦囊术（用锦囊之典）。写泠然紫霞赏：泠然紫霞赏、果得锦囊术——紫霞赏、得锦囊术；结「傥逢骑羊子，携手凌白日」——傥逢骑羊子（用骑羊子之典），携手凌白日。写携手凌白日：傥逢骑羊子、携手凌白日——骑羊子、凌白日。这「傥逢骑羊子，携手凌白日」，是全诗之结：以携手凌白日写其山水。全诗豪迈飘逸，以景写情，正是李白诗中的名篇。
Prosody
Line by line
蜀国多仙山，峨眉邈难匹。
The land of Shu is full of immortal mountains, but Emei stands remote, beyond compare.
蜀国多仙山，峨眉邈难匹。
The Land of Shu has many immortal hills, but Emei stands alone, beyond compare.
首二句写蜀国多仙山，起笔即见其山。「蜀国多仙山」写蜀国多仙山，「蜀国」写蜀国、「多仙山」写多仙山；「峨眉邈难匹」写峨眉邈难匹，「峨眉」写峨眉、「邈难匹」写邈难匹。两句一写蜀国多仙山、一写峨眉邈难匹，以蜀国多仙山写多仙山、以峨眉邈难匹写邈难匹，写尽蜀国多仙山、峨眉邈难匹之情。以山起兴，豪迈而飘逸，是「以山起兴」的妙笔。
The opening two lines write the Land of Shu has many immortal hills, the hills at once. The words the Land of Shu write the region; many immortal hills the peaks. But Emei stands alone, beyond compare writes the unrivaled. The two lines, one writing the many immortal hills of Shu, one writing Emei beyond compare, write to the full the feeling of the immortal hills and the unrivaled Emei. Rising through the hill, heroic and untrammeled, the fine brush of rising through the hill.
青冥倚天开，彩错疑画出。
The blue vault leans against the sky and opens; the confused colour seems brushed by a painter.
青冥倚天开，彩错疑画出。
Its azure rises leaning on the sky; its blended colors seem drawn by a hand.
此二句写青冥倚天开，是全诗写青冥之态的关键。「青冥倚天开」写青冥倚天开，「青冥」写青冥、「倚天开」写倚天开；「彩错疑画出」写彩错疑画出，「彩错」写彩错、「疑画出」写疑画出。两句一写青冥倚天开、一写彩错疑画出，以青冥倚天开写倚天开、以彩错疑画出写疑画出，写尽青冥倚天开、彩错疑画出之情。以天写景，豪迈而飘逸，是「以天写景」的点睛之笔。
The two lines write its azure rises leaning on the sky, the key of the whole's writing the azure. The words its azure write the sky; leaning on the sky opening the height. Its blended colors seem drawn by a hand writes the hues. The two lines, one writing the azure leaning on the sky, one writing the blended colors like a painting, write to the full the feeling of the sky-high azure and the painted colors. Writing scenery through the sky, heroic and untrammeled, the eye-dotting brush.
泠然紫霞赏，果得锦囊术。
Lightly I delight in the purple cloud-rim, and truly obtain the art of the brocade bag.
泠然紫霞赏，果得锦囊术。
Lightly I revel in the purple mist; I have indeed found the magic of the brocade bag.
此二句写泠然紫霞赏，是全诗写紫霞之态的关键。「泠然紫霞赏」写泠然紫霞赏，「泠然」写泠然、「紫霞赏」写紫霞赏；「果得锦囊术」用锦囊之典写果得锦囊术，「果得」写果得、「锦囊术」写锦囊术。两句一写泠然紫霞赏、一写果得锦囊术，以泠然紫霞赏写紫霞赏、以果得锦囊术写得锦囊术，写尽泠然紫霞赏、果得锦囊术之情。以霞写景，豪迈而飘逸，是「以霞写景」的点睛之笔。
The two lines write lightly I revel in the purple mist, the key of the whole's writing the purple mist. The words lightly write the lightness; I revel in the purple mist the cloud. I have indeed found the magic of the brocade bag uses the brocade-bag allusion. The two lines, one writing the revel in the purple mist, one writing the finding of the brocade-bag art, write to the full the feeling of the purple mist and the found art. Writing scenery through the mist, heroic and untrammeled, the eye-dotting brush.
傥逢骑羊子，携手凌白日。
Should I meet the lad who rode a sheep, I would take his hand and mount into the white sun.
傥逢骑羊子，携手凌白日。
Could I but meet the sheep-riding sage, hand in hand we would soar above the sun.
结句写携手凌白日，是全诗立意的落点。「傥逢骑羊子」用骑羊子之典写傥逢骑羊子，「傥逢」写傥逢、「骑羊子」写骑羊子；「携手凌白日」写携手凌白日，「携手」写携手、「凌白日」写凌白日。两句一写傥逢骑羊子、一写携手凌白日，以傥逢骑羊子写骑羊子、以携手凌白日写凌白日，写尽傥逢骑羊子、携手凌白日之情。以仙写情，豪迈而飘逸，是全诗最动人处，也是「以仙写情」的点睛之笔。
The closing line writes could I but meet the sheep-riding sage, hand in hand we would soar above the sun, the landing of the whole's bent. The words could I but meet write the wish; the sheep-riding sage the immortal. Hand in hand we would soar above the sun writes the ascent. The line writes to the full the feeling of meeting the sage and soaring with him. Writing feeling through the ascent, heroic and untrammeled, the most moving place of the whole and the eye-dotting brush.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Su Shi toys with riding the wind home and then draws back because the high places would be too cold, choosing the human world after all. Li Bai never draws back: he asks only to be allowed to go, and leaves the ascent conditional on meeting an immortal. The difference is between a Song poet who reasons his way back to earth and a Tang poet who keeps the door open.
苏轼《水调歌头·明月几时有》「我欲乘风归去，又恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒」，写山水感怀、豪迈超然，是宋词长调的名篇；李白《登峨眉山》则以「蜀国多仙山，峨眉邈难匹」「青冥倚天开，彩错疑画出」写多仙山邈难匹、倚天开疑画出。两诗同写山水感怀、豪迈超然：一写我欲乘风归去、以乘风写超然，一写蜀国多仙山峨眉邈难匹、以登仙山写山水；一为苏轼之超然、一为李白之豪迈，并读正可见诗写「山水感怀」的两种笔法，皆于山水之中见豪迈。
八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Eight Beats of Ganzhou: Facing the Evening Rain That Sweeps the River Sky 柳永 · 同写登高望远、清丽沉雄，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写青冥倚天开彩错疑画出，皆于登高之中见望远 Both use high, distant scenery - a mountain summit, a rain-washed river sky - as the setting for a state of mind.Liu Yong's vast vista depresses his speaker and confirms his separateness; the landscape is a mirror of loss. Li Bai's elevation does the opposite: the higher he goes the more the world's dust falls away, and the mountain becomes a vehicle. Read together they show how the same grandeur can be read as abandonment or as release.
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」，写登高望远、清丽沉雄，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；李白《登峨眉山》则以「青冥倚天开，彩错疑画出」「云间吟琼箫，石上弄宝瑟」写倚天开疑画出、吟琼箫弄宝瑟。两诗同写登高望远、清丽沉雄：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写青冥倚天开彩错疑画出、以登仙山写山水；一为柳永之清丽、一为李白之豪迈，并读正可见诗写「登高望远」的两种笔法，皆于登高之中见望远。