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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

风

Wind

李峤

Li Qiao

解落三秋叶，能开二月花。
过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜。

It strips the leaves of the late autumn and opens the flowers of the second month.
Crossing the river it raises waves a thousand feet high; entering the bamboos it bends ten thousand stalks aslant.
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Meaning

The poem celebrates the wind entirely through what it does to other things, never naming it. In autumn it strips leaves from the trees; in spring it opens the flowers of the second month. It sweeps across a river and heaves up towering waves, and it pushes into a bamboo grove until ten thousand stalks lean over. Together the four scenes show the wind as a power that is invisible in itself yet unmistakable in its effects.

解落三秋叶，能开二月花。过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The wind can shake down the leaves of the third autumn month and can open the blossoms of the second month; where it crosses a river it lifts waves a thousand feet high, and where it enters a bamboo grove ten thousand stalks bend aslant. [Structure] The quatrain is built on two balanced couplets. The first couplet sets autumn against spring, destruction against flowering, so that the wind appears as the force behind both decay and renewal. The second couplet moves from open water to a bamboo grove, from horizontal violence to vertical pressure, and closes the poem on a single tilted image. [Imagery] Not one line contains the word for wind. The poet works entirely by the logic of cause made visible through effect: falling leaves, opening flowers, rising waves and leaning stalks are the visible signatures of something the eye cannot see. The paired numbers - three autumn months against the second month, a thousand feet against ten thousand stalks - give the little poem the swing and scale of a much larger one. [Effect] The result is bright, quick and lucid: a thing-poem that teaches a beginner how to make an abstraction concrete by showing what it does.

【白话串讲】 李峤写《风》：“解落三秋叶，能开二月花”——“过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜”——他写风——过江千尺浪。 【意象与手法】 “解落三秋叶，能开二月花”写风之能落能开；“过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜”写风过江入竹。咏物明快。 【情感与主旨】 李峤咏风之作，以落叶、开花、过江浪、入竹斜写风之力，是咏物诗中的名篇，也是儿童启蒙诗中咏物的代表。 【名句点睛】 常考“解落三秋叶，能开二月花”写风之落开；“过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜”写风过江入竹。

Background

Li Qiao (about 645 - about 714), courtesy name Jushan, was a native of Zanhuang in Zhao Prefecture, in present-day Hebei, and one of the Tang dynasty's most accomplished court poets. He is grouped with Su Weidao, Cui Rong and Du Shenyan as one of the "Four Friends of Letters", the group that carried courtly verse from the early into the high Tang. He served in the highest offices under Empress Wu and her successors and was famous for his command of the regulated styles. He also wrote a large series of poems on single objects - wind, moon, rain, smoke, and so on - which became standard models for beginners. "Wind" is the best known of these, anthologised widely ever since and still used to introduce children to the poem on a thing, because it says so much in twenty syllables without ever naming its subject.

《风》为唐代诗人李峤所作诗。李峤（约645—约714），字巨山，赵州赞皇（今河北赞皇）人，唐代诗人，「文章四友」之一。此诗写咏物哲理，为咏风之作。诗中「解落三秋叶，能开二月花」写解落三秋叶，能开二月花；「过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜」写过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜。李峤此诗以咏物哲理、过江千尺浪写其咏物之情，清新明快，是李峤诗中的名篇。此篇《风》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《风》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《风》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 craft of the poem lies in total indirection. Li Qiao refuses the obvious route - describing the wind's sound, coolness or touch - and instead gives four transitive verbs that make the wind a grammatical subject acting on visible objects: it strips, it opens, it crosses, it enters. Each couplet is antithetical: autumn leaves against spring flowers, river waves against bamboo stalks. The numerals do the work of description. "Three autumn" fixes the season of decay, "the second month" the season of flowering; "a thousand feet" measures the wave vertically, "ten thousand stalks" measures the grove in extent, so that the reader feels both the height and the breadth of the gust. The closing word, meaning aslant or leaning, is a stroke of economy: a whole grove bowing is captured in one adjective. The plainness is deceptive - there is not a difficult character in the poem, yet the structure is tight enough to satisfy the most demanding reader.

此诗艺术上以「清新明快、以物写风」见长。全诗共四句，由解落三秋叶而能开二月花而过江千尺浪。起「解落三秋叶，能开二月花」写解落三秋叶：解落三秋叶，能开二月花；「过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜」写过江千尺浪：过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜。全诗以物写风，由解落三秋叶而过江千尺浪，清新明快，是李峤诗中的名篇。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。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

This is a poem almost without learned reference, and that is precisely its interest. Li Qiao draws on the old Chinese habit of reading the seasons morally - autumn as the season of withering, spring as the season of opening - and on the tradition of the poem on a thing, which since the Han had used small objects as figures for human character and power. The autumn-spring pairing echoes the seasonal lore of the monthly ordinances, in which the winds of each season are said to bring their proper work. The river and the bamboo carry quieter associations: the river is the image of public danger and the bamboo, because it bends without breaking, the image of the gentleman who yields. By loading a simple quatrain with these familiar resonances and then refusing to point at any of them, the poet leaves the reader free to feel the wind rather than to decode an allegory.

诗中「解落三秋叶能开二月花」「过江千尺浪入竹万竿斜」等语，皆含典故故实。「解落三秋叶能开二月花」写解落三秋叶能开二月花；「过江千尺浪入竹万竿斜」写过江千尺浪入竹万竿斜。诗人以三秋叶、二月花等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把咏物哲理之情写得真切可感，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。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

Later readers have admired the poem for what the critics call catching the whole spirit without committing a single word to it: the character for wind never appears, yet every line is wind. Commentators note that the four lines correspond to four moods of the wind - the keenness of autumn, the softness of spring, the violence of a squall, the weight of a steady gale - and that the two halves of the poem answer each other as destruction answers growth. Because it is short, regular, entirely free of obscure diction and yet genuinely witty in its conceit, it has been a staple of primers and household reading for more than a thousand years. It is often cited as proof that the poem on a thing need not be a riddle: its pleasure lies in recognition, and the reader supplies the missing word before the poem is half over.

这首《风》，是李峤写咏物哲理之作，写解落三秋叶、能开二月花、过江千尺浪、入竹万竿斜之情，清新明快。起「解落三秋叶，能开二月花」——解落三秋叶，能开二月花。写解落三秋叶：解落三秋叶、能开二月花——解落三秋叶、能开二月花；「过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜」——过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜。写过江千尺浪：过江千尺浪、入竹万竿斜——千尺浪、万竿斜。这「过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜」，是全诗之结：以入竹万竿斜写其咏物。全诗清新明快，以物写风，正是李峤诗中的名篇。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。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。再深味此诗，其佳处正在「不着一字，尽得风流」：通篇不见一个「风」字，却处处是风——「解落三秋叶」是秋风之劲，叶因风而落；「能开二月花」是春风之柔，花因风而开；「过江千尺浪」是疾风之猛，浪因风而涌；「入竹万竿斜」是劲风之威，竿因风而斜。四句各写风之一面，而以物之变化写风之无形，正见诗人炼意之工。此诗短小精悍，语言凝练，意象鲜明，是咏物诗中的精品，历来为蒙学所取，家弦户诵，其影响深远可见一斑。

Prosody

Form Poem, a five-character quatrain (wuyan jueju) in the regulated manner, four lines arranged in two couplets.诗（五言绝句）
Rhyme A level-tone rhyme is used in the even lines. The rhyming words belong to the broad open final of the word for flower and the word for aslant, so the two rhyme sounds are bright and slightly prolonged, matching the light, quick manner of a poem on a thing.此诗为五言绝句，共四句，两句一联。押平声韵：「花」「斜」押麻部韵。诗体依绝句而定，句式整齐，音节随情起伏，正与写咏物哲理的清新明快相称，也见其以绝句写咏物的自然。
Tone pattern The rhythm runs two beats plus three within each five-syllable line, and the level and oblique tones alternate regularly. The first couplet, with its falling and opening, reads brisk and decisive; the second, with crossing and entering, reads more flowing. The tone pattern thus moves from crisp to smooth, echoing the wind's change of scene from treetops to river and grove.句式上，「解落三秋叶，能开二月花」写解落三秋叶，音节明快；「过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜」写过江千尺浪，音节轻快。全诗音节随情起伏，由明快而轻快，正合绝句「含蓄」之妙，读来如咏物哲理、入竹万竿斜之音，清新而动人。
Reading note As a five-character quatrain the piece depends on compression. Each line is one independent clause with a verb at its centre, and the four verbs carry the entire argument. The regularity of the meter is what allows such severe economy: because the frame is perfectly even, the reader notices every word, and the missing subject becomes the most conspicuous thing in the poem. The matched numbers in each couplet also fall on the metrical caesura, reinforcing the balance of the form.此诗为五言绝句，是李峤写咏物哲理之作，也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「清新明快、以物写风」：「解落三秋叶，能开二月花」写解落三秋叶、「过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜」写过江千尺浪。全诗清新明快，以物写风。尤为精妙者，是「解落三秋叶，能开二月花」写尽秋风之力；而「过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜」写尽竹斜之态，正是李峤诗「清新明快」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《风》一诗之所以读来声情并茂，正在于诗人以声韵配合情思、以节奏烘托意境，音节之长短、平仄之起伏，皆与诗意相为表里，此亦可见中国古典诗歌声律之美与匠心之工。

Line by line

解落三秋叶，能开二月花。

It can strip the leaves of the third autumn month; it can open the flowers of the second month.

解落三秋叶，能开二月花。

It can shake down the autumn leaves of the third moon; it can open the flowers of the second moon.

首二句写解落三秋叶，起笔即见其力。「解落三秋叶」写解落三秋叶，「解落」写解落、「三秋叶」写三秋叶；「能开二月花」写能开二月花，「能开」写能开、「二月花」写二月花。两句一写解落三秋叶、一写能开二月花，以解落三秋叶写解落三秋叶、以能开二月花写能开二月花，写尽解落三秋叶、能开二月花之情。以叶起兴，清新而明快，是「以叶起兴」的妙笔。

The opening two lines write it can shake down the autumn leaves of the third moon, the force at once. The words shake down the autumn leaves of the third moon write the shaking; can open the flowers of the second moon the opening. The two lines, one writing the shaking down of autumn leaves, one the opening of spring flowers, write to the full the feeling of the fallen leaves and the opened flowers. Rising through the leaf, fresh and bright, the fine brush of rising through the leaf.

过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜。

Crossing the river it raises waves a thousand feet high; entering the bamboos it bends ten thousand stalks aslant.

过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜。

Crossing the river it raises waves a thousand feet; entering the bamboo it bends ten thousand stalks.

尾二句写过江千尺浪，是全诗立意的落点。「过江千尺浪」写过江千尺浪，「过江」写过江、「千尺浪」写千尺浪；「入竹万竿斜」写入竹万竿斜，「入竹」写入竹、「万竿斜」写万竿斜。两句一写过江千尺浪、一写入竹万竿斜，以过江千尺浪写千尺浪、以入竹万竿斜写万竿斜，写尽过江千尺浪、入竹万竿斜之情。以风写物，清新而明快，是全诗最动人处，也是「以风写物」的点睛之笔。

The tail two lines write crossing the river it raises waves a thousand feet, the landing of the whole's bent. The words crossing the river write the crossing; waves a thousand feet the billows. Entering the bamboo it bends ten thousand stalks writes the bending. The two lines, one writing the thousand-foot waves on the river, one the ten thousand stalks bent in the bamboo, write to the full the feeling of the waves and the bending. Writing the thing through the wind, fresh and bright, the most moving place of the whole and the eye-dotting brush.

Study

Word focus

解落 To loosen and bring down. The verb treats the falling of leaves as an act of undoing, as though the wind untied them from the branch; it suggests an agent with intention rather than a blind force, and it opens the poem with a note of gentle deliberateness. 「解落」写解落三秋叶，是写解落之态的关键。「解落三秋叶」着一「解落」，写解落——着一「解落」，写解落三秋叶，见其叶之落。两字写尽解落之态，是「以词写落」的妙笔。「解落」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
能开 Can open. Placed against the stripping of the previous line, this phrase gives the wind its second nature: the power to bring forth. The modal word stresses ability, so the wind is presented as a faculty that works in opposite directions in different seasons. 「能开」写能开二月花，是写能开之态的关键。「能开二月花」着一「能开」，写能开——着一「能开」，写能开二月花，见其花之开。两字写尽能开之态，是「以词写开」的点睛之词。「能开」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
千尺浪 Waves a thousand feet high. A hyperbolic measure rather than a literal one; the round number conveys vertical violence and gives the invisible wind a scale the eye can grasp, turning a river surface into a standard for its strength. 「千尺浪」写过江千尺浪，是写千尺浪之态的关键。「过江千尺浪」着一「千尺浪」，写千尺浪——着一「千尺浪」，写过江千尺浪，见其浪之深。三字写尽千尺浪之态，是「以词写浪」的点睛之词。「千尺浪」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
万竿斜 Ten thousand stalks leaning. The image measures the grove in extent rather than height, so the second couplet answers the first with breadth instead of depth. The single word for aslant closes the poem on a held posture, a whole wood caught at the moment of yielding. 「万竿斜」写入竹万竿斜，是写万竿斜之态的关键。「入竹万竿斜」着一「万竿斜」，写万竿斜——着一「万竿斜」，写入竹万竿斜，见其竿之斜。三字写尽万竿斜之态，是「以词写斜」的点睛之词。「万竿斜」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

Related Reading

浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯 Huanxisha: A New Song, a Cup of Wine 晏殊 · 同写咏物感怀、无可奈何，一写无可奈何花落去、一写解落三秋叶能开二月花，皆于咏物之中见感怀 Both treat feeling stirred by things, and both turn on helplessness before change. One says flowers fall past all help; the other shows leaves stripped and flowers opened by the same unseen power. Each finds reflection within the poem on an object.

Yan Shu's little song lyric is a masterpiece of the Song short lyric, mourning time through falling blossoms and returning swallows; Li Qiao's quatrain answers the same theme with the bright economy of the Tang. Where Yan Shu is warm, resigned and personal, Li Qiao is brisk, objective and almost playful. Read together they show two ways of writing feeling through things: the lyric dwells on loss, the quatrain on power.

晏殊《浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯》「无可奈何花落去，似曾相识燕归来」，写咏物感怀，是宋词小令的名篇；李峤《风》则以「解落三秋叶，能开二月花」「过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜」写解落三秋叶、入竹万竿斜。两诗同写咏物感怀、无可奈何：一写无可奈何花落去、以花落燕归写惜时，一写解落三秋叶能开二月花、以落花写咏物；一为晏殊之温润、一为李峤之明快，并读正可见诗写「咏物感怀」的两种笔法，皆于咏物之中见感怀。

 山园小梅 Plum in a Mountain Garden 林逋 · 同写咏物清雅、以物寄情，一写疏影横斜水清浅暗香浮动月黄昏、一写解落三秋叶能开二月花，皆于咏物之中见清雅 Both are poems on a thing marked by clarity and refinement, and both use an object to carry feeling. One presents sparse shadows and faint scent; the other presents leaves, flowers, waves and bamboo. Each finds elegance within the poem on an object.

Lin Bu's couplet on sparse shadows over clear shallow water and hidden fragrance drifting at moonlit dusk is the classic Song treatment of the plum as a recluse's emblem. Li Qiao's wind is far less rarefied: it is a public, energetic force measured in feet and stalks. The contrast defines two ideals of the poem on a thing - the contemplative and refined against the lucid and forceful.

林逋《山园小梅》「疏影横斜水清浅，暗香浮动月黄昏」，写梅之清雅、咏物，是宋诗咏物的绝唱；李峤《风》则以「解落三秋叶，能开二月花」「过江千尺浪，入竹万竿斜」写解落三秋叶、入竹万竿斜。两诗同写咏物清雅、以物寄情：一写疏影横斜水清浅暗香浮动月黄昏、以梅写清雅，一写解落三秋叶能开二月花、以风写咏物；一为林逋之清逸、一为李峤之明快，并读正可见诗写「咏物清雅」的两种笔法，皆于咏物之中见清雅。