唐 Tang · 诗 Poem
奉和中书舍人贾至早朝大明宫
Matching Secretariat Drafter Jia Zhi's Poem on the Dawn Audience at the Daming Palace
鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑金阙晓钟开万户玉阶仙仗拥千官花迎剑珮星初落柳拂旌旗露未干独有凤皇池上客阳春一曲和皆难
Cocks crow along the purple road, the light of dawn is cold; orioles sing over the imperial domain, spring colour is fading.The morning bell at the golden gate opens ten thousand households; by the jade steps the immortal guard presses about a thousand officers.
Flowers greet the swords and pendants as the stars begin to set; willows brush the banners, and the dew is not yet dry.
Alone, the guest upon the phoenix pool - a song of Spring Warmth that all find hard to match.
Meaning
The poem describes the dawn levee at the Daming Palace as the court assembles before sunrise. It moves from the cold street and fading spring outside, through the bell, the gates and the ranked officers, to the exquisite detail of flowers brushing the officials' swords and willows sweeping the banners while the stars still fade and the dew lies heavy. It ends with a compliment to Jia Zhi, the drafter at the phoenix pool, whose original song is declared almost impossible to equal.
鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑金阙晓钟开万户玉阶仙仗拥千官花迎剑珮星初落柳拂旌旗露未干独有凤皇池上客阳春一曲和皆难
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] Cocks crow on the great avenue in cold dawn light; orioles sing, spring is nearly over. The bell opens the gates; guards throng the steps about a thousand officials. Flowers greet sword and pendant as the stars set, and willows brush the banners, dew not yet dry. Only the phoenix-pool guest is left: his song of spring is hard for anyone to match. [Structure] A regulated octave in four movements. The first couplet sets the hour and season outside the palace; the second brings the building, the bell and the assembled ranks; the third, the required turn, abandons grandeur for two delicate observations; the fourth delivers the compliment. [Imagery] Cold light against birdsong, golden gate against jade steps, stars against dew - the antitheses are exact throughout. The third couplet is the prize: flowers and willows are given the active roles, so that nature seems to attend on the officers. [Effect] The impression is elegant, brilliantly finished and utterly public.
【白话串讲】 岑参写《奉和中书舍人贾至早朝大明宫》:“鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒,莺啭皇州春色阑”——“金阙晓钟开万户,玉阶仙仗拥千官”——“花迎剑珮星初落,柳拂旌旗露未干”——“独有凤皇池上客,阳春一曲和皆难”——他写早朝大明宫——花迎剑珮星初落。 【意象与手法】 “鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒,莺啭皇州春色阑”写早朝曙光;“金阙晓钟开万户,玉阶仙仗拥千官”写金阙晓钟;“花迎剑珮星初落,柳拂旌旗露未干”写花迎剑珮;结以“独有凤皇池上客,阳春一曲和皆难”以阳春曲写和作之难。典雅朝会。 【情感与主旨】 岑参奉和贾至早朝大明宫之作,写早朝盛景与百官朝会的气象,以“花迎剑珮星初落”写朝仪之美,是应制朝会诗的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“金阙晓钟开万户,玉阶仙仗拥千官”写早朝盛景;“花迎剑珮星初落,柳拂旌旗露未干”以花迎剑珮写朝仪。
Background
Cen Shen (about 715 - 770), a native of Jiangling, is remembered chiefly as one of the two great frontier poets of the Tang, famous for snow, desert and marching drums. He also served in the capital and took part in the fashionable exchanges of court verse. In the spring of 758 Jia Zhi, then a drafter in the Secretariat, wrote a poem on the dawn audience at the Daming Palace and showed it to his colleagues; Wang Wei, Cen Shen, Du Fu and others all wrote matching poems, and the set became one of the most discussed groups of verses in Chinese literary history. The Secretariat, housed beside the palace, was known as the phoenix pool, and its drafters wrote imperial edicts. Cen Shen's contribution was long regarded as the most brilliant of the set, and its third couplet is among the most celebrated examples of courtly observation.
《奉和中书舍人贾至早朝大明宫》为唐代诗人岑参所作诗。岑参(约715—770),江陵人,唐代诗人,以边塞诗著称。此诗写朝会咏事,为和贾至之作。诗中「鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑」写鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑;「金阙晓钟开万户玉阶仙仗拥千官」写金阙晓钟开万户玉阶仙仗拥千官;「花迎剑珮星初落柳拂旌旗露未干」写花迎剑珮星初落柳拂旌旗露未干;「独有凤皇池上客阳春一曲和皆难」写独有凤皇池上客阳春一曲和皆难。岑参此诗以朝会咏事、阳春一曲和皆难写其咏事之情,典雅朝会,是岑参诗中的名篇。此篇《奉和中书舍人贾至早朝大明宫》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《奉和中书舍人贾至早朝大明宫》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
Cen Shen's method is to make ceremony sensuous. Where a lesser poet would describe the audience in abstract terms of loyalty and order, he gives the reader temperature, sound and moisture: the cold of the dawn light, the crowing and the orioles, the dew still on the banners. The second couplet is a textbook antithesis of gold against jade and ten thousand against a thousand, presenting the palace as a machine that opens on schedule. The third couplet is the stroke of genius, because it personifies the setting: the flowers greet, the willows brush, and the assembled officers become objects of nature's courtesy rather than its masters. The last couplet turns the whole display into a compliment by invoking a musical conceit - the higher the song, the fewer who can join it - so that praise of Jia Zhi crowns praise of the court.
此诗艺术上以「典雅朝会、以晓写情」见长。全诗共八句四联,由鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒而金阙晓钟开万户而花迎剑珮星初落。起「鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑」写鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒:鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑;「金阙晓钟开万户玉阶仙仗拥千官」写金阙晓钟开万户:金阙晓钟开万户玉阶仙仗拥千官;「花迎剑珮星初落柳拂旌旗露未干」写花迎剑珮星初落:花迎剑珮星初落柳拂旌旗露未干;结「独有凤皇池上客阳春一曲和皆难」写阳春一曲和皆难:独有凤皇池上客阳春一曲和皆难。全诗以晓写情,由鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒而阳春一曲和皆难,典雅朝会,是岑参诗中的名篇。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 phoenix pool was the customary name for the Secretariat, the office next to the palace that drafted imperial documents, and calling Jia Zhi's seat by that name flatters both the office and the man. The song of Spring Warmth refers to the old contrast between two kinds of music: the lofty airs that few in the audience can join, and the popular tunes that thousands sing together. By comparing Jia Zhi's poem to the former, Cen Shen explains why everyone found it hard to answer, and at the same time politely excuses his own attempt. The golden gate and jade steps belong to the standard vocabulary of palace description, as do the immortal guard, a term for the imperial bodyguard, and the purple road, the great avenue of the capital.
诗中「鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑」「金阙晓钟开万户玉阶仙仗拥千官」「花迎剑珮星初落柳拂旌旗露未干」「独有凤皇池上客阳春一曲和皆难」等语,皆含典故故实。「鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑」写鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑;「金阙晓钟开万户玉阶仙仗拥千官」用金阙之典(金阙写宫阙),写金阙晓钟开万户玉阶仙仗拥千官;「花迎剑珮星初落柳拂旌旗露未干」写花迎剑珮星初落柳拂旌旗露未干;「独有凤皇池上客阳春一曲和皆难」用阳春之典(阳春写高雅的曲调),写独有凤皇池上客阳春一曲和皆难。诗人用金阙、阳春之典入诗,不着痕迹,而把朝会咏事之情写得真切可感,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。
Commentary
The exchange of dawn-audience poems became a standing critical topic, with generations of readers ranking the contributions of Jia Zhi, Wang Wei, Cen Shen and Du Fu. Cen Shen's was frequently placed first on the strength of the third couplet, which was praised for being at once exquisite and entirely appropriate: the flowers and willows do not distract from the ceremony but grace it. Some critics preferred Wang Wei's version for its dignity; others objected that Cen Shen's closing line flattered too openly. The universal judgment, however, was that the poem captures the peculiar beauty of the Tang dawn levee - a vast, silent, perfectly ordered assemblage held for a moment between night and day, between fading stars and undried dew.
这首《奉和中书舍人贾至早朝大明宫》,是岑参写朝会咏事之作,写鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒、金阙晓钟开万户、花迎剑珮星初落、阳春一曲和皆难之情,典雅朝会。起「鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑」——鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑。写鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒:鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒、莺啭皇州春色阑——曙光寒、春色阑;「金阙晓钟开万户玉阶仙仗拥千官」——金阙晓钟开万户玉阶仙仗拥千官。写金阙晓钟开万户:金阙晓钟开万户、玉阶仙仗拥千官——开万户、拥千官;「花迎剑珮星初落柳拂旌旗露未干」——花迎剑珮星初落柳拂旌旗露未干。写花迎剑珮星初落:花迎剑珮星初落、柳拂旌旗露未干——星初落、露未干;结「独有凤皇池上客阳春一曲和皆难」——独有凤皇池上客阳春一曲和皆难。写阳春一曲和皆难:独有凤皇池上客、阳春一曲和皆难——池上客、和皆难。这「独有凤皇池上客阳春一曲和皆难」,是全诗之结:以阳春一曲和皆难写其咏事。全诗典雅朝会,以晓写情,正是岑参诗中的名篇。
Prosody
Line by line
鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑
Cocks crow along the purple road, the light of dawn is cold; orioles sing over the imperial domain, the spring colour is spent.
鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑
The cock crows on the purple road, the dawn light chill; the orioles sing in the imperial city, the spring color waning.
起句写鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒,起笔即见其曙光。「鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒」写鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒,「鸡鸣紫陌」写鸡鸣紫陌、「曙光寒」写曙光寒;「莺啭皇州春色阑」写莺啭皇州春色阑,「莺啭皇州」写莺啭皇州、「春色阑」写春色阑。一句写鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑,以鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒写曙光寒、以莺啭皇州春色阑写春色阑,写尽鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒、莺啭皇州春色阑之情。以鸡起兴,典雅而朝会,是「以鸡起兴」的妙笔。
The opening line writes the cock crows on the purple road, the dawn light chill, the dawn at once. The words the cock crows on the purple road write the road; the dawn light chill the chill. The orioles sing in the imperial city, the spring color waning writes the orioles. The line writes to the full the feeling of the crowing cock and the waning spring. Rising through the cock, elegant and courtly, the fine brush of rising through the cock.
金阙晓钟开万户玉阶仙仗拥千官
The morning bell at the golden gate opens ten thousand households; by the jade steps the immortal guard presses about a thousand officers.
金阙晓钟开万户玉阶仙仗拥千官
At the golden gates the dawn bell opens the myriad doors; on the jade steps the immortal ranks throng the thousand officials.
此句写金阙晓钟开万户,是全诗写金阙之态的关键。「金阙晓钟开万户」用金阙之典写金阙晓钟开万户,「金阙晓钟」写金阙晓钟、「开万户」写开万户;「玉阶仙仗拥千官」写玉阶仙仗拥千官,「玉阶仙仗」写玉阶仙仗、「拥千官」写拥千官。一句写金阙晓钟开万户玉阶仙仗拥千官,以金阙晓钟开万户写开万户、以玉阶仙仗拥千官写拥千官,写尽金阙晓钟开万户、玉阶仙仗拥千官之情。以阙写景,典雅而朝会,是「以阙写景」的点睛之笔。
This line writes at the golden gates the dawn bell opens the myriad doors, the key of the whole's writing the golden gates. The words at the golden gates use the golden-gates allusion; opens the myriad doors the opening. On the jade steps the immortal ranks throng the thousand officials writes the thronging. The line writes to the full the feeling of the opened doors and the thronging officials. Writing scenery through the gate, elegant and courtly, the eye-dotting brush.
花迎剑珮星初落柳拂旌旗露未干
Flowers greet the swords and pendants as the stars begin to set; willows brush the banners, and the dew is not yet dry.
花迎剑珮星初落柳拂旌旗露未干
Flowers greet the sword and girdle as the stars just set; willows brush the banners, the dew not yet dry.
此句写花迎剑珮星初落,是全诗写剑珮之态的关键。「花迎剑珮星初落」写花迎剑珮星初落,「花迎剑珮」写花迎剑珮、「星初落」写星初落;「柳拂旌旗露未干」写柳拂旌旗露未干,「柳拂旌旗」写柳拂旌旗、「露未干」写露未干。一句写花迎剑珮星初落柳拂旌旗露未干,以花迎剑珮星初落写星初落、以柳拂旌旗露未干写露未干,写尽花迎剑珮星初落、柳拂旌旗露未干之情。以花写景,典雅而朝会,是「以花写景」的点睛之笔。
This line writes flowers greet the sword and girdle as the stars just set, the key of the whole's writing the sword and girdle. The words flowers greet the sword and girdle write the greeting; as the stars just set the setting. Willows brush the banners, the dew not yet dry writes the dew. The line writes to the full the feeling of the greeting flowers and the unwithered dew. Writing scenery through the flower, elegant and courtly, the eye-dotting brush.
独有凤皇池上客阳春一曲和皆难
Alone stands the guest upon the phoenix pool - a song of Spring Warmth that all find hard to match.
独有凤皇池上客阳春一曲和皆难
Alone the guest on the Phoenix Pool - that Spring Sunshine air, to answer it is hard for all.
结句写阳春一曲和皆难,是全诗立意的落点。「独有凤皇池上客」写独有凤皇池上客,「独有」写独有、「凤皇池上客」写凤皇池上客;「阳春一曲和皆难」用阳春之典写阳春一曲和皆难,「阳春一曲」写阳春一曲、「和皆难」写和皆难。一句写独有凤皇池上客阳春一曲和皆难,以独有凤皇池上客写池上客、以阳春一曲和皆难写和皆难,写尽独有凤皇池上客、阳春一曲和皆难之情。以春写情,典雅而朝会,是全诗最动人处,也是「以春写情」的点睛之笔。
The closing line writes that Spring Sunshine air, to answer it is hard for all, the landing of the whole's bent. The words alone write the singular; the guest on the Phoenix Pool the addressee. That Spring Sunshine air, to answer it is hard for all uses the Spring Sunshine allusion. The line writes to the full the feeling of the guest on the pool and the hard answering. Writing feeling through spring, elegant and courtly, the most moving place of the whole and the eye-dotting brush.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Su Shi's lyric transcends its occasion entirely, becoming a private meditation on separation and the human condition. Cen Shen's octave remains wholly within its occasion, finding its excellence in exact observation rather than in philosophical flight. The contrast shows two ideals of the poem written to answer someone.
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」,写朝会感怀、典雅旷达,是宋词长调的名篇;岑参《奉和中书舍人贾至早朝大明宫》则以「鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑」「阳春一曲和皆难」写春色阑、和皆难。两诗同写朝会感怀、典雅旷达:一写人有悲欢离合、以悲欢写离合,一写鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑、以曙光写咏事;一为苏轼之旷达、一为岑参之典雅,并读正可见诗写「朝会感怀」的两种笔法,皆于朝会之中见典雅。
八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Basheng Ganzhou: Down the Evening Rain that Sweeps the River Sky 柳永 · 同写大明宫凝望、典雅清丽,一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑,皆于大明宫之中见凝望 Both turn on a gaze across a great space. One looks down from a height over a rainy river sky, the other looks along a dawn avenue toward the palace. Each makes distance and weather carry the mood.Liu Yong's lyric is solitary and desolate, written for one voice and a wide empty horizon; Cen Shen's is crowded and glittering, full of officers, banners and bells. Both, however, build their effect on the exact physical detail of moisture and light - rain on the river, dew on the banners - and reward close reading of the same kind.
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」,写大明宫凝望、典雅清丽,是宋词写羁旅的名篇;岑参《奉和中书舍人贾至早朝大明宫》则以「鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑」「金阙晓钟开万户」写春色阑、开万户。两诗同写大明宫凝望、典雅清丽:一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋,一写鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒莺啭皇州春色阑、以曙光写咏事;一为柳永之清丽、一为岑参之典雅,并读正可见诗写「大明宫凝望」的两种笔法,皆于大明宫之中见凝望。