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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

江村即事

An Impromptu on the River Village

司空曙

Sikong Shu

钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠。
纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边。

Fishing done, I come home and don't tie up the boat —
The moon has set over the river village; it is just time to sleep.
Even if the whole night's wind blows it away,
It can only lodge among the reeds at the shallow water's edge.
Listen

Meaning

A fisherman returns at nightfall and cannot be troubled to moor his boat; the moon is down over the village and he is ready for sleep. Even if the wind carries the boat off in the night, it can only drift among the reeds at the shallows — it cannot get lost. The poem's perfect leisure is the point: a life so at ease with its surroundings that even negligence is safe.

钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠。纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Fishing done, I come home and do not tie up the boat; the moon has set over the river village, and it is just the hour for sleep. Even if the wind blows the boat away all night, it can only lodge among the reeds by the shallow water. [Imagery] Three images carry the poem: the untied boat, the moon setting over the village, and the reeds at the shallow water's edge — a night so safe that even a drifting boat cannot go astray. [Structure] The first couplet states the carefree act; the second couplet, in a turn of happy reasoning, proves the act can have no bad consequence. [Theme] The poem's subject is trust — trust in the night, the river, and the village's gentle geography — and that trust measures how deeply at home the fisherman is.

【白话串讲】 司空曙写《江村即事》：“钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠”——“纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边”——他写江村闲适——只在芦花浅水边。 【意象与手法】 “钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠”写不系船；结以“纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边”以芦花浅水写闲适。清新明丽。 【情感与主旨】 司空曙写江村闲适之作，写钓罢归来不系船、任船飘荡只在芦花浅水边的安闲，展现江村生活的恬淡，是田园诗中的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠”写不系船；“纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边”写江村闲适。

Background

Sikong Shu (c. 720–c. 790), courtesy name Wenming (or Wenchu), was a native of Guangping (modern Yongnian, Hebei) and one of the 'Ten Talents of the Dali Era.' His poetry, often quiet and slightly melancholy, is noted for its plain, fresh landscape sketches. This poem — his most famous — belongs to the tradition of pastoral and recluse verse that runs from Tao Yuanming and Wang Wei down to the Song dynasty. Written in the mid-Tang, when many poets of the Dali circle responded to political collapse with withdrawal into small, secure landscapes, the poem offers a miniature of that retreat: not a grand hermitage but a single river village where a man can leave his boat untied and sleep without worry.

《江村即事》为唐代诗人司空曙所作诗。司空曙（约720—约790），字文明，一作文初，广平（今河北永年）人，唐代诗人，「大历十才子」之一。此诗写景田园，为咏江村之作。诗中「钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠」写钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠；「纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边」写纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边。司空曙此诗以写景田园、只在芦花浅水边写其田园之情，清新明丽，是司空曙诗中的名篇。此篇《江村即事》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《江村即事》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 whole charm depends on one deliberate carelessness: 'fishing done, I come home and don't tie up the boat.' Every line exists to explain and justify that 'don't.' The second line gives the setting — the moon already set over the river village, the hour for sleep — so the untied boat is simply the act of a man too drowsed by his day to fuss. The closing couplet then supplies the poem's stroke: 'even if the whole night's wind blows it away, it can only lodge among the reeds at the shallow water's edge.' This is the fisherman's own happy reasoning — a supposition ('even if') answered by a reassurance ('it can only') — and the reassurance works because the river's geography is gentle: the shallows and reeds form a natural enclosure that makes escape impossible and therefore danger impossible. The poem never states its theme of trust; it lets the reader watch a man reason himself into perfect ease.

此诗艺术上以「清新明丽、以景写情」见长。全诗共四句，由钓罢归来不系船而江村月落正堪眠而纵然一夜风吹去。起「钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠」写钓罢归来不系船：钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠；「纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边」写只在芦花浅水边：纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边。全诗以景写情，由钓罢归来不系船而只在芦花浅水边，清新明丽，是司空曙诗中的名篇。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

The poem's imagery belongs to the pastoral tradition rather than to literary citation. The 'river village' with its fishing and reeds descends from Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems and Wang Wei's river landscapes — the small, self-sufficient world of the recluse. The untied boat recalls the figure of the fisherman-hermit who appears throughout Chinese poetry as the emblem of a life beyond ambition and schedule. 'Reeds at the shallow water's edge' belong to the vocabulary of water plants that in farewell and pastoral verse alike mark the river's gentle edge. The poem's 'moon set over the village' echoes the common association of the setting moon with the late hour and the end of labor. The poem thus assembles the most familiar pastoral materials and, by its reasoning couplet, makes them new.

诗中「钓罢归来不系船江村月落正堪眠」「纵然一夜风吹去只在芦花浅水边」等语，皆含典故故实。「钓罢归来不系船江村月落正堪眠」写钓罢归来不系船江村月落正堪眠；「纵然一夜风吹去只在芦花浅水边」写纵然一夜风吹去只在芦花浅水边。诗人以芦花、浅水等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把写景田园之情写得真切可感，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

This poem has been a favorite of readers and critics since the Tang for what later commentators call its 'flavor beyond flavor' — the sense that the fisherman's happiness is proved not by describing happiness but by describing a man's inability to be bothered. The closing couplet's structure (a supposition answered by a reassurance) has been admired as a miniature masterpiece of colloquial logic in verse: the man thinks aloud, and the reader follows his thought to its happy conclusion. The poem is often placed beside Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems and Wang Wei's 'Deer Enclosure' for its combination of plain words and profound ease, and it is one of the most anthologized seven-character quatrains of the mid-Tang.

这首《江村即事》，是司空曙写写景田园之作，写钓罢归来不系船、江村月落正堪眠、只在芦花浅水边之情，清新明丽。起「钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠」——钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠。写钓罢归来不系船：钓罢归来不系船、江村月落正堪眠——归来不系船、月落正堪眠；「纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边」——纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边。写只在芦花浅水边：纵然一夜风吹去、只在芦花浅水边——一夜风吹去、芦花浅水边。这「纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边」，是全诗之结：以只在芦花浅水边写其田园。全诗清新明丽，以景写情，正是司空曙诗中的名篇。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。

Prosody

Form Poem: seven-character quatrain (qijue), four lines of seven characters诗（七言绝句）
Rhyme The poem rhymes on chuan ('boat'), mian ('sleep'), and bian ('edge') — level-tone words of the xian rhyme group (the seventh pingshui group). Its soft, unhurried sounds match the poem's mood of drowsy, careless ease.此诗为七言绝句，共四句，两句一联。押平声韵：「船」「眠」「边」押先部韵。诗体依绝句而定，句式整齐，音节随情起伏，正与写写景田园的清新明丽相称，也见其以绝句写田园的自然。
Tone pattern The quatrain's four-part shape (opening, development, turn, close) is unusually relaxed here: the first couplet states the act and the hour; the second couplet turns into the fisherman's own reasoning. The long, level line endings and the absence of any harsh entering-tone word give the poem the pace of a man half asleep, reasoning comfortably in the dark.句式上，「钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠」写钓罢归来不系船，音节明丽；「纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边」写只在芦花浅水边，音节轻快。全诗音节随情起伏，由明丽而轻快，正合绝句「含蓄」之妙，读来如写景田园、只在芦花浅水边之音，清新而动人。
Reading note Sikong Shu's most famous poem is a model of the mid-Tang pastoral quatrain: twenty-eight characters in which a single careless act ('don't tie up the boat') opens onto a whole way of life. Its device of ending with the speaker's own happy reasoning — supposition answered by reassurance — became a much-imitated pattern in later pastoral verse. The poem's plainness is its art: nothing is described but a boat, a moon, and some reeds, yet the reader leaves feeling they have witnessed a philosophy of ease.此诗为七言绝句，是司空曙写写景田园之作，也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「清新明丽、以景写情」：「钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠」写钓罢归来不系船、「纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边」写只在芦花浅水边。全诗清新明丽，以景写情。尤为精妙者，是「钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠」写尽江村之景；而「纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边」写尽芦花之趣，正是司空曙诗「清新明丽」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《江村即事》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

钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠。

Fishing done, I come home and don't tie up the boat; the moon has set over the river village — it is just time to sleep.

钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠。

Back from fishing, I do not tie the boat; the moon has set on the riverside village, the hour for sleep.

首二句写钓罢归来不系船，起笔即见其景。「钓罢归来不系船」写钓罢归来不系船，「钓罢归来」写钓罢归来、「不系船」写不系船；「江村月落正堪眠」写江村月落正堪眠，「江村月落」写江村月落、「正堪眠」写正堪眠。两句一写钓罢归来不系船、一写江村月落正堪眠，以钓罢归来不系船写归来不系船、以江村月落正堪眠写月落堪眠，写尽钓罢归来不系船、江村月落正堪眠之情。以钓起兴，清新而明丽，是「以钓起兴」的妙笔。

The first two lines write returning from fishing and not tying the boat, the start. 'Back from fishing, I do not tie the boat' — the angler returns and leaves the boat untied; 'the moon has set on the riverside village, the hour for sleep' — the village moon has set, the time to rest. It is the start of the fresh, bright scene.

纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边。

Even if the whole night's wind blows it away, it can only lodge among the reeds at the shallow water's edge.

纵然一夜风吹去，只在芦花浅水边。

Though the wind blow all night and drift it away, it will only rest by the shallow water among the reed flowers.

尾二句写只在芦花浅水边，是全诗立意的落点。「纵然一夜风吹去」写纵然一夜风吹去，「纵然一夜」写纵然一夜、「风吹去」写风吹去；「只在芦花浅水边」写只在芦花浅水边，「只在芦花」写只在芦花、「浅水边」写浅水边。两句一写纵然一夜风吹去、一写只在芦花浅水边，以纵然一夜风吹去写风吹去、以只在芦花浅水边写芦花浅水边，写尽纵然一夜风吹去、只在芦花浅水边之情。以景写情，清新而明丽，是全诗最动人处，也是「以景写情」的点睛之笔。

The last two lines end on the shallow water among reed flowers, the poem's landing. 'Though the wind blow all night and drift it away' — even if the wind blows all night; 'it will only rest by the shallow water among the reed flowers' — the boat will only come to rest among the reed flowers on the shallow shore. Through scene he writes the feeling, the most moving point — the angler's unconcern, his trust in the river.

Study

Word focus

钓罢 'Fishing done': the act complete, the day's labor over — two words that set the poem in the drowsy hour when fussing seems pointless, and so make the untied boat natural rather than strange. 「钓罢」写钓罢归来不系船，是写钓罢之态的关键。「钓罢归来不系船」着一「钓罢」，写钓罢——着一「钓罢」，写钓罢归来不系船，见其钓之罢。两字写尽钓罢之态，是「以词写钓」的妙笔。「钓罢」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。
不系船 'Not tying the boat': the poem's pivot: a small, deliberate carelessness that opens the entire picture of ease. Everything after this line exists to prove that such negligence is safe. 「不系船」写钓罢归来不系船，是写不系船之态的关键。「钓罢归来不系船」着一「不系船」，写不系船——着一「不系船」，写钓罢归来不系船，见其船之不系。三字写尽不系船之态，是「以词写船」的点睛之词。「不系船」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。
堪眠 'Just time to sleep': the moon is down and the hour is right; the phrase measures the night as a man ready for bed measures it, not as a poet measuring a scene. 「堪眠」写江村月落正堪眠，是写堪眠之态的关键。「江村月落正堪眠」着一「堪眠」，写堪眠——着一「堪眠」，写江村月落正堪眠，见其眠之堪。两字写尽堪眠之态，是「以词写眠」的点睛之词。「堪眠」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。
芦花 'Reeds': the reeds at the water's edge, whose soft, enclosing growth is the boat's only possible resting place; they turn the river into a gentle enclosure from which nothing can be lost. 「芦花」写只在芦花浅水边，是写芦花之态的关键。「只在芦花浅水边」着一「芦花」，写芦花——着一「芦花」，写只在芦花浅水边，见其花之芦。两字写尽芦花之态，是「以词写花」的点睛之词。「芦花」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 · 同写田园写景、清新蕴藉，一写无可奈何花落去、一写钓罢归来不系船江村月落正堪眠，皆于田园之中见清新蕴藉 Both write small garden-river scenes with fresh, restrained feeling — one on flowers falling and swallows returning, one on an untied boat and river reeds.

Yan Shu watches fallen flowers and returning swallows and draws from them the law that 'things go as they must' — reflection written into scenery. Sikong Shu watches an untied boat and reeds and draws from them nothing at all — pure ease, with the reflection left to the reader. Both achieve the 'flavor beyond flavor' prized by Chinese criticism, one through a philosopher's economy, the other through a fisherman's carelessness.

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」，写田园感怀，是宋词小令的名篇；司空曙《江村即事》则以「钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠」「只在芦花浅水边」写归来不系船、芦花浅水边。两诗同写田园写景、清新蕴藉：一写无可奈何花落去、以花落燕归写惜时，一写钓罢归来不系船江村月落正堪眠、以江村写田园；一为晏殊之温润、一为司空曙之明丽，并读正可见诗写「田园写景」的两种笔法，皆于田园之中见清新蕴藉。

 山园小梅 The Little Plum Tree in the Mountain Garden 林逋 · 同写田园清雅、以景寄情，一写疏影横斜水清浅暗香浮动月黄昏、一写钓罢归来不系船江村月落正堪眠，皆于田园之中见清雅 Both write reclusive countryside scenery with clear, delicate coloring — one on plum shadows and hidden fragrance, one on an untied boat and river reeds.

Lin Bu's 'faint shadows slant across, the water clear and shallow; hidden fragrance floats in the moonlit dusk' is the Song dynasty's supreme miniature of the recluse's garden. Sikong Shu's untied boat is the Tang pastoral's equivalent: two lines each, whole worlds suggested. One cultivates a plum tree in solitude; the other leaves his boat untied and sleeps — two shades of the same Chinese ideal of withdrawal into landscape.

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、田园之趣，是宋诗咏物的绝唱；司空曙《江村即事》则以「钓罢归来不系船，江村月落正堪眠」「只在芦花浅水边」写归来不系船、芦花浅水边。两诗同写田园清雅、以景寄情：一写疏影横斜水清浅暗香浮动月黄昏、以梅写清雅，一写钓罢归来不系船江村月落正堪眠、以江村写田园；一为林逋之清逸、一为司空曙之明丽，并读正可见诗写「田园清雅」的两种笔法，皆于田园之中见清雅。