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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

寄扬州韩绰判官

Sent to Judge Han Chuo of Yangzhou

杜牧

Du Mu

送别farewell 抒情lyricism 时序seasons 山水landscape

青山隐隐水迢迢，秋尽江南草木凋。
二十四桥明月夜，玉人何处教吹箫。

Dim, dim the green hills stretch away, far, far the waters flow; autumn has ended in Jiangnan, and the grass and trees are withering.
On the moonlit nights at the Twenty-four Bridges, where, jade one, are you teaching beauties to play the flute?

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Meaning

Written to his old colleague Han Chuo after leaving Yangzhou, the poem gazes at the dim hills and long waters of a Jiangnan deep in autumn, then asks where his friend, amid the moonlit nights at the Twenty-four Bridges, is teaching beauties to play the flute. Beneath the affectionate banter lies Du Mu's loneliness after parting and his longing for the old days of friendship and pleasure in Yangzhou. Jest and melancholy are fused in a single closing question.

青山隐隐约约，绿水悠悠流向远方；江南的秋天已经过尽，草木开始凋零。在那二十四桥的明月之夜，你在何处教那美人吹箫呢？

Appreciation

The first couplet paints scenery and the second asks after a person, so that scenery sets off feeling and questioning replaces longing. The twin reduplications dim-dim and far-far blur the mountains and stretch the water, laying a misted, wistful ground, while the abrupt turn to the moonlit bridges and the flute-teaching jade beauty gathers bridge, moon, night, beauty, and flute-song into one luminous scene, with the word where betraying the poet's absence from it. Writing the sorrow of parting with scenes of joy, in plain diction without allusion-mongering, the quatrain is reserved and inexhaustible, Du Mu's fresh, buoyant manner at its best.

【白话串讲】杜牧寄给扬州的朋友韩绰：“青山隐隐水迢迢，秋尽江南草木凋”。“二十四桥明月夜，玉人何处教吹箫”——扬州二十四桥的月夜，你在哪里教美人吹箫？他写对扬州的怀念。【意象与手法】前两句写景：青山隐隐写远山迷离，水迢迢写绿水悠长，秋尽草木凋点明时令与江南的萧瑟；后两句一问：二十四桥明月夜，问友人此时在何处教玉人吹箫。全诗以景起、以问收，融写景、怀人、谐谑于一体，用反衬法以扬州风月的繁华对照诗人别后的孤寂，一问之中，画意与情思俱远。【情感与主旨】此诗是杜牧寄给扬州旧友韩绰的赠诗。杜牧曾在扬州淮南节度使幕府任掌书记，与韩绰同僚相善，离扬之后追忆扬州繁华，遥想友人风流，于萧瑟秋景中见出对旧游的深深怀念；末句一问，既是戏谑（笑问友人又在何处风流），又是自伤（自己远在别处，不能同游），谐趣之中暗含落寞。【名句点睛】二十四桥明月夜，玉人何处教吹箫，以月夜扬州为背景，以玉人吹箫点染声色之美，一问之中含无穷画意与情思，成为写扬州最著名的诗句之一，后世扬州意象多自此出。

Background

This poem was sent by Du Mu to Han Chuo, a judge in Yangzhou, probably around 835, after Du Mu had left the city. In 833 Du Mu joined the staff of Niu Sengru, military governor of Huainan at Yangzhou, as secretary, serving there about two years and becoming close friends with the judge Han Chuo; the Twenty-four Bridges and jade beauties playing flutes were scenes of their old rambles. Tang Yangzhou was the greatest metropolis of the southeast, where salt and grain converged, merchants thronged, and singing towers flourished, the saying running Yangzhou first, Yizhou second, and Du Mu had given himself to its pleasures, later writing of ten years a Yangzhou dream at one waking, winning in the pleasure quarters a name for heartlessness in his poem Lament. After leaving, he served as investigating censor in the eastern capital; when autumn ended in Jiangnan he gazed at the hills and waters, remembered old Yangzhou, and sent this poem. The line on grass and trees withering marks the deep season and quietly sets the desolation after parting against Yangzhou's springtime splendor. The text is stable across the Fanchuan Collection and Three Hundred Tang Poems; jade person means a beauty like jade, with a sidelong compliment to Han Chuo's own bearing, and the readings of commentators agree. The poem is one of Du Mu's celebrated quatrains, paired with Quatrain on Spring in Jiangnan as the twin gems of his Jiangnan verse.

此诗为杜牧寄赠扬州判官韩绰之作，约作于唐文宗大和九年（835）前后杜牧离开扬州之后。杜牧于大和七年（833）入扬州淮南节度使牛僧孺幕府，任掌书记，在扬约两年，与判官韩绰同僚相善，诗中二十四桥、玉人吹箫，皆扬州旧游之景。唐代扬州为东南第一大都会，盐漕所聚，商贾云集，歌楼舞榭极盛，时谚云扬一益二，其繁华冠于天下，杜牧在扬州曾纵情声色，自谓十年一觉扬州梦，赢得青楼薄幸名（《遣怀》），此诗即写扬州风月与旧友风流。离扬之后，杜牧转任监察御史、分司东都等职，秋尽江南之时，远望青山绿水，追忆扬州旧事，遂寄此诗。诗中草木凋一语点明深秋时令，与扬州春日之繁盛形成对照，暗含别后的萧瑟与思念。版本方面，此诗收入《樊川文集》与《唐诗三百首》，文字无异文；玉人指容貌如玉的美人，兼美友人韩绰之风仪，诸家解释一致。此诗为杜牧七绝名篇，与《江南春绝句》并称其江南诗双璧。

Art

The structure is utterly simple while the aftertaste is endless: the first couplet paints scenery, the second asks after a person, scenery setting off feeling and questioning replacing longing. In dim, dim the green hills, far, far the waters, the two reduplications write the blur of distant hills and the length of flowing water, one for hazy sight and one for stretching space, gently spreading the autumn colors of the Jiangnan water country around Yangzhou; the second line marks the season, autumn's end meaning withering plants and trees, and though Jiangnan's autumn barely withers, the poet insists on the word wither, recording the true march of the season while silently setting his desolation of being alone in a strange place against the bleakness. Then comes an abrupt turn: from present scene to Yangzhou's moonlit night, from scenery to a question that gathers the city's bridges, moon, beauties, and flute-song into the brush-tip, the splendor vivid before the eyes, while the word where plainly leaks the poet's regret at being far away and denied the pleasure of joining in. The whole poem writes sorrowful feeling with joyful scenery, moonlit night, jade beauty, flute-song, a masterly use of counterpoint; the language is plain as speech, no allusions, no heaped ornament, yet picture and feeling both stretch far, reserved and inexhaustible, exactly Du Mu's quatrain manner, fresh, buoyant, and long of resonance.

此诗章法极简而韵味极长：前两句写景，后两句问人，以景衬情，以问代思。首句青山隐隐水迢迢，以隐隐写远山之迷离，以迢迢写流水之悠长，两个叠词一写视线的朦胧、一写空间的绵远，已把扬州一带江南水乡的秋色淡淡铺开；次句秋尽江南草木凋，点明时令，秋尽即草木凋，而江南之秋本不甚凋，诗人偏以凋字作结，既写节候，亦以萧瑟之景暗衬思念之情。后两句陡转：二十四桥明月夜，玉人何处教吹箫，由眼前之景跳到扬州之月夜，由写景跳到问人，一问之中，将扬州的桥、月、美人、箫声尽收笔底，繁华旖旎如在目前；而何处一词，又分明透出诗人不在扬州、无缘同游的怅惘。全诗以乐景（月夜、玉人、箫声）写哀情（别后、孤寂），反衬手法的运用十分圆熟；语言上明白如话，不用典、不堆砌，而画面与情思俱远，含蓄隽永、余味不尽，正是杜牧七绝清新俊逸、情韵悠长的本色。

Allusions

The allusions in this poem are worn so lightly they almost vanish. The Twenty-four Bridges were a famous site of Yangzhou: one old account says the city had twenty-four bridges; another says a single bridge named Twenty-Four stood in the western suburbs, where Emperor Yang of Sui once strolled by moonlight; still another takes twenty-four as a generic for the city's many bridges, and whichever is true, the name became shorthand for Yangzhou's moonlit pleasures, invoked by countless later poets. Jade person originally means a beauty with skin like jade, but was also used for handsome men, the History of Jin saying of Wei Jie, striking in air and mien, that he was called the jade man; Du Mu's use both compliments Han Chuo's bearing and glances at the singing girls around him, a double meaning at once teasing and elegant. The flute-playing recalls Xiao Shi and Nong Yu of the Biographies of Immortals, husband and wife who played flutes, drew phoenixes to them, and rose together as immortals, lending the moonlit bridge a drifting, immortal air and adding a layer of ethereal romance to the city's splendor. In addition, the dim green hills faintly echo the longing tradition of the Chu ci Summons to the Recluse, with its wanderer roaming and not returning while spring grass grows lush, and the far-flowing water joins to the endlessness of longing: no allusion is brandished, yet all dissolve into the language of scenery, which is precisely Du Mu's mastery.

此诗用典极活，几乎不着痕迹。二十四桥为扬州名胜，旧说扬州有二十四座桥，一说桥名为廿四桥，位于扬州西郊，隋炀帝曾月夜游幸于此；另一说二十四桥指扬州城内桥梁众多，故以二十四泛指其多。无论何解，二十四桥皆已成为扬州风月的代称，后世以廿四桥写扬州者不可胜数。玉人一词，本指容貌如玉的美人，亦用以称誉男子姿仪之美，《晋书·卫玠传》载卫玠风神秀异，号为玉人，杜牧此处以玉人写韩绰，既美其风仪，又暗指其身边歌女，一语双关，谐谑而不失典雅。吹箫则兼用《列仙传》萧史、弄玉夫妇吹箫引凤、双双成仙之典，月夜桥头、箫声悠扬，颇有仙家风致，为扬州的繁华添上一层缥缈的浪漫。此外，青山隐隐与《楚辞·招隐士》王孙游兮不归、春草生兮萋萋的怀人传统暗通，水迢迢又与悠悠不尽的思念相接，全诗不著一典而典故自化于景语之中，正是杜牧用典的高明处。

Commentary

This is one of Du Mu's representative quatrains, chosen by every major anthology including Three Hundred Tang Poems. Shen Deqian of the Qing, in his Tang Poems Selected and Discussed, praised Du Mu's quatrains as buoyant in spirit and lively in thought, and this poem is buoyant in its nimble, self-possessed question and lively in the turn from scene to question and from question to feeling. The couplet on the moonlit nights at the Twenty-four Bridges, asking where the jade one teaches flute-playing, wrote both Yangzhou's moonlit pleasures and the longing for an old friend into a single question; later writers on the city have loved to cite it, pairing it with Xu Ning's of the world's three parts of moonlight, two belong, shamelessly, to Yangzhou as the twin moonlight quatrains of the city, witness to its influence. In twenty-eight characters the poem first writes the bleakness of autumn scenery and then the splendor of the moonlit night, writing sorrow through joy and conveying feeling through a question, reserved and rich, achieving the quatrain's art of much from little. As for Du Mu himself, who had both a statesman's ambition, seen in the Rhapsody on Epang Palace and Drinking Alone in the Prefectural Study, and a self-enjoying gallantry, this poem mirrors the latter, yet the hidden desolation of parting keeps the gallantry from frivolity, which is where Du Mu rises above ordinary poets of love-lyric. Read beside Quatrain on Spring in Jiangnan, one sees that his Jiangnan could hold both the thousand li of oriole song in spring and the withered trees of autumn, a brush of many registers, not one style alone.

此诗是杜牧七绝中的代表作之一，历代选本如《唐诗三百首》皆录之。清人沈德潜《唐诗别裁》评杜牧七绝气俊思活，此诗正以气俊（造句灵动、问得洒脱）与思活（由景生问、由问见情）见长。二十四桥明月夜，玉人何处教吹箫一联，以一问写尽扬州风月与对故人的追想，后人论扬州、写扬州，每喜援引此句，与徐凝天下三分明月夜，二分无赖是扬州并称扬州明月绝句，可见其影响。全诗二十八字，前写秋景之萧瑟，后写月夜之繁华，以乐写哀、以问传情，含蓄蕴藉，深得绝句以少总多之妙。就杜牧其人而言，他既有济世之志（《阿房宫赋》《郡斋独酌》），又有风流自赏的一面，此诗正是后者的写照，而诗中暗藏的别后惆怅，又使风流不至流于轻薄，这是杜牧高于一般艳情诗人的地方。与《江南春绝句》并读，可见杜牧写江南，既能写千里莺啼的盛景，也能写草木凋零的秋怀，笔致纵横，非止一格。

Prosody

Form Seven-character quatrain (jueju, recent-style verse)七言绝句（近体）

Rhyme Lines two and four rhyme on the level-tone xiao group, diao and xiao, one rhyme throughout, the rhyme chime clear and lingering in keeping with the moonlit flute; the first line also enters the rhyme on tiao, while line three ends oblique, level and oblique interlocking.二四句押平声萧韵，凋、箫一韵到底，韵脚清亮悠远，与月夜箫声之境相合；首句入韵，迢字亦押此韵，三句仄收，平仄相间。

Tone pattern A level-start, first-line-rhyming pattern; the second, fourth, and sixth characters alternate level and oblique with brisk rhythm. The reduplications of the first couplet slow the pace, and the closing line, rising on level tones, turns out a swaying, endless cadence.此诗为平起首句入韵格，二四六字平仄相间，节奏明快；前两句写景，叠字舒缓，后两句问人，以仄起平收转出摇曳之致，末句以平声收束，余韵悠长。

Reading note This is a seven-character quatrain of recent-style verse, strictly regulated. The first line, dim, dim the green hills, far, far the waters, scans level-level-oblique-oblique-oblique-level-level; the second, autumn ends in Jiangnan, plants and trees wither, scans level-oblique-level-level-oblique-oblique-level; lines three and four scan oblique-oblique-oblique-level-level-oblique-oblique and oblique-level-level-oblique-oblique-level-level: a level-start, first-line-rhyming pattern with full alternation at positions two, four, and six, entirely according to rule. The rhymes tiao, diao, and xiao all fall on the level xiao group, one rhyme throughout, the rhyme points clear and far-reaching, so that reading it has the lingering float of flute-song in moonlight. Sound matches sense throughout: the reduplications dim-dim and far-far make the first couplet slow and drawn out, fitting the far-reaching air of distant hills and near waters; the second couplet's question turns on an oblique start with striking rhythm, and the last line ends rising on level tones, the voice lifting and swaying like a smiling inquiry trailing off, on and on. Twenty-eight characters in which rule and resonance are one flesh, a representative Du Mu quatrain excellent in both sound and feeling; read the first couplet slowly and lift the second, and only then is its spirit conveyed.此诗为七言绝句，属近体诗，格律严整。首句青山隐隐水迢迢，平仄为平平仄仄仄平平，次句秋尽江南草木凋，平仄为平仄平平仄仄平，三四句二十四桥明月夜、玉人何处教吹箫，平仄为仄仄仄平平仄仄、仄平平仄仄平平，平起首句入韵，二四六字平仄相间，完全合律。用韵上，迢、凋、箫三字皆押平声萧韵，一韵到底，韵脚清亮悠远，读来有箫声月色般的悠扬感。声情与辞情相谐：前两句写景，隐隐、迢迢两个叠字使声调舒缓绵长，正合远山近水的悠远气象；后两句问人，二十四桥明月夜仄起，音节顿挫，玉人何处教吹箫以三个平声字收尾，声音上扬摇曳，恰似一声含笑的问讯，袅袅不绝。全诗二十八字，格律与情韵浑然一体，是杜牧七绝声情俱佳的代表作，诵读时前两句宜缓，后两句宜扬，方能传其神韵。

Line by line

青山隐隐水迢迢，

Dim, dim run the green hills, and far, far the waters flow away.

远处的青山隐隐约约，看不大真切；绿水悠悠地流向远方，望不到尽头，一直流到天边。

The distant green hills are faint, hardly clear; the green waters flow gently far away, no end, on to the horizon.

首句以两组叠词写江南秋色：隐隐写远山之若有若无，因天高气清、暮色苍茫，山影迷离；迢迢写流水之绵长悠远，一望无尽。两词一写视觉之朦胧，一写空间之绵延，已将扬州一带水乡的辽阔与缥缈淡淡铺开，为全诗定下迷离怅惘的基调。青山绿水本是明媚之色，而冠以隐隐、迢迢，便有了可望而不可即的距离感，这距离既是地理的，也是心理的，诗人身在远方，目中所见的山水仿佛都蒙上了一层别后的惘然。两句无一字言情，而怀人之情已从景语的色调中渗出，正是杜牧以景写情的含蓄功夫。

The opening line uses two pairs of doubled words for Jiangnan's autumn colors: 'faint' the far hills now there, now gone, the sky high and clear, the dusk gathering, the mountain shadows dim; 'stretching far' the long, endless flowing water, reaching the horizon. One word the visual haze, one the spatial stretch, already spreading the wide, misty waters of the Yangzhou country, tuning the poem's dim, wistful tone. Green hills and waters are bright colors, yet prefixed by 'faint' and 'stretching far', they gain the distance of the unattainable — a geographical distance, and a psychological one; the poet is far away, and the hills and waters before his eyes seem veiled in the wistfulness after parting. Not a word of longing, yet the feeling leaks from the tone of the scenery, Du Mu's restrained art of writing feeling through scene.

秋尽江南草木凋。

Autumn is over in Jiangnan, and the grass and trees are withering.

江南的秋天已经过尽，时令渐入深秋，草木开始凋零，一片萧瑟景象，春日的繁华已成往事。

Autumn has ended in Jiangnan; the season deepens toward late autumn, the plants and trees beginning to wither, a bleak scene, the springtime splendor already gone.

此句点明时令，是全诗由景入情的转捩。秋尽二字直说秋光已尽，草木凋三字以草木凋零写秋末冬初的萧瑟，秋尽与草木凋前后照应，一虚一实。江南地暖，秋色本不浓，草木本不凋，诗人偏以凋字着笔，既写出节候的真实推移，又暗以萧瑟之景衬独在异乡的落寞心情，秋尽人未还，草木凋而友情长，物候与人事在此形成微妙对照。此句还为后两句的扬州月夜蓄势：眼前是草木凋的深秋，心中却是二十四桥的月夜繁华，今昔、冷暖、哀乐在两句之间陡然切换，反衬之力全在这一转之间，可见杜牧七绝谋篇布局的精心。

This line fixes the season, the turning point from scenery to feeling. 'Autumn has ended' says plainly the autumn light is gone; 'the plants and trees beginning to wither' writes the late-autumn bleakness through the withering, the two echoing, one virtual one real. Jiangnan is warm, autumn colors faint, the grass not apt to wither; yet the poet deliberately uses 'wither', both writing the true turn of the season and secretly setting the bleak scene against his own loneliness in a strange land — autumn ended, man not returned; the grass withers, yet friendship endures, a subtle contrast of season and human affair. It also stores momentum for the Yangzhou moonlit night below: before him the late autumn of withered grass, in his heart the splendor of the moonlit Twenty-four Bridges; past and present, warm and cold, joy and grief, shift abruptly between the two lines, the force of contrast all in this turn, showing the care of Du Mu's quatrain craft.

二十四桥明月夜，玉人何处教吹箫。

On the moonlit nights at the Twenty-four Bridges, where, jade one, are you teaching beauties to play the flute?

在那二十四桥的明月之夜，你在何处教那美人吹箫，消受扬州的风月呢，让人好不羡慕。

On the Twenty-four Bridges, in the moon-bright night, where are you, teaching the beauties to play the flute, enjoying Yangzhou's breezes and moons? — how enviable.

这是全诗的点睛之笔，以一问收束，将扬州风月尽收笔底。二十四桥写地点，明月夜写时间，桥、月、夜三字构成一幅清幽明净的扬州夜景；玉人教吹箫则点染出画面中的人与事，美人倚桥吹箫，箫声月色交融，繁华旖旎如在目前。玉人一词兼指美人与韩绰，语带谐谑，正是故友间调侃的口吻；何处一问，明知故问，既写出对友人风流的遥想，又分明透出诗人身在远方、无缘同游的怅惘，戏谑之下暗藏落寞，乐景之下暗写哀情。此句以问作结，不言思念而思念弥深，二十四桥明月夜自此成为扬州意象的经典画面，为后世写扬州者所祖述。

This is the eye of the poem, closing in a question, gathering all of Yangzhou's breezes and moons into the brush. 'The Twenty-four Bridges' the place, 'moon-bright night' the time; bridge, moon, and night make a clear, pure Yangzhou night scene; 'teaching the beauties to play the flute' adds the person and the event — the beauty leaning on the bridge, the flute and moonlight mingled, the splendor and romance as before the eyes. 'Jade-like' means both the beauty and Han Chuo, playful in tone, the teasing voice of an old friend; 'where' the knowing question, both picturing the friend's romance from afar and revealing the poet's own wistfulness at being far away, unable to join in — beneath the jest lies loneliness, beneath the joyous scene lies grief. Closing in the question, not naming longing yet the longing the deeper; 'the Twenty-four Bridges in the moon-bright night' became the classic image of Yangzhou, followed by all later writers on the city.

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隐隐 Dim, dim renders the distant hills half-visible and misted, the true blur of far sight in clear autumn and gathering dusk, tinting the green hills with an unattainable distance that mirrors the poet's wistfulness after parting. 青山隐隐水迢迢之隐隐，是全诗第一个叠词，写远山若有若无、迷离隐约之状。隐隐二字之所以妙，在于它写出了特定时空下的视觉真实：秋高气爽、暮色苍茫之际，远山在薄雾与夕照中轮廓模糊，若隐若现，正是登高远眺者的真切感受。以隐隐写山，便给青山涂上一层缥缈的色调，山不再是扑面而来的具体存在，而成为可望不可即的远景，这距离感正是诗人别后惘然心绪的投射。隐隐与迢迢相对成文，一写山之朦胧，一写水之绵远，两个叠词一前一后，音节舒缓，声情摇曳，既画出江南水乡的空阔，又为全诗定下迷离怅惘的基调，是杜牧以叠字写景、寓情于景的典范。

迢迢 Far, far, paired against dim, dim, writes the long reach of the green water, at once the river's endless flow and the endlessness of longing after parting, fixing the poem's misted, yearning tone. 青山隐隐水迢迢之迢迢，与隐隐对举，写绿水悠长绵远之貌。迢迢本写路途遥远，此处移以写水，一字兼有两层含义：既写江流之悠长，一望无尽，又暗写思念之绵长，如水流之不绝。隐隐写山之静态，迢迢写水之动态，一静一动，一近一远，山水相映，画面便活了起来。迢迢二字还是全诗情感的时间刻度：水悠悠而情悠悠，别后的日子如水东流，思念亦随水绵延，为下文遥想扬州月夜埋下伏笔。若易以漾漾、汤汤等字，则只写水态，不见情思；迢迢则写尽空间的绵远与心绪的悠长，音节亦舒缓悠扬，与隐隐相配，声情并茂，正是杜牧炼字的精到处。

何处 Where, the eye of the poem's single question, is a knowing ask that folds the teasing intimacy of an old friend together with the wistfulness of one far away and unable to join him, turning the poem from present scenery to imagined Yangzhou and leaving the longing unexhausted. 玉人何处教吹箫之何处，是这首七绝的一问之眼，全诗的情思尽系于此。何处二字明知故问：诗人当然知道扬州的风月之地，也料想友人此时正在某处风流，却偏要以一问出之，这一问，既有故友调侃的谐趣，笑问你又在哪里寻欢，又有别后遥想不可得的怅惘，他乡之人终究无缘得见。何处还使全诗的时空发生转折：前两句是眼前实景，此二字一出，笔锋陡转向遥想中的扬州月夜，实景与虚景、现在与过去、此地与扬州在一问之间交叠，含蓄而不尽。若直说二十四桥明月夜，玉人桥头教吹箫，则一览无余，索然无味；一用何处，便有了寻问的口气、悬想的情致与怅惘的余味，正是杜牧七绝以问见长、以问传神的所在。