牡丹

Meaning

Li Shangyin's peony poem never names the flower directly. Instead it conjures up a sequence of beautiful, luxurious women and sensuous scenes — Lady Wei behind newly opened brocade curtains, a beauty piled like embroidered quilts, dancers whirling jade pendulants and saffron skirts, candles that need no trimming, incense that needs no kindling. In the closing couplet the poet, as the man who was given the magic brush in a dream, wishes to write these visions down and send them to the morning clouds. The poem celebrates the peony's ravishing splendor while keeping its true subject tantalizingly hidden behind allusion.

锦帏初卷卫夫人，绣被犹堆越鄂君。垂手乱翻雕玉佩，招腰争舞郁金帬。石家蜡烛何曾剪，荀令香炉可待熏。我是梦中传彩笔，欲书花叶寄朝云。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] As brocade curtains first open, a beauty like Lady Wei appears; like embroidered quilts heaped about, a loveliness like Lord E of Yue. Dancing hands scatter carved jade pendants in confusion; bending waists whirl in competition, clad in saffron skirts. The Shi family's candles burn without ever being trimmed; Chancellor Xun's incense needs no help to fill the air with perfume. And I, who was given the enchanted brush in a dream, would write upon petal and leaf and send my verses to the morning clouds. [Structure] The poem proceeds by accumulation: three couplets of gorgeous, unstated comparisons pile up the peony's beauty — its color, its motion, its light, its fragrance — until the closing couplet turns the spectacle into poetry, with the poet as the dream-gifted writer who records it. [Imagery] Every image is luxurious: brocade, embroidery, jade, saffron, candles, incense. The peony is never described but is everywhere present, since each allusion is a way of saying 'gorgeous,' and the hidden flower becomes a riddle the reader solves by recognizing the beauties.

【白话串讲】 李商隐写《牡丹》：“锦帏初卷卫夫人，绣被犹堆越鄂君”——“垂手乱翻雕玉佩，招腰争舞郁金帬”——“石家蜡烛何曾剪，荀令香炉可待熏”——“我是梦中传彩笔，欲书花叶寄朝云”——他写牡丹——欲书花叶寄朝云。 【意象与手法】 “锦帏初卷卫夫人，绣被犹堆越鄂君”以卫夫人、越鄂君写牡丹之艳；“垂手乱翻雕玉佩，招腰争舞郁金帬”写牡丹之态；“石家蜡烛何曾剪，荀令香炉可待熏”以石家蜡烛、荀令香炉写牡丹之光香；结以“我是梦中传彩笔，欲书花叶寄朝云”写传彩笔书花叶。秾丽含蓄。 【情感与主旨】 李商隐咏牡丹之作，以连串典故写牡丹之艳态光香，结以梦中传彩笔书花叶寄朝云，是咏物诗中以典写物的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“锦帏初卷卫夫人，绣被犹堆越鄂君”以美人写牡丹之艳；“我是梦中传彩笔，欲书花叶寄朝云”写传彩笔书花叶。

Allusions

Lady Wei (Wei Furen) was the dancer-singer beloved of Emperor Wu of Han, whose beauty was unveiled like a curtain rolled back; here she stands for the peony's radiant unfolding. Lord E of Yue (E Jun, the Zhou-dynasty heir of Chu) was so beautiful that, as the Shuo yuan records, he was covered with embroidered quilts by the boatmen of Yue, mistaking him for a woman; his image suggests the peony's piled, layered petals. The 'carved jade pendants' belong to court dancers, and 'saffron skirts' to dancers in the palace, translating petals and stamens into music and motion. The Shi family's candles refer to the Jin magnate Shi Chong, whose candles were said never to need trimming, a byword for extravagant splendor; Chancellor Xun (Xun Yu, styled Wenruo) was said to leave his clothes perfumed by the incense that never left his censer, so that his fragrance lingered for days. The 'magic brush in a dream' refers to Jiang Yan of the Southern Dynasties, who dreamt that Guo Pu gave him a brush of many colors and afterwards wrote brilliantly; Li Shangyin adopts the persona of the dream-gifted writer, fittingly, since he once signed himself 'one who received the brush in a dream.' 'Morning Cloud' alludes to the goddess of Mount Wu, to whom Song Yu addressed his rhapsody, lending the ending a note of romantic longing.

诗中「锦帏初卷卫夫人绣被犹堆越鄂君」「垂手乱翻雕玉佩招腰争舞郁金帬」「石家蜡烛何曾剪荀令香炉可待熏」「我是梦中传彩笔欲书花叶寄朝云」等语，皆含典故故实。「锦帏初卷卫夫人绣被犹堆越鄂君」用卫夫人、越鄂君之典（卫夫人指卫子夫，越鄂君为楚鄂君子晳，皆写美人），写锦帏初卷卫夫人绣被犹堆越鄂君；「垂手乱翻雕玉佩招腰争舞郁金帬」写垂手乱翻雕玉佩招腰争舞郁金帬；「石家蜡烛何曾剪荀令香炉可待熏」用石家蜡烛、荀令香炉之典（石崇蜡炊、荀彧香炉，皆写富贵），写石家蜡烛何曾剪荀令香炉可待熏；「我是梦中传彩笔欲书花叶寄朝云」用传彩笔之典（江淹梦得彩笔），写我是梦中传彩笔欲书花叶寄朝云。诗人以卫夫人、越鄂君、石家蜡烛、荀令香炉之典入诗，不着痕迹，而把咏物之情写得真切可感，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

This poem is a classic example of Li Shangyin's allusive, ornate manner and of the late-Tang fashion for writing objects through learned allusion. Critics have particularly admired the way the first three couplets refuse to describe the peony, instead summoning a court of beauties and luxuries — Lady Wei, Lord E of Yue, dancing women, Shi Chong's candles, Xun Yu's censer — so that the flower's color, motion, light, and perfume are all conveyed by analogy. The closing couplet, with the poet claiming the dream-gifted brush and sending his verses to Morning Cloud, converts the entire display into an act of creation and gives the poem its ambiguous, romantic close. Some readers have seen a hidden political allegory in the peony's luxurious concealment; others simply enjoy it as the supreme example of Tang poetry writing a flower without once naming its shape. Either way, it remains the most celebrated 'peony through allusion' in the canon.

这首《牡丹》，是李商隐写咏物之作，写锦帏初卷卫夫人、垂手乱翻雕玉佩、石家蜡烛何曾剪、欲书花叶寄朝云之情，秾丽含蓄。起「锦帏初卷卫夫人，绣被犹堆越鄂君」——锦帏初卷卫夫人，绣被犹堆越鄂君。写锦帏初卷卫夫人：锦帏初卷卫夫人、绣被犹堆越鄂君——初卷卫夫人、犹堆越鄂君；「垂手乱翻雕玉佩，招腰争舞郁金帬」——垂手乱翻雕玉佩，招腰争舞郁金帬。写垂手乱翻雕玉佩：垂手乱翻雕玉佩、招腰争舞郁金帬——雕玉佩、郁金帬；「石家蜡烛何曾剪，荀令香炉可待熏」——石家蜡烛何曾剪，荀令香炉可待熏。写石家蜡烛何曾剪：石家蜡烛何曾剪、荀令香炉可待熏——何曾剪、可待熏；结「我是梦中传彩笔，欲书花叶寄朝云」——我是梦中传彩笔，欲书花叶寄朝云。写欲书花叶寄朝云：我是梦中传彩笔、欲书花叶寄朝云——传彩笔、寄朝云。这「我是梦中传彩笔，欲书花叶寄朝云」，是全诗之结：以欲书花叶寄朝云写其咏物。全诗秾丽含蓄，以典写花，正是李商隐诗中的名篇。

Prosody

Line by line

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