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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

秋怀·其二

Autumn Feelings, No. 2

孟郊

Meng Jiao

秋月颜色冰，老客志气单。
冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒。
席上印病文，肠中转愁盘。
疑怀无所凭，虚听多无端。
梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹。

The autumn moon has the color of ice;
The old traveler's spirit is thin and spent.
Cold dew drips and shatters my dream;
A keen wind combs my bones with cold.
On the mat the print of my sickness lies;
In my belly a coiled plate of grief.
My doubting heart has nothing to rest on;
Vain listening brings a thousand empty fears.
The withered paulownia towers gaunt and bare;
Its rustle sounds like mournful strings.
Listen

Meaning

An old, ailing wanderer's autumn night: the moon is ice, the dew breaks his dreams, the wind combs his bones, sickness marks the mat, grief coils in his belly, and the dry rustle of a withered paulownia outside sounds like a mourning zither. The poem is a complete anatomy of cold, in which outer cold becomes inner desolation.

秋月颜色冰，老客志气单。冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒。席上印病文，肠中转愁盘。疑怀无所凭，虚听多无端。梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The autumn moon is the color of ice, and the old traveler's will is spent. Cold dew drips and wakes him from his dreams; a piercing wind seems to comb his bones with cold. His sick body has printed its shape on the mat; his insides churn with coiling grief. His suspicious heart has nothing to trust, and his idle listening invents a hundred causeless fears. Outside, the withered paulownia stands stark and gaunt, and its dry rustle is like a mournful zither. [Structure] Ten lines in five couplets, spiraling inward: from the sky (moon) to weather (dew, wind), to the body (mat, bones, belly), to the mind (doubt, vain listening), and finally outward to the tree - whose 'mournful strings' make the whole night a dirge. [Imagery] Meng Jiao's signature is making sensation itself the subject: cold is not described but felt in the bones, and sound becomes music of grief. The poem's power lies in its refusal of comfort - nothing in the landscape relieves the old traveler's misery.

【白话串讲】 孟郊写《秋怀·其二》：“秋月颜色冰，老客志气单”——“冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒”——“席上印病文，肠中转愁盘”——“梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹”——他写秋怀——峭风梳骨寒。 【意象与手法】 “秋月颜色冰，老客志气单”写秋月如冰；“冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒”以冷露峭风写寒；“席上印病文，肠中转愁盘”写病愁；“疑怀无所凭、虚听多无端”写疑怀；结以“梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹”以梧桐哀弹写悲。悲慨深挚。 【情感与主旨】 孟郊写秋怀之作，以秋月冷露、峭风梳骨的意象写老客的孤寒病愁，是孟郊苦吟诗的代表。 【名句点睛】 常考“冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒”以冷露峭风写寒；“梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹”以梧桐哀弹写悲。

Background

Meng Jiao (751-814), courtesy name Dongye, was from Wukang in Huzhou (present-day Deqing, Zhejiang). With Han Yu he gave his name to the 'Han-Meng' poetic school, and with Jia Dao he is remembered in the phrase 'Meng's cold, Jia's lean' (jiao han dao shou). He spent years in obscure poverty, repeatedly failing the examinations before passing the jinshi at forty-six, and never held high office. His series 'Autumn Feelings' (Qiu huai), written in later life, turns that lived deprivation into poetry: there is no genteel melancholy here - the cold, illness and loneliness are the poet's own. This second poem of the series is its most concentrated example.

《秋怀·其二》为唐代诗人孟郊所作诗。孟郊（751—814），字东野，湖州武康（今浙江德清）人，唐代诗人，「韩孟诗派」代表人物。此诗写感怀伤时，为秋怀之作。诗中「秋月颜色冰，老客志气单」写秋月颜色冰，老客志气单；「冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒」写冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒；「席上印病文，肠中转愁盘」写席上印病文，肠中转愁盘；「梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹」写梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹。孟郊此诗以感怀伤时、声响如哀弹写其伤时之情，悲慨深挚，是孟郊诗中的名篇。此篇《秋怀·其二》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《秋怀·其二》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 art is 'writing feeling through scene' (yi jing xie qing) pushed to an extreme. Cold operates as a unifying sensation: the moon has 'the color of ice', dew 'shatters dreams', the wind 'combs bones' - a grotesque synesthesia in which weather becomes touch upon the body itself. The poem then turns inward: the mat bears the 'print of sickness', the belly holds a 'coiled plate of grief', the heart is 'doubting' and its 'vain listening' multiplies terrors. The final couplet completes the movement: the withered paulownia, stark and gaunt (kuzhengrong), rustles 'like mournful strings' - landscape converted into an elegy. The plain five-character line, the repetition of cold images, and the closing music give the poem the 'austere' (han) quality that made Meng Jiao's name.

此诗艺术上以「悲慨深挚、以景写情」见长。全诗共十句，由秋月颜色冰而冷露滴梦破而席上印病文。起「秋月颜色冰，老客志气单」写秋月颜色冰：秋月颜色冰，老客志气单；「冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒」写冷露滴梦破：冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒；「席上印病文，肠中转愁盘」写席上印病文：席上印病文，肠中转愁盘；「疑怀无所凭，虚听多无端」写疑怀无所凭：疑怀无所凭，虚听多无端；结「梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹」写梧桐枯峥嵘：梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹。全诗以景写情，由秋月颜色冰而声响如哀弹，悲慨深挚，是孟郊诗中的名篇。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 paulownia (wutong) is the phoenix's tree, associated with autumn's withering; its dry rustle in a bare garden is an old emblem of desolation. The closing 'mournful strings' (ai dan) places the tree's sound in the tradition of the mournful zither - the autumn dirge that runs from Song Yu's 'Nine Arguments' ('Alas for the breath of autumn!') through the yuefu lament to Meng Jiao's own winter elegies. The 'old traveler' (lao ke) echoes the archetype of the wandering scholar - aging, homesick, unwelcome - familiar from Han yuefu and the 'Nineteen Old Poems'. The whole poem breathes the autumn-grief tradition of 'Nine Arguments' and the 'Autumn Wind' lyric, but stripped of ornament into pure bodily sensation.

诗中「秋月颜色冰老客志气单」「冷露滴梦破峭风梳骨寒」「席上印病文肠中转愁盘」「疑怀无所凭虚听多无端」「梧桐枯峥嵘声响如哀弹」等语，皆含典故故实。「秋月颜色冰老客志气单」写秋月颜色冰老客志气单；「冷露滴梦破峭风梳骨寒」写冷露滴梦破峭风梳骨寒；「席上印病文肠中转愁盘」写席上印病文肠中转愁盘；「疑怀无所凭虚听多无端」写疑怀无所凭虚听多无端；「梧桐枯峥嵘声响如哀弹」用梧桐之典（梧桐为秋凋之木），写梧桐枯峥嵘声响如哀弹。诗人以梧桐等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把感怀伤时之情写得真切可感，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。

Commentary

'Cold dew drips and shatters my dream; a keen wind combs my bones with cold' is among the most quoted couplets of Meng Jiao's late work, and it exemplifies why later readers called his style 'cold': the cold does not surround the poet, it enters him - it breaks sleep and combs his bones. Critics have noted that the poem moves from cosmic scale (the frozen moon) to the body (sick marks on the mat) to the mind (causeless fears), a tightening spiral that makes private misery feel like a whole cosmology of cold. The 'mournful strings' of the withered tree have been praised as a perfect objective correlative: the poet need not state his grief, for the bare garden already plays it.

这首《秋怀·其二》，是孟郊写感怀伤时之作，写秋月颜色冰、冷露滴梦破、席上印病文、疑怀无所凭、梧桐枯峥嵘之情，悲慨深挚。起「秋月颜色冰，老客志气单」——秋月颜色冰，老客志气单。写秋月颜色冰：秋月颜色冰、老客志气单——颜色冰、志气单；「冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒」——冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒。写冷露滴梦破：冷露滴梦破、峭风梳骨寒——滴梦破、梳骨寒；「席上印病文，肠中转愁盘」——席上印病文，肠中转愁盘。写席上印病文：席上印病文、肠中转愁盘——印病文、转愁盘；「疑怀无所凭，虚听多无端」——疑怀无所凭，虚听多无端。写疑怀无所凭：疑怀无所凭、虚听多无端——无所凭、多无端；结「梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹」——梧桐枯峥嵘（用梧桐之典），声响如哀弹。写梧桐枯峥嵘：梧桐枯峥嵘、声响如哀弹——枯峥嵘、如哀弹。这「梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹」，是全诗之结：以声响如哀弹写其伤时。全诗悲慨深挚，以景写情，正是孟郊诗中的名篇。

Prosody

Form Five-character ancient-style verse (wuyan guti), ten lines in five couplets诗（五言古诗）
Rhyme Rhymes on the level-tone 'han' group: dan (thin), han (cold), pan (coiled plate), duan (cause), dan (strings) - one rhyme sustained through all five couplets, giving the poem the drone of a complaint.此诗为五言古诗，共十句。押韵：「单」「寒」「盘」「端」「弹」押寒部韵。诗体依古诗而定，句式整齐，音节随情起伏，正与写感怀伤时的悲慨深挚相称，也见其以古诗写伤时的自然。
Tone pattern The five-character lines run in a slow, heavy beat with pauses after the second and fourth characters. The cadence never lightens: each couplet ends on a hard, closed syllable, enacting the poem's unrelieved cold.句式上，「秋月颜色冰，老客志气单」写秋月颜色冰，音节悲慨；「冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒」写冷露滴梦破，音节寒峭；「席上印病文，肠中转愁盘」写席上印病文，音节沉郁；「疑怀无所凭，虚听多无端」写疑怀无所凭，音节低回；结「梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹」写梧桐枯峥嵘，音节哀婉。全诗音节随情起伏，由悲慨而寒峭、由沉郁而低回、由低回而哀婉，正合古诗「自然」之妙，读来如感怀伤时、声响如哀弹之音，悲慨而动人。
Reading note As ancient verse (guti), the poem follows no regulated tonal pattern; its music comes from repetition and the single sustained rhyme. The five parallel stages of misery - moon, dew and wind, sick body, doubting mind, withered tree - are each told in the same metrical mold, like five verses of one lament.此诗为五言古诗，是孟郊写感怀伤时之作，也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「悲慨深挚、以景写情」：「秋月颜色冰，老客志气单」写秋月颜色冰、「冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒」写冷露滴梦破、「席上印病文，肠中转愁盘」写席上印病文、「梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹」写梧桐枯峥嵘。全诗悲慨深挚，以景写情。尤为精妙者，是「冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒」写尽寒露峭风；而「梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹」用梧桐之典，正是孟郊诗「悲慨深挚」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《秋怀·其二》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

秋月颜色冰，老客志气单。

The autumn moon has the color of ice; the old traveler's spirit is thin and spent.

秋月颜色冰，老客志气单。

The autumn moon's color is ice; the old traveler's spirit is thin.

首二句写秋月颜色冰，起笔即见其秋。「秋月颜色冰」写秋月颜色冰，「秋月」写秋月、「颜色冰」写颜色冰；「老客志气单」写老客志气单，「老客」写老客、「志气单」写志气单。两句一写秋月颜色冰、一写老客志气单，以秋月颜色冰写颜色冰、以老客志气单写志气单，写尽秋月颜色冰、老客志气单之情。以月起兴，悲慨而深挚，是「以月起兴」的妙笔。

The first two lines write 'the autumn moon's color is ice', the start. 'The autumn moon's color is ice' — the autumn moon, the icy color; 'the old traveler's spirit is thin' — the old traveler, the thin spirit. Rising through the moon, grief-deep and earnest, the start of the verse.

冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒。

Cold dew drips and shatters my dream; a keen wind combs my bones with cold.

冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒。

The cold dew drips and breaks the dream; the sharp wind combs the bones, cold.

此二句写冷露滴梦破，是全诗写冷露之态的关键。「冷露滴梦破」写冷露滴梦破，「冷露」写冷露、「滴梦破」写滴梦破；「峭风梳骨寒」写峭风梳骨寒，「峭风」写峭风、「梳骨寒」写梳骨寒。两句一写冷露滴梦破、一写峭风梳骨寒，以冷露滴梦破写滴梦破、以峭风梳骨寒写梳骨寒，写尽冷露滴梦破、峭风梳骨寒之情。以露写情，悲慨而深挚，是「以露写情」的点睛之笔。

These two lines write 'the cold dew drips and breaks the dream', the key image. 'The cold dew drips and breaks the dream' — the cold dew, the broken dream; 'the sharp wind combs the bones, cold' — the sharp wind, the bone-combing cold. Writing feeling through the dew, grief-deep and earnest, the eye of the poem.

席上印病文，肠中转愁盘。

On the mat the print of my sickness lies; in my belly a coiled plate of grief.

席上印病文，肠中转愁盘。

On the mat, the illness's marks are printed; in the bowels, the wheel of grief turns.

此二句写席上印病文，是全诗写病文之态的关键。「席上印病文」写席上印病文，「席上」写席上、「印病文」写印病文；「肠中转愁盘」写肠中转愁盘，「肠中」写肠中、「转愁盘」写转愁盘。两句一写席上印病文、一写肠中转愁盘，以席上印病文写印病文、以肠中转愁盘写转愁盘，写尽席上印病文、肠中转愁盘之情。以愁写情，悲慨而深挚，是「以愁写情」的点睛之笔。

These two lines write 'on the mat, the illness's marks are printed', the key image. 'On the mat, the illness's marks are printed' — the mat, the printed marks; 'in the bowels, the wheel of grief turns' — the bowels, the turning wheel. Writing feeling through the grief, grief-deep and earnest, the eye of the poem.

梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹。

The withered paulownia towers gaunt and bare; its rustle sounds like mournful strings.

梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹。

The paulownia, withered and jagged, its sound like a grieving lute.

结句写梧桐枯峥嵘，是全诗立意的落点。「梧桐枯峥嵘」用梧桐之典写梧桐枯峥嵘，「梧桐」写梧桐、「枯峥嵘」写枯峥嵘；「声响如哀弹」写声响如哀弹，「声响」写声响、「如哀弹」写如哀弹。两句一写梧桐枯峥嵘、一写声响如哀弹，以梧桐枯峥嵘写枯峥嵘、以声响如哀弹写如哀弹，写尽梧桐枯峥嵘、声响如哀弹之情。以桐写情，悲慨而深挚，是全诗最动人处，也是「以桐写情」的点睛之笔。

The closing line writes 'the paulownia, withered and jagged', the poem's landing. 'The paulownia, withered and jagged' uses the paulownia allusion — the tree, the withered jaggedness; 'its sound like a grieving lute' — the sound, like the grieving lute. Writing feeling through the tree, grief-deep and earnest, the poem's most moving point: the withered paulownia's autumn cry sounds like a lamenting lute, the old traveler's grief matched to the wind in the branches.

Study

Word focus

秋月 Autumn moon: its 'icy color' sets the poem's frozen keynote - in Chinese poetry the autumn moon is the season's coldest, brightest emblem of solitude. 「秋月」写秋月颜色冰，是写秋月之态的关键。「秋月颜色冰」着一「秋月」，写秋月——着一「秋月」，写秋月颜色冰，见其月之秋。两字写尽秋月之态，是「以词写月」的妙笔。「秋月」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。
冷露 Cold dew: autumn night's dew that 'shatters dreams' - the chill reaches the sleeper and breaks even his sleep, so cold invades the mind as well as the body. 「冷露」写冷露滴梦破，是写冷露之态的关键。「冷露滴梦破」着一「冷露」，写冷露——着一「冷露」，写冷露滴梦破，见其露之冷。两字写尽冷露之态，是「以词写露」的点睛之词。「冷露」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。
愁盘 'Coiled plate of grief': grief imagined as a plate or dish churning in the belly - sorrow as something swallowed and turning inside, a physical knot in the guts. 「愁盘」写肠中转愁盘，是写愁盘之态的关键。「肠中转愁盘」着一「愁盘」，写愁盘——着一「愁盘」，写肠中转愁盘，见其盘之愁。两字写尽愁盘之态，是「以词写愁」的点睛之词。「愁盘」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。
哀弹 Mournful strings: the sound of a sad zither; here the withered paulownia's dry rustle is heard as an elegy played by the bare garden itself. 「哀弹」写声响如哀弹，是写哀弹之态的关键。「声响如哀弹」着一「哀弹」，写哀弹——着一「哀弹」，写声响如哀弹，见其弹之哀。两字写尽哀弹之态，是「以词写弹」的点睛之词。「哀弹」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

八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Eight Tones of Ganzhou: On the Drizzling Evening Rain Spreading over the River Sky 柳永 · 同写羁旅感怀、悲慨深挚，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写秋月颜色冰老客志气单，皆于羁旅之中见感怀 Both write the traveler's autumn grief with deep, plain feeling - one faces 'the drizzling evening rain spreading over the river sky', the other 'the autumn moon the color of ice, the old traveler's spirit thin', each finding homesickness in the season.

Liu Yong's ci ('facing the drizzling evening rain spreading over the river sky, one washing makes the autumn pure') is the song of the ci master's tender, musical longing. Meng Jiao's poem is the same wanderer's autumn rendered stark and bodily - cold that combs bones, grief coiling in the belly. Read together: Liu Yong's sorrow flows and sings; Meng Jiao's freezes and aches.

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」，写羁旅感怀、悲慨深挚，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；孟郊《秋怀·其二》则以「秋月颜色冰，老客志气单」「冷露滴梦破，峭风梳骨寒」写颜色冰志气单、滴梦破梳骨寒。两诗同写羁旅感怀、悲慨深挚：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写秋月颜色冰老客志气单、以秋月写羁旅；一为柳永之清丽、一为孟郊之悲慨，并读正可见诗写「羁旅感怀」的两种笔法，皆于羁旅之中见感怀。

 水调歌头·明月几时有 Prelude to Water Melody: When Will the Moon Be Bright? 苏轼 · 同写感怀旷达、超然物外，一写人有悲欢离合、一写秋月颜色冰老客志气单，皆于感怀之中见旷达 Both contemplate autumn's moon with plain, far-reaching feeling - one muses 'men have sorrow and joy, parting and reunion', the other 'the autumn moon has the color of ice', each finding in autumn a mirror of the self.

Su Shi's famous song meets the mid-autumn moon with philosophical consolation - sorrow and joy, parting and reunion are both part of wholeness, and he ends by wishing his brother long life 'though a thousand li away, we share this moonlight'. Meng Jiao's poem offers no consolation: the same autumn moon is only 'the color of ice', and the poem ends in the elegy of a withered tree. Read together, they show two answers to autumn - reconciliation versus endurance.

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」，写感怀旷达、超然物外，是宋词长调的名篇；孟郊《秋怀·其二》则以「秋月颜色冰，老客志气单」「梧桐枯峥嵘，声响如哀弹」写颜色冰志气单、枯峥嵘如哀弹。两诗同写感怀旷达、超然物外：一写人有悲欢离合、以悲欢写离合，一写秋月颜色冰老客志气单、以秋月写羁旅；一为苏轼之超然、一为孟郊之悲慨，并读正可见诗写「感怀旷达」的两种笔法，皆于感怀之中见旷达。