唐 Tang · 诗 Poem
上阳白发人
The White-Haired Woman of Shangyang Palace
上阳人，红颜暗老白发新。
绿衣监使守宫门，一闭上阳多少春。
玄宗末岁初选入，入时十六今六十。
同时采择百余人，零落年深残此身。
忆昔吞悲别亲族，扶入车中不教哭。
皆云入内便承恩，脸似芙蓉胸似玉。
未容君王得见面，已被杨妃遥侧目。
妬令潜配上阳宫，一生遂向空房宿。
宿空房，秋夜长，夜长无寐天不明。
耿耿残灯背壁影，萧萧暗雨打窗声。
春日迟，日迟独坐天难暮。
宫莺百啭愁厌闻，梁燕双栖老休妬。
莺归燕去长悄然，春往秋来不记年。
唯向深宫望明月，东西四五百回圆。
今日宫中年最老，大家遥赐尚书号。
小头鞋履窄衣裳，青黛点眉眉细长。
外人不见见应笑，天宝末年时世妆。
上阳人，苦最多，少亦苦，老亦苦，少苦老苦两如何？
君不见昔时吕向美人赋，又不见今日上阳白发歌。
A green-robed eunuch-guard keeps the palace gate; once Shangyang closed on her, how many springs have passed.
First chosen in the final years of Xuanzong, she entered the palace at sixteen; she is sixty now.
Of the hundred-odd girls selected with her that year, the long years have thinned them all — this frail body alone remains.
She remembers swallowing her grief to part from her kin, lifted into the carriage and told not to weep.
They all said she would win imperial favor the moment she entered — a face like lotus, a bosom like jade.
Before she ever won a sight of the sovereign, she had earned, from afar, the sidelong glance of Lady Yang's jealousy.
Jealousy consigned her secretly to Shangyang Palace; all her life she has slept in an empty room.
Sleeping in an empty room — autumn nights are long; the nights are long and sleepless, and still the sky will not lighten.
The guttering lamp casts her shadow against the wall; the dark rain whispers, tapping the window.
Spring days are long; through the long day she sits alone, and evening is slow to come.
The palace orioles' hundred warblings she is too sorrowful to bear; the swallows roosting in pairs — in old age she no longer envies them.
Orioles return, swallows depart, and long the silence falls; spring goes, autumn comes, she no longer keeps count of the years.
Only toward the deep palace does she gaze at the bright moon — four or five hundred times it has risen in the east and set in the west, full and round.
Today she is the oldest woman in the palace; from afar the sovereign grants her the title of Shangshu.
Small-pointed shoes, narrow-cut robes, brows traced thin and long with dark blue pigment.
Outsiders never see her; those who did would laugh — this is still the fashion of the last years of Tianbao.
Woman of Shangyang, your bitterness is the greatest — bitter in youth, bitter in age; bitter young, bitter old — what, in the end, are the two?
Have you not seen Lu Xiang's 'Fu on Beauty' of former days? Have you not seen today's 'Song of the White-Haired Woman of Shangyang'?
Meaning
In her own voice, an old palace woman tells the story of a life destroyed by the imperial harem. Chosen at sixteen in the last years of Xuanzong, she was never even seen by the emperor before Yang Guifei's jealousy had her imprisoned in the Shangyang Palace, where she spent forty-four years in an empty room, counting time only by the moon's four hundred and fifty full rounds. When at last she is the oldest woman in the palace, the emperor's distant, meaningless title only mocks her, for she is still dressed in the fashions of forty years before. Bai Juyi uses her testimony to expose the cruelty of the palace system and to plead, as he did in official memorials, for the release of abandoned palace women.
上阳宫里的人，红颜暗暗老去，白发日日新生。绿衣的监使守着宫门，一关上就是多少个春天。玄宗末年最初被选入宫，入宫时十六岁，如今已经六十。同时被采选的有一百多人，零落多年，只剩下我这残身。回忆当初吞悲忍泪告别亲族，被扶入车中不许啼哭。都说入宫便会承受恩宠，脸似芙蓉胸似玉。还没来得及与君王见面，已经被杨妃远远地侧目嫉恨。嫉妒令我暗暗配到上阳宫，一生便对着空房独宿。独宿空房，秋夜漫长，夜长无眠，天总不亮。耿耿的残灯映着背壁的影子，萧萧的暗雨敲打着窗声。春日迟迟，日迟独坐，天难昏暮。宫莺百啭，愁得厌听；梁燕双栖，老了不再妒忌。莺归燕去，长日悄然，春往秋来，不知过了多少年。只在深宫中仰望明月，东升西落，已经圆了四五百回。今日宫中年岁最老，皇帝远远地赐了个尚书的封号。小头鞋履、窄窄衣裳，青黛点眉、眉画细长。外人不见罢了，见了应会发笑，这还是天宝末年的时世妆。上阳人啊，苦最多，年少也苦，年老也苦，少苦老苦，又能怎样？您不见昔时吕向的《美人赋》，又不见今日的《上阳白发歌》。
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] An old woman of Shangyang Palace tells her life: chosen at sixteen, never seen by the emperor, imprisoned for forty-four years out of Yang Guifei's jealousy, growing old alone until even the court's late charity is a mockery. [Structure] The poem moves in four movements — selection and abandonment, the long years of confinement, the bitter 'favor' of old age, and the closing indictment — with the woman's own voice carrying all of it. [Imagery] Time is made physical: sixteen and sixty, four hundred and fifty full moons, fashions frozen forty years in the past. Objects accuse — the empty room, the guttering lamp, the paired swallows, the outdated shoes. [Voice] The first-person testimony makes the poem feel less composed than confessed; even the rhetorical ending, with its two historical witnesses, sounds like a call for testimony in a case that was never heard.
【白话串讲】 白居易写《上阳白发人》：“上阳人，红颜暗老白发新”——“玄宗末岁初选入，入时十六今六十”——她十六岁入宫，如今六十岁。“绿衣监使守宫门，一闭上阳多少春”——“外人不见见应笑，天宝末年时世妆”——她被关在冷宫一辈子——他写宫女的不幸。 【意象与手法】 此诗是白居易《新乐府》五十首之一，写被幽禁在上阳宫的宫女一生的悲剧，是白居易讽喻诗的名篇。全诗以「上阳人」的口吻自述：从「红颜暗老白发新」的现状，写到「入时十六今六十」的一生；从「忆昔吞悲别亲族」的离别，写到「一生遂向空房宿」的幽禁；从「宿空房，秋夜长」的孤寂，写到「唯向深宫望明月」的等待；从「今日宫中年最老」的封号，写到「天宝末年时世妆」的讽刺；最后以「上阳人，苦最多」的慨叹与「君不见」的收束作结。全诗以白描与铺陈写宫女的幽禁一生，以「秋夜长」「春日迟」写时间的煎熬，以「宫莺百啭」「梁燕双栖」写景物的反衬，以「天宝末年时世妆」写命运的讽刺，是白居易「一吟悲一事」的典范。 【情感与主旨】 此诗约作于唐宪宗元和四年（809），是白居易《新乐府》五十首之一。元和四年，白居易任左拾遗，上书唐宪宗，请以杨贵妃专宠、玄宗晚年选宫女为戒，主张「怨旷思归」，释放宫女。此诗即写一个被幽禁在上阳宫四十余年的宫女的悲剧：她十六岁被选入宫，「同时采择百余人」，却因杨妃的嫉恨，「妬令潜配上阳宫」，一生幽禁于空房；四十多年间，「春往秋来不记年」「东西四五百回圆」，从红颜少女熬成白发老妪；终于「今日宫中年最老」，皇帝遥赐「尚书」封号，却已是「小头鞋履窄衣裳」「天宝末年时世妆」的过时之人。全诗以老宫女的视角，写尽了封建宫廷对女性的摧残——那「入时十六今六十」的四十四年，那「宿空房」的漫长秋夜，那「东西四五百回圆」的明月，都是她一生的见证。诗中「上阳人，苦最多，少亦苦，老亦苦」的慨叹，是对宫女命运的总结；「君不见昔时吕向美人赋，又不见今日上阳白发歌」的收束，更点明讽喻的主旨。此诗是白居易讽喻诗中写「宫怨」的巅峰，也是理解唐代宫廷制度与女性悲剧的核心作品。 【名句点睛】 常考“入时十六今六十”写宫女一生的幽禁；“唯向深宫望明月”写幽禁中望月等待的孤寂，是千古哀音。
Background
Written around 809, when Bai Juyi (772–846) served as a Reminder official, this poem is one of his fifty New Yuefu pieces, whose stated purpose is 'to pity the abandoned women'. Bai Juyi had in fact submitted memorials urging the court to release neglected palace women, and the poem is the literary form of that political act. Historically, Xuanzong's later years saw vast selections of girls into the palace — one recorded round gathered more than ten thousand — while Yang Guifei's monopoly of favor left hundreds of women walled up in the Shangyang Palace at Luoyang, a retired palace that functioned as a living grave. The poem thus fuses personal testimony with documentary force, and its closing reference to Lu Xiang's satirical fu on beauty places it in a tradition of protest literature.
此诗约作于唐宪宗元和四年（809），是白居易《新乐府》五十首之一。白居易在《新乐府》自序中言此诗「愍怨旷也」——怜悯被幽禁的宫女（怨旷，指男女失时而婚嫁不及时，此处指宫女幽居不嫁）。据《旧唐书》等载，唐玄宗末年，曾大量采选民间女子入宫，如开元二十六年（738）选宫女一万余人；天宝年间，杨贵妃专宠，「后宫佳丽三千人，三千宠爱在一身」，许多宫女因不被召幸而被幽禁冷宫。白居易在元和四年任左拾遗，曾上《请拣放后宫内人》等奏章，主张释放宫女。此诗写一个「上阳白发人」的一生：她十六岁（「入时十六」）被选入宫，与同时采选的百余宫女一样，「脸似芙蓉胸似玉」，以为「入内便承恩」；却因「杨妃遥侧目」的嫉恨，「妬令潜配上阳宫」，被发配到洛阳的上阳宫幽禁；从此「一生遂向空房宿」，春往秋来，度过了四十余年的幽禁岁月，「东西四五百回圆」写其望月之数（四五百回圆约合四十余年）；直到「今日宫中年最老」，皇帝才「遥赐尚书号」，但她的妆束还是「天宝末年时世妆」，早已与世隔绝。上阳宫是唐代洛阳的宫殿，唐高宗时建，玄宗时成为幽禁宫女的冷宫。此诗以老宫女的自述写其悲剧一生，是白居易讽喻诗中写「宫怨」的巅峰，也是「愍怨旷」主张的文学呈现，与《长恨歌》写杨妃的宠幸形成对照，一写宠之极、一写弃之悲，共同揭示唐代宫廷对女性的残酷。
Art
Four techniques stand out. First, the first-person monologue: a lifetime unfolds in the victim's own voice, which no official narrative could match for immediacy. Second, the arithmetic of time: 'entered at sixteen, now sixty', 'four hundred and fifty times the moon has rounded' — Bai Juyi converts abstract suffering into numbers readers can measure, a New Yuefu specialty. Third, ironic juxtaposition: the 'favor' of a title granted from afar against the forty-year-old fashion she still wears; the emperor's charity measures his cruelty. Fourth, the paired birds: orioles whose songs she is too sorrowful to hear, and swallows roosting in couples, use nature's pairing to expose her solitude — a device inherited from the old palace-lament tradition but stretched here across a whole life.
此诗的艺术特色可从四个层面解析。其一，以自述体写悲剧一生。全诗以「上阳人」的第一人称口吻自述一生：从「忆昔吞悲别亲族」的离别，到「一生遂向空房宿」的幽禁，到「唯向深宫望明月」的等待，到「今日宫中年最老」的封号，四十四年的悲剧在自述中层层展开，比第三人称的叙述更真切、更动人。其二，时间意象的铺陈。全诗以时间写煎熬：「入时十六今六十」写一生的跨度，「春往秋来不记年」写岁月的漫长，「东西四五百回圆」写望月之久，以具体的数字写抽象的煎熬，让读者直观地感受到那四十四年的漫长。其三，景物与情感的反衬。「宿空房，秋夜长」写秋夜的漫长，「耿耿残灯背壁影，萧萧暗雨打窗声」写残灯与暗雨，「宫莺百啭愁厌闻，梁燕双栖老休妬」写宫莺与梁燕——那双栖的梁燕，反衬出宫女独宿的孤寂；那百啭的宫莺，反衬出她愁闷的心境。其四，以讽刺收束的深意。末段「今日宫中年最老，大家遥赐尚书号」「小头鞋履窄衣裳，青黛点眉眉细长」「天宝末年时世妆」写皇帝遥赐封号与宫女的过时妆束——那「尚书号」的虚名，那「天宝末年」的妆束，正是她与世隔绝四十年的见证，讽刺了封建宫廷的残酷与虚伪。四重手法层层推进，使此诗成为白居易讽喻诗中写「宫怨」的巅峰。
Allusions
The poem is woven from the palace-lament tradition. Shangyang Palace, built at Luoyang, had become a byword for the imprisonment of discarded palace women, and 'the white-haired woman of Shangyang' a standing name for the abandoned consort. 'Rosy cheeks darken into age' recalls Ban Jieyu's Song of Resentment, the classic lament of the superseded favorite. Lady Yang's 'sidelong glance' plays on the classical idiom of looking askance in hatred, while her jealousy is the historical jealousy of Yang Guifei. The guttering lamp and sleepless shadow echo the Book of Songs verse on lying awake with hidden care. The paired swallows invert the old envy motif — at sixty she is beyond envy, which is worse. Counting time by four hundred and fifty full moons belongs to the long tradition of time measured by the moon, and 'the sovereign' (dajia) is the palace term for the emperor used in the Han histories. Finally, Lu Xiang, a Xuanzong-era official who wrote a fu satirizing the court's selection of beauties, supplies the poem's historical precedent: Bai Juyi sets 'then' against 'now' to show that nothing has changed.
此诗的意象与用语深植于宫怨诗传统。「上阳人」的上阳宫是唐代洛阳的宫殿，玄宗时成为幽禁宫女的冷宫，「上阳白发人」遂成为被弃宫女的代称。「红颜暗老白发新」写红颜的消逝与白发的增生，「暗老」写其衰老之无声无息，令人想到班婕妤《怨歌行》「新裂齐纨素，皎洁如霜雪」写被弃的哀怨；「绿衣监使守宫门」写看守宫门的宦官（唐代宦官服绿衣），「一闭上阳多少春」写幽禁之久。「玄宗末岁初选入，入时十六今六十」写其一生——十六岁入宫，六十岁仍在，「今六十」写四十四年的幽禁，令人想到《诗经》「未几见兮，突而弁兮」写岁月之逝。「忆昔吞悲别亲族，扶入车中不教哭」写离别的惨状，「吞悲」写忍悲，「不教哭」写强忍，令人想到《古诗为焦仲卿妻作》「儿今日冥冥，令母在后单」的离别之悲。「脸似芙蓉胸似玉」写其容貌之美——芙蓉（荷花）喻面、玉喻肌肤，是形容女子美貌的套语，令人想到曹植《洛神赋》「灼若芙蕖出渌波」。「妬令潜配上阳宫」写杨妃的嫉恨（「妬」同「妒」），「遥侧目」写杨妃的侧目而视，暗用《史记》「侧目而视」写忌惮，写杨妃专宠的嫉恨。「宿空房，秋夜长，夜长无寐天不明」写秋夜的漫长，「耿耿残灯背壁影」的「耿耿」化用《诗经·邶风·柏舟》「耿耿不寐，如有隐忧」，写残灯的微明与失眠的煎熬；「萧萧暗雨打窗声」写雨声，「萧萧」令人想到《楚辞》「风飒飒兮木萧萧」的萧瑟。「宫莺百啭愁厌闻」写宫莺的鸣啭，「梁燕双栖老休妬」写梁燕的双栖——以双栖的燕子反衬独宿的宫女，「老休妬」写其年老后连嫉妒都懒得嫉妒了，写尽心死的悲哀。「唯向深宫望明月，东西四五百回圆」写望月之久——东升西落，圆了四五百回，约合四十余年，令人想到张若虚《春江花月夜》「人生代代无穷已，江月年年望相似」的望月传统。「大家遥赐尚书号」的「大家」是宫中称皇帝之词（《后汉书》「大家」称帝），「尚书」是女官名号，写皇帝遥赐的虚名。「天宝末年时世妆」写其过时的妆束——天宝末年的妆束（小头鞋履、窄衣裳、青黛细眉）早已过时，「外人不见见应笑」写其与世隔绝，令人想到王昌龄「宫妆婉约」的宫怨诗。「君不见昔时吕向美人赋」用吕向之典——吕向是玄宗时人，曾作《美人赋》讽玄宗选美女（《新唐书·吕向传》载吕向因玄宗选民间女子入宫，作《美人赋》以讽），白居易以「昔时吕向美人赋」与「今日上阳白发歌」对举，点明讽喻的主旨。全诗化用《诗经》、乐府、宫怨诗的传统，以自述写悲剧、以时间写煎熬，正是白居易「一吟悲一事」的讽喻本领。
Commentary
The poem has long been ranked as the summit of Bai Juyi's New Yuefu and of Chinese palace-lament poetry. The Qing critic Shen Deqian spoke of its word-by-word blood and tears spoken through the old woman's mouth, and that judgment has echoed through modern criticism. Its special place in literary history comes from scale: earlier palace laments — Wang Changling's quatrains, Ban Jieyu's song — captured a moment of sorrow; Bai Juyi extends the genre to a whole life and adds documentary precision, so the poem reads as both testimony and memorial. Readers across centuries have responded to the old woman's final question, 'bitter young, bitter old — what of the two?', as one of the most direct indictments of the palace system in Chinese poetry, and to the closing challenge — have you not seen the old fu, will you not see today's song? — as Bai Juyi's demand that literature force the age to look.
此诗历来被推为白居易《新乐府》中写「宫怨」的巅峰，也是中国宫怨诗中最沉痛的作品之一。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人沈德潜评此诗「以老宫人之口，写四十年幽禁，字字血泪」，近人更指出此诗以「入时十六今六十」「东西四五百回圆」的具体数字，写出了宫女被幽禁一生的悲剧，是白居易「愍怨旷」主张的文学呈现。在文学史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以老宫女的自述，写尽了封建宫廷对女性的摧残——那十六岁入宫的少女，因杨妃的嫉恨而被「潜配上阳宫」，从此「一生遂向空房宿」，四十余年间，红颜暗老、白发新生，只守着「秋夜长」的空房、「四五百回圆」的明月；终于「今日宫中年最老」，皇帝遥赐「尚书」封号，却是「天宝末年时世妆」的过时之人。诗中「宿空房，秋夜长」「宫莺百啭愁厌闻，梁燕双栖老休妬」「唯向深宫望明月，东西四五百回圆」诸句，以景物写孤寂、以数字写煎熬，都是千古名句；「上阳人，苦最多，少亦苦，老亦苦」的慨叹，更是对宫女命运的总结。此诗与王建《宫词》、王昌龄《长信秋词》等同为宫怨诗，但以自述体写一生悲剧，比前代宫怨诗更完整、更沉痛。对于今日读者，此诗是理解唐代宫廷制度与女性悲剧的窗口，也是感受中国文学「代女性立言」传统的典范——那上阳宫的白发人，穿越千年，仍在诉说着被时代遗忘的女性的悲哀。
Prosody
Line by line
宿空房，秋夜长，夜长无寐天不明。
Sleeping in an empty room — autumn nights are long; the nights are long and sleepless, and still the day does not dawn.
独宿空房，秋夜漫长，夜长无眠，天总不亮。
Alone in the empty chamber, the autumn night is long; the night long and sleepless, and dawn not yet come.
这三句是写宫女幽禁生活的名句，以「空房」「夜长」「无寐」写孤寂的煎熬，字字沉痛。「宿空房」写处境之孤——独宿在空荡荡的房间里，「空房」写房间的空旷，也写心境的空虚——一生「遂向空房宿」，那空房正是她一生的牢笼；「秋夜长」写时间之慢——秋天的夜漫长难熬，「秋夜长」写季节的萧瑟与夜晚的漫长；「夜长无寐天不明」写煎熬之深——夜长无眠，天却总不亮，那「无寐」的夜、「不明」的天，写尽失眠的煎熬与等待的绝望。三句以「空房」「夜长」「无寐」「天不明」层层递进：从空间的孤（空房），到时间的慢（夜长），到身心的熬（无寐），到希望的灭（天不明），把宫女独宿秋夜的煎熬写得淋漓尽致。这三句的深意在于：它不是写一夜的孤寂，而是写四十四年的孤寂——那「秋夜长」的每一夜，那「天不明」的每一晨，都是她四十四年幽禁岁月的缩影。以「空」写房、以「长」写夜、以「不明」写天，正是白居易「以时间写煎熬」的本领，也让这三句成为写「宫怨」的名句。
These three lines are a famous writing of the palace woman's confinement, through 'the empty chamber', 'the long night', 'the sleeplessness' writing the torment of loneliness, every word bitter. 'Alone in the empty chamber' the solitude of the lot — sleeping alone in the empty room, 'the empty chamber' the room's emptiness, and the heart's emptiness — her whole life 'sleeping toward the empty chamber', and the empty chamber is the cage of her whole life. 'The autumn night is long' the slowness of time — the autumn night long and hard, 'the autumn night is long' the season's desolation and the night's length. 'The night long and sleepless, and dawn not yet come' the depth of the torment — the night long without sleep, and the sky still not bright; the 'sleepless' night, the 'not yet come' dawn, writing the torment of insomnia and the despair of waiting to the full. Three lines, through 'the empty chamber', 'the long night', 'the sleeplessness', 'dawn not yet come', layer on layer: from the space's solitude (the empty chamber), to the time's slowness (the long night), to the body's torment (the sleeplessness), to hope's extinction (dawn not yet come), writing the palace woman's solitary autumn night to the utmost. The depth: it writes not one night's solitude, but forty-four years of it — every 'autumn night long', every 'dawn not yet come', is the epitome of her forty-four years of confinement. Writing the chamber through 'empty', the night through 'long', the dawn through 'not yet come', Bai Juyi's craft of 'writing torment through time', and the reason these three lines became a famous line of 'palace grievance'.
唯向深宫望明月，东西四五百回圆。
Only toward the deep palace does she gaze at the bright moon — four or five hundred times it has risen in the east and set in the west, full and round.
只在深宫中仰望明月，东升西落，已经圆了四五百回。
Only gazing at the bright moon from the deep palace; east and west, it has rounded four or five hundred times.
这两句是写宫女等待的名句，也是千古名句，以「望明月」写孤独，以「四五百回圆」写煎熬。「唯向深宫望明月」写境之孤——幽禁深宫，无人相伴，唯一的慰藉便是仰望明月，「唯向」写其无奈——深宫之中，她只能望月，那明月是她唯一的伴侣、唯一的见证；「东西四五百回圆」写时之久——明月东升西落，圆了又缺、缺了又圆，已经「四五百回圆」——四五百次月圆，约合四十余年，正是她幽禁的岁月。两句一写「望」的动作、一写「圆」的次数，以具体的数字写抽象的煎熬：那「四五百回圆」的明月，是四十余年的见证——每圆一回，就是一年的等待；每缺一回，就是一年的失望。这两句的深意在于：它以明月写尽宫女的幽禁岁月——深宫中的她，没有亲人、没有伴侣、没有希望，只有那「东西四五百回圆」的明月陪着她老去；而那「四五百回」的月圆，正是她红颜暗老、白发新生的四十四年。以「望明月」写孤独、以「四五百回圆」写煎熬，正是白居易「以数字写情」的本领，也让这两句成为写「宫怨」的千古名句。
These two lines are a famous writing of the palace woman's waiting, and a famous line through the ages, through 'gazing at the bright moon' writing loneliness, through 'rounded four or five hundred times' writing torment. 'Only gazing at the bright moon from the deep palace' the solitude of the lot — sealed in the deep palace, no companion, the only solace to gaze at the bright moon; 'only gazing' her helplessness — in the deep palace she can only watch the moon, and the moon is her only companion, her only witness. 'East and west, it has rounded four or five hundred times' the length of time — the moon rising in the east and setting in the west, full and waning, waning and full, already 'rounded four or five hundred times' — four or five hundred full moons, roughly forty-odd years, precisely her years of confinement. Two lines, one the action of 'gazing', one the count of 'roundings', writing abstract torment through a concrete number: the moon that 'rounded four or five hundred times' is the witness of forty-odd years — each rounding, a year of waiting; each waning, a year of disappointment. The depth: through the bright moon it writes to the full the palace woman's confined years — she in the deep palace, no kin, no companion, no hope, only the moon that 'rounds east and west four or five hundred times' growing old with her; and those 'four or five hundred' roundings are precisely the forty-four years when her red beauty darkened and white hair grew. Writing loneliness through 'gazing at the bright moon', writing torment through 'rounded four or five hundred times', Bai Juyi's craft of 'writing feeling through numbers', and the reason these two lines became a famous line of 'palace grievance' through the ages.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
The Song of Everlasting Sorrow sings of Yang Guifei at the summit of favor — 'three thousand favors in one' — while this poem shows the same system's refuse: the woman whose rosy cheeks darken into age in an empty room. Read together, favor and abandonment turn out to be the same cruelty at its two extremes.
《长恨歌》「后宫佳丽三千人，三千宠爱在一身」写杨贵妃的专宠与悲剧，是白居易写「宫中女性之宠」的鸿篇。此诗《上阳白发人》则「红颜暗老白发新」「一生遂向空房宿」，写被幽禁宫女的悲剧，是白居易写「宫中女性之弃」的讽喻。同为写宫中女性的命运，一写「三千宠爱在一身」的杨妃（长恨歌），一写「东西四五百回圆」的上阳人（上阳白发人）；一写宠之极的悲剧，一写弃之尽的悲剧。两诗对读，可见白居易对唐代宫廷的全面认识——那宠与弃的两端，都是对女性的摧残。
秋夕 Autumn Evening 杜牧 · 同写宫女，一写瞬间一写一生 Both on palace women — one a single evening, one a whole lifetime.Du Mu's quatrain catches one autumn moment — a palace lady fanning fireflies, gazing at the herd-boy and weaver-girl stars — all suggestion and no narrative; Bai Juyi narrates forty-four years in the woman's own voice. The pair shows the two poles of palace-lament technique: the quatrain's compressed hint and the yuefu's extended testimony.
杜牧《秋夕》「银烛秋光冷画屏，轻罗小扇扑流萤」以瞬间的景物写宫女秋夜的孤寂，以「卧看牵牛织女星」写其对爱情的向往，是唐人宫怨诗的绝句名篇。白居易《上阳白发人》则「宿空房，秋夜长」「唯向深宫望明月，东西四五百回圆」，以一生的跨度写宫女幽禁的悲剧，是唐人宫怨诗的长篇名篇。同为写宫女，一写秋夜的瞬间（秋夕），一写四十四年的一生（上阳白发人）；一含蓄一铺陈，一写向往一写绝望。两诗对读，可见唐人宫怨诗「绝句含蓄」与「乐府铺陈」的两种笔法。
长信秋词 长信秋词 王昌龄 · 同为宫怨，一写班婕妤一写上阳人 Related readingCompare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
王昌龄《长信秋词》「奉帚平明金殿开，且将团扇共徘徊」以班婕妤的典故写被弃宫女的哀怨，以「玉颜不及寒鸦色，犹带昭阳日影来」写其失宠的悲哀，是盛唐宫怨诗的绝句名篇。白居易《上阳白发人》则「入时十六今六十」「一生遂向空房宿」，以老宫女的自述写幽禁一生的悲剧，是中唐宫怨诗的乐府名篇。同为写被弃宫女的哀怨，一以班婕妤的典故写失宠（长信秋词），一以白发宫女的自述写幽禁（上阳白发人）；一含蓄凝练，一铺陈直叙。两诗对读，可见盛唐绝句与中唐新乐府写同一题材的不同风貌。