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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

社日

The Day of the Village Sacrifice

王驾

Wang Jia

田园pastoral life 七绝seven-character quatrain 风俗folk custom

鹅湖山下稻粱肥，豚栅鸡栖半掩扉。
桑柘影斜春社散，家家扶得醉人归。

Below Goose Lake Mountain the rice and the millet stand fat,
By the pig pen and the hen roost the brushwood gate hangs half closed.
The shadows of mulberry and silkworm oak slant; the spring sacrifice breaks up,
And house by house they come home holding up the men who are drunk.

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Meaning

The poem shows a farming village on the day of the spring sacrifice to the god of the soil, but only at the moment the ceremony ends. Full fields, unlocked doors, and every household steering a drunken member home add up to a picture of a good harvest year and of complete rural peace.

鹅湖山下的稻谷高粱长得肥壮饱满，猪圈鸡窝旁的柴门半开半掩。桑树柘树的影子渐渐西斜，春社的祭祀活动散场了，家家户户都搀扶着喝醉的人回家。

Appreciation

The most remarkable thing about this quatrain is that it never describes the festival at all. There is no altar, no drum, no feast, no prayer to the god of the soil; the poet arrives only for the dispersal. Yet everything omitted is implied by what is shown: heavy grain means a prosperous year, half-closed gates mean the whole village has gone to the rite, and drunken men in every doorway mean the celebration was enjoyed to the last drop. Not one word of praise or emotion appears, and the restraint gives the scene the plainness of a documentary. Four lines move from crops to houses to lengthening shadows to people, and the reader who never saw the feast knows exactly how good it was.

【白话串讲】 “鹅湖山下稻粱肥，豚栅鸡栖半掩扉”——王驾写春社日：稻粱肥，猪鸡满圈。“桑柘影斜春社散，家家扶得醉人归”——祭祀结束，家家都扶着喝醉的人回家。一幅丰收热闹的农家图。【意象与手法】这首诗最妙的地方，是它根本没有写社日本身。祭神、赛会、鼓乐、宴饮——一概不提，只写散场之后。可正因为写的是散场，那场热闹反而被完整地烘托了出来：稻粱肥是丰年的底子，半掩扉是全村都去了赛社，家家扶醉是尽兴到了极点。这是典型的“不写之写”。【情感与主旨】王驾写的是一个太平年景的乡村。丰收、六畜兴旺、门不设防、人人尽醉——这四样加在一起，就是农耕社会最完满的幸福图景。诗人不加一句赞叹，只是把它摆出来。恰恰是这份克制，让这幅画面有了纪录片般的真实感。【名句点睛】 “家家扶得醉人归”——七个字里有三层意思：家家都有人醉，说明尽兴；要人搀扶，说明醉得深；而扶的人也是笑着的，说明这醉是喜事。中国诗里写太平年景的欢乐，很少有比这句更妥帖的。

Background

Wang Jia was a late Tang poet from Hezhong, in present-day Yongji, Shanxi. He passed the imperial examination in 890 and rose to a post in the Ministry of Rites before abandoning office to live in retirement. The village sacrifice, or sheri, was an ancient festival honoring the god of the soil, held in spring and again in autumn; the spring rite fell on the fifth wu day after the beginning of spring and was a prayer for a good harvest. Villagers pooled money for wine and food, and after the offering they drank together, making it the most important public holiday of the farming year. Goose Lake Mountain lies in present-day Yanshan County, Jiangxi.

王驾，字大用，河中（今山西永济）人，晚唐诗人，大顺元年（八九零）进士，官至礼部员外郎，后弃官归隐，与郑谷、司空图等唱和，诗风平易自然。社日是古代祭祀土地神的节日，分春社与秋社，春社在立春后第五个戊日，秋社在立秋后第五个戊日，春社祈谷、秋社报功，是农耕社会一年中最盛大的公共节庆。社日之时，村民集资备办酒食，祭神赛会，祭毕聚饮，醉而后归，村野一片欢腾。此诗写的即是春社散场时的情景。诗中「鹅湖山」在今江西铅山县北，唐时属信州，地肥民淳。王驾身处晚唐季世，战乱频仍、民生多艰，诗人却截取乡村社日这一太平片段，于平淡中见真趣，既是对农家生活的真切写照，也暗含对治世清平的向往，读来有桃花源般的温厚气息。王驾此诗不写社日之喧而写其散，于平淡中见真趣，正可见晚唐田园诗由雅入俗、由大入小的一脉转向，其价值不仅在写景，更在存一时乡村风俗之真，足为后世考见唐时民风情状者所取资。王驾此诗不写社日之喧而写其散，于平淡中见真趣，正可见晚唐田园诗由雅入俗、由大入小的一脉转向，其价值不仅在写景，更在存一时乡村风俗之真。

Art

The whole craft of the poem lies in indirection and blank space. Twenty-eight characters contain not a single direct description of the rite; everything is approached from the edges. Fat grain establishes the prosperous year that makes this particular festival so confident. The half-closed brushwood gate tells us the houses are empty and the whole village has gone. Slanting tree shadows fix the hour at late afternoon, just as the gathering ends. Only the last line shows people, and it shows them going home. The sequence runs from things to persons, from far to near, from daylight to dusk. Equally important, no word of feeling appears anywhere in the poem, yet cheerfulness fills every line: this is objective presentation standing in for subjective emotion.

此诗的全部匠心在于「侧写」与「留白」。二十八字中，正面描写社日活动的一个字也没有，全从周边着笔：首句写庄稼之肥，交代丰年的底子，说明今年的社日格外有底气；次句写「豚栅鸡栖半掩扉」，是写家家人去屋空、无人看门，可见赴会之盛、民风之淳；三句写「桑柘影斜」，以日影点明时间已到傍晚，社散在即；末句只写一个「扶醉而归」的场面收束。四句由物及人、由远及近、由白天到日暮，读者虽未见其宴，却已尽知其乐。此外，全诗不用一个表示情感的字（如乐、喜、欢），而喜气盈纸，是以客观呈现代替主观抒情的范例。这种「不写之写」的技法，把最热闹的场面安排在诗的空白之处，让读者以想象补全，馀味反比直写更浓，足见晚唐绝句以少胜多的妙处。全诗由物及人、由景及情，层层递进而不着痕迹，白描之妙在于以少总多，使读者于无声处听出满村欢笑，此正中国古诗留白艺术之极则，足为后世学诗者取法，非徒为一时即景之作而已。全诗由物及人、由景及情，层层递进而不着痕迹，白描之妙在于以少总多，使读者于无声处听出满村欢笑，此正中国古诗留白艺术之极则。

Allusions

The sheri, or village sacrifice to the god of the soil, is an extremely old institution already recorded in the Book of Rites, and in Tang times the communal drinking that followed it was a widespread custom; Zhang Ji and Zhang Yan both wrote poems on the same occasion. Goose Lake Mountain stands north of present-day Yanshan County in Jiangxi, which in the Tang belonged to Xinzhou. The pig pen and hen roost of the second line stand for the domestic animals of a settled household and thus for a secure livelihood. Mulberry and silkworm oak are the trees on which silkworms feed, common around any farming village, and their slanting shadows serve as the poem's clock.

诗中多处化物为典，皆贴合农家语境。其一「社日」为祭祀土地神之日，起源甚古，《礼记·郊特牲》已载社祭之礼；唐代社日民间聚饮成风，张籍《吴楚歌》、张演《社日》等皆咏其事，社日遂成田园诗中常见的太平符号。其二「鹅湖山」在今江西铅山县北，唐时属信州，山以地灵、民以俗淳，并非泛写，而是坐实一处真实的乡村风物。其三「豚栅」指猪圈，「鸡栖」指鸡窝，皆为农家六畜之所，《诗经·王风·君子于役》已有「鸡栖于埘，日之夕矣」之句，以家禽归宿写乡居安恬；此处六畜安处、门户半掩，正见家境安稳、夜不闭户。其四「桑柘」为养蚕之树，农村常见，以其影斜标示日暮，暗用《诗经》夕景之笔法。诸多寻常物事经诗人剪裁，便成了丰年太平的经典意象。社日之礼流衍千年，至宋犹盛，王驾以诗存之，使后人得窥唐时乡村祭赛之一斑，其文献与审美价值并重，足见小诗亦可载大风俗。，王驾以诗存社日之礼，足补风俗史之一页，非徒吟赏而已。

Commentary

Xie Fangde of the Song included the poem in his Poems of a Thousand Masters, remarking that it never states the joy of the festival yet the joy is plain to see. Huang Shucan of the Qing wrote in his annotated Tang poems that the closing line exhausts the happiness of a farming village on festival day, warm enough to hold in the hand. Yu Peiyun, in his Sequel to Plain Talks on Poetic Realms, observed that not one character in the whole poem names the sacrifice, yet its full splendor stands before the eyes, and called the poet a master of setting off a subject by describing everything around it.

宋人谢枋得《千家诗》选此诗，评曰「不言社日之乐，而乐自见」，正点出侧写之妙。清人黄叔灿《唐诗笺注》云「末句写尽田家社日之乐，蔼然可掬」；俞陛云《诗境浅说续编》称「通首无一字言社，而社日之盛况如在目前，善用烘托者也」。历代选家之所以推此诗为写社日第一名篇，正因其脱去晚唐纤巧习气，以质朴白描写丰厚民俗，于平淡中见真趣。与王驾同时的司空图论诗重「不着一字，尽得风流」，此诗可谓践履其说。较之盛唐田园诗的家国襟抱，晚唐如王驾者更着力于一时一地的人间暖意，虽格局稍小，而亲切有味、可感可触，实为田园诗由雅入俗、由大入小一脉中的佳作，对宋人范成大《四时田园杂兴》的民俗白描亦启导良多。其以清温之品目足传后世，价值自在，非独一时风土之记，亦为田园诗由雅入俗之关键一环。，淡而有味，诚唐代田园诗之逸品，可与其时山水小诗并读，价值自在。

Prosody

Form Seven-character quatrain, level-tone opening with the first line rhyming七言绝句（平起首句入韵）

Rhyme Rhymes on the fifth level rhyme group wei: fei, fei, gui. The wei rhyme is soft and light, matching the gentle warmth of village life, and the three rhyme words move evenly with no strident note.押平水韵上平五微韵：肥、扉、归。微韵柔和轻细，与农家生活的温厚气氛相合；三韵一路平缓，无一激越之音，恰似村路款步、笑语渐远，音声与意态浑融一体。

Tone pattern The first two lines are dense with nouns, so the rhythm unrolls slowly like a scroll being opened. The third line turns on two verb-object units, shadows slanting and the gathering dispersing, which set the movement going. The final line runs its first four characters together and settles on the word for going home, closing the poem in a round and steady cadence.前两句名词密集（鹅湖山、稻粱、豚栅、鸡栖、扉），节奏铺陈舒缓如展画卷；第三句「影斜」「社散」两个动宾结构使节奏轻轻转动；末句「家家扶得」四字连贯而下，收于一个「归」字，圆融安稳，声情闲雅，正宜写太平村居之乐。

Reading note The poem paints a folk custom in pure plain description, with no allusion, no metaphor, and no comment, and yet anthologists through the centuries have ranked it the finest poem ever written on the village sacrifice. Its success rests entirely on the moment chosen, the dispersal, because the afterglow of a celebration often lingers longer in the mind than the celebration itself.此诗以纯粹的白描写民俗，不用典、不设喻、不发议论，却被历代选家推为写社日的第一名篇，其成功全在选取了「散场」这一时刻——热闹之后的余韵，往往比热闹本身更耐回味。章法上，它用「侧写」「留白」把最喧阗的场面推到诗外，只以丰年、空村、夕影、扶归四个断面勾连，读者自以想象补全全天的欢腾，这种「不写之写」正合司空图「不着一字，尽得风流」之评。微韵平和、声调舒缓，也与题材相称。在晚唐纤巧诗风之中，此诗独以质朴浑成、亲切有味见长，上承《诗经》夕景田园之笔，下启宋人范成大《四时田园杂兴》的民俗白描，实为田园诗由雅入俗链条上的关键一环，值得细读。

Line by line

鹅湖山下稻粱肥，豚栅鸡栖半掩扉。

Below Goose Lake Hill, the rice and sorghum are fat; the pigsty and chicken roost, the door half shut.

鹅湖山下的稻谷与高粱长得肥壮饱满，猪圈与鸡窝旁边，农家的柴门半开半掩。

Below Goose Lake Hill, the rice and sorghum grow plump; by the pigsty and chicken roost, the farm door stands half open.

首联十四字，上句写丰年之底，下句写赴会之盛，一物一人，已把社日的前提与现场都暗中铺好。「稻粱肥」的「肥」字是农人口语，写庄稼籽粒饱满、长势壮实，带着泥土的沉甸甸的实在感，有了这一句，后面的醉才醉得理直气壮。「豚栅鸡栖半掩扉」更是一石三鸟：猪鸡安处说明六畜兴旺，门半掩说明主人出门并不担心失盗，门未全开又说明确已无人在家——人都赴社日去了。一个动作同时交代了「丰年」「民淳」「人空」三件事，且不着一字议论。晚唐绝句之凝练，于此七字中可见，起手便把读者领入一个温厚安恬的乡村世界。

The opening couplet, fourteen words, the upper line the ground of the good year, the lower the abundance of the gathering, one thing one person, already secretly laying the premise and the scene of the rite. The word 'fat' in 'the rice and sorghum are fat' is the farmer's word, writing the plump grain, the sturdy growth, the heavy earthy reality; with this line, the drunkenness below is justified. 'The pigsty and chicken roost, the door half shut' strikes three birds at once: the pigs and chickens in their places show the thriving stock, the door half shut shows the master left home fearing no theft, the door not fully open shows indeed no one at home — all have gone to the rite. One action gives at once 'good year', 'plain folk', 'empty home', without one word of argument. The late Tang quatrain's conciseness is seen in these seven words, the opening leading the reader into a warm, peaceful village world.

桑柘影斜春社散，家家扶得醉人归。

The mulberry and tanner shadows slant, the spring rite dispersed; every household leads its drunken one home.

桑树柘树的影子渐渐西斜，春社的活动散场了，家家户户都搀扶着喝醉的人回家去。

The shadows of mulberry and tanner trees slant west; the spring rite is over, and every household leads its drunken member home.

后联写散场，是全诗落点。「桑柘影斜」以树影标时，不说日暮而日暮自明，是诗中极省俭的时间交代；一个「散」字，让全天的热闹有了归宿，也把读者的目光从白日的喧阗引向傍晚的归途。末句「家家扶得醉人归」七字三层：家家都有人醉，见其尽兴；要人搀扶，见其醉深；而扶者含笑，见这醉是喜事、是太平的欢乐。诗人全篇不写祭神赛会如何热闹，却以散场后扶醉而归的剪影，把一整天的欢腾都收束进来，正是「不写之写」的极致。这一句既有画面又有温度，以最平淡的口吻写最饱满的幸福，遂成千古传诵的田园名句，馀韵悠长，令人想见村路灯火、笑语盈途。

The closing couplet writes the dispersal, the landing of the poem. 'The mulberry and tanner shadows slant' marks the hour by the tree shadows, not saying the dusk and the dusk of itself, the most economical time-marking in poetry; the one word 'dispersed' gives the day's bustle its resting place, and draws the reader's eye from the day's noise to the evening's homecoming. The last line, 'every household leads its drunken one home', three layers in seven words: every household has its drunk, showing the thoroughness; needing to be led, showing the depth of the drink; and the leaders smiling, showing the drink is a glad thing, the joy of peace. The poet writes not one word of how noisy the rite was, but closes in the silhouette of leading the drunken home after the dispersal, gathering the whole day's revelry, precisely the extreme of 'the writing of not writing'. This line holds both picture and warmth, writing the fullest happiness in the plainest tone, and became a famous pastoral line through the ages, the aftertaste long, the reader imagining the village road's lanterns and the laughter along the way.

Study

Word focus

肥 The word fei, fat, applied to grain is farmers' everyday speech, describing plump kernels and vigorous growth. The poet passes over more elegant options such as ripe or abundant and takes instead this earthy word, which suits the rural setting and carries a heavy, tangible solidity. The gladness of a good harvest comes through precisely because the word is a common one. 「稻粱肥」的「肥」字本是农人口语，形容庄稼籽粒饱满、长势壮实。诗人不用「熟」「丰」「茂」一类雅字，偏取这个带着泥土气的「肥」，既贴合农村的语境，又有一种沉甸甸的实在感。丰年的喜悦，就从这一个俗字里透出来——它不像「丰」字那样抽象，而是让人仿佛看见谷穗低垂、高粱红透的具体模样。以俗为雅、以浅为深，正是白描高手的手段。这一个字还为全诗定下「实」的基调：后面的醉、归、笑语，都因为有这「肥」字作底，才显得真切而不虚浮，足见炼字未必求奇，切境便是好字。

半掩 The phrase ban yan, half closed, carries an extraordinary amount of information. The gate is not locked, so the owner left without worry; the gate is not wide open, so nobody is home. A single gesture records both that the whole village has gone to the festival and that nothing is ever stolen there, and it does so without a syllable of comment. This is the compression that late Tang quatrains achieve at their best. 「半掩扉」的「半掩」二字信息量极大。门未锁，说明主人出门时并不担心；门未全开，又说明确已无人在家。一个动作同时交代了「人都去了社日」与「乡里路不拾遗」两件事，且不著一字议论。更妙在「半」字留有余地：既不是洞开（那便空村荒凉），也不是紧闭（那便拒人千里），而是虚掩着，透出人间的温度与信任。晚唐绝句以凝练胜，此二字可作标本——以最少笔画写最多内容，把太平气象、民淳风厚都收进一扇虚掩的柴门里，含蓄蕴藉而力透纸背，非大手笔不能到此。

扶 The verb fu, to support or hold up, is where the poem comes to rest. Drunk enough to need holding means the celebration was enjoyed to the full; having someone to do the holding means the community is close; being helped homeward means there is somewhere to belong. Say instead that the drunk went home, or fell down going home, and only the drunkenness remains, with none of the tenderness. This one verb captures festival joy, neighborly feeling, and domestic warmth together. 末句的「扶」字是全诗的落点，也是最见温情的字眼。醉到需要人扶，说明尽兴；有人来扶，说明邻里和睦、家人情深；扶着归家，说明有所归依、有所安顿。若换成「醉人归」便只剩醉态而无温情，换成「醉倒归」更见狼藉而失其暖。一个「扶」字，把节日的欢乐、乡邻的情谊与家庭的温暖一并写足，使散场的画面陡生温度。它也是全诗唯一的动词写「人」之处，前文皆写物（稻、豚、鸡、桑柘），至此方以「扶」字引出人，由物及人、由静转动，章法井然。这一个轻巧的动词，承载了整首诗的暖意，是白描中点睛的妙笔。

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