唐 Tang · 诗 Poem
听邻家吹笙
Hearing the Neighbor's Sheng
凤吹声如隔彩霞，不知墙外是谁家。
重门深锁无寻处，疑有碧桃千树花。
Heavy gates locked deep, nowhere to seek; I suspect a thousand trees of jade peaches in bloom.
Meaning
The poem captures the ethereal feeling of listening to a neighbor's sheng music through a wall — audible yet unseen — and the speaker's fanciful vision of a fairyland of peach blossoms behind the gates.
那笙声宛如凤凰吹鸣，仿佛隔着云霞传来，不知墙外是哪一家。重重门扉深锁无处寻访，倒叫人疑心墙内该有碧桃千树、花影缤纷。
Appreciation
The poem conveys the floating, otherworldly sensation of hearing a sheng played next door. The opening line evokes the music's clarity and distance with 'phoenix-flute' and 'colored clouds,' while 'whose house' heightens the mystery of sound without sight. The final lines turn sound into imagination, suspecting a hidden paradise of jade peaches behind the locked gates. The verb 'suspect' leaves the vision unresolved, lingering with endless aftertaste. Light, clear, and spirit-like, this is an exquisite little gem among listening poems.
【白话串讲】 “凤吹声如隔彩霞，不知墙外是谁家”——郎士元写听邻家吹笙：声音像隔着彩霞。“重门深锁无寻处，疑有碧桃千树花”——他找不到吹笙的人，只疑是桃花仙境。一个美好的误会。 【意象与手法】 “凤吹”双关笙（笙簧如凤鸣）与仙乐；“彩霞”“碧桃”皆仙境意象，由声及境，虚实相生；“疑有”留白，余味不尽。 【情感与主旨】 写对邻家笙乐的倾慕与神往，于都市墙垣间造出一片仙界遐想，清丽空灵，是小诗中的逸品。 【名句点睛】 “重门深锁无寻处，疑有碧桃千树花”——以墙内仙境之想收束笙声，由实入虚，遂成听乐诗的妙笔。
Background
Lang Shiyuan was one of the 'Ten Talents of the Dali Reign.' This poem was written when he overheard a neighbor playing the sheng in a Chang'an lane; from the sound his imagination took flight.
《听邻家吹笙》为唐代郎士元所作，是写邻家笙声、隔墙闻曲之情的诗。郎士元（约727—约780），字君胄，中山人，唐代诗人（大历十才子之一）。此诗：凤吹声如隔彩霞，不知墙外是谁家。重门深锁无寻处，疑有碧桃千树花。全诗写邻家笙声、隔墙闻曲之情，是郎士元诗的名篇。
Art
A seven-character quatrain (jueju) that moves from the real (hearing the sheng) to the unreal (the imagined paradise). It layers the music with fairyland imagery — 'phoenix-flute,' 'colored clouds,' 'jade peaches' — guiding the reader from hearing to visual imagination, and closes with the open-ended 'suspect' that leaves space for reverie.
《听邻家吹笙》艺术上以凤吹声的描摹与隔墙闻曲的缥缈见长。全诗四句：首写凤吹声——“凤吹声如隔彩霞，不知墙外是谁家”写凤吹声如隔彩霞、不知墙外是谁家；末写疑有碧桃——“重门深锁无寻处，疑有碧桃千树花”写重门深锁无寻处、疑有碧桃千树花。全诗以凤吹声写隔墙闻曲，正是郎士元诗缥缈的笔法。
Allusions
The 'phoenix-flute' refers to the sheng, whose reeds were said to sound like a phoenix's cry; 'colored clouds' metaphorically suggest the music's lofty distance; 'jade peaches' are the immortal peaches of fairyland (said to grow at the Queen Mother's Yao Pool); 'heavy gates locked deep' describes the wall that blocks the view.
《听邻家吹笙》用典在“凤吹”“彩霞”“碧桃千树”。“凤吹”写凤吹（笙声，箫史弄玉吹笙引凤之典）；“彩霞”写彩霞；“碧桃千树”用碧桃之典（仙家碧桃，喻仙境）。全诗以这些典故写邻家笙声、隔墙闻曲，用典自然而缥缈自见，正是郎士元诗的笔法。
Commentary
Tangshi Jianyao says it 'captures in twenty characters the fairy music beyond the wall, with imagination soaring beyond the heavens.' Shijing Qianshuo praises it for 'moving from sound into scene; the two words "suspect" are the very height of ethereal emptiness.'
《听邻家吹笙》是郎士元诗的名篇，也是大历诗中写隔墙闻曲的代表作。此诗写邻家笙声、隔墙闻曲之情，向为论者称道。论者多赏其凤吹声的描摹与隔墙闻曲的缥缈——“凤吹声如隔彩霞，不知墙外是谁家”用凤吹之典写凤吹声如隔彩霞、不知墙外是谁家，缥缈之极；“重门深锁无寻处，疑有碧桃千树花”用碧桃之典写重门深锁无寻处、疑有碧桃千树花，更见其妙。郎士元为大历十才子之一，其诗以工丽著称，此诗正是其代表——以凤吹声写隔墙闻曲，正是其诗风。
Prosody
Line by line
凤吹声如隔彩霞，不知墙外是谁家。
The phoenix-flute sounds as if beyond the colored clouds; I know not whose house lies beyond the wall.
凤吹声如隔彩霞，不知墙外是谁家。
The phoenix-like piping seems to come from beyond rosy clouds; I wonder which household it is, outside the wall.
首用凤吹之典写凤吹声如隔彩霞、不知墙外是谁家，是全诗写闻笙之景的起点。“凤吹声如隔彩霞”用凤吹之典写凤吹声如隔彩霞——“凤吹声如隔彩霞”用箫史弄玉吹笙引凤之典写笙声如凤鸣隔彩霞传来——凤吹声如隔彩霞；“不知墙外是谁家”写不知墙外是谁家——“不知墙外是谁家”写不知墙外是谁家所吹——不知墙外是谁家。二句写凤吹声如隔彩霞、不知墙外是谁家：凤吹声如隔彩霞，不知墙外是谁家。以“凤吹声如隔彩霞”用凤吹之典写笙声如凤鸣、隔彩霞传来，以“不知墙外是谁家”写不知谁家吹笙、闻声兴疑，正是郎士元诗写闻笙之景的起点——凤吹隔霞，墙外谁家。
The first lines use the phoenix-pipe allusion: the piping comes as if from beyond rosy clouds, and the listener knows not which household lies beyond the wall. The phoenix-pipe allusion - the legend of Xiao Shi and Nong Yu playing pipes to draw phoenixes - turns the sheng's sound into a phoenix's cry, wafting over rosy clouds. Then: I know not which household it is beyond the wall - hearing the sound, the wonderer asks who plays. Two lines: phoenix piping beyond the clouds, unknown household beyond the wall. The allusion sets the music in the heavens; the question sets the listener in the dark - Lang Shiyuan's starting point for the scene of hearing the sheng: phoenix-pipe beyond clouds, whose house beyond the wall.
重门深锁无寻处，疑有碧桃千树花。
Heavy gates locked deep, nowhere to seek; I suspect a thousand trees of jade peaches in bloom.
重门深锁无寻处，疑有碧桃千树花。
Double gates are deeply locked, no way to find the place; I fancy a thousand trees of green peach blossoms must be in flower.
末用碧桃之典写重门深锁无寻处、疑有碧桃千树花，是全诗写隔墙之想的归结。“重门深锁无寻处”写重门深锁无寻处——“重门深锁无寻处”写重门深锁、无处可寻——重门深锁无寻处；“疑有碧桃千树花”用碧桃之典写疑有碧桃千树花——“疑有碧桃千树花”用仙家碧桃之典写疑有碧桃千树之花——疑有碧桃千树花。二句写重门深锁无寻处、疑有碧桃千树花：重门深锁无寻处，疑有碧桃千树花。以“重门深锁无寻处”写重门深锁、无从寻访，以“疑有碧桃千树花”用碧桃之典写疑有碧桃千树、如入仙境，正是郎士元诗写隔墙之想的归结——重门无寻，碧桃千树。
The last lines use the green peach allusion: double gates deeply locked, no way to find the place; the listener fancies a thousand trees of green peach blossoms in flower. Double gates deeply locked, nowhere to seek: the residence is sealed, inaccessible. A thousand trees of green peach blossoms: the green peach allusion - the immortal's peach blossoms of the fairy grove - turns the hidden garden into a paradise. Two lines: locked gates beyond seeking, green peach blossoms in fancy. The locked gates write the impossibility of visiting; the immortal peach blossoms write the imagination of a fairyland - Lang Shiyuan's resolution of the thought across the wall: no finding behind the gates, a thousand trees of green peach.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
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