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魏晋 Wei-Jin · 文 Prose

五柳先生传

The Biography of Mr. Five Willows

陶渊明

Tao Yuanming

自传Autobiography 隐逸Reclusion 田园Pastoral 散文Prose

先生不知何许人也，亦不详其姓字。
宅边有五柳树，因以为号焉。
闲静少言，不慕荣利。
好读书，不求甚解；
每有会意，便欣然忘食。
性嗜酒，家贫，不能常得。
亲旧知其如此，或置酒而招之。
造饮辄尽，期在必醉；
既醉而退，曾不吝情去留。
环堵萧然，不蔽风日；
短褐穿结，箪瓢屡空，晏如也。
常著文章自娱，颇示己志。
忘怀得失，以此自终。
赞曰：黔娄之妻有言：「不戚戚于贫贱，不汲汲于富贵。
」其言兹若人之俦乎？
衔觞赋诗，以乐其志，无怀氏之民欤？
葛天氏之民欤？

This gentleman—none know where he came from,
Nor are his surname or style known.
By his cottage grew five willow trees,
And so he took them for his name.
He was quiet, sparing of words,
With no hankering after glory or gain.
He loved to read, yet sought no forced explanations;
Whenever he caught a meaning, he was glad and forgot his food.
He had a natural craving for wine,
But being poor he could not always procure it.
His kin and old friends, knowing this,
Would sometimes lay out wine and summon him.
When he went, he would drink his fill and make sure of drunkenness;
Once drunk, he withdrew—never lingering for affection.
His four walls stood barren, sheltering not from wind or sun;
His short robe was patched and knotted, his bamboo dish and gourd often empty—
Yet he was serene.
He often wrote prose for his own delight,
Displaying somewhat his heart's intent.
He forgot the gains and losses of the world,
And so lived to his end.
Eulogy:
The wife of Qian Lou once said:
'One grieves not over poverty and lowliness,
One hastens not after wealth and honor.'
Are not these words a portrait of such a man?
Holding his wine-cup, he composed verses to cheer his heart—
Was he not a subject of the Wuhuai age?
Was he not a subject of the Getian age?

Listen

Meaning

A self-composed biography of an unnamed hermit who took the five willows by his house as his name. It depicts a life of tranquil poverty: indifferent to worldly success, fond of reading and wine, writing for self-expression, and ultimately likened to the simple folk of legendary utopian ages.

先生不知道是哪里人，也不清楚他的姓名和表字。住宅旁边有五棵柳树，便用它作为自己的别号。他闲适安静，少言寡语，不羡慕荣华利禄。喜欢读书，却不执着于字句的深究；每当对书中意旨有所领会，便高兴得忘了吃饭。生性嗜好喝酒，但因家境贫寒，不能经常得到。亲戚旧友知道他这样，有时摆了酒来招待他。他去饮酒总是开怀尽兴，期望一定喝醉；醉了便告退，从不以去留为意。居室四壁空空，不能遮蔽风雨阳光；粗布短衣打着补丁，盛饭的箪、舀水的瓢常常空着，他却安然自得。常常写文章自娱，颇能从中显示自己的志趣。他忘却了世俗的得失，愿意就这样度过一生。赞语说：黔娄的妻子曾经说过：『不为贫贱而忧愁，不热衷于富贵。』这话说的难道不就是像先生这一类人吗？一边饮酒一边赋诗，以此愉悦自己的心志，他大概是上古无怀氏时候的百姓，或是葛天氏时候的百姓吧？

Appreciation

This essay is Tao Yuanming's autobiographical portrait, using the format of a historical biography to create an ideal of the contented recluse who neither envies wealth nor clings to rank. In plain, understated language, Tao conveys a spirit of profound inner peace—reading for joy rather than pedantry, drinking without artifice, living in bare walls and patched clothes without complaint. The closing eulogy, quoting Qian Lou's wife, lifts the figure to the level of ancient sages, making the whole piece a classic expression of the Eastern Jin ideal of returning to natural simplicity.

【白话串讲】 “先生不知何许人也，亦不详其姓字。宅边有五柳树，因以为号焉”——陶渊明写自己：不知姓名，宅边有五棵柳树，就叫五柳先生。“闲静少言，不慕荣利。好读书，不求甚解”——“每有会意，便欣然忘食”——他读书会意就忘了吃饭。陶渊明的自画像。【意象与手法】以史传笔法写隐士形象，省去传主姓名、籍贯、仕履等一般传记要素，单刀直入刻画其性情志趣；末以“赞曰”援引黔娄之妻语，将五柳先生比于上古无怀、葛天之民。语言极平易、似不经意，实则洗练蕴藉，于疏淡中见风骨。【情感与主旨】陶渊明带有自传性质的散文名篇，写安贫乐道、不慕荣利的隐士形象。全文以“不慕荣利”为纲，以读书、饮酒、著文为目，是中国文人的精神自画像，为中国文人树立了“不为五斗米折腰”的人格范式。【名句点睛】常考“闲静少言，不慕荣利。好读书，不求甚解”以白描写隐士性情；“每有会意，便欣然忘食”以读书会意写乐在其中。

Background

Tao Yuanming (c. 365–427), courtesy name Yuanliang, also known as Tao Qian, styled himself Mr. Five Willows and was posthumously titled Jingjie. Born into a declining aristocratic family in the late Eastern Jin, he served in minor official posts but resigned from the magistracy of Pengze in 406, choosing a life of farming and reclusion. This essay, written about his middle age, reflects his deliberate estrangement from a society obsessed with pedigree and official advancement. By inventing a nameless persona, Tao both satirizes the genealogical snobbery of his age and articulates his own ideal of personal freedom, rooted in Daoist notions of simplicity and harmony with nature.

陶渊明（约365—427），字元亮，一说名潜字渊明，号五柳先生，私谥靖节，东晋末至南朝宋初诗人、辞赋家、散文家。他出身没落士族，曾几度出仕，任江州祭酒、镇军参军、建威参军、彭泽令等，然终因不肯与士族污浊同流，于义熙二年（406）辞彭泽令归隐，自此躬耕田园，不复出仕。此文约作于其归隐初期，时当四十岁左右。魏晋之际，名教与自然之辨甚嚣尘上，士人或虚伪礼法、或放达任诞，陶渊明则别开生面，以质朴真率自处。他借『五柳先生』这一虚拟而实即自况的形象，既回应了时人对隐士的种种想象，也厘清了自己与阮籍、嵇康式『越名教任自然』的区别——他不狂放、不愤激，而是和平恬淡、安于贫贱。文末『赞曰』仿史传论赞之体，更可见作者以史笔自叙、自觉将自我写入文化谱系的深意。《五柳先生传》约作于陶渊明晚年，为其自拟之小传，亦是其隐逸人格之自我写照。传中不言姓名、不书年岁，唯以宅边五柳为号，正是刻意泯去世俗功名之标记。其时士族门第讲究谱牒阀阅，而渊明以一「不知何许人」开篇，已含对门第社会之疏离与嘲讽，亦见其归于田园后萧然自放之心境。

Art

The art of this piece lies in 'using plainness to convey richness.' It omits the usual biographical details of name, birthplace, and career, opening with a deliberate 'none know where he came from.' The style is white-sketch narration with sparse adjectives; key phrases such as 'retired and quiet, sparing of words,' 'not craving glory or gain,' and 'he was serene' conjure a vivid spiritual portrait. The structure moves from the man's seal to his habits, then to his life circumstances, and ends with an upward turn in the eulogy, rising from the concrete to the transcendent. Short sentences, occasional couplets, and the final rhetorical questions create a natural, flowing cadence that is both simple and profound.

本文艺术上最显著的特征是『以淡写浓、以简驭繁』。作为一篇传记，它大胆省去姓名、籍贯、世系、仕履等常规要素，开篇即云『不知何许人也，亦不详其姓字』，看似阙漏，实则是刻意的『隐去』，以此凸显传主精神而非外在身份。通篇以白描叙事，少用形容，而『闲静少言，不慕荣利』『晏如也』『忘怀得失』等短语，已将一个超然物外的人物勾勒得栩栩如生。结构上，先叙其号、性、好尚，次写饮酒、贫居、为文，末以『赞曰』收束并升华，由实入虚，由人入道，章法自然如行云流水。语言则浅近如话，多用短句，偶用对偶（如『环堵萧然，不蔽风日；短褐穿结，箪瓢屡空』），于整齐中见错落。尤为精妙的是『不求甚解』『曾不吝情去留』等反传统语，以看似随意之笔，写出不为物役、任性自然的高致，足见大巧若拙之妙。文章以史传之体而行自嘲之笔，外庄内谐，最见风采。「闲静少言，不慕荣利」八字立其人格骨架，下即分写读书、饮酒、著文三事，皆紧扣「不慕」二字。写读书不求甚解而「每有会意，便欣然忘食」，写饮酒「造饮辄尽，期在必醉」，写著文「自娱」而已，层层点染，一个任真洒脱的隐士形象跃然纸上。结以「无怀氏之民欤？葛天氏之民欤」，以远古淳俗自许，余韵邈然。

Allusions

The eulogy quotes the wife of Qian Lou, a celebrated poor hermit of antiquity, whose saying 'not grieving over poverty, not rushing after wealth' becomes the standard for the gentleman. The names Wuhuai and Getian refer to legendary ancient rulers whose people lived in unspoiled simplicity; by invoking them, Tao places his protagonist in the Daoist tradition of the golden age, in contrast to the contentious present. The phrase 'holding his cup and composing verses' also echoes the wine-drinking style of the Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove, but with a calm serenity rather than their fierce defiance.

文末『赞曰』所引『不戚戚于贫贱，不汲汲于富贵』，出自《列女传》所载黔娄之妻之语；黔娄为春秋鲁之隐士，屡拒诸侯之聘，死时衾不蔽体，其妻以此言明其志，后世遂以黔娄为安贫守道之典型。陶渊明援引此语，是将五柳先生直接接入先秦隐逸高士的谱系。又『无怀氏』『葛天氏』皆为上古传说中淳厚无事、民德归厚的部落首领，《帝王世纪》等载其民『甘其食，乐其俗』，代表陶渊明心中未被礼法异化的自然之世。松柏、黔娄、无怀、葛天，这一系列意象共同指向『返璞归真』的文化渊源，上接老庄『见素抱朴』『回归婴孩』之思，下启后世田园隐逸文学之传统。『衔觞赋诗』四字，亦暗合嵇康『浊酒一杯，弹琴一曲』之语，可见魏晋风度在陶渊明处已由狂狷化为冲淡。文末「赞曰」仿史传论赞之体，而所引「黔娄之妻」语，暗用《列女传》黔娄守贫之典，以证五柳先生之「不戚戚于贫贱，不汲汲于富贵」。又「无怀氏」「葛天氏」俱出《庄子》及上古传说，喻淳朴无为之世。渊明托古自况，既见其对浇薄世风之厌弃，亦可见道家返朴思想对其人格之深染，其与《归去来兮辞》「帝乡不可期」之叹，实同一归趣。

Commentary

The piece divides into a main narrative and a eulogy. The narrative portion, from 'This gentleman' to 'so lived to his end,' introduces the name, character, love of reading and wine, poverty, composure, writing, and final forgetfulness of gain and loss. The eulogy then cites Qian Lou's wife, applies it to the gentleman, and closes with the vision of his belonging to the utopian ages of Wuhuai and Getian. Notable throughout is the series of negatives—'not know,' 'not seek,' 'not hanker,' 'not grieve,' 'not rush'—which define the figure by what he is not, finally affirming his inner fullness by negation. Su Shi greatly admired this essay, and later essayists drew on its model of quiet self-portraiture.

全文可分传、赞两部分。传文自『先生不知何许人也』至『以此自终』，以第三人称从容叙写：首言其号之由来，次言其『闲静少言，不慕荣利』的根本性格；『好读书』二句，揭示其读书重神解而不拘泥的活法；『性嗜酒』以下数句，写其饮酒率真、不吝去留，于贫贱中得其乐；『环堵萧然』数句，以极贫之境写极安之心，『晏如也』三字为全段眼目；『常著文章自娱』二句，点出其精神寄托；『忘怀得失，以此自终』收束传文，平淡中见决绝。赞文自『黔娄之妻有言』至末，借古人之语评定传主，以设问『其言兹若人之俦乎』将五柳先生与黔娄并提，复以『衔觞赋诗，以乐其志』写照其生活，终以『无怀氏之民欤？葛天氏之民欤』的遥想，将其提升至太古淳朴之民的高度。通篇由具体而抽象，由一人而及一世，形散神聚，余韵悠然。全文不足二百字，而形神兼备，诚为小品文之绝唱。其妙在「不」字凡数见：不慕、不求、不知、不吝、不戚戚、不汲汲，一连串否定，反衬出精神之充盈自在。看似闲笔，实则字字斟酌。苏轼极赏此文，谓「欲以晚节师范其万一」；后世归有光等小品，亦多从此脱化。读之令人想见晋人风度，于喧嚣尘世中别具清凉之意。

Prosody

Reading note The prose rhythm is carefully crafted with short clauses (four, five, six characters) alternating with longer phrases, creating a calm, unhurried cadence. Parallel structures like '环堵萧然，不蔽风日；短褐穿结，箪瓢屡空' add dignified symmetry. The final rhetorical questions in '欤' give a lingering, musical close.本文为散文，自无所谓近体诗之平仄格律，然其句式节奏极具匠心，值得细辨。全文以短句为主，多用四字、五字、六字句，间以『先生不知何许人也』『亦不详其姓字』之类散体长句，形成疏密相间的韵律。其节奏之妙，在于『叙—评』交替：先以平直叙述铺陈事实（如『性嗜酒，家贫，不能常得』），继以简短判断收束性情（如『晏如也』『以此自终』），叙述如流水，判断如礁石，读来顿挫有致。又善用排比与对偶以增气势，如『环堵萧然，不蔽风日；短褐穿结，箪瓢屡空』，四句两对，句式整齐而情感沉静；『不戚戚于贫贱，不汲汲于富贵』则以骈俪出之，音韵谐和，警策有力。至若句末虚词『也』『焉』『欤』的错落使用，更使文章于流畅中见摇曳，于平淡中藏波澜，恰如苏轼所评『外枯而中膏，似澹而实美』，句式之简正成就了其风神之远。

Line by line

好读书，不求甚解；每有会意，便欣然忘食。

A famous statement of reading for insight, not pedantic scholarship; the joy of comprehension makes him forget meals.

He was fond of reading, but did not seek exhaustive exegesis; whenever he caught the inner meaning, he would be so delighted that he forgot to eat.

此二句素来被误读为『读书不认真』，实则是陶渊明读书方法论与精神境界的真切自白。『不求甚解』之『甚解』，指对字句训诂的琐细深究，而非不用心；他反对的是汉儒章句之学那种支离破碎、拘泥形式的读法。『每有会意』之『会意』，正是读书的核心——与作者精神相契、得意忘言。一旦有所领悟，便『欣然忘食』，足见读书于他乃极大的精神愉悦，而非功利之具。这种读法令我想到陶渊明整体人生态度：抓大本、弃末节，重体认、轻考据。放到魏晋清谈『言意之辨』的背景下，『不求甚解』恰是『得意忘言』在读书上的体现，显示出他超越繁琐、直契本真的智慧，远非表面之『懒』字可尽。

These lines have long been misread as praise of careless reading, but they are in fact Tao Yuanming's precise account of his own method. By 'not seeking exhaustive exegesis' he means rejecting the Han scholars' hair-splitting word-glossing, which dissected texts into fragments. What he valued was 'catching the inner meaning'—a spiritual accord with the author, grasping the idea and forgetting the words. When such accord came, he forgot his food, proving reading was for him the highest pleasure rather than a utilitarian task. Set against the Wei-Jin debate over words and meaning, the line is a literary manifestation of 'grasp the meaning and forget the words,' a wisdom of intuition rather than scholarship that no superficial laziness could ever capture.

不戚戚于贫贱，不汲汲于富贵。

The five willows by the house become the persona's sobriquet, linking his identity to nature and simplicity.

He was not anguished by poverty and low station, nor frantic in his pursuit of wealth and rank.

此二句为赞语所引黔娄之妻语，实乃全文精神之眼。『戚戚』忧惧之貌，『汲汲』急切之貌，两句以否定句式，划出五柳先生（亦即陶渊明自己）与世俗价值判断的清晰界线：不因贫贱而忧惧失据，不因富贵而奔竞钻营。这与《论语》『不义而富且贵，于我如浮云』、老庄『不以物累形』一脉相承，却又以更平易的语言道出。尤为重要的是，这句话不是道德口号，而是对前文『环堵萧然……晏如也』『忘怀得失』的形象总结——正因为内心无戚无汲，才能在极贫中安然自得。它把一种抽象的人格操守，落实为日常可感的生活姿态，使『隐士』不再是避世的符号，而是自足自乐的生命样态，千载之下犹能触动人心。

These two lines, borrowed from the wife of the ancient recluse Qian Lou, are the spiritual center of the whole biography. 'Anxious' and 'eager' are set against each other in a parallel negation: he neither suffered over poverty nor scrambled for riches. It descends from the Analects' 'wealth and rank unrighteously gained are to me as floating clouds' and from the Daoist ideal of not letting things weigh on the body. Crucially, the line is not a moral slogan but the summary of the earlier pictures—bare walls, yet untroubled; forgetting gain and loss. It makes the recluse less a symbol of withdrawal than a way of being self-sufficiently happy, a portrait that has moved readers across the millennia.

Study

Word focus

晏如 serene, contented; at peace 『晏如』犹言安然、平静自得的样子，是本文极为关键的一个词。它出现在『短褐穿结，箪瓢屡空，晏如也』句中，紧承极写贫寒的排比之后，如同一记定音鼓，将前面所有的物质匮乏一笔扫空，转而凸显精神之富足安定。在陶渊明之前，『晏如』已见于《汉书》等典籍（如『自处晏如』），但经此一用，遂成为后世形容安贫乐道的标准语汇。它的妙处在于『以静制动』：外界越是萧然、穿结、屡空，内心越是晏如，这种反差正是隐逸人格最动人的地方。一个双音词，既收束了贫居的描写，又开启了后文『忘怀得失』的升华，堪称全篇文眼之一，体现出陶渊明炼字『看似寻常最奇崛』的功力。

不求甚解 not demanding exhaustive explanation; intuitive grasp of meaning 『不求甚解』四字是陶渊明最具颠覆性的读书自白，也是中国文学批评史上极重要的概念。『甚解』指对文辞作过度、琐细的考索，『不求』并非不能，而是不屑、不必。在经学独尊、注疏繁密的汉魏传统中，此语近乎异端，却精准表达了作者『得意忘言』的接受观——读书贵在会通大旨、与古人心神相契，而非疲于章句。这一词语后来语义发生流变，渐成『理解不深』的贬义，但其原初意涵实为高明的阅读哲学。它折射出陶渊明贯通儒道的智慧：既吸收孔子『学而时习』的悦乐，又融入庄周『得鱼忘筌』的超脱，最终凝为一种不滞于物、直取本真的精神自由，对后世苏轼『八面受敌』以外的『涵泳』读法亦有深远启发。