魏晋 Wei-Jin · 诗 Poem
赠秀才入军
To the Talent Graduate, on Joining the Army
息徒兰圃，秣马华山。
流磻平皋，垂纶长川。
目送归鸿，手挥五弦。
俯仰自得，游心太玄。
嘉彼钓翁，得鱼忘筌。
郢人逝矣，谁与尽言。
On the level moor I cast the tethered arrow; on the long stream I drop my line.
My eyes follow the returning swan; my hand plies the five-stringed lute.
In a breath I am self-content; my heart wanders the Great Mystery.
I honour that old fisher, who caught the fish and forgot the trap.
The man of Ying is gone — with whom may I speak my fill?
Meaning
He lets his followers rest in the orchid garden, and fodders his horse by the lovely hill. On the level moor he casts the tethered arrow; on the long river he lowers his line. His gaze follows the returning swan; his hand plays the five-stringed qin. Between a turn of the head he is self-content; his mind roams the Supreme Mystery. He praises that old fisherman, who having caught the fish forgot the trap. But the man of Ying is dead — with whom can he speak his fill?
让徒众在兰草之圃休憩，在秀美的山边喂饱马匹。在平旷的沼泽施放带绳的箭，在长河之上垂下钓丝。目光随归鸿远送，手中挥弄五弦琴。俯仰之间自得其乐，心神游于至高的玄理。赞美那钓鱼的老翁，得鱼便忘了捕具。可惜郢地匠人已然逝去，又能与谁尽情倾谈。
Appreciation
Ji Kang's To the Talent Graduate is a set of eighteen poems, written on seeing off his brother Ji Xi (who had been made a xiucai) as he joined the army. Ji Xi liked to pursue office, while Kang honoured Lao-Zhuang and longed for freedom; the brothers' tastes were quite unlike. This fourteenth piece imagines his own stay in the countryside, resting his men and angling at ease, set against his brother's marching to war. It writes both the hermit's joy and, beneath, a quiet disapproval of his brother's entering the world, plus the regret that after parting none shares his words. 'The man of Ying is gone' uses Zhuangzi's fable of the lost kindred spirit, exactly fitting the theme of parting and longing.
【白话串讲】 嵇康送哥哥嵇喜从军：“息徒兰圃，秣马华山”——在兰圃休息，在华山下喂马。“目送归鸿，手挥五弦”——目送归鸿远去，手里弹着五弦琴。“俯仰自得，游心太玄”——他活得自由自在。“郢人逝矣，谁与尽言”——可惜知音难觅。 【意象与手法】 此诗以隐逸闲适为表、知音之叹为里。前四句写息徒、秣马、流磻、垂纶，动静交织 【情感与主旨】 嵇康《赠秀才入军》十八首，为送其兄嵇喜（举秀才）赴军幕而作。喜好仕进，康则尚老庄、慕逍遥，兄弟志趣迥异 【名句点睛】 本诗宜从‘名句赏析与玄学意趣’角度命题。考点一：赏析‘目送归鸿，手挥五弦’的意境与手法——视听并写、形神兼备
Background
Ji Kang's To the Talent Graduate is a set of eighteen poems, written on seeing off his brother Ji Xi (who had been made a xiucai) as he joined the army. Ji Xi liked to pursue office, while Kang honoured Lao-Zhuang and longed for freedom; the brothers' tastes were quite different. This fourteenth piece imagines his own stay in the countryside, resting his men and angling at ease, set against his brother's marching to war. It writes both the hermit's joy and, beneath, a quiet disapproval of his brother's entering the world, plus the regret that after parting none shares his words. 'The man of Ying is gone' uses Zhuangzi's fable of the lost kindred spirit, exactly fitting the theme of parting and longing.
《赠秀才入军》为三国嵇康所作，是赠其兄嵇喜入军之诗。此诗：息徒兰圃，秣马华山。流磻平皋，垂纶长川。目送归鸿，手挥五弦。俯仰自得，游心太玄。嘉彼钓翁，得鱼忘筌。郢人逝矣，谁与尽言。全诗写从军之余、游心玄远，是嵇康诗的名篇。
Art
This poem wears reclusive ease without, and a sigh for the kindred spirit within. The first four lines write resting men, foddering the horse, casting the arrow, dropping the line — motion and stillness woven. In 'my eyes follow the returning swan; my hand plies the five-stringed lute', seeing and handling, the far sky and the near string are set side by side; form and spirit both escape — it becomes a line famed for a thousand years. 'In a breath I am self-content; my heart wanders the Great Mystery' moves from outer things to inner principle, rising to the realm of mystery. It closes on the paired allusions 'caught the fish and forgot the trap' and 'the man of Ying is gone', turning from joy to regret, its echo distant — most showing Ji Kang's clear, far manner.
《赠秀才入军》艺术上以玄远之境与高蹈之致的超逸见长。全诗十二句，层层写来：前四句写息徒秣马、流磻垂纶——“息徒兰圃，秣马华山。流磻平皋，垂纶长川”写息徒兰圃、秣马华山、流磻平皋、垂纶长川；中四句写目送手挥、游心太玄——“目送归鸿，手挥五弦。俯仰自得，游心太玄”写目送归鸿、手挥五弦、俯仰自得、游心太玄；末四句写钓翁得鱼忘筌——“嘉彼钓翁，得鱼忘筌。郢人逝矣，谁与尽言”写嘉彼钓翁、得鱼忘筌、郢人逝矣、谁与尽言。全诗写游心玄远，正是嵇康诗高蹈的笔法。
Allusions
The allusions all come from the Daoists and Zhuangzi. 'Caught the fish and forgot the trap' is from the Zhuangzi's 'External Things' — 'the trap exists for the fish; having the fish, forget the trap' — a figure for grasping the meaning and forgetting the words. 'The man of Ying is gone' uses the Zhuangzi's fable of the craftsman's flying axe and the man of Ying who matched him like a spirit, taking the man of Ying as the kindred spirit and lamenting his death with none to speak with. 'Five-stringed' means the five-string qin that Ji Kang played well; 'Great Mystery' is the mystery principle. All draw on Zhuang and Lao, one with the poem's reclusive, mysterious heart — a typical Wei-Jin metaphysical poem 'with Lao-Zhuang as its body'.
《赠秀才入军》用典在“流磻”“得鱼忘筌”“郢人逝矣”。“流磻”写以磻石弋射（射猎）；“得鱼忘筌”用《庄子》“得鱼而忘筌”之典；“郢人逝矣”用《庄子》郢人运斤之典（匠石斫垩）。全诗以这些典故写游心玄远、知己难求，用典自然而高蹈自见，正是嵇康诗的笔法。
Commentary
The New Account of the Talk of the Age says of Ji Kang that 'solemn, like the wind beneath the pines'. The Song critic Liu Ke-zhuang calls the two lines 'my eyes follow the returning swan' 'an unmatched song of ancient and modern'. The Qing commentator Chen Zuo-ming in his Selection of Ancient Poems says this poem 'its spirit-logic is far and deep, it gets the marrow of Zhuangzi' — enough to show its Lao-Zhuang body and its clear, far, unworldly Wei-Jin air.
《赠秀才入军》是嵇康诗的名篇，也是魏晋诗中写玄远超逸的代表作。此诗赠其兄入军、写游心玄远，向为论者称道。论者多赏其玄远之境与高蹈之致的超逸——“目送归鸿，手挥五弦。俯仰自得，游心太玄”写目送手挥、游心太玄，超逸之极；“嘉彼钓翁，得鱼忘筌。郢人逝矣，谁与尽言”写得鱼忘筌、郢人已逝，更见其高蹈。嵇康为竹林名士，其诗以高远超逸著称，此诗正是其代表——以玄远写高蹈，正是其诗风。
Prosody
Line by line
息徒兰圃，秣马华山。流磻平皋，垂纶长川。
I rest my train in the orchid garden, and fodder my horses on the southern hills; I cast the darting line on the flat marsh, and trail my hook on the long river.
息徒兰圃，秣马华山。流磻平皋，垂纶长川。
I let my followers rest in the orchid garden, and feed the horses on flowery high ground; I cast the tethered arrow on the level marsh, and hang my fishing line on the long river.
前四句写息徒秣马、流磻垂纶，是全诗玄远之境的起点。“息徒兰圃，秣马华山”写息徒秣马——“息徒兰圃”写息徒于兰圃，“秣马华山”写秣马于华山——息徒兰圃，秣马华山；“流磻平皋，垂纶长川”写流磻垂纶——“流磻平皋”写流磻（弋射）于平皋，“垂纶长川”写垂纶于长川——流磻平皋，垂纶长川。四句写息徒秣马、流磻垂纶：息徒兰圃秣马华山，流磻平皋垂纶长川。以“息徒兰圃，秣马华山”写行军之余息马于兰圃、华山，以“流磻平皋，垂纶长川”写流磻弋射、长川垂纶，正是嵇康诗写玄远之境、从军之余乐的起点——军旅之余，射钓自适。
The first four lines write resting the train and feeding the horses, casting and angling, the starting point of the poem's ethereal realm. 'I rest my train in the orchid garden, and fodder my horses on the southern hills' writes halting the men and feeding the horses among orchids and on flowery heights. 'I cast the darting line on the flat marsh, and trail my hook on the long river' writes shooting on the level marsh and fishing on the long river. The lines write, amid the leisure of a campaign, the ease of archery and angling, the starting point of Ji Kang's ethereal realm.
目送归鸿，手挥五弦。俯仰自得，游心太玄。
My eyes follow the homebound wild geese, my hand sweeps the five-stringed qin; in bending and lifting I am at one with myself, my mind wandering in the great mystery.
目送归鸿，手挥五弦。俯仰自得，游心太玄。
My eyes follow the returning wild geese, my hand strums the five strings; in every look I find contentment, and my mind roams within the supreme mystery.
中四句写目送手挥、游心太玄，是全诗玄远之境的核心。“目送归鸿，手挥五弦”写目送手挥——“目送归鸿”写目送归鸿，“手挥五弦”写手挥五弦——目送归鸿，手挥五弦；“俯仰自得，游心太玄”写俯仰自得、游心太玄——“俯仰自得”写俯仰自得，“游心太玄”写游心太玄——俯仰自得，游心太玄。四句写目送手挥、游心太玄：目送归鸿手挥五弦，俯仰自得游心太玄。以“目送归鸿，手挥五弦”写目送归鸿、手弹五弦之从容，以“俯仰自得，游心太玄”写俯仰自得、心神游于太玄，正是嵇康诗写玄远之境的核心——目送手挥，神游太玄。
The middle four lines write eyes following and hands sweeping, the mind wandering in the mystery, the core of the poem's ethereal realm. 'My eyes follow the homebound wild geese, my hand sweeps the five-stringed qin' writes the composure of watching the geese and playing the strings. 'In bending and lifting I am at one with myself, my mind wandering in the great mystery' writes the ease of every gesture and the spirit's journey in the mystery. The lines write the core of Ji Kang's ethereal realm—eyes following, hands playing, the spirit wandering in the mystery.
嘉彼钓翁，得鱼忘筌。郢人逝矣，谁与尽言。
I admire that fisherman: once he has the fish, he forgets the trap. The man of Ying is gone—with whom can I speak it all?
嘉彼钓翁，得鱼忘筌。郢人逝矣，谁与尽言。
I praise that old fisherman, who, having caught the fish, forgot the trap. The craftsman of Ying is dead; with whom can I now speak fully?
末四句写得鱼忘筌、郢人已逝，是全诗高蹈之致的归结。“嘉彼钓翁，得鱼忘筌”写得鱼忘筌——“嘉彼钓翁”写嘉许那钓翁，“得鱼忘筌”用《庄子》之典写得鱼忘筌——嘉彼钓翁，得鱼忘筌；“郢人逝矣，谁与尽言”写郢人已逝——“郢人逝矣”用《庄子》郢人运斤之典写郢人已逝，“谁与尽言”写谁与尽言——郢人逝矣，谁与尽言。四句写得鱼忘筌、郢人已逝：嘉彼钓翁得鱼忘筌，郢人逝矣谁与尽言。以“嘉彼钓翁，得鱼忘筌”用《庄子》之典写得意忘言、钓翁之高，以“郢人逝矣，谁与尽言”用郢人运斤之典写知己已逝、无人尽言，正是嵇康诗写高蹈之致的归结——得意忘言，知己难求。
The last four lines write getting the fish and forgetting the trap, the man of Ying gone, the resolution of the poem's lofty air. 'I admire that fisherman: once he has the fish, he forgets the trap' uses the Zhuangzi allusion to write grasping the meaning and forgetting the words, the fisherman's height. 'The man of Ying is gone—with whom can I speak it all?' uses the Zhuangzi allusion of the Ying craftsman swinging his axe, to write that the understanding friend is dead and no one remains to speak fully. The lines write the conclusion of Ji Kang's lofty air—grasp the meaning and forget the words, understanding friends hard to find.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Compare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
嵇康《幽愤诗》“嗟余薄祜，少遭不造”写幽愤自省，与本首同为嵇康诗。差异在情致：赠秀才入军写游心玄远；幽愤诗写幽愤自省。一写“逸”之超，一写“愤”之深。两者并读，可见嵇康诗高蹈与幽愤的两种情致。
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陶渊明《五柳先生传》写五柳先生之闲静自得，与本首同为魏晋写高蹈。差异在体裁：赠秀才入军为诗；五柳先生传为传。一写“玄”之游，一写“闲”之静。两者并读，可见魏晋高蹈之风的两种体裁。
招隐诗 Summoning the Recluse 左思 · 与本首相关联的同类或同作者作品，供对比阅读 Related readingCompare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
此处关联左思《招隐诗》，与本首在主题、体裁或作者上相关联，可对比阅读以见其同异。