五代 Five Dynasties · 词 Ci lyric
菩萨蛮·其二
Bodhisattva Barbarian · No. 2
人人尽说江南好，游人只合江南老。
春水碧于天，画船听雨眠。
垆边人似月，皓腕凝霜雪。
未老莫还乡，还乡须断肠。
the traveller should only grow old in the south.
The spring water is greener than the sky;
in a painted boat one listens to the rain and sleeps.
By the wine-jars the girl is like the moon,
her white wrists like frozen snow.
Do not go home while you are still young:
go home, and it will surely break your heart.
Meaning
Everyone says that the land south of the river is good, and that a traveller ought to grow old there. In spring the river water is greener than the sky, and in a painted boat one falls asleep listening to the rain. The girl who sells wine beside the jars is beautiful as the moon, and her white wrists are like frozen snow. Do not return to your old home before you are old; return, and your heart will surely break.
人人都说江南美好，远游的人只应该在江南终老。春天的江水比天空还要碧绿，在画船中听着雨声入眠。酒垆边卖酒的女子美如明月，洁白的手腕像凝结的霜雪。年未老时不要回到故乡，若还乡定要愁断肝肠。
Appreciation
The whole lyric is governed by the word 'good'. The upper stanza gives the green of the river and the ease of sleeping to the sound of rain, the lower gives a woman whose wrists are like snow, and both are carried to the height of their beauty. The art lies in the turning: first the traveller should grow old here, as though he were urged to stay; then the beauty by the wine-jars, as though happiness were complete; then, suddenly, do not go home while you are young, for going home will break your heart. The reversal at the close makes joy give birth to grief, and the exile's inability to return lies hidden inside the loveliness of the south.
【白话串讲】 “人人尽说江南好，游人只合江南老”——韦庄写江南：人人都说江南好，游人就该在江南老去。“春水碧于天，画船听雨眠”——春水比天还蓝，在画船里听雨睡觉。“未老莫还乡，还乡须断肠”——没老别回乡，回去会断肠。 【意象与手法】 全词以好字统领，上片写江景之碧、听雨之闲，下片写人之皓腕如雪，极妍尽态。章法妙在层层递转：先言只合江南老，似劝留 【情感与主旨】 韦庄（约836—910），晚唐五代诗人，花间派代表。《菩萨蛮》五首相传为其晚年仕蜀、回忆江南旧游之作 【名句点睛】 此词常考以乐景写哀情的手法与关键词解析。多命未老莫还乡，还乡须断肠的抒情特色，要求答出反语、似劝实悲的表达效果
Background
Wei Zhuang (about 836-910) was a poet of the late Tang and Five Dynasties and a leading writer of the Among the Flowers school. His five Bodhisattva Barbarian lyrics are traditionally taken as work of his later years in Shu, recalling old travels in the southland. Born at Chang'an, he lived through the rebellion of Huang Chao, drifted into the southland in middle life, and at last entered Shu as secretary to Wang Jian. When the lyric says that everyone praises the south, it uses other men's mouths to speak of his own wandering; and 'do not go home while you are young' is no real contentment with Shu but the helpless opposite of what it says, since the central plain lay in ruins and the old home could not be reached. The Qing critic Zhang Huiyan called the set a work of veiled intention written after the poet settled in Shu, and touched the heart of it.
《菩萨蛮·其二》为五代韦庄所作，是写江南之好、流连江南的词。韦庄（约836—910），字端己，京兆杜陵人，五代前蜀诗人、词人。此词：人人尽说江南好，游人只合江南老。春水碧于天，画船听雨眠。垆边人似月，皓腕凝霜雪。未老莫还乡，还乡须断肠。全词写江南之好、流连江南，是韦庄词的名篇。
Art
The whole piece is led by the word 'good': the upper stanza writes the green of the river and the ease of listening to rain, the lower the snow-white wrists of a woman, each carried to the full. The structure is fine in its successive turns. First it says that the traveller should grow old in the south, as if to keep him; then it paints a beauty like the moon, as if delight were enough; then at the last it turns to 'do not go home while you are young, go home and it will break your heart', closing with the opposite of what it says, so that the height of pleasure breeds grief. The small empty words for 'all', for 'should only' and for 'do not' knit the tone together; they seem to comfort and in fact they ache, and the sorrow of a man who has a home and cannot return is hidden inside the scenery of the south.
《菩萨蛮·其二》艺术上以江南之好的描绘与流连之意的深婉见长。全词分两片：上片写江南之好——“人人尽说江南好，游人只合江南老”写人人尽说江南好、游人只合江南老，“春水碧于天，画船听雨眠”写春水碧天、画船听雨；下片写垆边皓腕——“垆边人似月，皓腕凝霜雪”写垆边人似月、皓腕凝霜雪，“未老莫还乡，还乡须断肠”写未老莫还乡、还乡须断肠。全词以江南之好写流连之意，正是韦庄词深婉的笔法。
Allusions
The lyric uses allusion naturally. The wine-jars point to a wineshop, from Xin Yannian's Gentleman of the Guard, with its girl of fifteen serving wine alone on a spring day, and from the story of Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun keeping a wineshop; here the phrase means simply a southern wine-girl. The white wrists like frozen snow transform Cao Zhi's Rhapsody on the Goddess of the Luo, where she lifts her white wrists above the sacred shallows, and the old poem about the lovely painted lady putting out her slender white hands, snow standing for the whiteness of skin. The broken heart is a stock phrase of poetry, first found in the tale of the heartbreak plant in Records of Searching for Spirits. All are absorbed without trace and help to build the soft loveliness of the southern scene.
《菩萨蛮·其二》用典在“垆边”。“垆边人似月”用卓文君当垆之典写垆边之人；“皓腕凝霜雪”写皓腕如霜雪。全词以这些意象写江南之好，用典自然而深婉自见，正是韦庄词的笔法。
Commentary
Zhang Huiyan, in his Selection of Ci, judged Wei Zhuang's Bodhisattva Barbarian set to be work of veiled intention written after he settled in Shu, and most later critics have followed him. Wang Guowei, though he preferred what he called the subjective poet, still allowed Wei's lyrics their clear beauty. This piece has been valued by later writers for being direct in appearance yet winding within, apparently free yet inwardly pent. Tang Guizhang said that on the surface it is all charm and grace while underneath it is stained with blood and tears. In reading Wei Zhuang's southern lyrics, then, one must not stop at the clear and lovely phrasing but taste the grief of a life spent in exile and disorder.
《菩萨蛮·其二》是韦庄词的名篇，也是五代词写江南之好的代表作。此词写江南之好、流连江南，向为论者称道。论者多赏其江南之好的描绘与流连之意的深婉——“人人尽说江南好，游人只合江南老”写游人只合江南老，深婉之极；“春水碧于天，画船听雨眠”写春水画船，更见其美；“垆边人似月，皓腕凝霜雪”用当垆之典写江南佳人，尤见其丽。韦庄为花间词人，其词以清丽深婉著称，此词正是其代表——以江南之好写流连之意，正是其词风。
Prosody
Line by line
人人尽说江南好，游人只合江南老。
All men say the south country is fair; the traveler should but grow old in the south.
人人尽说江南好，游人只合江南老。
All the world says the south is beautiful; the wanderer ought to end his days there.
首写人人尽说江南好、游人只合江南老，是全词写江南之好的起点。“人人尽说江南好”写人人尽说江南好——“人人尽说江南好”写人人都说江南好——人人尽说江南好；“游人只合江南老”写游人只合江南老——“游人只合江南老”写游人只应在江南终老——游人只合江南老。二句写江南之好、只合江南老：人人尽说江南好，游人只合江南老。以“人人尽说江南好”写人人称道江南之好，以“游人只合江南老”写游人只合在江南终老，正是韦庄词写江南之好的起点——江南之美，众口一词。
The opening writes that all men say the south is fair and the traveler should grow old there, the starting point of the lyric's praise of the south. 'All men say the south is fair' writes that all say the south is good. 'The traveler should but grow old in the south' writes that the roving man should end his days in the south. The two lines write the beauty of the south and growing old there—the starting point of Wei Zhuang's praise: the beauty of the south, on all men's lips.
春水碧于天，画船听雨眠。
The spring water is greener than the sky; in the painted boat I sleep listening to the rain.
春水碧于天，画船听雨眠。
The spring river runs greener than the sky; in the painted boat I lie asleep, listening to the rain.
此二句写春水画船、听雨而眠，是全词写江南之景的深化。“春水碧于天”写春水碧于天——“春水碧于天”写春水比天还要碧绿——春水碧于天；“画船听雨眠”写画船听雨眠——“画船听雨眠”写画船之中听雨而眠——画船听雨眠。二句写春水画船、听雨而眠：春水碧于天，画船听雨眠。以“春水碧于天”写春水碧绿、比天更碧，以“画船听雨眠”写画船听雨、悠然入眠，正是韦庄词写江南之景的深化——江南之景，如诗如画。
These two lines write the spring water and painted boat, sleeping to the rain, deepening the lyric's southern scenery. 'The spring water is greener than the sky' writes the spring river greener than the heavens. 'In the painted boat I sleep listening to the rain' writes sleeping in the painted boat to the rain. The two lines write the spring water and painted boat, sleeping to the rain—the deepening of Wei's southern scenery: the southern scene, like poetry and painting.
垆边人似月，皓腕凝霜雪。
Beside the wine stand the woman is like the moon; her white wrists are congealed frost and snow.
垆边人似月，皓腕凝霜雪。
Beside the wine counter the maiden is fair as the moon, her white wrists like congealed frost and snow.
此二句写垆边佳人、皓腕霜雪，是全词写江南佳人的深化。“垆边人似月”写垆边人似月——“垆边人似月”用卓文君当垆之典写垆边之人如明月——垆边人似月；“皓腕凝霜雪”写皓腕霜雪——“皓腕凝霜雪”写皓腕如凝聚的霜雪——皓腕凝霜雪。二句写垆边佳人、皓腕霜雪：垆边人似月，皓腕凝霜雪。以“垆边人似月”用当垆之典写垆边佳人如月，以“皓腕凝霜雪”写皓腕如霜雪之洁，正是韦庄词写江南佳人的深化——江南佳人，如月如雪。
These two lines write the beauty by the wine stand and the wrists of frost and snow, deepening the lyric's southern beauty. 'The woman beside the wine stand is like the moon' uses the allusion to the wine stand to write the tavern girl bright as the moon. 'Her white wrists are congealed frost and snow' writes the wrists pure as congealed frost. The two lines write the beauty by the stand and the wrists of frost—the deepening of Wei's southern beauty: the southern maidens, like the moon and like snow.
未老莫还乡，还乡须断肠。
While not yet old, do not go home; to go home would break the heart.
未老莫还乡，还乡须断肠。
Before you are old, do not return home; to return would surely break your heart.
末写未老莫还乡、还乡须断肠，是全词写流连江南的归结。“未老莫还乡”写未老莫还乡——“未老莫还乡”写未老之时莫还乡——未老莫还乡；“还乡须断肠”写还乡须断肠——“还乡须断肠”写还乡必定断肠——还乡须断肠。二句写未老莫还乡、还乡须断肠：未老莫还乡，还乡须断肠。以“未老莫还乡”写未老莫还乡之劝（怕乡愁断肠），以“还乡须断肠”写还乡必定断肠之痛，正是韦庄词写流连江南的归结——江南可留，乡愁断肠。
The closing writes not to go home while young and that returning would break the heart, the resolution of the lyric's lingering in the south. 'While not yet old, do not go home' writes the admonition not to return while young (fearing heartbreak). 'To go home would break the heart' writes the pain of returning certain to break the heart. The two lines write not to return and that returning breaks the heart—the resolution of Wei's lingering in the south: the south may be stayed, yet homesickness breaks the heart.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Both belong to Wei Zhuang's Bodhisattva Barbarian set, of which this is another piece; read them together for his writing of the south.
韦庄《菩萨蛮》组词写客居江南之情，与本首同为韦庄菩萨蛮词。差异在主题：菩萨蛮其二写江南之好、流连江南；菩萨蛮他首写劝君沉醉、羁旅之情。一写“江南”之恋，一写“醉乡”之寄。两者并读，可见韦庄菩萨蛮词的多重主题。
思帝乡·春日游 Thinking of the Emperor · Spring Outing 韦庄 · 同为韦庄词写情，一写江南之好一写春日之情，皆深婉 Related readingCompare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
韦庄《思帝乡·春日游》“春日游，杏花吹满头”写春日之情，与本首同为韦庄词。差异在主题：菩萨蛮其二写江南之好；思帝乡写春日之爱。一写“江南”之恋，一写“春日”之情。两者并读，可见韦庄词写情的两种主题。
菩萨蛮·劝君今夜须沉醉 Buddhist Dancers · I Urge You to Drunkenness Tonight 韦庄 · 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.
此处关联韦庄《菩萨蛮·劝君今夜须沉醉》，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。