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元 Yuan · 散曲 Sanqu song

落梅风·新秋至

Falling Plum Wind - New Autumn Comes

贯云石

Guan Yunshi

写景scene 送别Farewell 愁思sorrow 羁旅Theme

新秋至，人乍别，顺长江水流残月。
悠悠画船东去也！
这思量起头儿一夜。

New autumn comes, and the man has just parted;
Along the Yangtze's waters drifts the broken moon.
The leisurely painted boat goes east away!
This longing begins from this very night.

Listen

Meaning

New autumn comes, and the man has just parted; along the Yangtze's flow drifts a broken moon. The leisurely painted boat goes east away! This longing begins from tonight, a single night of tender ache.

新秋刚刚降临，人刚刚分别。顺着长江水，流走了一弯残月。悠悠的画船向东去了！这相思才刚刚起头，就整整缠绵了一夜。

Appreciation

This song is short, its plan extremely simple yet its feeling and tone long and lingering. The opening 'New autumn comes, and the man has just parted' in six characters first writes the season then the human affair; the word 'just' suddenly shows the abruptness of the parting, autumn mood and parting grief striking together. The third line 'Along the Yangtze's waters drifts the broken moon' carries the still moon on the moving water, lodging loneliness and drifting in the scene. The fourth line 'The leisurely painted boat goes east away' with 'leisurely' writes the slowness of the boat's going and the longness of the parting grief, and the word 'away' trails out a helplessness. The closing 'This longing begins from this very night' is pure colloquial speech, pointing that the longing starts tonight, showing its length within plainness. The whole song does not carve itself; it gains the natural interest of folk song.

【白话串讲】 “新秋至，人乍别，顺长江水流残月”——贯云石写新秋送别：江水带着残月流走。“悠悠画船东去也！这思量起头儿一夜”——画船悠悠东去，这才是相思的第一夜。【意象与手法】此曲短小（仅三十一字），章法极简而情韵悠长。起拍「新秋至，人乍别」六字，前写节候后写人事，「乍」字突现别离之猝然，秋意与离恨同袭。第三句「顺长江水流残月」以动水载静月，残月随江东去，景中寓孤寂漂泊之象。第四句「悠悠画船东去也」以「悠悠」写船行之缓、离恨之绵，「也」字拖出无奈。结句「这思量起头儿一夜」纯用口语，点相思自今夜始，于平淡中见绵长，全曲不事雕琢，得民歌天然之趣。【情感与主旨】贯云石（1286—1324），号酸斋，高昌回鹘贵胄，仁宗时拜翰林侍读学士，不久辞官隐居杭州，卖药为生，自号「芦花道人」。此曲约作于隐居江南时，写新秋江上送别，将一己之别情放入长江万里的浩渺时空，疏淡中见深婉。全曲以寻常意象写寻常别情，不假故实而自有深情，正见散曲「本色」一路——以俗为雅，以淡写浓。【名句点睛】本曲适合考查：一、意象赏析，「长江水」「残月」在离情表达中的作用；二、关键词「乍」「悠悠」「起头儿」的炼字效果；三、口语入曲「这思量起头儿一夜」的民歌风味。

Background

Guan Yunshi (1286-1324), courtesy Fucen, style Suanzhai, came of the Uighur noble house of Gaochang, his grandfather a founding general of the Yuan. His original name was Xiao Yunshi Haiya; because his father was named Guan Zhige he took Guan as his surname. Under Renzong he was made Hanlin academician reader-in-waiting, but soon resigned and hid at Hangzhou, selling medicine for a living, calling himself the 'Reed-Flower Daoist'. His songs are clear-and-dashing, paired with Xu Zaisi as the 'sour-and-sweet arias'. This song was likely written in his retirement in Jiangnan, writing a parting on the river at new autumn, blending the parting sorrow into the Yangtze, the broken moon, and the painted boat going east - sparse and pale yet deeply tender.

贯云石（1286—1324），本名小云石海涯，号酸斋，又号芦花道人，高昌回鹘（畏吾儿）人，出身贵胄：其祖父阿里海涯为元开国大将，官至湖广行省左丞相，因父名贯只哥，遂以贯为姓。他自幼膂力过人，善骑射，又折节读书，通汉文经史，精乐律词章。仁宗延祐年间拜翰林侍读学士、中奉大夫，知制诰同修国史，可谓少年得意；然未几即称疾辞官，隐居钱塘（今杭州），卖药市中，自号「芦花道人」，过起诗酒江湖的生活。其散曲豪放清逸、本色当行，与徐再思（甜斋）并称「酸甜乐府」，是元代少数民族散曲家的代表。此曲约作于隐居江南之时，写新秋江上送别：新秋乍至、伊人乍别，残月随江流东去，画船悠悠远行，离愁从今夜开始蔓延。曲中「顺长江水流残月」一句，将一己之别情放入长江万里的浩渺时空，疏淡中见深婉，正见酸斋散曲「以俗为雅、以淡写浓」的本色，也是他身世飘零、客居江湖的生命体验在词曲中的投影，是研究贯云石散曲风格的代表性小令。

Art

此曲短小（仅三十一字），章法极简而情韵悠长，是元散曲小令「以少胜多」的典范。起拍「新秋至，人乍别」六字，前写节候、后写人事，对仗成偶而意思相承——新秋的凉意与乍别的怅惘同时袭来，节候之新反衬离恨之猝，「乍」字写别离之突然，毫无预兆，措手不及。第三句「顺长江水流残月」是意象经营最奇之笔：以动水载静月，残月仿佛随江流东去，「顺」字写出水与月的同向流动，而「残月」既写时近月末（新秋之月）或破晓将沉之月，又暗喻人事之残缺，景语即情语。第四句「悠悠画船东去也」以「悠悠」写船行之缓、别情之绵，「也」字为语气词，拖出一个无可奈何的叹息，口语入曲，如见送者目送船影远去。结句「这思量起头儿一夜」纯用口语，「起头儿」三字把相思的漫长起点轻轻点出——才起头，已一夜，往后的日子将如何捱过？不言其长而其长自见。全曲不事雕琢，由景入情、由物及心，层层递进，得民歌天然之趣，正合「酸甜乐府」清逸本色。

Allusions

This song uses no clear allusion, winning purely by plain description. 'Broken moon' is a common image in classical poetry, often figuring parting and lack (as in Liu Yong's 'a riverbank willow, dawn wind, the waning moon'), here drifting the broken moon along the Yangtze, quietly carrying on the traditional parting meaning without a heap of allusions. 'The Yangtze' as a sign of time and space flowing is also common in poetry, setting off the uncertainty of human meeting and parting. The whole song writes ordinary feeling with ordinary images, needing no old tales yet having deep feeling of itself - exactly the 'true-colour' road of sanqu: making the plain refined, writing the strong in the pale.

此曲几乎不用典故，纯以白描与寻常意象取胜，这正是元散曲「本色」一路的作风，然意象源流却深。其一「残月」，是中国古典诗词写离别最习见的意象，自《诗经·陈风·月出》以月写相思以来，江淹《别赋》「月徘徊」、张九龄「海上生明月，天涯共此时」、柳永《雨霖铃》「今宵酒醒何处，杨柳岸晓风残月」皆以月写别，而「残月」尤宜离情——月缺如人缺，残月将沉，恰似欢会将尽。其二「长江」，自《论语》「逝者如斯夫」以来，江水即成为时光流逝、聚散无常的符号，李白「唯见长江天际流」、苏轼「大江东去」皆借江流写人事之代谢，此曲「顺长江水流残月」，残月随江流去，恰似离人随船东去，江流即是别情。其三「画船」，承唐人「春水碧于天，画船听雨眠」（韦庄）的江南意象，画船东去，带走伊人，也带走一片相思。三意象皆非僻典，而组合天成——残月、长江、画船一意贯串，全写「去」字，正见以常语写常情而自有深致的元曲本色。

Commentary

Ren Na's 'Song Humour' spoke of Guan Yunshi's (Suanzhai's) sanqu as 'bold and clear', paired with Xu Zaisi (Tianzhai) as the 'sour-and-sweet arias', the two great Yuan sanqu masters standing opposite. Modern scholars say his little songs are mostly 'making the plain refined, natural and uncarved'. This song writes new-autumn parting feeling, sparse and pale like talk, yet lines like 'along the Yangtze's waters drifts the broken moon' and 'this longing begins from this very night' show deep feeling where one least expects it - exactly Suanzhai's 'clear' true colour. The Ming writer Zhu Quan's 'Orthodox Tone of the Grand Harmony' listed him among the 'heroes of the song forest'.

贯云石生前即以散曲名世，明人朱权《太和正音谱》列其于「词林英杰」之列，称其曲「如天马脱羁」，形容其豪放飘逸、不可羁勒。任讷《曲谐》论酸斋散曲「豪放清逸」，与甜斋徐再思并称「酸甜乐府」，二人一清一甜，并峙元代散曲两大家。近人论其小令，每拈「以俗为雅，天然去雕饰」之评，此曲正是代表：全曲无一丽字、无一僻典，「新秋至，人乍别」「这思量起头儿一夜」皆如口语，而「顺长江水流残月」「悠悠画船东去也」又自有远韵，俗不伤雅、淡而有味，深得北曲本色三昧。此曲写别，不写执手垂泪的当场，而写别后的第一夜——相思「起头儿」的一夜，构思独辟蹊径，为历来评家所称。身世背景上，贯云石弃官隐杭，卖药为生，其曲多写江湖散淡之趣，然此曲的离愁深婉，亦透出这位异族贵胄客居江南、亲人故旧多在万里之外的身世感怀，故能于疏淡中见真切，是元散曲写离情的上品。

Prosody

Form Sanqu lyric - Falling Plum Wind of the double tune (little song)元散曲小令·双调·落梅风（即寿阳曲）

Rhyme Rhymes of the Central Plain, che-je rhyme (part, moon, away, night)押《中原音韵》车遮韵，韵字为：别、月、也、夜，一韵到底，韵脚清亮悠长。

Tone pattern Short, abrupt lines; first two lines a three-character antithesis句式三、三、七、七、七，前两句三字对起，后三句七言递进，短促起、舒缓收，节奏先急后缓。

Reading note Falling Plum Wind is also called Shouyang Tune; line form is three-three, seven, seven, seven, filled here to the tune.《落梅风》即《寿阳曲》，为北曲双调小令，句式定格为三、三、七、七、七，共五句。此曲押车遮韵，车遮韵收音于「e」，声音悠长婉转，宜写缠绵悱恻之情——别、月、也、夜四韵，或入声或去声，句句落于长音，恰似一声声拉长的叹息，与离愁的绵远相合。声律上，前两句「新秋至，人乍别」以三字对起，音节短促，如两记快鼓，敲出秋来别骤的猝然；中间两句七言「顺长江水流残月」「悠悠画船东去也」舒展绵长，如江水般平缓推进，「也」字作衬字（衬于句末加强语气）更添口语摇曳之致；结句「这思量起头儿一夜」亦七言，而「起头儿」儿化衬字使句势顿挫，如话家常。全曲短韵疏，节奏由急促而舒缓、由舒缓而顿挫，恰合由「乍别」的猝然到「一夜」的绵长这一情感曲线。贯云石为回鹘贵胄而深谙汉音律，此曲依格守律而自然流转，正见北曲「依腔填词、以声传情」的本色，亦见少数民族文人对汉语声律的娴熟把握。

Line by line

新秋至，人乍别

New autumn comes, and the man has just parted

新秋刚刚降临，人刚刚分别。

New autumn has just arrived; we have just parted.

六字起拍，前写节候、后写人事，双线并起而意思相承。「新秋至」点明时令，一个「新」字写出秋天初来乍到的鲜感，凉意初生、物候初变；「人乍别」点明人事，一个「乍」字写出离别之猝然——刚刚，就在秋天刚到的时候，人忽然就分别了。两事同时发生，仿佛秋意与离恨约好了一同袭来：秋之新，反衬别之猝；秋之凉，加深别之痛。六字无一字言情，而秋凉离恨已扑面而来。对偶之工亦见匠心：「新」对「乍」，皆有「刚刚、忽然」之义，字面对仗而意思重叠，叠出了仓促无措的怅惘。开篇即以最简练的笔墨写最复杂的情绪，正是小令「以少胜多」的笔法，也是全曲由景入情的第一层推进。

Six characters open the song, the season before, human affair after, two lines rising together and running one into the other. 'New autumn has just arrived' marks the season; the word 'new' renders the freshness of autumn's first coming, coolness new-born, the first change of things; 'we have just parted' marks the human affair; the word 'just' renders the suddenness of parting — just now, as autumn arrived, people suddenly parted. The two happen together, as if autumn's chill and the grief of parting had agreed to strike together: autumn's newness sets off the suddenness of parting; autumn's cool deepens the parting's pain. Six characters, not one word of feeling, yet autumn cool and parting grief rush to the face. The craft of the parallel, too: 'new' against 'just,' both 'just now, suddenly,' the letters matched and the meaning doubled, heaping the bewilderment of the unprepared. Opening on the fewest words for the most complex feeling — the short song's gift of the few defeating the many, the first move of turning scene into emotion.

顺长江水流残月

Along the Yangtze's waters drifts the broken moon

一弯残月顺着长江水缓缓流去。

The waning moon drifts downstream on the long river.

此句是全曲意象经营最奇之笔，七个字写尽离愁的去向。「顺长江水流残月」：水在流，月也在流——残月倒映江中，随波东去，仿佛月也成了离别队伍中的一员，正与画船东去的方向一致。「顺」字写出水月同向的顺势而动，看似写景，实写离人东去的不可挽回；「残月」兼有两义：一为月末之月或拂晓将沉之月，写时间的残缺与将尽，一为缺月，暗喻人事的离散残缺，景语即情语。以动水载静月，静月因水而活，是化静为动的妙笔；而江之浩渺与月之孤悬并置，一己之别情被放入万里长江的时空，离愁因此由个人的怅惘升华为面对天地悠悠的苍茫之感。七个字，景、情、理俱在其中，是全曲承上启下的意象枢纽。

This line is the song's most extraordinary piece of imagery, seven characters writing the going of parting grief. 'The waning moon drifts downstream on the long river': the water flows, the moon flows too — the crescent reflected in the river, borne east on the waves, as if the moon were one of the departing company, bound the same way as the painted boat. The word 'drifts' renders the moon-and-water moving together; seemingly scenery, in truth the irreversibility of the parting man going east. 'The waning moon' holds two meanings: the moon of the month's end, or of dawn about to sink, writing the time's incompleteness and nearing end; and the crescent, a dark figure for human parting and loss. Moving water bearing the still moon, the still moon made alive by water — the still turned moving; the river's vastness and the moon's lone hanging set side by side, one man's grief placed within the ten-thousand-li river, parting grief rising from private melancholy to the vastness of heaven and earth. Seven characters: scene, feeling, and thought all within — the imagery hinge between the song's parts.

悠悠画船东去也

The painted boat drifts on, drifting east.

那画船悠悠地向着东方驶去了。

That painted boat moves on, drifting eastward.

「悠悠画船东去也」七字，写船行之缓与别情之绵，是全曲最富余韵的一句。「悠悠」叠词，兼写二义：一写画船行得慢——船随水势缓缓东去，速度之缓恰如送者目光的依依不舍；一写别情之绵长——悠悠二字自带一种延宕、绵远的时间感，仿佛这「去」的过程被拉得很长很长。「画船」点出船之华美，与「新秋」的明丽相配，伊人乘华船而去，愈华愈见别之可惜。「东去也」的「也」字最妙：一个语气词，把目送者无可奈何的一声叹息拖曳出来——去了，去了，就这样悠悠地去了。全句不写送者，而送者的痴立、怅望、叹息俱在「悠悠」「也」三字之间，正是元曲以口语传情的本色，比直写「泪眼相送」更见含蓄。

'The painted boat drifts on, drifting eastward,' seven characters, writing the slowness of the boat and the length of parting grief, the song's most lingering line. 'Drifts' is a reduplicated word, holding two meanings: the boat's slow going — moving east at the water's pace, the slowness matching the lingering gaze of the one who watches; and the length of parting grief — the word carries a sense of drawn-out, far-reaching time, as if this 'going' were stretched very, very long. 'The painted boat' marks its splendor, matched with the brightness of 'new autumn'; the beloved aboard the fine craft — the finer the craft, the more regrettable the parting. The particle of 'eastward' is the finest stroke: one modal word dragging out the watcher's helpless sigh — gone, gone, drifting east just so. The whole line never names the one who sees him off, yet her foolish standing, her gazing, her sigh all lie between 'drifts' and the particle — the native manner of Yuan song conveying feeling in vernacular, more reserved than writing 'tearful farewell.'

这思量起头儿一夜

This longing begins from this very night

这份相思才刚刚起头，就已经缠绵了整整一夜。

This longing has only this moment begun — and it has clung for a whole night.

结句是全曲情感的点题与收束，纯用口语而分量极重。「这思量」以指代词直指相思本体，仿佛相思是眼前一件可触之物；「起头儿」是北方口语，犹言「刚开始、开了个头」，一个儿化音写尽相思刚刚萌发的状态——不是相思已久，而是才起头，便已如此难熬；「一夜」点明时间跨度——这相思从分别的当晚就开始了，整整一夜未曾停歇。三字一停，句短情长：「才起头」三字轻轻一点，而「一夜」二字重重一落，才开头便已一夜，往后还有多少日日夜夜？不言其长而其长自见，不言其苦而其苦可知。以「起头儿」这样一个轻俏的口语收束全曲，恰似以轻舟载重愁，愈轻愈见愁之重，民歌般的天籁之笔，正是酸斋小令的本色。

The closing line names and resolves the song's feeling, pure vernacular, weighty beyond its words. 'This longing' points to lovesickness itself by a demonstrative, as if longing were a palpable thing before the eyes; 'only just begun' is northern speech, 'at the very start,' the soft particle rendering the state of longing newly sprung — not longing long endured, but just begun, already so hard to bear; 'a whole night' marks the span — the longing began the very night of parting, and has not ceased all night. Three beats, short line, long feeling: 'only just begun' touches lightly, 'a whole night' falls heavy — just begun, already a night; how many nights and days are to follow? Its length unspoken, the length self-evident; its bitterness unspoken, the bitterness known. Closing the song on the light vernacular 'only just begun' is like bearing heavy grief in a light skiff — the lighter, the heavier the grief; a folk-note of nature, the native manner of Suanzhai's short songs.

Study

Word focus

乍 Means 'just now, suddenly'; one word writes the abruptness of the parting and the dismay of being caught unprepared. 「人乍别」之「乍」字，是全曲炼字之眼，写尽别离之猝然与措手不及。「乍」为「刚刚、忽然」之意，兼有时间之近（刚刚）与事件之突（忽然）两重含义：人刚刚才分别，仿佛离别就发生在眼前一瞬，还没有回过神来；而「忽然」一层更见其猝——没有长亭送别的铺垫，没有执手相看的拖延，一个「乍」字把离别写成一声猝不及防的响雷。与「新秋至」的「新」对举，「新」写秋天初来，「乍」写人别骤起，时间上的「新」与「乍」相叠，仿佛节候与人事在同一个瞬间翻篇，秋意与离恨同袭。若易作「初别」「方别」，则仅记时间，失其突然之感；「乍」字一立，全曲的怅惘仓皇便有了着落，此后残月、画船、一夜相思的展开，皆由此「乍」字生发。

悠悠 Writes both the slowness of the painted boat's going and the longness of the parting grief; the reduplicative slows the pace, trailing out a helpless long sigh. 「悠悠画船东去也」之「悠悠」二字，兼写船行之缓与离恨之绵，是全曲最富情韵的叠词。「悠悠」本义为遥远、长久、闲缓之貌，《诗经》「悠哉悠哉，辗转反侧」已以悠悠写相思之绵长，后世「悠悠苍天」「白云千载空悠悠」皆取其远与久。此处「悠悠」一写画船：船随水势缓缓东行，速度之慢恰是目送者依依目光的延长；二写别情：离恨如江水般悠悠无尽，船走得再远，情也绵延得同样远。叠词自带音节的舒缓绵延，读来如见船影渐远、如闻一声长叹，时间感被拉长，画面感被延宕。更妙的是「悠悠」不着一「愁」字，而「去」字之后的怅惘全在这一缓一慢之间，「以缓写悲，愈缓愈悲」，正是元曲以本色语传深致情的典范。

顺 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 「顺长江水流残月」之「顺」字，是化静为动、以景写情的关键字。「顺」本义为顺着、沿着，此处写残月「顺着」长江水东流——残月本静悬天上或静映江中，因「顺」字而与江水同向流动，仿佛月也乘着水流、跟着画船一同东去，静月因此有了行色。此字妙在三点：其一，写出水月画船三者同向的「去」势，为下句「画船东去也」张本，离别的方向感、动势感由此确立；其二，「顺」字含「顺势、顺流」之意，别情如江流般不可逆转、无可挽留，一个「顺」字写尽无奈——不是人能留，而是月也顺、水也顺、船也顺，万事皆向东去，唯留送者独立江边；其三，以月之「顺」写人之「逆」，物皆随流而去，人独逆流而望，物我对照，离愁愈显。一字之妙，全曲生色。

起头儿 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 「这思量起头儿一夜」之「起头儿」，是全曲最见元曲口语本色的字眼，儿化音带着北曲特有的亲切与俏皮。「起头儿」犹言「才开头、刚开始」，三字轻轻一点，写出相思刚刚萌芽的状态——不是陈年的积愁，而是新生的、鲜活的、尚不知深浅的相思。「儿」字一化，语感立变：文言的「始」「初」冷而硬，口语的「起头儿」暖而软，仿佛说话人正掰着指头数着相思的日子，自我解嘲中带着无可奈何。妙在「才起头」与「一夜」的落差：才起头，就已经熬了整整一夜，那么往后的日子呢？「起头儿」的轻俏反衬出相思的沉重，以轻写重、以俗写深，正是「以俗为雅」的典范。若易作「此恨从今夜始」，则雅而失味；「起头儿」三字，把元曲小令的语言个性展露无遗。