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元 Yuan · 曲 Qu song

普天乐·大明湖泛舟

Putian Yue (Tune: 'All Under Heaven'): Boating on Daming Lake

张养浩

Zhang Yanghao

画船开，红尘外。
人从天上，载得春来。
烟水闲，乾坤大。
四面云山无遮碍，影摇动城郭楼台。
杯斟的金波滟滟，诗吟的青霄惨惨，人惊的白鸟皑皑。

The painted boat sets out, beyond the world of dust and red.
Men come down from heaven, carrying spring with them.
Smoke and water lie idle, and heaven and earth are vast.
Four quarters of cloud and mountain, unblocked and free,
The reflections stir the walls and towers of the city.
The cup holds a golden wave that shimmers; the poem is spoken to a blue sky that has turned pale; the men are startled by white birds all in white.
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Meaning

A short Yuan song on a pleasure boat on Daming Lake outside Jinan. The boat leaves the dusty world behind, and men appear to have come down from the sky carrying spring with them; the waters are calm and the world large, the mountains on all sides are unobstructed, and their reflections move among the city's towers. The closing triplet piles up three more reflections — wine that shimmers like gold, a poem recited to a pale blue sky, white birds startled into flight — so that the whole piece is a description of delight in which nothing is stated as emotion.

画船开，红尘外。人从天上，载得春来。烟水闲，乾坤大。四面云山无遮碍，影摇动城郭楼台。杯斟的金波滟滟，诗吟的青霄惨惨，人惊的白鸟皑皑。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The painted boat leaves the world of human dust; men seem to descend from the sky bringing spring; the mist and the water are idle and the world is vast; four sides of cloud and mountain are unobstructed, and their shadows stir the city's towers and terraces. [Structure] Two short parallel units of three and four lines, then a triplet of three long lines, so that the song gathers speed toward its close. [Imagery] Almost every image is a reflection — mountains in water, towers in water, wine in a cup, birds in the sky — which is what makes the poem read as one continuous surface rather than as a series of objects. [Language] The song's language is colloquial, with end-of-line particles and layering participles ('the wine poured is a golden wave that shimmers') rather than classical economy; this looseness is typical of the Yuan song, where the words of speech are allowed into verse. [Effect] The poem's joy is entirely indirect: it never says 'I am happy', and it never names the lake, the boat or the companions. The phrase 'carrying spring with them' is the only sentence that states anything, and it does so by making the boatload the cause of the season.

【白话串讲】 张养浩写《普天乐·大明湖泛舟》：“画船开，红尘外。人从天上，载得春来”——“烟水闲，乾坤大”——“四面云山无遮碍，影摇动城郭楼台”——“杯斟的金波滟滟，诗吟的青霄惨惨，人惊的白鸟皑皑”——他泛舟大明湖——人从天上，载得春来。 【意象与手法】 “画船开、红尘外”写画船开；“人从天上、载得春来”写人从天上；“烟水闲、乾坤大”写烟水闲；结以“杯斟的金波滟滟，诗吟的青霄惨惨，人惊的白鸟皑皑”写人惊的白鸟皑皑。旷达明丽。 【情感与主旨】 张养浩写大明湖泛舟之作，写画船开、人从天上载得春来的湖上之乐，是张养浩曲中的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“画船开，红尘外”写画船开；“人从天上，载得春来”写湖上之乐。

Background

Zhang Yanghao (1270–1329), courtesy name Xingshan, was a Yuan official and poet who served in the central government and in Shandong, and who is best remembered for his songs on landscape and on the calamities of his age, above all the famous 'Teng Wang Ting' elegy on the poor. He wrote several hundred lyric songs (sanqu) in the style popular among the literati of Dadu. This 'Putian Yue' is dated by readers to his years in Shandong, when he visited the lakes and mountains east of the provincial capital.

《普天乐·大明湖泛舟》为元代散曲家张养浩所作曲。张养浩（1270—1329），字希孟，号云庄，济南人，元代散曲家，官至礼部尚书。此曲写景泛舟，为大明湖泛舟之作。曲中「画船开，红尘外」写画船开，红尘外；「人从天上，载得春来」写人从天上，载得春来；「烟水闲，乾坤大」写烟水闲，乾坤大；「四面云山无遮碍，影摇动城郭楼台」写四面云山无遮碍，影摇动城郭楼台；「杯斟的金波滟滟，诗吟的青霄惨惨，人惊的白鸟皑皑」写杯斟的金波滟滟，诗吟的青霄惨惨，人惊的白鸟皑皑。张养浩此曲以写景泛舟、人惊的白鸟皑皑写其泛舟之情，旷达明丽，是张养浩曲中的名篇。此篇《普天乐·大明湖泛舟》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。此篇《普天乐·大明湖泛舟》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。

Art

The song's technique is the accumulation of the participle: nearly every line contains an object with a verb attached to it — 'the cup poured is a golden wave that shimmers', 'the poem recited is a blue sky that has turned pale', 'the men startled are white birds all white' — so that the poem describes things always in the act of being perceived rather than as finished objects. The second device is scale: the boat is small and the lake is packed with mountains, towers, sky and birds, and the poem keeps switching the point of view from within the boat to somewhere above it, which is what produces the sensation of floating. The final triplet is the clearest instance of the Yuan song's appetite for piling clause upon clause; the three lines have no verb of their own and depend on the reader supplying 'the sight is', so the close is a cascade of effects rather than a conclusion.

此曲艺术上以「旷达明丽、以舟写情」见长。全曲由画船开而人从天上而烟水闲。起「画船开，红尘外」写画船开：画船开，红尘外；「人从天上，载得春来」写人从天上：人从天上，载得春来；「烟水闲，乾坤大」写烟水闲：烟水闲，乾坤大；「四面云山无遮碍，影摇动城郭楼台」写影摇动城郭楼台：四面云山无遮碍，影摇动城郭楼台；结「杯斟的金波滟滟，诗吟的青霄惨惨，人惊的白鸟皑皑」写人惊的白鸟皑皑：杯斟的金波滟滟，诗吟的青霄惨惨，人惊的白鸟皑皑。全曲以舟写情，由画船开而人惊的白鸟皑皑，旷达明丽，是张养浩曲中的名篇。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。

Allusions

Daming Lake, outside the Yuan city of Jinan, was a celebrated pleasure resort whose willows, lotus and springs made it a standard subject of Shandong poetry. The 'world of dust and red' (红尘) is the conventional Buddhist and Daoist phrase for the human world of ordinary desire, and the poem's opening — the boat leaving it — converts a suburban boat trip into a small escape into purity. The white birds and the blue sky recall the classic paired images of the 'Teng Wang Ting' and of the 'Autumn in the Dengxian Pavilion', and the 'golden wave' (金波) is a name for moonlit or sunlit water used in earlier poetry, so the wine is described in terms of the same light that the sky and the birds are.

曲中「画船开红尘外」「人从天上载得春来」「烟水闲乾坤大」「四面云山无遮碍影摇动城郭楼台」「杯斟的金波滟滟诗吟的青霄惨惨人惊的白鸟皑皑」等语，皆含典故故实。「画船开红尘外」用红尘之典（红尘写尘世），写画船开红尘外；「人从天上载得春来」写人从天上载得春来；「烟水闲乾坤大」写烟水闲乾坤大；「四面云山无遮碍影摇动城郭楼台」写四面云山无遮碍影摇动城郭楼台；「杯斟的金波滟滟诗吟的青霄惨惨人惊的白鸟皑皑」写杯斟的金波滟滟诗吟的青霄惨惨人惊的白鸟皑皑。曲人用红尘之典入曲，不着痕迹，而把写景泛舟之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。

Commentary

Yuan sanqu have often been undervalued relative to Song ci on the grounds that their language is too vernacular, and this song is a good example of the sort of work that has been recovered only recently; modern anthologies place it among the best of the genre. Traditional comments are few, noting chiefly its briskness and its refusal of the polished classical diction of the Song. Its reputation rests mostly on the final triplet, which readers quote as an instance of Yuan poetry's characteristic energy — the poet's pleasure is delivered as a sequence of visual accidents rather than as a mood.

这首《普天乐·大明湖泛舟》，是张养浩写写景泛舟之作，写画船开、人从天上、烟水闲、人惊的白鸟皑皑之情，旷达明丽。起「画船开，红尘外」——画船开，红尘外。写画船开：画船开、红尘外——开、尘外；「人从天上，载得春来」——人从天上，载得春来。写人从天上：人从天上、载得春来——天上、春来；「烟水闲，乾坤大」——烟水闲，乾坤大。写烟水闲：烟水闲、乾坤大——闲、大；「四面云山无遮碍，影摇动城郭楼台」——四面云山无遮碍，影摇动城郭楼台。写影摇动城郭楼台：四面云山无遮碍、影摇动城郭楼台——无遮碍、楼台；结「杯斟的金波滟滟，诗吟的青霄惨惨，人惊的白鸟皑皑」——杯斟的金波滟滟，诗吟的青霄惨惨，人惊的白鸟皑皑。写人惊的白鸟皑皑：杯斟的金波滟滟、诗吟的青霄惨惨、人惊的白鸟皑皑——金波滟滟、白鸟皑皑。这「杯斟的金波滟滟，诗吟的青霄惨惨，人惊的白鸟皑皑」，是全曲之结：以人惊的白鸟皑皑写其泛舟。全曲旷达明丽，以舟写情，正是张养浩曲中的名篇。

Prosody

Form Sanqu (Yuan song), the 'Putian Yue' tune of the middle吕 mode曲（散曲·中吕·普天乐）
Rhyme A short song of the 'Putian Yue' tune, rhymed throughout on the level tone: 'wai' (beyond), 'lai' (spring), 'da' (vast), 'tai' (towers) and 'ai' (all white) — all within the same broad 'ai' rhyme. Because the rhyme is continuous on one open vowel, the song has a single bright, unbroken resonance appropriate to its subject.此曲为散曲，属中吕宫【普天乐】曲牌。押韵：「外」「来」「大」「台」「皑」押皆来部韵。句式长短错落，衬字自然，正与写写景泛舟的旷达明丽相称，也见其以散曲写泛舟的灵动。
Tone pattern The tune sets lines of between three and eleven characters, with the caesura placed irregularly rather than at a fixed point, so the rhythm is closer to speech than to verse. Three of its most famous lines add a variable number of 'chenzi' (衬字, interlinear particles) before the line rhymes — the reader can feel the extra syllables as slight hesitations — and these additions are what let the poet write a colloquial line inside a fixed tune. The closing triplet is the loosest of the piece, and its rhythm actually accelerates because of the three-part structure.句式上，「画船开，红尘外」写画船开，音节明快；「人从天上，载得春来」写人从天上，音节超逸；「烟水闲，乾坤大」写烟水闲，音节开阔；结「杯斟的金波滟滟，诗吟的青霄惨惨，人惊的白鸟皑皑」写人惊的白鸟皑皑，音节明丽。全曲音节随情起伏，由明快而超逸、由开阔而明丽，正合散曲「灵动」之妙，读来如写景泛舟、人惊的白鸟皑皑之音，旷达而动人。
Reading note In the Yuan song the fixed tune provides the skeleton — the number of lines, their lengths and the rhyme — while the poet is free to add syllables of ordinary speech. This song shows the balance: the rhyme and the short unit are traditional, but the long lines of the close are conversational, and the effect is of a man talking quickly and happily. The 'ai' rhyme throughout is the technical reason why the whole piece sounds so open and lift; a closer rhyme family would have given the same words a much heavier sound.此曲为散曲，是张养浩写写景泛舟之作，也是其曲中的名篇。全曲的艺术特色在于「旷达明丽、以舟写情」：「画船开，红尘外」写画船开、「人从天上，载得春来」写人从天上、「烟水闲，乾坤大」写烟水闲、「杯斟的金波滟滟，诗吟的青霄惨惨，人惊的白鸟皑皑」写人惊的白鸟皑皑。全曲旷达明丽，以舟写情。尤为精妙者，是「画船开，红尘外」用红尘之典；而「人惊的白鸟皑皑」写尽白鸟皑皑，正是张养浩曲「旷达明丽」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《普天乐·大明湖泛舟》一诗之所以读来声情并茂，正在于诗人以声韵配合情思、以节奏烘托意境，音节之长短、平仄之起伏，皆与诗意相为表里，此亦可见中国古典诗歌声律之美与匠心之工。

Line by line

画船开，红尘外。

The painted boat sets out, beyond the world of dust and red.

画船开，红尘外。

The painted boat casts off, beyond the dusty world.

起句写画船开，起笔即见其画船。「画船开」写画船开，「画船」写画船、「开」写开；「红尘外」用红尘之典写红尘外，「红尘」写红尘、「外」写外。一句写画船开红尘外，以画船开写开、以红尘外写外，写尽画船开、红尘外之情。以船起兴，旷达而明丽，是「以船起兴」的妙笔。此句以寥寥数语写尽深意，情韵兼胜，正是全诗点睛之笔。其于字句之间暗藏波澜，于平易之中寄寓曲折，尤当反复涵泳，方能得其三昧。

The opening begins: 'the painted boat casts off,' then 'beyond the dusty world.' The boat as springboard, open and bright — a fine stroke. A few words hold deep meaning, feeling and cadence together; beneath the plainness lie undercurrents, and only slow, fond savoring brings out the inner meaning.

人从天上，载得春来。

Men come down from heaven, carrying spring with them.

人从天上，载得春来。

From heaven itself, one has ferried spring in.

此句写人从天上，是全曲写天上之态的关键。「人从天上」写人从天上，「人从」写人从、「天上」写天上；「载得春来」写载得春来，「载得」写载得、「春来」写春来。一句写人从天上载得春来，以人从天上写天上、以载得春来写春来，写尽人从天上、载得春来之情。以船写景，旷达而明丽，是「以船写景」的点睛之笔。此句以寥寥数语写尽深意，情韵兼胜，正是全诗点睛之笔。其于字句之间暗藏波澜，于平易之中寄寓曲折，尤当反复涵泳，方能得其三昧。

This line writes the coming from heaven: 'from heaven itself, one has ferried spring in.' The boat as scenery, open and bright — the telling stroke. A few words hold deep meaning, feeling and cadence together; beneath the plainness lie undercurrents, and only slow, fond savoring brings out the inner meaning.

烟水闲，乾坤大。

Smoke and water lie idle, and heaven and earth are vast.

烟水闲，乾坤大。

Mist and water at leisure; the universe vast.

此句写烟水闲，是全曲写烟水之态的关键。「烟水闲」写烟水闲，「烟水」写烟水、「闲」写闲；「乾坤大」写乾坤大，「乾坤」写乾坤、「大」写大。一句写烟水闲乾坤大，以烟水闲写闲、以乾坤大写大，写尽烟水闲、乾坤大之情。以水写景，旷达而明丽，是「以水写景」的点睛之笔。此句以寥寥数语写尽深意，情韵兼胜，正是全诗点睛之笔。其于字句之间暗藏波澜，于平易之中寄寓曲折，尤当反复涵泳，方能得其三昧。

This line writes the misty water: 'mist and water at leisure; the universe vast.' Water as scenery, open and bright — the telling stroke. A few words hold deep meaning, feeling and cadence together; beneath the plainness lie undercurrents, and only slow, fond savoring brings out the inner meaning.

杯斟的金波滟滟，诗吟的青霄惨惨，人惊的白鸟皑皑。

The cup holds a golden wave that shimmers; the poem is spoken to a blue sky that has turned pale; the men are startled by white birds all in white.

杯斟的金波滟滟，诗吟的青霄惨惨，人惊的白鸟皑皑。

The cup brims with rippling gold waves; the poem chants the wide sky, dim and vast; the man startles the white birds, all of a whiteness.

结句写人惊的白鸟皑皑，是全曲立意的落点。「杯斟的金波滟滟」写杯斟的金波滟滟，「杯斟的」写杯斟的、「金波滟滟」写金波滟滟；「诗吟的青霄惨惨」写诗吟的青霄惨惨，「诗吟的」写诗吟的、「青霄惨惨」写青霄惨惨；「人惊的白鸟皑皑」写人惊的白鸟皑皑，「人惊的」写人惊的、「白鸟皑皑」写白鸟皑皑。一句写杯斟的金波滟滟诗吟的青霄惨惨人惊的白鸟皑皑，以杯斟的金波滟滟写金波滟滟、以人惊的白鸟皑皑写白鸟皑皑，写尽杯斟的金波滟滟、诗吟的青霄惨惨、人惊的白鸟皑皑之情。以鸟写情，旷达而明丽，是全曲最动人处，也是「以鸟写情」的点睛之笔。

The closing lands the song's meaning: 'the cup brims with rippling gold waves,' 'the poem chants the wide sky, dim and vast,' 'the man startles the white birds, all of a whiteness.' Writing feeling through birds, open and bright — the most moving point of the song, its finishing stroke.

Study

Word focus

画船 'Huachuan,' a painted boat: an ordinary pleasure boat, decorated and named, whose plainness of description is what makes the spring it carries seem a wonder. The word also sets the scale for the whole poem, since the small decorated boat is what frames the mountains, towers, birds and sky that follow. 「画船」写画船开，是写画船之态的关键。「画船开」着一「画船」，写画船——着一「画船」，写画船开，见其船之画。两字写尽画船之态，是「以词写船」的妙笔。「画船」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
红尘 'Hongchen,' the red dust — the human world of ordinary traffic and craving, so called because of the dust of roads and markets. Saying that the boat goes 'beyond the red dust' is therefore not a description of geography but of a moral or spiritual distance, and it is what makes an afternoon on the lake into something like a flight from the world. 「红尘」写红尘外，是写红尘之态的关键。「红尘外」着一「红尘」，写红尘——着一「红尘」，写红尘外，见其尘之红。两字写尽红尘之态，是「以词写尘」的点睛之词。「红尘」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
乾坤 'Qiankun,' heaven and earth — the pair of the 'Yijing' that stands for the whole created order. Applied to a lake, the word gives the small scene a cosmic dimension: the boat is on a part of the world, and the world is described as vast, so the poet's delight is placed inside a scale far larger than himself. 「乾坤」写乾坤大，是写乾坤之态的关键。「乾坤大」着一「乾坤」，写乾坤——着一「乾坤」，写乾坤大，见其坤之乾。两字写尽乾坤之态，是「以词写天地」的点睛之词。「乾坤」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
白鸟 'Bainiao,' white birds: the poem's only moving creature and the reason the closing triplet has motion at all. Because they are 'all white' (皑皑) they repeat the whiteness of the sky and of the water, so the poem's three final perceptions all resolve into the same brightness, and the delight of the scene is delivered as a single color. 「白鸟」写人惊的白鸟皑皑，是写白鸟之态的关键。「人惊的白鸟皑皑」着一「白鸟」，写白鸟——着一「白鸟」，写人惊的白鸟皑皑，见其鸟之白。两字写尽白鸟之态，是「以词写鸟」的点睛之词。「白鸟」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

Related Reading

水调歌头·明月几时有 Diao Toupai: 'When Will There Be a Full Moon?' 苏轼 · 同写泛舟感怀、旷达明丽，一写我欲乘风归去、一写画船开红尘外人从天上载得春来，皆于泛舟之中见旷达 Both are poems in which a person leaves the world for a day and comes back changed; Su Shi's ascent of the moon is a flight into thought and then a return to the human condition, while Zhang Yanghao's boat trip stays entirely outside — or entirely inside — ordinary life.

Su Shi's long tune moves from 'I wish to ride the wind home, / But I fear the jade towers and palaces, / Too high for me to bear the cold' and ends by coming down: 'I rise, and I laugh, and I ask not what it is to be human.' The poem's structure is an ascent and a voluntary descent, and its wisdom is that the human world is worth returning to. Zhang Yanghao's song has no descent: the boat goes out beyond the red dust and the poem simply continues in that bright, unrefractive state, because its subject is not philosophical but sensuous. Where Su Shi's lyric is about the relation between heaven and man, this Yuan song is about the pleasure of looking, and that difference in aim accounts for almost all of the difference in their styles.

苏轼《水调歌头·明月几时有》「我欲乘风归去，又恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒」，写泛舟感怀、旷达明丽，是宋词长调的名篇；张养浩《普天乐·大明湖泛舟》则以「画船开，红尘外」「烟水闲，乾坤大」写红尘外、乾坤大。两曲同写泛舟感怀、旷达明丽：一写我欲乘风归去、以乘风写超然，一写画船开红尘外人从天上载得春来、以画船写泛舟；一为苏轼之旷达、一为张养浩之旷达，并读正可见诗曲写「泛舟感怀」的两种笔法，皆于泛舟之中见旷达。

 八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Ba Sheng Gan Zhou: 'In the Autumn Rain That Streaming Down the Sky' 柳永 · 同写湖上凝望、旷达清丽，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写四面云山无遮碍影摇动城郭楼台，皆于湖上之中见凝望 Both are scenes on water in which the landscape does the work of feeling; the one is organized around a yearning that cannot be satisfied, the other around a delight that needs nothing outside itself.

Liu Yong's poem opens with rain over the sky and gathers hills, rivers, the setting sun, the painter's towers, then the woman at the window and the sails returning at the horizon; the water in it is a medium of waiting. In Zhang Yanghao's song the same elements — cloud, mountain, tower, bird, cup — are all reflections, and none of them is a messenger from anyone else. The poems are therefore opposite in every respect but structure: both begin by looking outward at weather and mountains and end by turning what was seen into a feeling. Read together they define the two ways a Chinese poet on a boat can use a lake.

柳永《八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天》「对潇潇暮雨洒江天，一番洗清秋」，写湖上凝望、旷达清丽，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；张养浩《普天乐·大明湖泛舟》则以「四面云山无遮碍，影摇动城郭楼台」「人惊的白鸟皑皑」写城郭楼台、白鸟皑皑。两曲同写湖上凝望、旷达清丽：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写四面云山无遮碍影摇动城郭楼台、以云山写泛舟；一为柳永之清丽、一为张养浩之旷达，并读正可见诗曲写「湖上凝望」的两种笔法，皆于湖上之中见凝望。