元 Yuan · 散曲 Sanqu song
水仙子·咏江南
Water Nymph · Chanting the Southland
一江烟水照晴岚，两岸人家接画檐，芰荷丛一段秋光淡。
看沙鸥舞再三，卷香风十里珠帘。
画船儿天边至，酒旗儿风外飐。
爱杀江南。
on both banks the houses join their painted eaves;
among the water-chestnut and lotus beds a stretch of autumn light lies pale.
Watch the sandbank gulls dance again and again,
while a scented wind rolls up ten miles of pearl blinds.
A painted barge comes in from the sky's edge;
a wineshop banner flutters out on the breeze.
How I love this southland to death.
Meaning
A whole river of misty water mirrors the clear haze on the hills; on both banks the houses join eave to painted eave; and from the beds of water-chestnut and lotus a stretch of pale autumn light shows through. Watch the sandbank gulls rise and dance again and again, and the fragrant wind roll up ten miles of pearl blinds. A painted pleasure-boat comes in from the edge of the sky, and a wineshop banner flutters out on the breeze. Truly I love this southland to death.
一江烟波水光映照着晴日山岚，两岸的人家屋檐连着画檐，菱荷丛中透出一段澹淡秋光。看那沙鸥再三起舞，十里香风卷起珠帘。画船儿从天边驶来，酒旗儿在风外招展。真是爱煞了这江南。
Appreciation
This song works by massing images and by letting stillness give birth to motion. The first three lines spread out an autumn dwelling-scene of water, houses and lotus beds, moving from far to near in cool, pale colours. With the gulls that dance and the wind that rolls up the blinds the picture begins to move, and the painted barge and the wineshop banner add a touch of ordinary town life. The closing cry of love is pure vernacular speech, and it shows the true colour of the sanqu song.
【白话串讲】 “一江烟水照晴岚，两岸人家接画檐”——张养浩写江南：烟水照着晴岚，两岸人家画檐相接。“芰荷丛一段秋光淡”——“画船儿天边至，酒旗儿风外飐”——画船从天边来，酒旗在风里飘。“爱杀江南”——他爱死江南了。 【意象与手法】 此曲善用列锦与动静相生。起三句以水光、人家、荷丛铺开秋居图，由远及近、设色淡雅 【情感与主旨】 张养浩为元代名臣、散曲大家，晚年数度辞官归隐，放情山水。此曲当为南游或任职江南时所作，以〔水仙子〕咏秋景 【名句点睛】 散曲赏析重点。其一，层次：梳理'江—岸—荷—鸥—风—船—旗'铺排，体会由静到动、自然到市井。其二，炼字
Background
Zhang Yanghao was a famous official of the Yuan and one of the great masters of sanqu; in his later years he resigned office several times and gave himself to landscape. This song was probably written while he was travelling or serving in the south, and uses the Water Nymph tune to sing of autumn. Unlike his Sheep on the Mountain Slope: Meditation at Tong Pass, with its grief over the rise and fall of dynasties, this piece is pure delight and ease, reflecting the composure of his retirement and the Yuan taste for making a song out of whatever lies before the eye. It is a representative work of the leisure school, fit to stand beside Ma Zhiyuan and Bai Pu.
《水仙子·咏江南》为元代张养浩所作，是写江南水乡之景、赞江南之美的散曲。张养浩（1270—1329），字希孟，济南人，元代散曲家。此曲：一江烟水照晴岚，两岸人家接画檐，芰荷丛一段秋光淡。看沙鸥舞再三，卷香风十里珠帘。画船儿天边至，酒旗儿风外飐。爱杀江南！全曲写江南水乡之景，是张养浩散曲的名篇。
Art
This song is skilled in the massing of images and in making stillness breed motion. The opening three lines lay out an autumn dwelling-place with the light on the water, the houses along the banks and the lotus beds, working from distance to nearness in pale, elegant colour. 'Watch the sandbank gulls dance again and again, while a scented wind rolls up ten miles of pearl blinds' turns to movement, and the verbs for dancing and rolling bring the whole picture to life. 'A painted barge comes in from the sky's edge; a wineshop banner flutters out on the breeze' dots the scene with the life of the town, and the colloquial diminutive attached to barge and banner adds a homely charm. The close, a plain vernacular cry of love for the southland, is direct statement, and shows the native colour of the sanqu song.
《水仙子·咏江南》艺术上以江南水乡的描摹与赞美的热烈见长。全曲分三节：首写江南之景——“一江烟水照晴岚，两岸人家接画檐，芰荷丛一段秋光淡”写烟水晴岚、画檐相接、芰荷秋光；中写江上之趣——“看沙鸥舞再三，卷香风十里珠帘”写沙鸥飞舞、香风珠帘，“画船儿天边至，酒旗儿风外飐”写画船天边至、酒旗风中飐；末写赞美——“爱杀江南”写爱杀江南。全曲以江南之景写赞美之情，正是张养浩散曲热烈清丽的笔法。
Allusions
The song takes what lies before the eye, yet its images all have a tradition behind them. The water-chestnut and lotus come from the Songs of Chu, where the poet 'cuts water-chestnut and lotus to make a coat', and stand for purity. Painted eaves and pearl blinds are Tang and Song images of wealth and elegance; the wineshop banner has been a fixture of southern scenery since Tang poetry. The sandbank gull carries the leisured, retired sense of Du Fu's 'one gull between heaven and earth' and of Su Shi's league with the gulls and egrets. All this is absorbed without a seam, so that familiar images yield a new scene, which is exactly the sanqu virtue of being popular without being vulgar.
《水仙子·咏江南》用典少而取景自然。“水仙子”为曲牌名；“晴岚”写晴日山间之气；“画檐”写彩绘之檐。全曲以这些意象写江南水乡，不用深典而清丽自见，正是张养浩散曲的笔法。
Commentary
The Ming prince Zhu Quan, in his Correct Sounds of Great Harmony, said that Zhang Yanghao's songs were 'like a jade tree in the wind', clear, distant and richly suggestive. The modern scholar Ren Zhongmin, in his Outline of Sanqu, praised him for 'writing scenery like a painting, in native and natural colours'. This song has always been the famous Yuan song on the southland, ranked with Ma Zhiyuan's Sky-Clear Sand: Autumn Thoughts and Bai Pu's Sky-Clear Sand: Autumn; critics call it 'a painting made by massing images, elegance achieved through the common tongue', and take it as the representative leisure song of the Yuan.
《水仙子·咏江南》是张养浩散曲的名篇，也是元曲中写江南之景的代表作。此曲写江南水乡之景、赞江南之美，向为论者称道。论者多赏其江南水乡的描摹与赞美的热烈——“一江烟水照晴岚，两岸人家接画檐”写烟水画檐，清丽之极；“看沙鸥舞再三，卷香风十里珠帘”写沙鸥珠帘，更见其趣；“画船儿天边至，酒旗儿风外飐”写画船酒旗，尤见江南之丽。张养浩以散曲著称，此曲正以清丽热烈之笔写江南之美，是元曲咏江南的代表作。
Prosody
Line by line
一江烟水照晴岚，两岸人家接画檐，芰荷丛一段秋光淡。
A river of misty water mirroring the sunny mountain haze; on both banks, homes with painted eaves joined; in the lotus beds, a stretch of autumn light, faint.
一江烟水照晴岚，两岸人家接画檐，芰荷丛一段秋光淡。
A river of misty water reflects the sunny mountain haze; on both banks, the houses' painted eaves join; among the lotus clumps, a stretch of pale autumn light.
首写江南之景，是全曲咏江南的起点。“一江烟水照晴岚，两岸人家接画檐”写烟水画檐——“一江烟水照晴岚”写一江烟水照晴岚（山气），“两岸人家接画檐”写两岸人家彩檐相接——一江烟水，两岸画檐；“芰荷丛一段秋光淡”写芰荷秋光——“芰荷丛一段秋光淡”写芰荷丛中一段淡荡秋光——芰荷丛一段秋光淡。三句写江南之景：一江烟水照晴岚，两岸人家接画檐，芰荷丛一段秋光淡。以“一江烟水照晴岚”写江上烟水映晴岚，以“两岸人家接画檐”写两岸人家画檐相接，以“芰荷丛一段秋光淡”写芰荷丛中秋光淡荡，正是张养浩散曲写江南之景清丽的起点——江南水乡，如画初展。
The opening writes the Jiangnan scene, the starting point of the song's ode. 'A river of misty water mirroring the sunny mountain haze; on both banks, homes with painted eaves joined' — the misty water and sunny haze, the colored eaves of the houses on both banks; 'in the lotus beds, a stretch of autumn light, faint' — the lotus clumps in their pale autumn glow. Misty water reflecting the haze, painted eaves joined, the pale autumn light among the lotuses — the point from which Zhang Yanghao begins: the Jiangnan water country, like a painting first unfurled.
看沙鸥舞再三，卷香风十里珠帘。
Watch the sand gulls dance, again and again; the fragrant wind rolls through ten li of pearl curtains.
看沙鸥舞再三，卷香风十里珠帘。
Watch the sand gulls dance, again and again; the fragrant wind rolls up the pearl curtains for ten li.
此二句写沙鸥珠帘，是全曲写江南之趣的深化。“看沙鸥舞再三”写沙鸥飞舞——“看沙鸥舞再三”写看沙鸥再三飞舞——看沙鸥舞再三；“卷香风十里珠帘”写香风珠帘——“卷香风十里珠帘”写卷起香风、十里珠帘——卷香风十里珠帘。二句写沙鸥珠帘：看沙鸥舞再三，卷香风十里珠帘。以“看沙鸥舞再三”写沙鸥飞舞之自在，以“卷香风十里珠帘”写香风十里、珠帘轻卷之丽，正是张养浩散曲写江南之趣的深化——沙鸥自在，香风珠帘。
These two lines write the gulls and curtains, deepening the Jiangnan charm. 'Watch the sand gulls dance, again and again' — the gulls' free flight; 'the fragrant wind rolls through ten li of pearl curtains' — the scented wind, the lightly rolled pearl screens. The gulls at ease, the scented wind and curtains — the deepened charm of Jiangnan.
画船儿天边至，酒旗儿风外飐。爱杀江南！
The painted boat comes from the edge of the sky; the wine banner flutters in the wind. How I love Jiangnan!
画船儿天边至，酒旗儿风外飐。爱杀江南！
The painted boat arrives from the edge of the sky; the wine banner waves in the wind. I love Jiangnan to distraction!
末写画船酒旗、爱杀江南，是全曲咏江南之美的归结。“画船儿天边至，酒旗儿风外飐”写画船酒旗——“画船儿天边至”写画船自天边而来，“酒旗儿风外飐”写酒旗在风中招展——画船天边至，酒旗风中飐；“爱杀江南”写爱杀江南——“爱杀江南”写爱极了江南——爱杀江南。三句写画船酒旗、爱杀江南：画船儿天边至，酒旗儿风外飐，爱杀江南。以“画船儿天边至，酒旗儿风外飐”写画船自远而来、酒旗随风招展之江南繁华，以“爱杀江南”直抒赞美，正是张养浩散曲写咏江南的归结——江南之美，爱不可言。
The closing writes the boat and banner, the love for Jiangnan, the resolution of the ode. 'The painted boat comes from the edge of the sky; the wine banner flutters in the wind' — the craft from afar, the banner streaming; 'how I love Jiangnan!' the outright praise. The boat from the horizon, the banner in the wind, the love beyond words — the resolution of the ode.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Compare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
张养浩《山坡羊·潼关怀古》“峰峦如聚，波涛如怒”写潼关怀古，与本首同为张养浩散曲。差异在主题：水仙子咏江南咏江南之美；山坡羊潼关怀古怀古伤今。一写“美”之丽，一写“史”之慨。两者并读，可见张养浩散曲的两种主题。
山坡羊·骊山怀古 Sheep on the Mountain Slope · Meditation at Mount Li 张养浩 · 同为张养浩散曲，一咏江南一咏骊山，一丽一慨 Same author (Zhang Yanghao)Both are his, one an easy song of scenery and one a brooding meditation on the past, showing the two faces of his art.
张养浩《山坡羊·骊山怀古》写骊山怀古，与本首同为张养浩散曲。差异在主题：水仙子咏江南咏江南之美；骊山怀古咏骊山之史。一写“景”之丽，一写“史”之叹。两者并读，可见张养浩散曲写景与怀古的两种主题。
雁儿落兼得胜令·退隐 Yan'erluo with Deshengling: Retirement 张养浩 · 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.
此处关联张养浩《雁儿落兼得胜令·退隐》，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。