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元 Yuan · 曲 Qu song

阳春曲·皇亭晚泊

Yang Chun Qu: Mooring at Huangting at Dusk

徐再思

Xu Zaisi

水深水浅东西涧，云去云来远近山。
秋风征棹钓鱼滩，烟树晚，茅舍两三间。
双渐苏卿倦织回文锦，双渐空怀买笑金。
风流一点海棠心，不听琴，只是不知音。
春情桃花月淡胭脂冷，杨柳风微翡翠轻。
玉人欹枕倚云屏，酒未醒，肠断紫箫声。
闺怨妾身悔作商人妇，妾命当逢薄幸夫。
别时只说到东吴，三载余，却得广州书。
赠海棠玉环梦断风流事，银烛歌成富贵词。
东风一树玉胭脂，双燕子，曾见正开时。
春思酒醒眉记青鸾恨，春去香消紫燕尘。
阑干掐遍月儿痕，深闭门，花落又黄昏。

Deep and shallow, the eastern and western creeks; clouds going, clouds coming, near hills and far hills.
Autumn wind, a travelling oar at the fishing shoal; misty trees at dusk, two or three thatched cottages.
Shuangjian and Su Qing, wearied of weaving the roundel brocade; Shuangjian, holding gold spent on laughter in vain.
A romancing heart, a crab-apple heart: he will not listen to the qin, only because he knows no true listener.
Spring feeling: the peach-blossom moon, pale rouge grown cold; the willow wind, light and low-grade jade.
The jade lady leans on the cloud-screen, pillow-side; not yet sober, her heart breaks at the sound of the purple flute.
Bickerings of the inner chamber: I regret having become a merchant's wife; my fate was to meet a faithless husband.
At the parting he promised only East Wu; three years and more have passed, yet the letter comes from Guangzhou.
The gift of the crab-apple: the jade-ring dream of romance broken; silver candle, a song made of wealth and rank.
One tree of jade-roses in the east wind, a pair of swallows — they once saw it in full flower.
Spring thoughts: waking from wine, the brow remembers the green-phoenix grievance; spring gone, the scent dispersed into the dust of the purple swallow.
I have counted every moon-mark on the balustrade; the doors are shut deep, the flowers fall and it is dusk again.
Listen

Meaning

A long suite of short love-songs, in which a boat-keeper on the river near Huangting records the weather and then the affairs of women. The opening lines set the scene: creeks of unequal depth, clouds moving to and fro, hills near and far, an autumn wind, a fishing shoal, misty trees and the two or three houses of a hamlet. From there the suite turns to the old story of Shuangjian and Su Qing, to a wife who regrets marrying a merchant and receives a letter from a distant province, to a jewel of a woman by a screen drinking to the sound of a flute, and closes on a balustrade that has been scratched by moonlight and a house whose doors are shut at dusk.

水深水浅东西涧，云去云来远近山。秋风征棹钓鱼滩，烟树晚，茅舍两三间。双渐苏卿倦织回文锦，双渐空怀买笑金。风流一点海棠心，不听琴，只是不知音。春情桃花月淡胭脂冷，杨柳风微翡翠轻。玉人欹枕倚云屏，酒未醒，肠断紫箫声。闺怨妾身悔作商人妇，妾命当逢薄幸夫。别时只说到东吴，三载余，却得广州书。赠海棠玉环梦断风流事，银烛歌成富贵词。东风一树玉胭脂，双燕子，曾见正开时。春思酒醒眉记青鸾恨，春去香消紫燕尘。阑干掐遍月儿痕，深闭门，花落又黄昏。

Appreciation

[Structure] The suite is a boat journey and an inventory at once: the first two stanzas are the landscape; everything after them is a catalogue of loves, each stanza about a different woman or a different episode, and the last stanza returns to the narrator's own room. The frame of the whole is the river on which the poet is moored. [Imagery] The most celebrated image in the suite is 水深水浅东西涧，云去云来远近山, a line that contains six objects in fourteen characters and manages to suggest that nothing under the sky is stable. [Voice] The suite changes speaker constantly, so that a reader moves between男 and女 voices without announcement, and this slippage is the poem's characteristic effect. [The close] The last stanza turns the whole suite inward: the balustrade scratched by the moon, the doors shut, the flowers falling and it being dusk again.

【白话串讲】 徐再思写《阳春曲·皇亭晚泊》：“水深水浅东西涧，云去云来远近山”——“秋风征棹钓鱼滩，烟树晚，茅舍两三间”——“双渐苏卿倦织回文锦，双渐空怀买笑金”——他写皇亭晚泊——茅舍两三间。 【意象与手法】 “水深水浅东西涧、云去云来远近山”写水深水浅；“秋风征棹钓鱼滩、烟树晚”写秋风征棹钓鱼滩；结以“烟树晚，茅舍两三间”写茅舍两三间。清丽羁旅。 【情感与主旨】 徐再思写皇亭晚泊之作，写水深水浅东西涧、茅舍两三间的羁旅之景，是徐再思曲中的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“水深水浅东西涧，云去云来远近山”写涧水云山；“秋风征棹钓鱼滩，烟树晚，茅舍两三间”写羁旅晚景。

Background

Xu Zaisi (fl. late 13th to early 14th century), styled Yingshan, was a Yuan official and poet of the southern Song diaspora who served under 程巨夫 and later in the south; his sanqu survive in the 阳春白雪 and 乐府新声 anthologies, and he is remembered mainly for a 小令 on a fisherman's life and for this suite. 皇亭 is a place on the Qiantang river near Hongzhou. The 阳春曲 tune permitted unusual length, and this suite of a dozen stanzas is among the longest of the Yuan sanqu in the form, which makes it an important document for the way the genre could be stretched.

《阳春曲·皇亭晚泊》为元代散曲家徐再思所作曲。徐再思（约1290年前后在世），字德可，号甜斋，嘉兴（今属浙江）人，元代散曲家，与贯云石（酸斋）并称酸甜乐府。此曲写景羁旅，为皇亭晚泊之作。曲中「水深水浅东西涧，云去云来远近山」写水深水浅东西涧，云去云来远近山；「秋风征棹钓鱼滩，烟树晚，茅舍两三间」写秋风征棹钓鱼滩，烟树晚，茅舍两三间。徐再思此曲以写景羁旅、茅舍两三间写其羁旅之情，清丽羁旅，是徐再思曲中的名篇。此篇《阳春曲·皇亭晚泊》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《阳春曲·皇亭晚泊》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 suite's chief technical achievement is its construction of many voices without a narrator to introduce them. A stanza can move from the complaining wife to the man who abandoned her in the space of two lines, so the reader is left to work out who is speaking and why. The landscape stanzas are calmer and more formal, and 水深水浅东西涧 is singled out as the model of the Yuan couplet: six objects, no verbs of emotion, and a rhythm that lets deep and shallow, near and far, answer one another. The suite's other device is the accumulation of colours — 胭脂, 翡翠, 玉胭脂, 紫燕 — so that the last third of the poem is almost a catalogue of reds and greens.

此曲艺术上以「清丽羁旅、以水写情」见长。全曲由水深水浅东西涧而秋风征棹钓鱼滩。起「水深水浅东西涧，云去云来远近山」写水深水浅东西涧：水深水浅东西涧，云去云来远近山；结「秋风征棹钓鱼滩，烟树晚，茅舍两三间」写秋风征棹钓鱼滩：秋风征棹钓鱼滩，烟树晚，茅舍两三间。全曲以水写情，由水深水浅东西涧而茅舍两三间，清丽羁旅，是徐再思曲中的名篇。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。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

双渐 and 苏卿 are the two figures of the 双渐苏卿 story, a popular song-and-story tradition about a scholar and a singing girl whose letter is delayed; 回文锦 is the brocade of the girlie's roundel verses sent from the frontier, from the Su Hui story of the 璇玑图; 买笑金 is the gold spent on pleasing a woman, from the Han fiction of 买笑. 青鸾 and 紫燕 are the phoenix and the purple-faced swallow of the mythologies, and by 玉环梦断 the poem recalls the Tang anecdotes of 杨玉环. The whole suite therefore moves inside a repertoire of already-stories.

曲中「水深水浅东西涧云去云来远近山」「秋风征棹钓鱼滩烟树晚茅舍两三间」等语，皆含典故故实。「水深水浅东西涧云去云来远近山」写水深水浅东西涧云去云来远近山；「秋风征棹钓鱼滩烟树晚茅舍两三间」写秋风征棹钓鱼滩烟树晚茅舍两三间。曲人以东西涧、远近山等语入曲，不着痕迹，而把写景羁旅之情写得真切可感，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。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

The suite has been criticised for its length and for its subject matter, both of which are the point: a Yuan song-writer using the freedom of the sanqu to write a long sequence of private grievances in public. Anthologists of the Ming divided it between the 小令 and the 套数 sections, which is why it survives in two places. Modern scholarship regards it as one of the fullest surviving examples of the 元曲 as a literature of feeling without a dramatic frame, and it is widely used in teaching the form.

这首《阳春曲·皇亭晚泊》，是徐再思写写景羁旅之作，写水深水浅东西涧、秋风征棹钓鱼滩、茅舍两三间之情，清丽羁旅。起「水深水浅东西涧，云去云来远近山」——水深水浅东西涧，云去云来远近山。写水深水浅东西涧：水深水浅东西涧、云去云来远近山——东西涧、远近山；结「秋风征棹钓鱼滩，烟树晚，茅舍两三间」——秋风征棹钓鱼滩，烟树晚，茅舍两三间。写秋风征棹钓鱼滩：秋风征棹钓鱼滩、烟树晚、茅舍两三间——钓鱼滩、两三间。这「烟树晚，茅舍两三间」，是全曲之结：以茅舍两三间写其羁旅。全曲清丽羁旅，以水写情，正是徐再思曲中的名篇。综观全诗，情真、景切、理深，三者浑融无迹，故能于短短数语之中寄无限深意，令人百读不厌。其含蓄蕴藉之处，正是中国古典诗歌以少总多、言有尽而意无穷的美学精神的生动体现。综观全诗，情真、景切、理深，三者浑融无迹，故能于短短数语之中寄无限深意，令人百读不厌。其含蓄蕴藉之处，正是中国古典诗歌以少总多、言有尽而意无穷的美学精神的生动体现。

Prosody

Form Yuan sanqu, the 阳春曲 tune, written here as a suite of short stanzas曲（散曲·中吕·阳春曲）
Rhyme Each stanza rhymes on its own; the rhymes run through the 齐微 and 尤 groups in turn — 山, 滩, 间, 锦, 金, 音 in the closing stanzas — so that the suite shows the rhyme flexibility that 小令 claimed for itself.此曲为散曲，属中吕宫【阳春曲】曲牌。押韵：「山」「间」押删部韵。句式长短错落，衬字自然，正与写写景羁旅的清丽羁旅相称，也见其以散曲写羁旅的灵动。
Tone pattern Line lengths range from five to seven syllables and the caesura falls after the third or fourth character; the rhythm is the rolling, breath-led one of the sanqu rather than the fixed cadence of the 词.句式上，「水深水浅东西涧，云去云来远近山」写水深水浅东西涧，音节清丽；结「秋风征棹钓鱼滩，烟树晚，茅舍两三间」写秋风征棹钓鱼滩，音节悠长。全曲音节随情起伏，由清丽而悠长，正合散曲「灵动」之妙，读来如写景羁旅、茅舍两三间之音，清丽而动人。
Reading note The 阳春曲 tune is one of the few that could be written at some length, and this suite uses that freedom: twelve stanzas, which is unusual for the form. Because the sanqu is a song text, the rhyme should be heard as a sequence of small closures rather than as a single chain, and the last stanza's 花落又黄昏 does not rhyme with anything above it, which marks it as the ending. The suite is also useful for reading aloud, because the stanza breaks do the work that the theatrical exits of a Zaju would do.此曲为散曲，是徐再思写写景羁旅之作，也是其曲中的名篇。全曲的艺术特色在于「清丽羁旅、以水写情」：「水深水浅东西涧，云去云来远近山」写水深水浅东西涧、「秋风征棹钓鱼滩，烟树晚，茅舍两三间」写秋风征棹钓鱼滩。全曲清丽羁旅，以水写情。尤为精妙者，是「水深水浅东西涧」写尽东西涧；而「茅舍两三间」写尽两三间，正是徐再思曲「清丽羁旅」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《阳春曲·皇亭晚泊》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

水深水浅东西涧，云去云来远近山。

Deep and shallow are the eastern and western creeks; clouds go, clouds come, near hills and far hills. The suite's opening couplet, six objects in four parallel pairs, and the model of the Yuan sanqu couplet.

水深水浅东西涧，云去云来远近山。

East and west gorges, water now deep, now shallow; far and near hills, clouds now gone, now come.

起句写水深水浅东西涧，起笔即见其涧。「水深水浅东西涧」写水深水浅东西涧，「水深水浅」写水深水浅、「东西涧」写东西涧；「云去云来远近山」写云去云来远近山，「云去云来」写云去云来、「远近山」写远近山。一句写水深水浅东西涧云去云来远近山，以水深水浅东西涧写东西涧、以云去云来远近山写远近山，写尽水深水浅东西涧、云去云来远近山之情。以水起兴，清丽而羁旅，是「以水起兴」的妙笔。

The opening writes the gorges: east and west gorges, water now deep now shallow; far and near hills, clouds now gone now come. Water as springboard, clear and traveler's — a fine stroke.

秋风征棹钓鱼滩，烟树晚，茅舍两三间。

Autumn wind, a travelling oar at the fishing shoal; misty trees at dusk, two or three thatched cottages. The landscape half of the suite, and the only stanza in it that contains a human traveller.

秋风征棹钓鱼滩，烟树晚，茅舍两三间。

Autumn wind, the traveler's oar at the fishing strand; misty trees at dusk; two or three thatched huts.

结句写秋风征棹钓鱼滩，是全曲立意的落点。「秋风征棹钓鱼滩」写秋风征棹钓鱼滩，「秋风征棹」写秋风征棹、「钓鱼滩」写钓鱼滩；「烟树晚」写烟树晚，「烟树」写烟树、「晚」写晚；「茅舍两三间」写茅舍两三间，「茅舍」写茅舍、「两三间」写两三间。一句写秋风征棹钓鱼滩烟树晚茅舍两三间，以秋风征棹钓鱼滩写钓鱼滩、以烟树晚茅舍两三间写两三间，写尽秋风征棹钓鱼滩、烟树晚、茅舍两三间之情。以棹写情，清丽而羁旅，是全曲最动人处，也是「以棹写情」的点睛之笔。

The closing lands the song's meaning: autumn wind, the traveler's oar at the fishing strand; misty trees at dusk; two or three thatched huts. Writing feeling through the oar, clear and traveler's — the most moving point of the song, its finishing stroke.

Study

Word focus

东西涧 The eastern and western creeks: the first of the two parallel pairs in the opening couplet, and the water in which the deep and the shallow are measured. 「东西涧」写水深水浅东西涧，是写东西涧之态的关键。「水深水浅东西涧」着一「东西涧」，写东西涧——着一「东西涧」，写水深水浅东西涧，见其涧之东西。三字写尽东西涧之态，是「以词写涧」的妙笔。「东西涧」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。
远近山 Near hills and far hills: the closing pair of the opening couplet, whose repetition suggests both the depth of the view and the futility of measuring it. 「远近山」写云去云来远近山，是写远近山之态的关键。「云去云来远近山」着一「远近山」，写远近山——着一「远近山」，写云去云来远近山，见其山之远近。三字写尽远近山之态，是「以词写山」的点睛之词。「远近山」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。
征棹 A travelling oar, by extension the boat of a traveller. In 秋风征棹钓鱼滩 it is the one moving element in an otherwise still landscape, and it identifies the poem's speaker as the person moored there. 「征棹」写秋风征棹钓鱼滩，是写征棹之态的关键。「秋风征棹钓鱼滩」着一「征棹」，写征棹——着一「征棹」，写秋风征棹钓鱼滩，见其棹之征。两字写尽征棹之态，是「以词写舟」的点睛之词。「征棹」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。
茅舍 Thatched cottage, the dwelling of a fisherman or a recluse. Here 茅舍两三间 reduces the whole world of the first stanza to a hamlet of three houses. 「茅舍」写茅舍两三间，是写茅舍之态的关键。「茅舍两三间」着一「茅舍」，写茅舍——着一「茅舍」，写茅舍两三间，见其舍之茅。两字写尽茅舍之态，是「以词写舍」的点睛之词。「茅舍」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 Shui Tiao Ge Tou: When Will the Moon Be Bright? 苏轼 · 同写羁旅感怀、清丽旷达，一写我欲乘风归去、一写水深水浅东西涧云去云来远近山，皆于羁旅之中见清丽 Both are long sequences on travel and weather, one in the cipai and one in the Yuan sanqu

Su Shi's 我欲乘风归去 gives the same appetite for breadth that this suite takes through twelve stanzas, though Su Shi's vehicle is a single continuous wind and this one's is a moving river. Both begin by leaving the human scene and both come back to ordinary life; the Song poem is the more concentrated and the more philosophical, while the Yuan suite keeps its characters — wives, singers, travellers — and refuses to generalise about them.

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」，写羁旅感怀、清丽旷达，是宋词长调的名篇；徐再思《阳春曲·皇亭晚泊》则以「水深水浅东西涧，云去云来远近山」「秋风征棹钓鱼滩」写东西涧、钓鱼滩。两曲同写羁旅感怀、清丽旷达：一写我欲乘风归去、以乘风写超然，一写水深水浅东西涧云去云来远近山、以涧水写羁旅；一为苏轼之旷达、一为徐再思之清丽，并读正可见诗曲写「羁旅感怀」的两种笔法，皆于羁旅之中见清丽。

 八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Ba Sheng Gan Zhou: Over the Drizzling Evening Rain on the River 柳永 · 同写滩头凝望、清丽清丽，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写秋风征棹钓鱼滩烟树晚茅舍两三间，皆于滩头之中见凝望 Both moor beside water in autumn weather and look outward at hills

Liu Yong's speaker watches the rain wash the river and the hills beyond it, and this suite's opening watches creeks and clouds move to and fro; the two landscapes are almost the same, and both stanzas are the calmest in their respective poems. The divergence comes after: Liu Yong descends into one long complaint, while the Yuan suite disperses into ten unrelated affairs. The contrast is the best available summary of the difference between the Song and the Yuan treatment of the same prospect.

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」，写滩头凝望、清丽清丽，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；徐再思《阳春曲·皇亭晚泊》则以「秋风征棹钓鱼滩，烟树晚，茅舍两三间」「水深水浅东西涧」写钓鱼滩、东西涧。两曲同写滩头凝望、清丽清丽：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写秋风征棹钓鱼滩烟树晚茅舍两三间、以茅舍写羁旅；一为柳永之清丽、一为徐再思之清丽，并读正可见诗曲写「滩头凝望」的两种笔法，皆于滩头之中见凝望。