POEM
春日Chūn RìA Spring Day
- Dynasty
- Song
- Author
- 朱熹 Zhū Xī (Zhu Xi)
- Genre
- 七言绝句
- Lines
- 4
- Era
- c. 12th century
THE POEM — LINE BY LINE
Tap a line for word-by-word gloss.
#1胜日寻芳泗水滨Shèng rì xún fāng sì shuǐ bīnOn a fine day, out to find flowers by the Si River,word by word
胜shèngfine; glorious (胜日: a fine day)日rìday寻xúnseek; look for芳fāngfragrance; blossoms泗sìthe Si River (泗水: in Shandong)水shuǐwater; river滨bīnbank; shore#2无边光景一时新Wú biān guāng jǐng yī shí xīnthe boundless scenery, all at once made new.word by word
#3等闲识得东风面Děng xián shí dé dōng fēng miànAnyone can know the face of the east wind —word by word
#4万紫千红总是春Wàn zǐ qiān hóng zǒng shì chūnten thousand purples and a thousand reds — it is all spring.word by word
万wànten thousand; countless紫zǐpurple千qiānthousand红hóngred总zǒngalways; all in all是shìto be春chūnspring
POEM IN PLAIN ENGLISH
A plain-English guide, not a literary translationOn a fine day, out to find flowers by the Si River — the boundless scenery, all at once made new. Anyone can know the face of the east wind: ten thousand purples and a thousand reds, it is all spring. The last line gave Chinese its standard phrase for a riot of color — 万紫千红, 'a thousand reds, ten thousand purples' — and the poem itself is really about the joy of recognizing spring everywhere at once. This is a plain-English guide, not a literary translation.
BACKGROUND & IMAGERY
Zhu Xi (1130-1200) is the great philosopher of the Song dynasty — the man who shaped Confucian teaching for the next seven centuries — and this is his best-known poem. Readers have long found a philosopher's meaning in it: the Si River was the home of Confucius, so 'seeking fragrance by the Si' reads as seeking the master's teaching, and the spring wind as the Confucian way itself. School readers, meanwhile, simply get one of the purest spring poems ever written.
TRUST & SOURCES
- Reviewed by
- AI-assisted editorial review
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-15
Sources
- 《宋诗鉴赏辞典》（上海辞书出版社）通行文本；部编版语文教材同文
- 本站飞花令语料 feihualing.db（poem 74837） — 文本以通行本为准，库本仅行级参考（库本与通行本一致）
- Original English paraphrase & gloss — 本站原创学习释义，非文学译本（plain-English guide, not a literary translation）
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