POEM
江雪Jiāng XuěRiver Snow
- Dynasty
- Tang
- Author
- 柳宗元 Liǔ Zōngyuán (Liu Zongyuan)
- Genre
- 五言绝句
- Lines
- 4
- Era
- c. 9th century
THE POEM — LINE BY LINE
Tap a line for word-by-word gloss.
#1千山鸟飞绝Qiān shān niǎo fēi juéOn a thousand mountains, no bird flies.word by word
#2万径人踪灭Wàn jìng rén zōng mièOn ten thousand paths, no footprint remains.word by word
#3孤舟蓑笠翁Gū zhōu suō lì wēngIn a lone boat, a straw-caped old man in a bamboo hatword by word
#4独钓寒江雪Dú diào hán jiāng xuěfishes alone in the cold river snow.word by word
POEM IN PLAIN ENGLISH
A plain-English guide, not a literary translationOn a thousand mountains not a single bird is flying; on ten thousand paths not one footprint remains. Yet in a lone boat an old man in straw cape and bamboo hat fishes on, alone, in the cold river snow. The first two lines erase the whole world; the last two set a single human figure against the emptiness — refusing to leave, refusing to care. The fisherman is usually read as the poet himself, keeping his dignity after political disgrace. This is a plain-English guide, not a literary translation.
BACKGROUND & IMAGERY
Liu Zongyuan (773-819) was exiled from the court to remote Yongzhou in southern China, and 江雪 is traditionally read as his portrait of himself in that exile: the world emptied, the fisherman unmoved. It is one of the most famous 'lonely winter' poems in Chinese, and its stark composition — every word counts, no word wasted — makes it a favorite example of 五言绝句 form. Some editions write the second line with the old variant 万迳 (迳 for 径); the text here follows the received version (通行本).
TRUST & SOURCES
- Reviewed by
- AI-assisted editorial review
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-15
Sources
- 《唐诗三百首》通行本（中华书局点校本）
- 本站飞花令语料 feihualing.db（poem 397026） — 文本以通行本为准，库本仅行级参考（库本与通行本一致）；库中另存异文'万迳人踪灭'，不予采用
- 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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