Climbing Mount Xian with Friends
與諸子登峴山
Yǔ zhū zǐ dēng Xiàn shān
Visitors to Mount Xian read an old memorial and feel themselves entering the landscape’s succession of generations. Read the Chinese, pinyin, word meanings, and original English translation.
Read the poem
Read the original and its translation together. Open a line’s word meanings for a closer look.
About the text and pronunciation
The simplified view changes character forms, not the edition. Notes and sources retain the cited text.
The Chinese source is shown in traditional characters by default, with a simplified view available. Pinyin is modern standard Mandarin, a reading aid, not Tang or Song pronunciation.
Word by word, in the order of the line. A gloss is a crib. It is not the translation.
Word meanings — Line 1
- 人事 rén shì human affairs
- 有 yǒu have
- 代謝 dài xiè succession and passing
Word meanings — Line 2
- 往來 wǎng lái going and coming
- 成 chéng make
- 古今 gǔ jīn past and present
Word meanings — Line 3
- 江山 jiāng shān rivers and mountains
- 留 liú preserve
- 勝跡 shèng jì notable remains
Word meanings — Line 4
- 我輩 wǒ bèi we people
- 復 fù again
- 登臨 dēng lín climb and look out
Word meanings — Line 5
- 水落 shuǐ luò water falls
- 魚梁 yú liáng Yuliang
- 淺 qiǎn shallow
Word meanings — Line 6
- 天寒 tiān hán weather cold
- 夢澤 mèng zé Meng Marsh
- 深 shēn deep
Word meanings — Line 7
- 羊公 yáng gōng Lord Yang
- 碑 bēi memorial stele
- 尚在 shàng zài still remains
Word meanings — Line 8
- 讀罷 dú bà finish reading
- 淚 lèi tears
- 沾 zhān wet
- 襟 jīn front of robe
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
人事有代謝，
往來成古今。
江山留勝跡，
我輩復登臨。
水落魚梁淺，
天寒夢澤深。
羊公碑尚在，
讀罷淚沾襟。
Translation
Human affairs undergo succession and passing;
those who go and come make past and present.
Rivers and mountains preserve notable traces;
our company climbs to look out once more.
The water falls; Yuliang lies shallow.
The air is cold; Meng Marsh stretches deep.
Lord Yang's memorial stele is still there;
when I finish reading, tears wet my robe.
Try it from memory
After reading, recall the underlined word or phrase in each line. Say its meaning before opening the answer. These prompts use the text edition printed above.
-
Line 1 · What does the marked word mean?
人事有代謝，
Pronunciation hint
rén shì
Reveal meaning and translation
人事 — human affairs
Human affairs undergo succession and passing;
-
Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?
水落魚梁淺，
Pronunciation hint
shuǐ luò
Reveal meaning and translation
水落 — water falls
The water falls; Yuliang lies shallow.
-
Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?
讀罷淚沾襟。
Pronunciation hint
dú bà
Reveal meaning and translation
讀罷 — finish reading
when I finish reading, tears wet my robe.
One more question: what changes?
Compare the opening and closing lines. What changes in the scene, the speaker’s attention, or the feeling? Choose a Chinese word as evidence, then compare your reading with the notes. More than one answer may be reasonable.
Line-by-line notes →Self-check at your own pace. No score or progress is saved. Open only the answers you want included when printing.
Line-by-line notes
Lines 1–2 · People in succession
代謝 describes human affairs passing away and being succeeded. 往來 looks at that movement across generations, and 古今 names the relation it creates between past and present. The opening can sound like a distant observation until the next pair makes the visitors part of it.
Lines 3–4 · Another climb
留 is a verb of keeping. The rivers and mountains retain 勝跡, places or traces worth visiting. 我輩 means “our group,” the companions of the title. 復 says their climb has happened before, either for these visitors or as an act others have done at the same site. The English “once more” lets that repetition stand.
Lines 5–6 · Shallow and deep
水落 gives the low water a cause for appearing shallow at Yuliang. In the next line, 深 opens out the marsh against the cold sky. 淺 and 深 ask the eye to take in two depths before the poem brings one small object near enough to read.
Lines 7–8 · A trace becomes a text
尚 makes Lord Yang’s stele something that is still there despite the succession described at the start. 羊公 is Yang Hu. In 讀罷, the visitor finishes reading the inscription before tears wet his clothing. Reading puts the individual visitor in contact with the past, which the first line had described in general terms.
Form and tone
Eight five-character lines proceed from a general reflection to a particular reading. 今, 臨, 深, and 襟 form the even-line rhyme. The central landscape pair gives the historical thought a visible setting before the stele is named.
See the regulated verse guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; no unverified historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
Mount Xian stands in the Xiangyang landscape associated with Meng Haoran. The title’s 諸子 refers to the companions; it is not necessarily the poet’s biological sons. The poem keeps collective visiting and a personal response in the same small scene.
Continue with Meng Haoran or the time and memory shelf.
Sources
Chinese text compared with 與諸子登峴山, public transcription on Wikisource. Punctuation is editorial; the English translation and reading notes are original to PoemWell.
English translation, gloss, and notes by PoemWell. The translation is original to this site.
The Chinese source is shown in traditional characters by default, with a simplified view available. Pinyin is modern standard Mandarin, a reading aid, not Tang or Song pronunciation.
Updated .
Cite this reading
Meng Haoran. “Climbing Mount Xian with Friends” (與諸子登峴山). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/climbing-mount-xian-with-friends
Credit the poet for the Chinese original and PoemWell for this translation and commentary. Use the permanent page link above; source editions are listed separately.