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Tang Dynasty Lüshi Wen Tingyun

Early Departure from Shang Mountain

商山早行

Shāng shān zǎo xíng

A traveler leaves an inn before sunrise. Read the famous sequence of rooster, moon, footprints, and frost, then follow its turn toward a dream of home.

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.

01

晨起動征鐸，

chén qǐ dòng zhēng duó

Rising at dawn, we set the traveling bells ringing;

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 晨 chén morning
  2. 起 qǐ rise
  3. 動 dòng set moving
  4. 征 zhēng travel
  5. 鐸 duó bell
02

客行悲故鄉。

kè xíng bēi gù xiāng

on the road, the traveler aches for home.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 客 kè traveler
  2. 行 xíng journeys
  3. 悲 bēi grieves
  4. 故 gù old
  5. 鄉 xiāng home
03

雞聲茅店月，

jī shēng máo diàn yuè

Rooster cries, a thatched inn, the moon;

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 雞 jī rooster
  2. 聲 shēng sound
  3. 茅 máo thatch
  4. 店 diàn inn
  5. 月 yuè moon
04

人跡板橋霜。

rén jì bǎn qiáo shuāng

human tracks, a plank bridge, frost.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 人 rén human
  2. 跡 jì tracks
  3. 板 bǎn plank
  4. 橋 qiáo bridge
  5. 霜 shuāng frost
05

槲葉落山路，

hú yè luò shān lù

Oak leaves fall along the mountain road;

Word meanings — Line 5
  1. 槲 hú oak
  2. 葉 yè leaves
  3. 落 luò fall
  4. 山 shān mountain
  5. 路 lù road
06

枳花明驛牆。

zhǐ huā míng yì qiáng

trifoliate orange blossoms brighten the posting-station wall.

Word meanings — Line 6
  1. 枳花 zhǐ huā trifoliate orange blossoms
  2. 明 míng brighten
  3. 驛牆 yì qiáng wall of the post station
07

因思杜陵夢，

yīn sī dù líng mèng

This brings back my dream of Duling:

Word meanings — Line 7
  1. 因 yīn therefore
  2. 思 sī think
  3. 杜 dù Du
  4. 陵 líng ling
  5. 夢 mèng dream
08

鳧雁滿回塘。

fú yàn mǎn huí táng

wild ducks and geese filling a winding pond.

Word meanings — Line 8
  1. 鳧 fú wild ducks
  2. 雁 yàn geese
  3. 滿 mǎn fill
  4. 回 huí winding
  5. 塘 táng pond

English translation by PoemWell.

Read the whole poem

Original

晨起動征鐸，

客行悲故鄉。

雞聲茅店月，

人跡板橋霜。

槲葉落山路，

枳花明驛牆。

因思杜陵夢，

鳧雁滿回塘。

Translation

Rising at dawn, we set the traveling bells ringing;

on the road, the traveler aches for home.

Rooster cries, a thatched inn, the moon;

human tracks, a plank bridge, frost.

Oak leaves fall along the mountain road;

trifoliate orange blossoms brighten the posting-station wall.

This brings back my dream of Duling:

wild ducks and geese filling a winding pond.

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.

  1. Line 1 · What does the marked word mean?

    晨起動征鐸，

    Pronunciation hint

    dòng

    Reveal meaning and translation

    動 — set moving

    Rising at dawn, we set the traveling bells ringing;

  2. Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?

    槲葉落山路，

    Pronunciation hint

    luò

    Reveal meaning and translation

    落 — fall

    Oak leaves fall along the mountain road;

  3. Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?

    鳧雁滿回塘。

    Pronunciation hint

    mǎn

    Reveal meaning and translation

    滿 — fill

    wild ducks and geese filling a winding pond.

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 →

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Line-by-line notes

Lines 1–2 · A departure heard at dawn

動 sets the traveling bells ringing as the group rises and starts out. 征鐸 are bells associated with travel, such as bells on harnessed animals. 客 makes the traveler someone away from home, and 悲故鄉 states the ache that the next images will give a setting.

Lines 3–4 · Six things placed together

The two lines arrange rooster cries, a thatched inn, and the moon against human tracks, a plank bridge, and frost. The Chinese leaves the connections among these nouns to the reader. The translation keeps the groups side by side so readers can imagine sound by the inn and tracks in the frost without moving the details around. 月 and 霜 show why departure feels early even without the title's 早.

Lines 5–6 · Leaves fall and blossoms brighten

The next pair restores clear actions. 落 lets the oak leaves fall along the mountain road. 明 gives the 枳 flowers, the blooms of a trifoliate orange, a brightening effect against the station wall. 山路 and 驛牆 locate those changes in places the traveler passes.

Lines 7–8 · What the road brings back

因思 marks an association. The present scene brings the dream of Duling to mind. 鳧雁 names ducks and geese, and 滿 gives them a pond they can fill. Compare the signs of people crossing a bridge in line 4 with the birds filling a place in line 8. One image records passage and the other gives the remembered landscape a sense of dwelling.

Form and tone

Eight five-character lines form a lüshi. The two central couplets balance sound and trace, then leaves and blossoms. The opening announces homesickness; the closing makes it visible. The noun-only second couplet is a useful example of why a gloss and a readable translation need not have identical grammar.

See lüshi for the larger formal pattern. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; a historical level/oblique grid is not inferred from those modern tones.

Historical context

Shang Mountain belongs to a travel route southeast of Chang’an; Duling evokes the capital region. The poem’s emotional contrast is between being underway and seeing home in a dream. It gives a remembered destination without requiring a securely identified itinerary for this particular departure.

Continue with Wen Tingyun and the homesickness reading path. Compare Hearing Wild Geese and Lodging at a Mountain Temple using the reading connections below.

Sources

商山早行 — Chinese text. Checked against the linked Wikisource transcription. The displayed traditional text follows this reading. Punctuation and line breaks are editorial. Translation, glosses, 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

Wen Tingyun. “Early Departure from Shang Mountain” (商山早行). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/early-departure-from-shang-mountain

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.