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Tang Dynasty Jueju Wang Changling

Farewell at Hibiscus Tower: A Heart of Ice

芙蓉樓送辛漸二首（其一）

Fúróng lóu sòng Xīn Jiàn èr shǒu · qí yī

Wang Changling’s Hibiscus Tower farewell in Chinese and English, with pinyin and notes on the dawn departure, a message to Luoyang, and the heart of ice in jade.

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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

寒雨連江夜入吳，

hán yǔ lián jiāng yè rù wú

At night, cold rain sweeps over the river into Wu.

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 寒 hán cold
  2. 雨 yǔ rain
  3. 連 lián joins
  4. 江 jiāng river
  5. 夜 yè night
  6. 入 rù enter
  7. 吳 wú Wu
02

平明送客楚山孤。

píng míng sòng kè chǔ shān gū

At dawn I see you off; the Chu mountains stand alone.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 平明 píng míng daybreak
  2. 送 sòng see off
  3. 客 kè guest
  4. 楚 chǔ Chu
  5. 山 shān mountains
  6. 孤 gū alone
03

洛陽親友如相問，

luò yáng qīn yǒu rú xiāng wèn

If friends and kin in Luoyang ask about me,

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 洛陽 luò yáng Luoyang
  2. 親友 qīn yǒu relatives and friends
  3. 如 rú if
  4. 相 xiāng about me
  5. 問 wèn ask
04

一片冰心在玉壺。

yí piàn bīng xīn zài yù hú

a piece of clear ice is my heart, held in a jade vessel.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 一 yí one
  2. 片 piàn piece
  3. 冰心 bīng xīn heart of ice; purity of intent
  4. 在 zài in
  5. 玉壺 yù hú jade vessel

English translation by PoemWell.

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Original

寒雨連江夜入吳，

平明送客楚山孤。

洛陽親友如相問，

一片冰心在玉壺。

Translation

At night, cold rain sweeps over the river into Wu.

At dawn I see you off; the Chu mountains stand alone.

If friends and kin in Luoyang ask about me,

a piece of clear ice is my heart, held in a jade vessel.

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

    寒雨連江夜入吳，

    Pronunciation hint

    jiāng

    Reveal meaning and translation

    江 — river

    At night, cold rain sweeps over the river into Wu.

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

    洛陽親友如相問，

    Pronunciation hint

    luò yáng

    Reveal meaning and translation

    洛陽 — Luoyang

    If friends and kin in Luoyang ask about me,

  3. Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?

    一片冰心在玉壺。

    Pronunciation hint

    bīng xīn

    Reveal meaning and translation

    冰心 — heart of ice; purity of intent

    a piece of clear ice is my heart, held in a jade vessel.

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.

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Line-by-line notes

Lines 1–2 · Rain gives way to departure

寒雨連江 makes cold rain continuous with the reach of the river. 夜 places the motion into Wu at night. The English gives 入 to the rain, one way to unfold the compact wording. 平明 is the single expression for daybreak. At that point the speaker’s action is clear, 送客, seeing a guest off. 孤 leaves the Chu mountains standing alone and allows their isolation to echo that of the person who stays.

Lines 3–4 · The message waits for a question

洛陽 names the destination of the imagined reply, and 親友 includes kin and friends. 如 makes the conversation conditional. 相問 can be heard here as asking about the speaker. The last line answers in advance, and the traveler can carry it with him.

冰心 figures the heart as clear ice, and 玉壺 encloses it in a jade vessel. The English keeps the startling identity of ice and heart. It lets clarity express integrity rather than giving “cold” the English sense of unkindness. The poem gives the image without naming a charge it must answer. In Sending Yuan Er to Anxi, the speaker asks the guest to stay for a cup. Here the vessel belongs to a message that can travel.

Form and tone

The first of two seven-character jueju under this heading rhymes 吳, 孤, and 壺. Night and morning form the first temporal movement; the conditional message carries the second pair to another city. Modern Mandarin is provided without an unverified historical tone grid.

Historical context

Wang Changling lets a farewell carry a future conversation. The second poem replaces the message with a cold river and a moonlike heart. Compare Sending Yuan Er to Anxi, where direct speech seeks to prolong the present meeting rather than travel with the departing friend.

Read this poem alongside the contrasting selections in our friendship and farewell guide.

Sources

《全唐詩》, juan 143, Wang Changling; checked against the Wikisource transcription, retaining the main reading and identifying the individual poem within its sequence. Punctuation is editorial.

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

Wang Changling. “Farewell at Hibiscus Tower: A Heart of Ice” (芙蓉樓送辛漸二首（其一）). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/farewell-at-hibiscus-tower-one

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.