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Tang Dynasty Jueju Du Mu

A Mountain Walk

山行

Shān xíng

A traveler stops on a mountain road to admire autumn maples. Follow the choice to pause and the bold comparison between frost-red leaves and spring flowers.

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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

遠上寒山石徑斜，

yuǎn shàng hán shān shí jìng xié

Far up the chilly mountain, a stone path slopes;

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 遠 yuǎn far
  2. 上 shàng up
  3. 寒 hán cold
  4. 山 shān mountain
  5. 石 shí stone
  6. 徑 jìng path
  7. 斜 xié slants
02

白雲生處有人家。

bái yún shēng chù yǒu rén jiā

where white clouds rise, there are people's houses.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 白 bái white
  2. 雲 yún clouds
  3. 生 shēng arise
  4. 處 chù place
  5. 有 yǒu there are
  6. 人 rén people
  7. 家 jiā homes
03

停車坐愛楓林晚，

tíng chē zuò ài fēng lín wǎn

I stop the carriage, drawn to the maple grove at evening:

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 停 tíng stop
  2. 車 chē carriage
  3. 坐 zuò because
  4. 愛 ài love
  5. 楓 fēng maple
  6. 林 lín grove
  7. 晚 wǎn evening
04

霜葉紅於二月花。

shuāng yè hóng yú èr yuè huā

frost-touched leaves are redder than second-month flowers.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 霜 shuāng frost
  2. 葉 yè leaves
  3. 紅 hóng redder
  4. 於 yú than
  5. 二 èr second
  6. 月 yuè month
  7. 花 huā flowers

English translation by PoemWell.

Read the whole poem

Original

遠上寒山石徑斜，

白雲生處有人家。

停車坐愛楓林晚，

霜葉紅於二月花。

Translation

Far up the chilly mountain, a stone path slopes;

where white clouds rise, there are people's houses.

I stop the carriage, drawn to the maple grove at evening:

frost-touched leaves are redder than second-month flowers.

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?

    遠上寒山石徑斜，

    Pronunciation hint

    shān

    Reveal meaning and translation

    山 — mountain

    Far up the chilly mountain, a stone path slopes;

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

    停車坐愛楓林晚，

    Pronunciation hint

    ài

    Reveal meaning and translation

    愛 — love

    I stop the carriage, drawn to the maple grove at evening:

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

    霜葉紅於二月花。

    Pronunciation hint

    yú

    Reveal meaning and translation

    於 — than

    frost-touched leaves are redder than second-month flowers.

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: an upward path to a lived-in place

遠上 follows the slant of the stone path uphill. The next line answers that distance with 人家, the homes of people. The selected reading 生 places them where white clouds arise. 深, a recorded alternative, would place them deep inside the clouds. The English “where white clouds rise” lets the chosen verb give the upper view movement.

Lines 3–4: the traveler makes a choice

停車 interrupts the motion of the opening. 車 is the traveler’s carriage, and 坐 is causal here: the speaker stops because of the maple grove at evening. 紅於 is comparative, “redder than.” The comparison gives the frost-colored leaves the advantage over the flowers of the second lunar month. That judgment explains why the eye stays in autumn even when spring offers a familiar standard of beauty.

Form and tone

This seven-character quatrain begins with the path’s long reach and ends with an intense color. The third line changes from seeing to choosing: the observer stops. Read the last couplet as action followed by its visual explanation, not as two disconnected scenic captions.

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

Historical context

The poem does not name a mountain or date its excursion. Its ordinary vehicle and inhabited slope prevent the scene from becoming a wholly unpeopled wilderness. Compare Liu Yuxi’s Autumn Poem for a more explicit argument that autumn can surpass spring.

Continue with Du Mu and the nature reading path. Compare Autumn Poem, I and Peach Blossoms at Dalin Temple using the reading connections below.

Sources

山行 (杜牧) — 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

Du Mu. “A Mountain Walk” (山行). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/mountain-walk-du-mu

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.