Lodging at a Mountain Temple
宿山寺
Sù shān sì
Stars and clouds move above a secluded mountain temple. Follow the shift from a restless sky to a solitary crane and the portrait of an elderly monk.
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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.
Word meanings — Line 1
- 眾 zhòng many
- 岫 xiù peaks
- 聳 sǒng rise
- 寒 hán cold
- 色 sè appearance
Word meanings — Line 2
- 精 jīng pure
- 廬 lú dwelling
- 向 xiàng toward
- 此 cǐ here
- 分 fēn stands apart
Word meanings — Line 3
- 流 liú shooting
- 星 xīng star
- 透 tòu pierces
- 疏 shū sparse
- 木 mù trees
Word meanings — Line 4
- 走 zǒu racing
- 月 yuè moon
- 逆 nì against
- 行 xíng moving
- 雲 yún clouds
Word meanings — Line 5
- 絕 jué highest
- 頂 dǐng summit
- 人 rén people
- 來 lái come
- 少 shǎo few
Word meanings — Line 6
- 高 gāo tall
- 松 sōng pine
- 鶴 hè crane
- 不 bù not
- 群 qún flock
Word meanings — Line 7
- 一 yì one
- 僧 sēng monk
- 年 nián years
- 八 bā eight
- 十 shí ten
Word meanings — Line 8
- 世 shì world
- 事 shì affairs
- 未 wèi not yet
- 曾 céng ever
- 聞 wén heard
English translation by PoemWell.
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Original
眾岫聳寒色，
精廬向此分。
流星透疏木，
走月逆行雲。
絕頂人來少，
高松鶴不群。
一僧年八十，
世事未曾聞。
Translation
Many peaks rise in cold colors;
the religious dwelling stands apart here.
A shooting star passes through the sparse trees;
the racing moon runs against the traveling clouds.
Few people come to the highest summit;
in a tall pine, a crane keeps apart from the flock.
One monk is eighty years old;
of worldly affairs, he has never heard.
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?
眾岫聳寒色，
Pronunciation hint
sǒng
Reveal meaning and translation
聳 — rise
Many peaks rise in cold colors;
-
Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?
絕頂人來少，
Pronunciation hint
rén
Reveal meaning and translation
人 — people
Few people come to the highest summit;
-
Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?
世事未曾聞。
Pronunciation hint
wèi
Reveal meaning and translation
未 — not yet
of worldly affairs, he has never heard.
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 — Finding the lodging
聳 gives the peaks an upward thrust, while 寒色 makes their color feel cold. 精廬 is a religious dwelling. The English hears 分 as the dwelling standing distinct in the scene. After the many peaks, the eye has a particular place to stop.
Lines 3–4 — The sky in motion
透 lets the shooting star be seen through the gaps of the sparse trees. The moon seems to race against the traveling clouds. 逆 gives the opposed directions that make the effect legible. Read both lines as seen through a changing foreground.
Lines 5–6 — Few visitors and one crane
絕頂 takes us up to the highest point. 少 and 不群 set few human visitors beside a crane keeping apart from its flock. The bird offers a visible counterpart to the remoteness of the place.
Lines 7–8 — The person in the temple
一僧 brings the attention to one monk. His specified age gives the portrait a human measure, while 未曾聞 sets the world of ordinary affairs at an extreme distance. The last line expresses the depth of seclusion. The poem leaves his life there, without relating a conversation or supplying a biography.
Form and tone
Eight five-character lines form a lüshi. The central pairs contrast moving celestial objects and secluded living beings. The opening gives the temple’s setting; the last couplet supplies its human inhabitant. Reading all eight lines prevents the spectacular night sky from displacing the poem’s concluding portrait.
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
The title identifies a night’s lodging at a mountain temple but names neither temple nor monk. The text places religious withdrawal alongside the visitor’s careful observation. Its vivid motion shows that a secluded setting need not be visually still.
Continue with Jia Dao and the nature reading path. Compare Passing a Mountain Village at Dusk and Deer Enclosure using the reading connections below.
Sources
全唐詩/卷573 — Chinese text. Checked against the linked Wikisource transcription. The older graph 疎 is normalized to 疏; all eight lines of 宿山寺 are included. 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
Jia Dao. “Lodging at a Mountain Temple” (宿山寺). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/night-at-a-mountain-temple-jia
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.