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Tang Dynasty Lüshi Liu Changqing

Passing Jia Yi’s House in Changsha

長沙過賈誼宅

Chángshā guò Jiǎ Yì zhái

An earlier exile's residence draws a solitary visitor through autumn grass. Read how the landscape becomes a question about sympathy and imperial favor.

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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

三年謫宦此棲遲，

sān nián zhé huàn cǐ qī chí

For three years, a banished official lingered here;

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 三 sān three
  2. 年 nián years
  3. 謫 zhé demoted
  4. 宦 huàn official
  5. 此 cǐ here
  6. 棲 qī linger
  7. 遲 chí remain
02

萬古惟留楚客悲。

wàn gǔ wéi liú chǔ kè bēi

through the ages remains the sorrow of this guest in Chu.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 萬 wàn ten thousand
  2. 古 gǔ ages
  3. 惟 wéi only
  4. 留 liú leave
  5. 楚 chǔ Chu
  6. 客 kè guest
  7. 悲 bēi sorrow
03

秋草獨尋人去後，

qiū cǎo dú xún rén qù hòu

Alone I search through autumn grass after the man has gone;

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 秋 qiū autumn
  2. 草 cǎo grass
  3. 獨 dú alone
  4. 尋 xún seek
  5. 人 rén person
  6. 去 qù gone
  7. 後 hòu after
04

寒林空見日斜時。

hán lín kōng jiàn rì xié shí

in the cold wood I see only the slanting afternoon sun.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 寒 hán cold
  2. 林 lín wood
  3. 空 kōng only
  4. 見 jiàn see
  5. 日 rì sun
  6. 斜 xié slants
  7. 時 shí time
05

漢文有道恩猶薄，

hàn wén yǒu dào ēn yóu bó

Even virtuous Emperor Wen gave favor so thinly;

Word meanings — Line 5
  1. 漢 hàn Han
  2. 文 wén Wen
  3. 有 yǒu has
  4. 道 dào virtue
  5. 恩 ēn favor
  6. 猶 yóu still
  7. 薄 bó thin
06

湘水無情弔豈知。

xiāng shuǐ wú qíng diào qǐ zhī

how could the unfeeling Xiang understand a lament?

Word meanings — Line 6
  1. 湘 xiāng Xiang
  2. 水 shuǐ water
  3. 無 wú without
  4. 情 qíng feeling
  5. 弔 diào mourning
  6. 豈 qǐ how
  7. 知 zhī know
07

寂寂江山搖落處，

jì jì jiāng shān yáo luò chù

Silent rivers and hills, a place of falling leaves:

Word meanings — Line 7
  1. 寂 jì silent
  2. 寂 jì silent
  3. 江 jiāng rivers
  4. 山 shān mountains
  5. 搖 yáo shake
  6. 落 luò fall
  7. 處 chù place
08

憐君何事到天涯。

lián jūn hé shì dào tiān yá

I grieve for you—what brought you to the world's edge?

Word meanings — Line 8
  1. 憐 lián pity
  2. 君 jūn you
  3. 何 hé what
  4. 事 shì reason
  5. 到 dào reach
  6. 天 tiān sky
  7. 涯 yá edge

English translation by PoemWell.

Read the whole poem

Original

三年謫宦此棲遲，

萬古惟留楚客悲。

秋草獨尋人去後，

寒林空見日斜時。

漢文有道恩猶薄，

湘水無情弔豈知。

寂寂江山搖落處，

憐君何事到天涯。

Translation

For three years, a banished official lingered here;

through the ages remains the sorrow of this guest in Chu.

Alone I search through autumn grass after the man has gone;

in the cold wood I see only the slanting afternoon sun.

Even virtuous Emperor Wen gave favor so thinly;

how could the unfeeling Xiang understand a lament?

Silent rivers and hills, a place of falling leaves:

I grieve for you—what brought you to the world's edge?

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?

    三年謫宦此棲遲，

    Pronunciation hint

    huàn

    Reveal meaning and translation

    宦 — official

    For three years, a banished official lingered here;

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

    漢文有道恩猶薄，

    Pronunciation hint

    dào

    Reveal meaning and translation

    道 — virtue

    Even virtuous Emperor Wen gave favor so thinly;

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

    憐君何事到天涯。

    Pronunciation hint

    shì

    Reveal meaning and translation

    事 — reason

    I grieve for you—what brought you to the world's edge?

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 — Three years and a much longer memory

謫宦 gives the posting its character as political banishment. 此 places that earlier life in the ground the visitor can still stand on. 三年 measures the stay, while 萬古 makes its sorrow available to later generations.

Lines 3–4 — A search that finds light and grass

獨尋 gives the present visitor an action. 人去後 makes its desired object unreachable. 空見 turns up only the slanting light in the cold woods. The season and hour are concrete enough to stand in for all the time separating him from Jia Yi.

Lines 5–6 — Lament across the river

漢文有道 grants Emperor Wen his reputation for virtuous rule. 猶薄 gives the judgment its force. Even such a ruler gave Jia Yi little favor. The Xiang River can recall Jia Yi’s own lament for Qu Yuan. How could the water understand what one displaced writer says for another? The account of Jia Yi crossing the Xiang

Lines 7–8 — From “he” to “you”

搖落 keeps the place in the season of falling leaves. 君 then addresses the absent figure directly. 何事 comes out of grief at his displacement. The historical person who was first spoken about becomes someone the visitor can speak to.

Form and tone

Eight seven-character lines form a lüshi. The middle couples a deserted place with a judgment about power and remembrance. The last couplet brings seasonal falling and direct address together. The poem moves from third-person history to a second-person encounter with the dead.

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

Jia Yi’s remembered residence in Changsha gives Liu Changqing a site for reflecting on displacement and imperial favor. The poem offers a historical kinship rather than a simple biography. Read Li Shangyin’s Jia Yi to see another poet turn the same adviser’s relationship with Emperor Wen into a different kind of question.

Continue with Liu Changqing and the memory reading path. Compare Jia Yi and At the New Year using the reading connections below.

Sources

長沙過賈誼宅 — 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

Liu Changqing. “Passing Jia Yi’s House in Changsha” (長沙過賈誼宅). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/passing-jia-yis-house

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.