Seeing Wei Da Off to Military Service
送魏大從軍
Sòng Wèi Dà cóng jūn
A farewell urges a departing friend to measure himself against the remembered achievements of earlier warriors. Read the original Chinese with pinyin, word meanings, an original English translation, and notes.
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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
- 匈奴 xiōng nú Xiongnu
- 猶 yóu still
- 未滅 wèi miè not subdued
Word meanings — Line 2
- 魏絳 wèi jiàng Wei Jiang
- 復 fù again
- 從戎 cóng róng enter military service
Word meanings — Line 3
- 悵別 chàng bié part sadly
- 三河 sān hé Three Rivers region
- 道 dào road
Word meanings — Line 4
- 言 yán intend; say
- 追 zhuī follow
- 六郡雄 liù jùn xióng champion of the six commanderies
Word meanings — Line 5
- 雁山 yàn shān Mount Yanmen
- 橫 héng stretch across
- 代北 dài běi north of Dai
Word meanings — Line 6
- 狐塞 hú sài Feihu Pass
- 接 jiē connect with
- 雲中 yún zhōng Yunzhong
Word meanings — Line 7
- 勿使 wù shǐ do not let
- 燕然 yān rán Mount Yanran
- 上 shàng on
Word meanings — Line 8
- 惟 wéi only
- 留 liú leave
- 漢將 hàn jiàng Han generals
- 功 gōng achievements
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
匈奴猶未滅，
魏絳復從戎。
悵別三河道，
言追六郡雄。
雁山橫代北，
狐塞接雲中。
勿使燕然上，
惟留漢將功。
Translation
The Xiongnu are still not overcome;
another Wei Jiang goes to military service.
Sadly we part on the road through the Three Rivers region;
you mean to follow the champion of the six commanderies.
Mount Yanmen stretches across the north of Dai;
Feihu Pass links up with Yunzhong.
Do not let the heights of Yanran
record only the achievements of Han generals.
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?
匈奴猶未滅，
Pronunciation hint
xiōng nú
Reveal meaning and translation
匈奴 — Xiongnu
The Xiongnu are still not overcome;
-
Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?
雁山橫代北，
Pronunciation hint
yàn shān
Reveal meaning and translation
雁山 — Mount Yanmen
Mount Yanmen stretches across the north of Dai;
-
Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?
惟留漢將功。
Pronunciation hint
hàn jiàng
Reveal meaning and translation
漢將 — Han generals
record only the achievements of Han generals.
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: present departure through old names
猶未 says the military task is still unfinished, and 復 answers with someone going to serve again. 匈奴 evokes the enemies of Han campaigns in a Tang poem. 魏絳 recalls an earlier statesman who shares the friend’s surname. “Another” in the translation brings out the comparison without making the traveler literally Wei Jiang.
Lines 3–4: farewell and example
悵別 admits the sadness of the parting on the Three Rivers road. 追 in this line means following an example. The singular 六郡雄 may evoke the Han general Zhao Chongguo, introduced in his Han shu biography as a member of the military families of the six commanderies.
Lines 5–6: names laid out across the frontier
雁山 and 狐塞 name Mount Yanmen and Feihu Pass. 橫 gives the mountain a spread across the north of Dai, while 接 makes the pass a connection with Yunzhong. The place names make a far route imaginable after the close farewell of line 3.
Lines 7–8: make a name that will stay
勿使 starts the exhortation and 惟 limits what is to remain at Yanran. The final pair evokes commemoration of an earlier victory. The English lets the heights “record” achievement, expressing how a place can keep the memory of an act. The friend is challenged to add a name of his own to a landscape already full of inherited names.
Form and tone
Eight five-character lines form a lüshi. The central mountain-and-pass pair makes the frontier concrete through parallel place-names. 戎, 雄, 中, and 功 end the even lines. The negative instruction 勿使 runs into the last line, turning farewell into an exhortation.
See the lushi guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin; no historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
The title identifies the addressee by surname and seniority designation rather than a full personal name. The poem’s historical comparisons praise the departing friend and set a demanding example before him. Its language belongs to a literary farewell, so an annotated reading must distinguish those comparisons from a literal reconstruction of a campaign.
Read more by Chen Zi’ang, or follow the farewell shelf. The English translation, gloss, and notes are original to PoemWell.
Sources
送魏大從軍, public transcription. We retain 惟留漢將功; the transcription records 獨有漢臣功 as an alternative last line. Punctuation and reading-line divisions are 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
Chen Zi’ang. “Seeing Wei Da Off to Military Service” (送魏大從軍). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/seeing-wei-da-off-to-war
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.