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Tang Dynasty Lüshi Liu Yuxi

Thinking of the Past at Mount Xisai

西塞山懷古

Xī sài shān huái gǔ

Warships, broken defenses, and a quiet riverside frame a vanished kingdom. Trace the poem's movement from military conquest to an ordinary present.

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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

王濬樓船下益州，

wáng jùn lóu chuán xià yì zhōu

Wang Jun's towered ships came down from Yizhou;

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 王 wáng Wang
  2. 濬 jùn Jun
  3. 樓 lóu towered
  4. 船 chuán ships
  5. 下 xià descend
  6. 益 yì Yi
  7. 州 zhōu province
02

金陵王氣黯然收。

jīn líng wáng qì àn rán shōu

Jinling's royal aura faded away.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 金 jīn Jin
  2. 陵 líng ling
  3. 王 wáng royal
  4. 氣 qì aura
  5. 黯 àn dim
  6. 然 rán thus
  7. 收 shōu recedes
03

千尋鐵鎖沈江底，

qiān xún tiě suǒ chén jiāng dǐ

An iron chain a thousand xun long sank to the riverbed;

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 千尋 qiān xún a thousand xun
  2. 鐵鎖 tiě suǒ iron chain
  3. 沈 chén sink
  4. 江 jiāng river
  5. 底 dǐ bottom
04

一片降旛出石頭。

yí piàn xiáng fān chū shí tóu

a single surrender flag emerged from Stone City.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 一 yí one
  2. 片 piàn piece
  3. 降旛 xiáng fān surrender flag
  4. 出 chū comes out
  5. 石 shí Stone
  6. 頭 tóu City
05

人世幾回傷往事，

rén shì jǐ huí shāng wǎng shì

How often has the human world grieved over what has passed?

Word meanings — Line 5
  1. 人 rén human
  2. 世 shì world
  3. 幾 jǐ how many
  4. 回 huí times
  5. 傷 shāng grieve
  6. 往 wǎng past
  7. 事 shì events
06

山形依舊枕寒流。

shān xíng yī jiù zhěn hán liú

The mountains still rest against the cold current.

Word meanings — Line 6
  1. 山 shān mountain
  2. 形 xíng shape
  3. 依 yī as
  4. 舊 jiù before
  5. 枕 zhěn rests on
  6. 寒 hán cold
  7. 流 liú current
07

今逢四海為家日，

jīn féng sì hǎi wéi jiā rì

Now, when the four seas belong to a single house,

Word meanings — Line 7
  1. 今 jīn now
  2. 逢 féng meet
  3. 四 sì four
  4. 海 hǎi seas
  5. 為 wéi become
  6. 家 jiā home
  7. 日 rì days
08

故壘蕭蕭蘆荻秋。

gù lěi xiāo xiāo lú dí qiū

autumn reeds rustle over the old ramparts.

Word meanings — Line 8
  1. 故 gù old
  2. 壘 lěi ramparts
  3. 蕭 xiāo rustling
  4. 蕭 xiāo rustling
  5. 蘆 lú reeds
  6. 荻 dí reed grass
  7. 秋 qiū autumn

English translation by PoemWell.

Read the whole poem

Original

王濬樓船下益州，

金陵王氣黯然收。

千尋鐵鎖沈江底，

一片降旛出石頭。

人世幾回傷往事，

山形依舊枕寒流。

今逢四海為家日，

故壘蕭蕭蘆荻秋。

Translation

Wang Jun's towered ships came down from Yizhou;

Jinling's royal aura faded away.

An iron chain a thousand xun long sank to the riverbed;

a single surrender flag emerged from Stone City.

How often has the human world grieved over what has passed?

The mountains still rest against the cold current.

Now, when the four seas belong to a single house,

autumn reeds rustle over the old ramparts.

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?

    王濬樓船下益州，

    Pronunciation hint

    chuán

    Reveal meaning and translation

    船 — ships

    Wang Jun's towered ships came down from Yizhou;

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

    人世幾回傷往事，

    Pronunciation hint

    huí

    Reveal meaning and translation

    回 — times

    How often has the human world grieved over what has passed?

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

    故壘蕭蕭蘆荻秋。

    Pronunciation hint

    xiāo

    Reveal meaning and translation

    蕭 — rustling

    autumn reeds rustle over the old ramparts.

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 · A fleet descends

王濬 is Wang Jun, the commander in the Jin conquest of Wu. 下 gives his towered ships a direction, downriver from Yizhou. The second line shifts from moving ships to something invisible. 王氣 is the aura of royal power associated with Jinling. 收 makes it withdraw as the ships advance.

Lines 3–4 · One chain, one flag

尋 is a historical unit of length. The English keeps xun in 千尋 so the reader can hear the old measure beside the small 一片, a single piece of cloth. The chain sinks to the bottom of the river while a surrender flag comes out from Stone City. The two directions let the reader see the collapse without a description of battle.

Lines 5–6 · What can still be seen

This edition reads 人世, the human world, where some readers know 人事. 幾回 asks how often people have grieved over the past. The hills answer that question without speaking. 依舊 means they remain as before, and 枕 makes the land seem to rest its head against the cold water.

Lines 7–8 · Back to the present

今逢 returns to the speaker’s time. 四海為家 pictures the realm within the four seas as one house. After that expansive statement, the final line lets the reader hear 蕭蕭, the rustling reeds and grasses around the old defenses. Their sound leaves the earlier conquest visible in the present landscape.

Form and tone

This is an eight-line, seven-character lüshi. The chain and flag couplet balances enormous resistance against slight submission; the next balances changing human affairs against stable terrain. The last couplet returns to the speaker’s present before letting sound and vegetation close the poem.

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 poem looks back from the Tang to an earlier unification. It is a historical meditation, not a report from Wang Jun’s campaign. Read the praise of political unity together with the ruined defenses: the site preserves evidence that earlier claims to permanence also ended.

Continue with Liu Yuxi and the memory reading path. Compare Red Cliff and Stone City using the reading connections below.

Sources

西塞山懷古 — 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 Yuxi. “Thinking of the Past at Mount Xisai” (西塞山懷古). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/thoughts-at-mount-xisai

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.