Written on the Wall at West Forest Temple
題西林壁
Tí Xīlín bì
Also called Written on the Wall of Xilin Temple.
Su Shi’s West Forest Temple quatrain, with pinyin and English notes on changing views of Mount Lu and why being inside the mountain limits the observer.
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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
- 橫 héng across
- 看 kàn look
- 成 chéng becomes
- 嶺 lǐng ridge
- 側 cè side
- 成 chéng becomes
- 峰 fēng peak
Word meanings — Line 2
- 遠 yuǎn far
- 近 jìn near
- 高 gāo high
- 低 dī low
- 各 gè each
- 不 bù not
- 同 tóng same
Word meanings — Line 3
- 不 bù not
- 識 shí know
- 廬山 lú shān Mount Lu
- 真 zhēn true
- 面目 miàn mù face; appearance
Word meanings — Line 4
- 只 zhǐ only
- 緣 yuán because
- 身 shēn body; self
- 在 zài is
- 此 cǐ this
- 山 shān mountain
- 中 zhōng within
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
橫看成嶺側成峰，
遠近高低各不同。
不識廬山真面目，
只緣身在此山中。
Translation
Across its face, a range; from the side, a peak.
Far or near, high or low, each view is different.
I cannot know Mount Lu's true face
because I am here, within this very mountain.
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?
橫看成嶺側成峰，
Pronunciation hint
lǐng
Reveal meaning and translation
嶺 — ridge
Across its face, a range; from the side, a peak.
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
不識廬山真面目，
Pronunciation hint
lú shān
Reveal meaning and translation
廬山 — Mount Lu
I cannot know Mount Lu's true face
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
只緣身在此山中。
Pronunciation hint
zài
Reveal meaning and translation
在 — is
because I am here, within this very mountain.
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 · The same mountain takes different shapes
橫看 views the mountain across its face. 側 gives the side view, with the second 看 understood. 嶺 is a ridge or range, and 峰 is a peak. Repeated 成 gives each appearance the immediacy of becoming that shape as the reader looks. The English balances the two views around their positions.
遠近高低 names four relations, far and near, high and low. Our “each view” supplies what 各 is distributing the judgment across. The recorded 總不同 makes it “all differ,” shifting the emphasis from each view to the collection of views.
Lines 3–4 · Knowing from within
識 is to know or recognize, and 真面目 treats the mountain as having a face one might recognize. 只緣 gives the speaker’s place within the scene as the reason, 身在此山中. “Here, within” in English keeps that location audible at the end.
Read 中 against 橫 and 側. The poem starts by moving the eye among positions, then gives a position as the reason knowledge is limited. The shapes one sees are real appearances, and no one of them settles what the whole mountain looks like. The last line leaves the speaker inside the situation it explains.
Form and tone
This is a seven-character jueju, a shi form, even though Su Shi is also famous for ci lyrics. 峰, 同, and 中 occur in the rhyme-bearing first, second, and fourth positions.
The opening pair changes viewing position; the closing pair gives a claim and its reason. 不識 and 只緣 make the reasoning audible without abandoning the mountain image. Pinyin is modern Mandarin, not a reconstruction of Song sound; no historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
The title identifies an inscription on the wall at Xilin, West Forest Temple. The body names Mount Lu. A temple occasion and a mountain view are enough to ground the poem before applying its insight to other situations.
Read Viewing the Waterfall at Mount Lu beside it on the nature shelf. Li Bai's distant gaze turns falling water into a heavenly river. Su Shi's moving gaze leads to a limit on knowledge. Neither poem is simply a tourist description.
Shui Diao Ge Tou lets Su Shi question, reconsider, and reach toward another person over a much longer lyric. Here four equal lines can hold a different kind of thought. The English translation and explanatory notes are original to PoemWell.
Read this poem alongside the contrasting selections in our mountain poetry guide.
Sources
題西林壁, Wikisource transcription, printing 各不同 and normalizing 祇 to 只. The transcription records several variants in line 2. The Chinese Classical Literature teaching text prints 總不同 and notes 各 as a variant. Punctuation is 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
Su Shi. “Written on the Wall at West Forest Temple” (題西林壁). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/written-on-the-wall-at-west-forest-temple
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.