Canonical Classics ← 第十一回
第十一回
yóutàizōnghuánhún
jìnguāguǒliúquánpèi

Touring the Underworld, Taizong Returns to Life · Presenting Melons and Fruit, Liu Quan Renews the Marriage Bond

奈河橋詩
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition 含詞賦 With rhapsody

奈河橋詩 Verse on the Nai River Bridge

shīyuēshīyuē

shíwénguǐshénháoxuèshuǐhúnwànzhànggāoshíwénguǐshénháoxuèshuǐhúnwànzhànggāo
shùniútóubìngmiànzhēngníngshǒunàiqiáoshùniútóubìngmiànzhēngníngshǒunàiqiáo

逐句解 Line by line

shīyuē shīyuē

A poem says:

A four-line verse to cap the bridge before the emperor is hurried on.

shíwénguǐshénháoxuèshuǐhúnwànzhànggāo shíwénguǐshénháoxuèshuǐhúnwànzhànggāo

Now and again are heard the weeping of ghosts and the howling of spirits; the blood-waters churn in turbid waves ten thousand zhàng high.

神號, shén háo, is spirits howling — here is háo, to cry out, not hào, a name or title. 萬丈, "ten thousand zhàng," is a stock exaggeration for enormous height; is zhàng, a unit of about ten Chinese feet.

shùniútóubìngmiànzhēngníngshǒunàiqiáo shùniútóubìngmiànzhēngníngshǒunàiqiáo

Numberless Ox-Heads and Horse-Faces, ferocious, keep guard over the Nai River Bridge.

猙獰, zhēng níng, is fierce and hideous. Ox-Head and Horse-Face close the scene as they opened the Hall of Judgment — on permanent duty at the worst crossing in the world.


總評 Commentary

The closing quatrain boils the rhapsody down to one grim tableau: the howling of the damned, waves of blood at an impossible height, and Ox-Head and Horse-Face on their eternal watch.

It is the last and most concentrated image of the hell-tour before the emperor is moved on toward the City of the Wrongfully Dead.