江雪
Snow on the River
Original
千山鸟飞绝，
万径人踪灭。
孤舟蓑笠翁，
独钓寒江雪。
Translation
Over a thousand peaks, no bird takes flight,
Along ten thousand paths, no human trace in sight.
A lone boat holds an old man in straw cloak and cap,
Alone he fishes, as snow falls on the cold river lap.
Line by Line Analysis
About This Poem
Composed during Liu Zongyuan’s long exile in Yongzhou, this poem is a masterpiece of Chinese landscape poetry. The translation captures a stark, desolate wintry realm: every mountain is devoid of birds, every path erased of human footprints, leaving only an elderly fisherman braving the snow in a tiny boat on the frigid river. Rooted in the poet’s own isolation from political power and mainstream society, the work conveys profound solitude while symbolizing his unwavering moral integrity and refusal to conform to corrupt court forces. Its minimalist imagery merges nature’s grand silence with the individual’s quiet resilience, creating a timeless portrait of steadfastness in adversity.
About the Poet
柳宗元
Liǔ Zōngyuán
Liu Zongyuan (773–819) was a prominent poet and prose master of the mid-Tang Dynasty, one of the 'Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties'. Banished to remote regions after the failure of political reforms, he channeled his solitude and moral convictions into landscape writing. His works feature austere, vivid natural imagery, blending quiet melancholy with unyielding integrity, leaving an indelible mark on classical Chinese literature.
Cultural & Historical Context
Culturally, this poem inherits the Wei-Jin tradition of using landscape to mirror inner emotions, a core practice in classical Chinese poetry. Historically, it emerged in the mid-Tang Dynasty, an era of post-An Lushan Rebellion instability, fierce political factionalism, and brutal suppression of reformists. Socially, upright scholars like Liu were exiled to barren regions for challenging court corruption, creating a climate of intellectual isolation. Personally, Liu spent ten years in Yongzhou after the 805 Yongzhen Reform failed, enduring poverty and loneliness. His creative purpose was to use the lone fisherman as a metaphor for his unyielding integrity. Artistically, it excels in extreme minimalism: four concise lines build a vast, silent world, using words like 'vanished', 'erased', 'lone' to amplify solitude, while the cold snow symbolizes purity and uncompromising spirit, making it a paragon of implicit, resonant landscape poetry.