ChineseStudy

32. Morning at Master Chao's Court, Reading the Sutras | Liu Zongyuan

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English translation

I draw water from the well and rinse my cold teeth, quiet the mind and brush the dust from my clothes.

Both lines are preparation: clean mouth, clean mind, clean clothing. Before reading, the body is put in order first.

Idly holding the palm-leaf book, I walk out of the eastern study to read.

The palm-leaf book is the old name for a Buddhist scripture, written on pattra leaves. Walking out shows he does not read sitting down but on the move.

From the true source nothing at all can be taken; the world runs after empty traces.

The character for "fully" is the old sense of completely. Reading raises a doubt here: if the world chases only traces, where is the real thing.

I hope the words left behind may be met in silence; but by what path is one's nature made whole?

One line is a hope, the next a question. The first sets something down, the second picks it up again, and the doubt is never settled.

The monk's courtyard is still, and the colour of moss runs into the deep bamboo.

The poem turns from reading to looking. Both lines are colour and stillness, with no verb at all.

The sun is up and mist and dew remain; the green pines look washed and oiled.

Oiling here is what follows a washing. The pines are not described as green or upright but as just washed by the dew.

Calm, beyond speech, pleased with what is understood, the heart is sufficient to itself.

The question raised while reading gets no answer in the last couplet. Ending on being beyond speech amounts to saying the answer is not in words.

赏析 · Commentary

读经前的那些动作 · The Actions Before Reading

开头两联六个动作，全是准备：打水、漱齿、清心、拂衣、持书、出门。柳宗元一件一件写出来，节奏很慢。他刚被贬到永州，身体也不好，这套仪式对他来说不只是仪式，是把一天开始的方式固定下来。动作写到最后是「步出东斋读」，从屋里走到院子里，全诗的场地也跟着移了出去。

The first two couplets hold six actions, all of them preparation: drawing water, rinsing teeth, quieting the mind, brushing clothes, taking up the book, walking out. Liu Zongyuan writes each one out, and the pace is slow. He had just been exiled to Yongzhou and was in poor health; for him the routine is not merely ritual but the way a day is made to begin. The actions end with walking out to read, and the poem's setting moves outside with him.

读着读着起了疑 · Doubt Arises Mid-Reading

第三、四联是全诗的骨头。柳宗元在读经，读出来的却是疑问：真源无可取，世人追的是妄迹，那么经文里的遗言究竟能不能对上？「冀」是希望，「何由」是怎么可能，两个词把一句希望和一句怀疑并排放在一起。他没有装成已经悟了的样子，把没解开的疑问照实写在读经的早晨里。

The third and fourth couplets are the poem's bone. He is reading scripture and what comes out is a doubt: nothing can be taken from the true source, the world runs after empty traces, so can the words left behind ever match up. One word is a hope, another asks by what means, and the two set a hope and a suspicion side by side. He does not pretend to have already understood; he writes the unresolved doubt into the morning as it was.

疑问留在话外 · The Question Left Outside Speech

后三联换了对象：苔色、青松、日出后的雾气，全是院子里看得见的东西，一个动词也没有。柳宗元不再回答前面那个问题，让景自己接着说。末联的「离言说」是全诗的关键，它既是对佛理的领会，也是对前面疑问的处置办法——不答，因为答案不在言语里。结尾仍是「心自足」，听起来平静，但「自」字说明这个满足只有他自己知道，没有别人能给他作证。

The last three couplets change object: moss, pines, the mist after sunrise, all things visible in the courtyard, with no verb anywhere. Liu Zongyuan stops answering the earlier question and lets the scene go on for him. The phrase about being beyond speech is the poem's key: it is both an understanding of the doctrine and his way of handling the doubt — not answering, because the answer is not in words. The ending is still a heart sufficient to itself, which sounds calm, but the word "itself" says the sufficiency is known only to him, with no one to confirm it.

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