ChineseStudy

65. The Old General | Wang Wei

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English translation

When he was a boy of fifteen, of twenty, he could take a nomad horse on foot and ride it away.

The poem begins not with age but with youth. The whole fall of time in this poem starts here.

He shot dead the white-browed tiger in the hills; would he count the Yellow-Beard Boy of Ye?

The Yellow-Beard Boy is Cao Zhang, son of Cao Cao, famed for his courage. Would he count him means he did not even rate him.

One man, fighting across three thousand li; one sword that once held off a million troops.

Both lines work by number: three thousand li, a million troops. The larger his opposition, the larger he is made.

The Han troops move like thunderbolts; the nomad horse comes crashing on, yet fears the caltrops.

Caltrops are iron spikes buried in front of a line. Writing the enemy's fear is a way of writing his skill from the far side.

Wei Qing never lost because fortune favored him; Li Guang won no merit because his fate ran odd.

This couplet is the poem's hinge. Two Han generals' fates stand in for a whole life.

Since being set aside he has gone to ruin; the years slipped by, and his hair turned white.

Set aside is the turn. All the feats before it are voided after those two words.

Once his flying arrow never left an eye whole; today a weeping willow grows on his left elbow.

The willow on the left elbow comes from Zhuangzi — a growth that will not let him draw the bow. It is self-mockery, and it is true.

By the roadside he sometimes sells an old marquis's melons; at his gate he learns to plant the master's willows.

The melons of the old marquis belong to Shao Ping, Lord of Dongling, who grew melons after the Han took power; the willows belong to Tao Yuanming. Both are signs of retirement.

Vast old trees run along a dead-end lane; a sparse cold hill faces an empty window.

The lines before are about the man; these two are about the house. The sense of someone gone shows through the empty window.

He swears to make a flying spring come out at Shule — not to be a Yinchuan drunkard letting wine talk.

Geng Gong held Shule and dug a well until water came; Guan Fu, drunk, cursed at a banquet and was killed. One was of use, one was not, and he chooses the first.

Below Helan Mountain the ranks stand thick as cloud; urgent dispatches cross and cross, heard day and night.

War has come again, and the old general is remembered. Nothing joins this to what came before — a hard cut, rare in this poem.

The commissioner recruits young men from the Three Rivers; an edict sends generals out along five roads.

Five roads means five columns. The generals sent out are the boys of the opening.

He tries the iron armor, polishing it to the color of snow; he takes up the sword and its star patterns stir.

Two actions — polishing the armor, lifting the sword — both tentative. He has not yet gone back to the field.

He wishes for a Yan bow to shoot the enemy's general, and is ashamed to let Yue armor clang at his lord's door.

Yue armor clanging at his lord's door recalls Yongmen Zidi, who killed himself to turn back the Yue army. Better to die himself than let his ruler be frightened.

Do not slight the old governor of Yunzhong — he can still fight one battle and take the merit.

The governor of Yunzhong is Wei Shang, demoted and then recalled. The line is a plea and a claim at once, and the poem stops here.

赏析 · Commentary

两头是少年，中间是白头 · Youth at Both Ends, White Hair in the Middle

全诗的时间排得很清楚：开头「少年十五二十时」是他最能打的时候，中间从「自从弃置便衰朽」起一路写衰、写病、写退隐，结尾「莫嫌旧日云中守」又把他放回战场。王维把一生剪成两段对照，中间那段最长，占去十一联，全是失去的岁月。这种排法有个效果：读到最后一句的「犹堪一战」，读者心里已经先有了中间那一大段的空白，所以这四个字听着不像豪言，更像恳求。若把中间的衰朽压缩几句，结尾就轻了。

The poem's timeline is laid out clearly. The opening, a boy of fifteen, of twenty, is when he could fight best; the middle, from since being set aside he has gone to ruin, runs through decline, illness and retirement; and the close, do not slight the old governor of Yunzhong, puts him back on the field. Wang Wei cuts a life into two parts for comparison, and the middle is longest — eleven couplets, all of it lost years. This arrangement has an effect: by the closing line, can still fight one battle, the reader already carries that long middle stretch, so the words do not sound like bravado but like a plea. Compress the decline in the middle and the ending goes light.

卫青、李广两句为什么是全诗的支点 · Why the Wei Qing and Li Guang Couplet Is the Hinge

「卫青不败由天幸，李广无功缘数奇」把两个汉将并排一比：一个从没打输，靠的是运气；一个屡立战功却没有封赏，因为命不好。王维写的是老将，可这两句说的其实是所有武将的处境——功劳与奖赏之间没有必然联系。放在全诗中央，它既解释了老将为什么落到「卖瓜种柳」，也解释了结尾为什么还要再请战：既然成败由天，能做的只有忠。这一联之后，诗从叙事转成了议论，但议论只有两句，说完立刻回到具体的动作上。

Wei Qing never lost because fortune favored him; Li Guang won no merit because his fate ran odd sets two Han generals side by side: one never beaten, and it was luck; one repeatedly of service, never rewarded, because his fate ran badly. Wang Wei is writing an old general, but these two lines are really about the position of every soldier — there is no necessary link between service and reward. Placed at the center, the couplet explains both why the old general has come down to selling melons and planting willows, and why he must still volunteer at the end: if success and failure belong to fortune, the only thing left that is his to give is loyalty. After this couplet the poem shifts from narration to argument, but the argument lasts two lines and goes straight back to concrete action.

「莫嫌」这两个字是对谁说的 · Who Is Being Told Do Not Slight Him

结尾「莫嫌旧日云中守，犹堪一战取功勋」，字面上是跟别人说话：别嫌弃这个旧太守。可通篇读下来，老将身边并没有明确的对话者——前面写的是他的功、他的衰、他的退隐，没有人跟他说话，他也没跟人说话。所以这句「莫嫌」更像是在跟朝廷说，也像是在跟自己说。王维没有交代，留了这个空缺。魏尚的典故给了它一层意思：被贬的人还可以重新被起用，条件是有人肯用他。全诗停在这句话上，等于把决定权交了出去。

The close, do not slight the old governor of Yunzhong — he can still fight one battle and take the merit, on its face addresses someone: do not spurn this old governor. But read through, the old general has no clear interlocutor — the lines before give his feats, his decline, his retirement, with no one speaking to him and him speaking to no one. So the do not slight is addressed more to the court, and also to himself. Wang Wei does not say which, and leaves the gap. The allusion to Wei Shang adds one thing: a demoted man can be recalled, on condition that someone is willing to use him. The poem stops on that line, which hands the decision away.

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