Jiang Cheng Zi
A Dream Recorded on the Night of the Twentieth Day of the First Month of the Year Yi Mao
十年生死两茫茫，不思量，自难忘
Shí nián shēng sǐ liǎng máng máng, bù sī liàng, zì nán wàng.
Ten years have passed between the living and the dead,
Yet the distance remains immeasurable.
I do not seek to remember—
Still, forgetting is beyond me.
千里孤坟，无处话凄凉。
Qiān lǐ gū fén, wú huà qī liáng.
Far away stands your solitary tomb,
A thousand miles from where I wander.
To whom may I tell my grief?
纵使相逢应不识，尘满面，鬓如霜。
Zòng shǐ xiāng féng yīng bù shí, chén mǎn miàn, bìn rú shuāng.
And should we meet once more,
Would you recognize this weary man,
His face worn by dust,
His hair touched with winter’s frost?
夜来幽梦忽还乡，小轩窗，正梳妆。
Yè lái yōu mèng hū huán xiāng, xiǎo xuān chuāng, zhèng shū zhuāng.
Last night, in a dream,
I suddenly returned to our old home.
By the small lattice window
You were dressing your hair as before.
相顾无言，惟有泪千行。
Xiāng gù wú yán, wéi yǒu lèi qiān háng.
We looked upon one another in silence;
No words could cross the years.
Only tears flowed endlessly.
料得年年肠断处，明月夜，短松冈。
Liào dé nián nián cháng duàn chù, míng yuè yè, duǎn sōng gāng.
And I know where sorrow finds me
Again and again, each passing year—
On that moonlit night,
Upon the hill of little pines,
Where your spirit rests forever.
Background of Creation
Jiang Cheng Zi – A Dream Recorded on the Night of the Twentieth Day of the First Month of the Year Yi Mao is one of the most celebrated elegiac Ci in Chinese literary history. It was composed by the Northern Song Dynasty poet and statesman Su Shi in 1075 (the eighth year of the Xining era, Yi Mao year), when he was forty years old and serving as the governor of Mizhou (present-day Zhucheng, Shandong Province).
I. Marriage and Family Life
Wang Fu, Su Shi’s first wife, married him at the age of sixteen. The couple shared a deep and affectionate relationship. Intelligent, gentle, and well-educated, Wang Fu was not only a devoted companion but also a trusted adviser who often helped Su Shi judge people and handle social affairs. Their marriage was marked by mutual respect and profound emotional attachment.In 1065 (the second year of the Zhiping era), Wang Fu passed away from illness in the capital city of Bianjing at the age of twenty-seven. By the time Su Shi wrote this Ci, ten years had passed since her death.
II. Su Shi’s Experiences During the Following Decade
After Wang Fu’s death, Su Shi escorted her coffin back to their hometown for burial. He then continued his official career and became increasingly involved in the political turbulence of the Northern Song Dynasty. Due to the ongoing conflicts between political factions, he was repeatedly assigned to posts far from the capital and spent years moving from place to place.Throughout this decade, Su Shi endured the uncertainties of official life, the hardships of exile-like appointments, and the loneliness of constant separation. Despite the passage of time, his longing for his late wife never diminished.
III. The Inspiration for the Ci
On the night of the twentieth day of the first lunar month in the Yi Mao year (1075), while serving in Mizhou, Su Shi dreamed of his deceased wife. In the dream, the couple met once again, and the warmth of their former life together seemed vividly restored.Upon waking, he was overwhelmed by grief and nostalgia. Moved by these emotions, he wrote this Ci to express his enduring love and remembrance, the sorrow of ten years of separation between life and death, and the bitterness of a life marked by hardship and wandering.
Additional Notes
The famous opening line, “Ten years—living and dead, both lost in boundless uncertainty” (Shi nian sheng si liang mang mang), refers directly to the decade that had passed since Wang Fu’s death.The phrase “a lonely grave a thousand miles away” (qian li gu fen) refers to Wang Fu’s tomb in Meishan, Sichuan, while Su Shi was stationed in distant Mizhou. Separated by vast geographical distance as well as by death itself, reunion was impossible except in dreams.As a result, this Ci has long been regarded as one of the finest expressions of mourning, love, and remembrance in classical Chinese literature.