蘇東坡與觀潮詩

司馬一民

壯觀錢江潮吸引了歷代詩人觀賞，因此也留下了很多觀潮詩。古代詩人中誰寫的觀潮詩最多？大約要數(shù)蘇東坡了。蘇東坡曾經(jīng)一口氣連寫五首觀潮詩——《八月十五日看潮五絕》：

其一

定知玉兔十分圓，化作霜風九月寒。寄語重門休上鑰，夜潮流向月中看。

其二

萬人鼓噪懾吳儂，猶似浮江老阿童。欲識潮頭高幾許？越山渾在浪花中。

其三

江邊身世兩悠悠，久與滄波共白頭。造物亦知人易老，故叫江水向西流。

其四

吳兒生長狎濤淵，冒利輕生不自憐。東海若知明主意，應教斥鹵變桑田。

其五

江神河伯兩醯雞，海若東來氣吐霓。安得夫差水犀手，三千強弩射潮低。

蘇東坡在《烏臺詩案》中說：“熙寧六年，任杭州通判，因八月十五日觀潮作詩五首，寫在安濟亭上?！奔础栋嗽率迦湛闯蔽褰^》?？芍@些詩詞都作于宋神宗熙寧六年（1073年）中秋之日。第一首詩寫詩人有出去看錢塘江潮的打算。第二首詩描繪了詩人看到的錢江潮氣勢磅礴。第三首詩抒寫詩人看潮后興起的感慨。第四首詩寫詩人作為地方官，看潮的想法，詩人憐惜當時的弄潮人重利輕生，諷喻當時朝廷興建的一些水利設施沒有給百姓帶來實惠。第五首詩寫詩人想象倘若能得到當年夫差穿著水犀之甲的猛士，用上錢镠射潮的三千強弩，就可以把大潮制服，免于百姓受災。這五首詩有虛有實，虛實結合，有描述有感慨有想象，反映了蘇東坡常懷憂國憂民之心。

《瑞鷓鴣 · 觀潮》是蘇東坡寫的一首觀潮詞：

碧山影里小紅旗，儂是江南踏浪兒。拍手欲嘲山簡醉，齊聲爭唱浪婆詞。西興渡口帆初落，漁浦山頭日未欹。儂欲送潮歌底曲？尊前還唱使君詩。

踏浪兒，指沖浪者。山簡，晉人，好酒。西興渡口，在錢塘江南岸。使君，指杭州知州陳襄，當天他與蘇東坡一同觀潮。

此詞大意為，那些在碧波中舞動著小紅旗的勇士，你們是踏浪而舞的弄潮兒。我雖然喝酒的時候手舞足蹈，別笑我會像山簡那樣酩酊大醉，我正欣賞兩岸觀潮人唱的浪婆詞。近處西興渡口賽舟的帆剛剛落下，遠方漁浦山頭的太陽還沒有西沉。你該唱哪一支曲送走潮水呢？我看對酒當歌陳太守作的詩最好。

這首詞寫了弄潮兒在浪濤中自由奔放，寫了錢江潮退潮時候的景象，寫了觀潮者唱起“使君詩”作為送潮曲，可以說生動地描繪了當時杭州百姓生活習俗的一個歷史畫面。

蘇東坡不光觀賞江潮，還動腦筋“治潮”。元祐四年（1089），蘇軾任杭州知州，他考察得知，衢、睦、處、婺、宣、歙、饒、信等州以及福建八州的人民往來時，都需在龍山附近渡江，但不少船被巨大的錢江潮水掀翻，“老弱叫號，求救于湍沙之間，聲未及終，已為潮水卷去”，“能自全者，百無一二”，公私財物一年要損失幾千萬;沿江各州人民生活必需的鹽、米、薪，也需借錢塘江運輸，但浮山一帶水勢險惡，船只很難安全航行。蘇東坡謀劃治潮良策，在元祐六年（1091）從前信州知州侯臨那兒訪知，在錢塘江上游名叫石門的地方開鑿一條運河，即可避開浮山之險。于是，他邀約轉運司官員葉溫叟、張璹一同前往石門一帶實地考察，考察后一致認為侯臨的設想是可行的。于是，他請侯臨寫了《開石門河利害事狀》，請人做了開石門河所需的人工、材料、錢米等工程預算，又繪一幅施工圖。同年三月，蘇東坡上奏朝廷《乞相度開石門河狀》，連同工程預算、施工圖以及侯臨的書狀一并上報，請求宋哲宗和聽政的太皇太后撥錢十五萬貫、允許調用三千軍人，用來開鑿石門河，還建議朝廷派候臨監(jiān)督施工，計劃用兩年時間完成這一工程。做完了“工程立項”，元祐六年八月，蘇東坡就調離杭州去穎州上任了。

蘇東坡還有一首詩《觀浙江濤》，開頭兩句被視為對錢江潮的最高評價：

八月十八潮，壯觀天下無。鯤鵬水擊三千里，組練長驅十萬夫。紅旗青蓋互明末，黑沙白浪相吞屠。人生會合古難必，此情此景那兩得。愿君聞此添蠟燭，門外白袍如立鵠。

對錢江潮的洶涌壯觀，描述得別具一格，還夾有對世事人生的感慨，也是觸景生情。

像白居易一樣，錢江潮留在蘇東坡心目中的印象極深，離開杭州很多年以后，晚年的蘇東坡又寫了一首觀潮詩——《觀潮》：

廬山煙雨浙江潮，未到千般恨不消。到得還來別無事，廬山煙雨浙江潮。

這首詩是宋徽宗建中靖國元年（1101年）蘇東坡在常州寫給小兒子蘇過的，類似偈語，與他以前的詩，風格迥異。

這年蘇過將去就任中山府通判，蘇東坡寫了此詩送他。此詩僅從字面解釋是很簡單的，但簡單中又蘊含著不簡單，頗有禪機。

這首詩大意為，廬山的煙雨和浙江潮，不去觀賞遺憾終身。終于親臨兩地看到了煙雨蒙蒙的廬山和洶涌澎湃的浙江潮，卻沒有什么特別的感受，也不過就是煙雨蒙蒙的廬山和洶涌澎湃的浙江潮。

《五燈會元》卷十七載青原惟信禪師語錄：“老僧三十年前未參禪時，見山是山，見水是水。及至后來，親見知識，有個入處，見山不是山，見水不是水。而今得個休歇處，依前見山是山，見水是水。大眾，這三般見解，是同是別？有人緇素得出，許汝親見老僧。”

這“三般見解”，指禪悟的三個階段，蘇東坡這首詩，用的正是此意。在經(jīng)歷了人生道路上的潮起潮落，晚年蘇東坡寫此詩是否可以用“不過如此”來解釋？也許他想告訴蘇過的就是這個意思，別把官場起伏看得太重。

這首《觀潮》在眾多的觀潮詩詞中極為少見。

當年七月二十八日，蘇東坡病死于常州。

（作者系杭州市政協(xié)智庫專家、杭州文史專家）

Su Dongpos Five

Quatrains on Watching the Tidal Bore

By? Sima Yimin

For generations and generations， Chinese poets have been fascinated by the spectacular tidal bores of the Qiantang River at the head of Hangzhou Bay. Naturally， many poems on tide watching have been written. Among the poets of yore， who penned the most poems on this subject？ Su Shi （1037-1101）， aka Su Dongpo， preeminent scholar of the Song dynasty （960-1279） and one of Chinas greatest poets， is definitely one of the best candidates.

In fact， Su once composed five poems in one go， titled “Watching the Tidal Bore on the Fifteenth Day of the Eighth Lunar Month， Five Quatrains”：

One

Knowing the “Jade Rabbit” is round tonight， Im already feeling the colder autumn brought by frosty winds.

Praying to heaven not to lock its gate， Ill savor the tides rushing under the moonlight.

Two

As if thousands beating the drum the tides roar，

scaring the Wu people like Wang Jun the Jin general of yore.

How high can the crest of the waves soar？

Even the Yue mountains are buried beneath all.

Three

Like the river my life ebbs and flows，

Long have I aged， as white as the waves my hair grows.

Even the Creator knows we easily get old，

So He turned back the river， telling it to flow to the west.

Four

Living by riverside， the Wu people are so fond of surging billows，

That they unduly risk their lives riding waves.

If the God of Sea can see through the emperors mind，

He should turn the saline soil into fertile land.

Five

The water fairy and the river spirit are but two small fries，

Only the God of Sea brings from the east rainbow-swallowing bores.

Where can I find King Fuchais rhino-skinned warriors？

Three thousand crossbowmen will shoot down the waves.

“During the sixth year of the reign of Xining， I served as the assistant prefect of Hangzhou. Watching the tidal bore on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month， I composed five poems at the Anji Pavilion，” Su Shi wrote in an essay. It shows that these quatrains were done on the Mid-Autumn Day in the year 1073. Here， each of the five quatrains has a different theme. The first： raring to watch the tidal bore. The second： enjoying the spectacular view. The third： feelings after watching the tidal bore. The fourth： thoughts and reflections on the precarious life of the local watermen and the benefits that public water conservancy facilities failed to bring. The fifth： imagining himself obtaining rhino-skin-armored warriors of Fuchai （？-473 BC）， king of Wu， and the three-thousand-strong crossbowmen that Qian Liu （852-932 AD）， king of Wuyue， deployed to tame the tide.

True to the sentiments he expressed in the poesm， Su Dongpo did more than enjoy the river tides; he spent a lot of efforts managing tides. In 1089， the fourth year of the reign of Yuanyou， Su was appointed prefect of Hangzhou. After some investigative work， he found that people from a number of prefectures in Zhejiang， Anhui， Jiangxi and Fujian provinces had to cross the Qiantang River at a pass near Fushan Mountain for personal visits and commercial exchanges， but many a boat had been overturned by the tides. “The old and the infirm called out loud for help amid the rapids， but they were overtaken by the tides even before their voices died out”， “no more than one or two out of a hundred could emerge unscathed”， and damages worth tens of millions were caused to public and personal properties. Indeed， daily necessities like salt， rice and firewood were also transported via the Qiantang River， and the safety of transport ships were greatly endangered near Fushan Mountain. In 1091， after learning that the dangers along Fushan Mountain stretch could be avoided by digging a canal along the upper reaches of the river， Su not only went on a field trip， but drew up a working plan and budget for the project， before submitting a memorial to the imperial court， pleading for 150，000 taels of silver as project funding and 3，000 soldiers as labor. The canal was planned to be finished in two years. However， Su was transferred to Yingzhou （present-day Fuyang city in Anhui province） in June before the project could be completed.

Apart from the five quatrains， Su wrote a number of other poems on watching the tidal bore as well. In “To the Tune of Auspicious Partridge： Watching the Tidal Bore”， a Ci poem， he wrote of the local peoples tradition of singing a song to celebrate Qiantang Rivers receding tide. He began the poem “Watching the Zhejiang Waves” by stating “the tidal bores on the eighteenth day of the eighth lunar month， are the most spectacular of all”， which is often regarded as the highest compliment to the Qiantang River tidal bore.

The tidal bore left such an indelible mark on Su， that many years after he left Hangzhou， he composed yet another poem simply titled “Watching the Tidal Bore” in the year 1101. This time， he asked his reader， his youngest son， to see through the trappings of the mortal world， for “at the end of the day…the breathtaking Zhejiang tidal bore is no more than the breathtaking Zhejiang tidal bore”.

Later in the same year， on the twenty-eighth day of the seventh lunar month （August 24th）， Su Dongpo died of illness in Changzhou city， Jiangsu province.