The pagoda, rising abruptly from earth,
Reaches to the very Palace of Heaven….
Climbing, we seem to have left the world behind us,
With the steps we look down on hung from space.
It overtops a holy land
And can only have been built by toil of the spirit.
Its four sides darken the bright sun,
Its seven stories cut the grey clouds;
Birds fly down beyond our sight,
And the rapid wind below our hearing;
Mountain-ranges, toward the east,
Appear to be curving and flowing like rivers;
Far green locust-trees line broad roads
Toward clustered palaces and mansions;
Colours of autumn, out of the west,
Enter advancing through the city;
And northward there lie, in five graveyards,
Calm forever under dewy green grass,
Those who know life's final meaning
Which all humankind must learn.
…Henceforth I put my official hat aside.
To find the Eternal Way is the only happiness.
Original Poem
「与高适薛据登慈恩寺浮图」
岑参
塔势如涌出，孤高耸天宫。
登临出世界，磴道盘虚空。
突兀压神州，峥嵘如鬼工。
四角碍白日，七层摩苍穹。
下窥指高鸟，俯听闻惊风。
连山若波涛，奔凑如朝东。
青槐夹驰道，宫馆何玲珑。
秋色从西来，苍然满关中。
五陵北原上，万古青蒙蒙。
净理了可悟，胜因夙所宗。
誓将挂冠去，觉道资无穷。
Interpretation
This poem was composed in the autumn of the eleventh year of the Tianbao era (752 CE) under Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. That year, Cen Shen returned to Chang'an from the headquarters of Gao Xianzhi, the Military Governor of Anxi, and visited the Temple of Kindly Grace (Ci'ensi) with friends including Du Fu, Gao Shi, Xue Ju, and Chu Guangxi, ascending the Great Wild Goose Pagoda (then called the "Pagoda of the Temple of Kindly Grace"). This gathering of literati can be considered a landmark event in High Tang poetic circles—all five participants left behind poetic works on this theme, and Cen Shen's piece is particularly remarkable for its bold imagination. Having experienced his first tour of frontier duty and witnessed the solitary smoke over the vast desert, Cen Shen's mindscape was already transformed. His return to Chang'an coincided with a time when the Tang dynasty appeared at its zenith but underlying troubles were simmering. The act of ascending the pagoda was both a literati pastime and a spiritual journey—a gazing into the distance and a questioning of the soul. The poem not only displays the majestic spirit common to High Tang poets but also infuses it with the fantastical imagination and unique spatial perception born from Cen Shen's personal experience of the Western Regions.
Stanza 1:
塔势如涌出，孤高耸天宫。
Tǎ shì rú yǒng chū, gū gāo sǒng tiān gōng.
登临出世界，磴道盘虚空。
Dēng lín chū shìjiè, dèng dào pán xūkōng.
The pagoda's form seems to surge forth from the earth, / Solitary and lofty, it soars into the heavenly palace. / Ascending it, one steps beyond the mortal world; / Its staired pathway coils through empty space.
The opening arrives with dynamic, majestic imagery. The words "surge forth" are most evocative, imbuing the static structure with the force of nature, subtly resonating with the Buddhist cosmology of creation from nothingness, and lending a sacred quality to the pagoda's emergence. "Soars into the heavenly palace" directs the gaze to the vertical extreme, establishing the poem's spatial foundation. The next two lines shift to the experience of ascent: "steps beyond the mortal world" describes both physical transcendence in height and hints at a temporary spiritual detachment from earthly concerns; "coils through empty space" vividly captures the visual illusion of the staired path appearing and disappearing amidst clouds and mist, where reality and emptiness merge, laying the groundwork for the fantastical descriptions to follow.
Stanza 2:
突兀压神州，峥嵘如鬼工。
Tūwù yā shénzhōu, zhēngróng rú guǐ gōng.
四角碍白日，七层摩苍穹。
Sì jiǎo ài bái rì, qī céng mó cāngqióng.
下窥指高鸟，俯听闻惊风。
Xià kuī zhǐ gāo niǎo, fǔ tīng wén jīng fēng.
连山若波涛，奔凑如朝东。
Lián shān ruò bōtāo, bēn còu rú cháo dōng.
Towering, it seems to press down upon the Divine Land; / Sublimely wrought, as if by ghostly craftsmanship. / Its four corners impede the bright sun's course; / Its seven stories chafe against the azure vault. / Peering down, one points at birds in flight; / Listening close, one hears the startling wind. / Range upon range of mountains like rolling waves / Rush together as if paying homage to the east.
This section employs multiple layers of hyperbole to construct a surreal visual system. "Press down upon the Divine Land" grants the pagoda absolute authority in terms of mass; "ghostly craftsmanship" marvels at its construction surpassing human intellect—together, they elevate the pagoda to a mythic dimension. "Impede the bright sun's course" and "chafe against the azure vault" achieve a breakthrough in spatial scale through the pagoda's conflict with (impeding sunlight) and contact with (chafing the sky) the celestial phenomena. The overlooking perspective from the summit carries deeper philosophical meaning: "points at birds in flight" subverts the usual logic of "a bird's-eye view," restructuring the order of heaven and earth; "hears the startling wind" highlights the unique sensory experience of great height. Gazing at the distant mountains, the poet uses dynamic imagery of "rolling waves" and "rush together" to transform static geography into a vast, eastward-flowing life force, subtly aligning with nature's eternal rhythm and reflecting the vigorous spirit of the High Tang era.
Stanza 3:
青槐夹驰道，宫馆何玲珑。
Qīng huái jiā chídào, gōng guǎn hé línglóng.
秋色从西来，苍然满关中。
Qiūsè cóng xī lái, cāng rán mǎn Guānzhōng.
五陵北原上，万古青蒙蒙。
Wǔ líng běi yuán shàng, wàngǔ qīng méng méng.
Green locust trees flank the imperial thoroughfare; / How exquisite seem the palaces and towers! / Autumn hues approach from the western quarter, / Imbuing all within the Pass with desolate grey. / The Five Mounds on the northern plain, / Since time immemorial, wrapped in bluish haze.
The gaze shifts from nature to human civilization, forming a dialectical view of the micro and macro. Seen from the great height, the orderly layout of Chang'an ("Green locust trees flank the imperial thoroughfare") and imperial majesty ("exquisite… palaces and towers") present a strangely miniature beauty, hinting at the relativity of worldly power on a cosmic scale. "Autumn hues approach from the western quarter" is a stroke of genius: the season is endowed with direction and motion, actively sweeping across heaven and earth. This describes the actual scene (the Western Regions being the direction from which autumn arrives), subtly aligns with the poet's own life journey returning from the west, and infuses the desolate tone with a sense of time's passage. It concludes with the historical image of the "Five Mounds"; "Since time immemorial, wrapped in bluish haze" superimposes a deep temporal dimension upon the spatial vastness, causing the momentary personal ascent to converge with the long river of history, leading to the spiritual epiphany of the following section.
Stanza 4:
净理了可悟，胜因夙所宗。
Jìng lǐ liǎo kě wù, shèng yīn sù suǒ zōng.
誓将挂冠去，觉道资无穷。
Shì jiāng guà guān qù, jué dào zī wúqióng.
The Pure Truth is clear now, can be grasped; / The Sublime Cause I have always revered. / I vow to hang up my official cap and leave, / To seek the Way of Enlightenment, whose resources are boundless.
After experiencing the spatial ascent and the historical contemplation, the poet completes a turn inward. "The Pure Truth" corresponds to the religious nature of the Buddhist pagoda and the clarity of mind brought by the ascent; "The Sublime Cause" points to personal karma, suggesting this enlightenment is not accidental. The final vow, "hang up my official cap and leave," is not passive escapism but, after contemplating the cosmic scale ("steps beyond the mortal world," "press down upon the Divine Land") and reflecting on the historical dimension ("Since time immemorial, wrapped in bluish haze"), an active renunciation of worldly values and a pursuit of a higher spiritual dimension ("the Way of Enlightenment"). This is both the necessary culmination of the pagoda ascent experience and reflects the complex personality structure of High Tang literati, nurtured by Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist thought, who both yearned for worldly achievement and pursued spiritual transcendence.
Holistic Appreciation
This poem is a paradigmatic example of Cen Shen's "wondrous and unusual" poetic style. Its artistic achievement lies not only in depicting the majesty of the Pagoda at the Temple of Kindly Grace but, more importantly, in creating a multi-dimensional coordinate system for a spiritual ascent. The poem's structure spirals upward like the pagoda itself, achieving a fourfold progression: from physical height ("soars into the heavenly palace," "chafe against the azure vault") to psychological experience ("steps beyond the mortal world," "hears the startling wind"), from spatial conquest to temporal meditation ("Since time immemorial, wrapped in bluish haze"), finally arriving at spiritual enlightenment ("grasp the Pure Truth," "resources are boundless"). The poet blends the bold imagination fostered by his Western Regions experience with the Central Plains tradition of ascent poetry, making the pagoda a point of origin for measuring the relationships between heaven, earth, humanity, and the divine, a medium connecting this world and the beyond.
Compared to Du Fu's treatment of the same theme, which is profound and restrained, or Gao Shi's heroic and forthright style, Cen Shen forges an aesthetic path that wins through fantasy and dynamism. He excels in using verbs charged with tension like "surge forth," "press down," "chafe," "rush together," dynamizing static space and transforming the act of ascent into a continuous visual adventure and spiritual expansion. Expressions of synesthesia like "Autumn hues approach from the western quarter" further embody his unique creativity in fusing the acute sensory experiences of the Western Regions with the Central Plains poetic tradition. Among the various High Tang poems on the Pagoda at the Temple of Kindly Grace, Cen Shen's piece stands out for its surreal imaginative intensity and revolutionary handling of spatial relationships, making it one of the works with the most modern aesthetic sensibility.
Artistic Merits
- Dynamic Spatial Rhetoric: The poem is filled with verbs like "surge forth," "coils," "press down," "chafe," "peering down," "hears," "rush together," transforming the static act of ascent into a continuous experience of spatial movement, embodying the characteristic "dynamic spectacle" of Cen Shen's poetry.
- Dialectics of Exaggerated Scale: On one hand, it emphasizes the pagoda's "immensity" (press down upon the Divine Land, impede the sun); on the other, it highlights the "smallness" of other things (pointing at birds, exquisite palaces). This contrast in scale creates both visual shock and philosophical contemplation.
- Synesthetic Depiction: Multiple senses—visual (bluish haze), auditory (startling wind), tactile (chafe), kinesthetic (rush together)—interweave to create a holographic experience of ascent.
- Layered Structure of Time and Space: Spatially, it completes a vertical traversal from "earth → pagoda → sky"; temporally, it achieves a historical perspective from "present autumn hues → bluish haze since time immemorial," ultimately guiding the reader toward the eternal pursuit of "hang up my official cap… seek the Way of Enlightenment."
Insights
This work reveals three kinds of transcendence achieved by humanity through the act of climbing: first, transcendence of physical height, granting us new coordinates from which to observe the world; second, transcendence of psychological perspective, reorienting daily trivialities within a grand pattern; and third, transcendence of spiritual dimension, exploring the ultimate meaning of life within the tension between "stepping beyond the mortal world" and "engaging with it." Cen Shen's pagoda ascent reminds us: true "height" is never beneath our feet but in the recognition and breakthrough of our own limitations after each climb. When the poet moves from the physical extreme of "impeding the bright sun's course" to the spiritual awakening of "grasping the Pure Truth," that staired pathway "coiling through empty space" becomes an eternal metaphor for all who seek spiritual ascent. In our contemporary, fragmented, and flattened lives, this ability to achieve an integrative perspective through "ascending to a height" is perhaps more precious than ever.
Poem translator
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet
Cen Can(岑参), 715 - 770 AD, was a native of Jingzhou, Hubei Province. He studied at Mt. Songshan when he was young, and later traveled to Beijing, Luoyang and Shuohe. Cen Can was famous for his border poems, in which he wrote about the border scenery and the life of generals in a majestic and unrestrained manner, and together with Gao Shi, he was an outstanding representative of the border poetry school of the Sheng Tang Dynasty.
