On Seeing the Snow-peak of Zhongnan

A Mountain of Snow, a City of Cold: Zu Yong's View of Zhongnan

The North Face That Holds the Snow

Zu Yong's Zhongnan Wang Yu Xue (终南望馀雪) is a five-character quatrain (jueju) written as an examination poem in the Tang capital of Chang'an. The poet was asked to write a long twelve-line poem, but after four lines he put down his brush. When asked why, he simply said, "The meaning is complete." The poem opens with a clear view from the city: Zhongnan yin ling xiu, ji xue fu yun duan. (终南阴岭秀，积雪浮云端。) Looking south from Chang'an, one sees the north face of Zhongnan Mountain. Because it faces away from the sun, the snow stays longer there. The white snow sits so high that it seems to float among the clouds. The word "xiu" (秀) means beautiful and elegant—an unusual word for a winter mountain, but it tells us the poet sees grace, not harshness.

Sunset on the Trees, Cold in the Streets

The second half of the poem turns from the mountain to the city below: Lin biao ming ji se, cheng zhong zeng mu han. (林表明霁色，城中增暮寒。) After the snow stops, the clouds open. The last light of sunset catches the treetops on the mountain and makes them glow. Yet in the streets of Chang'an, the same evening brings deeper cold. The snow on the mountain may look beautiful from far away, but it sends its chill down to the people in the city. The poem never once mentions poverty or hardship. It simply shows us the glowing mountain and the colder streets, and lets us feel the gap between the view and the life below it.

A Poem That Knew When to Stop

This poem is famous not only for what it says, but for how short it is. The examination required twelve lines, but Zu Yong believed four were enough. He was right. The poem captures the whole scene—mountain, cloud, snow, sunset, city, and cold—in just twenty characters. It is a picture of winter beauty that quietly reminds us: the higher the snow, the deeper the cold in the streets where ordinary people live.