Classical Prose
记承天寺夜游
苏轼
元丰六年十月十二日夜，解衣欲睡，月色入户，欣然起行。
念无与为乐者，遂至承天寺寻张怀民。
怀民亦未寝，相与步于中庭。
庭下如积水空明，水中藻、荇交横，盖竹柏影也。
何夜无月？何处无竹柏？
但少闲人如吾两人者耳。
Translation
On the night of the twelfth day of the tenth month in the sixth year of Yuanfeng, I had taken off my clothes and was about to sleep when moonlight entered the doorway. Delighted, I rose and went out. Thinking that there was no one with whom I could share this pleasure, I went to Chengtian Temple to look for Zhang Huaimin. Huaimin had not yet gone to sleep either, so we walked together in the central courtyard. Below the courtyard, it was like clear, transparent water had accumulated there. In the water, algae and water plants seemed to cross one another. In fact, they were the shadows of bamboo and cypress. What night has no moon? What place has no bamboo or cypress? There are only too few idle people like the two of us.
Analysis
Record of a Night Visit to Chengtian Temple is one of Su Shi's most famous short prose pieces, written during his exile in Huangzhou. In fewer than one hundred Chinese characters, it captures moonlight, friendship, exile, leisure, and spiritual resilience. The opening gives a precise date and a very ordinary action: Su Shi is about to sleep. Then moonlight enters the doorway, and he rises happily. The moment is small but reveals Su Shi's alertness to beauty. He thinks of someone who can share the pleasure and finds Zhang Huaimin, also in Huangzhou under political displacement, so their companionship carries quiet sympathy. The central image is the moonlit courtyard: the ground resembles clear water with algae plants crossing within it, but these are actually the shadows of bamboo and cypress. It is one of the finest descriptions of moonlight in classical Chinese prose. 'What night has no moon? What place has no bamboo or cypress?' shift the meaning — the moon and trees are not rare. What is rare is the state of mind that can notice them. The final line 'There are only too few idle people like the two of us' carries a double meaning: idle because politically sidelined, yet possessing the freedom of mind to appreciate moonlight. The piece does not directly lament exile. It turns political frustration into a moment of shared clarity under moonlight.
About the Author
Su Shi, courtesy name Zizhan and literary name Dongpo Jushi, was a Northern Song writer, poet, calligrapher, painter, and statesman from Meishan in Meizhou. He is one of the 'Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song' and one of the most accomplished literary figures in Chinese history. His political career was marked by repeated exile, including his banishment to Huangzhou after the 'Crow Terrace Poetry Case,' and later to Huizhou and Danzhou. Su Shi excelled in poetry, ci lyrics, prose, calligraphy, and painting. His works are known for breadth of spirit, clarity, humor, resilience, and profound insight into life. Representative works include 'Former Red Cliff Rhapsody,' 'Later Red Cliff Rhapsody,' 'Nian Nujiao · Remembrance at Red Cliff,' 'Shui Diao Ge Tou · When Will the Bright Moon Appear,' and 'Record of a Night Visit to Chengtian Temple.'