Book of Songs
Bei Men
Anonymous
出自北门
忧心殷殷
终窭且贫
莫知我艰
已焉哉
天实为之
谓之何哉
王事适我
政事一埤益我
我入自外
室人交徧谪我
已焉哉
天实为之
谓之何哉
王事敦我
政事一埤遗我
我入自外
室人交徧摧我
已焉哉
天实为之
谓之何哉
Translation
I go out through the northern gate; my heart is heavy with sorrow. In the end I am poor and destitute; no one knows my hardship. So be it. Heaven has truly made it so. What can be said of it? The king's affairs fall upon me; public duties are added to me one by one. When I come home from outside, the people of my house take turns reproaching me. So be it. Heaven has truly made it so. What can be said of it? The king's affairs press hard upon me; public duties are left to me one by one. When I come home from outside, the people of my house take turns crushing me. So be it. Heaven has truly made it so. What can be said of it?
Analysis
"Bei Men" is a poem of social and personal exhaustion from the "Bei Feng" section of the Book of Songs. It speaks in the voice of someone burdened by public duties, poverty, and domestic reproach. The poem is striking because it does not deal primarily with romance, ritual, or war, but with everyday pressure and being misunderstood. The opening image, "I go out through the northern gate," immediately creates a cold and bleak atmosphere. The north often suggests chill and shadow. The speaker leaves through this gate with a heart already weighed down. "In the end I am poor and destitute; no one knows my hardship." The pain lies not only in poverty, but in invisibility. The speaker's suffering is not recognized. He is working, worrying, and declining, but others do not understand what he endures. The refrain, "So be it. Heaven has truly made it so. What can be said of it?" is a voice of exhausted resignation. It is not peaceful acceptance. It is what remains when one sees no effective way to resist or explain. The second stanza names the external burden: royal affairs and public duties keep being added to him. Work does not simply exist; it accumulates. Responsibility becomes heavier and heavier. But home is not a refuge. When he returns from outside, the household reproaches him in turn. This is the poem's most realistic pain. The person who suffers outside is not comforted inside. Instead, the family also becomes a source of accusation. The third stanza intensifies the pressure. The king's affairs now "press hard" upon him, and duties are again left to him. At home, the family no longer merely reproaches him; they "crush" him. The inner and outer worlds both become unbearable. "Bei Men" is powerful because it captures a social condition that remains recognizable: a person caught between public responsibility and private expectation, burdened by work, blamed at home, poor, and unseen. Its language is plain, but the situation is severe.
About the Author
"Bei Men" comes from the "Bei Feng" section of the "Airs of the States" in the Book of Songs. Its author is unknown. The Book of Songs is the earliest anthology of Chinese poetry, containing more than three hundred poems from roughly the early Western Zhou to the mid-Spring and Autumn period. "Bei Feng" preserves songs associated with the region of Bei and the state of Wei, many of which concern marriage, family, politics, war, labor, poverty, and social distress. "Bei Men" is an important poem of lower-level public burden, portraying a person trapped between official duties, poverty, and reproach from within the household.