Tang Dynasty
送东莱王学士无竞
陈子昂
宝剑千金买，平生未许人。
怀君万里别，持赠结交亲。
孤松宜晚岁，众木爱芳春。
已矣将何道，无令白首新。
Translation
This treasured sword was bought for a thousand pieces of gold; all my life I have never promised it lightly to anyone. Thinking of your departure over ten thousand miles, I give it to you as a token of our deep friendship. The solitary pine is most fitting in late years, while common trees delight only in the fragrant spring. Enough—what more can I say? Do not let fresh sorrow come to your white-haired years.
Analysis
This farewell poem centers not on landscape, but on the act of giving a sword. In classical Chinese culture, a sword often carries associations of loyalty, honor, and moral courage. By saying that he has never promised this treasured sword to anyone before, Chen Zi’ang emphasizes the exceptional value of both the object and the friendship. The second couplet makes the gift a response to distance: the friend is leaving across ten thousand miles, and the sword becomes a tangible pledge of intimate connection. The poem’s emotional tone is therefore firm rather than sentimental. The line about the solitary pine and the common trees deepens the moral meaning. Ordinary trees love the spring, but the pine shows its character in late years and cold seasons. This image praises the friend’s integrity and also reflects Chen Zi’ang’s own literary ideal of moral strength and ancient-style vigor. The ending turns inward. “What more can I say?” suggests both restraint and sorrow. The final wish—do not let new grief come to your white-haired years—gives the poem a late-life melancholy. It is a farewell of friendship, but also a meditation on character under time and hardship.
About the Author
Chen Zi’ang was an early Tang poet and an important advocate for literary reform. He criticized the overly ornate style inherited from the Six Dynasties and called for a return to the moral force and robust spirit of the Han and Wei traditions. His poetry often emphasizes integrity, historical consciousness, and emotional gravity. Works such as “Song on Ascending Youzhou Terrace” and the “Stirred by Encounters” poems helped prepare the way for the mature grandeur of High Tang poetry.