一行白鹭上青天

一行白鷺上青天
yì háng báilù shàng qīngtiān
quotation

Meanings

  1. 1 a row of white egrets rises into the blue sky
  2. 2 a classical image of clean, lifted spring scenery
  3. 3 the second line of Du Fu's four-line landscape quatrain

Examples

HSK 6
Zhàn zài húbiān, kàndào yì háng báilù shàng qīngtiān de jǐngxiàng.
Standing by the lake, I saw the scene of 'a row of egrets rising into the blue sky.'
HSK 7-9
Liǎng gè huánglí míng cuì liǔ, yì háng báilù shàng qīngtiān.
Two orioles sing in the emerald willows; a row of white egrets rises into the blue sky.

Tips

history
From 杜甫's Tang quatrain 《绝句》: 两个黄鹂鸣翠柳,一行白鹭上青天。窗含西岭千秋雪,门泊东吴万里船。 - 'Two orioles sing in the emerald willows; a row of white egrets ascends the blue sky. My window frames the thousand-autumn snows of the western range; at my gate is moored a ship from Wu, ten-thousand li away.' Written in Chengdu around 764, after the An Lushan rebellion's chaos had eased.
usage
Read 行 as háng (a row / line), not xíng. Read 白鹭 as báilù (egret). A standard elementary-school memorized poem - the line is instantly recognizable.

Stroke Order

一 yī
行 xíng
白 bái
鹭 lù
上 shàng
青 qīng
天 tiān