长河落日圆

長河落日圓

chánghéluòrìyuán

phrase

Meanings

1 over the long river, the setting sun hangs round
2 majestic image of the sun on the horizon
3 Wang Wei's paired frontier scene

Characters

Examples

黄河岸边夕阳西下，真是长河落日圆。

Huánghé ànbiān xīyáng xīxià, zhēn shì cháng hé luò rì yuán.

The sun setting over the banks of the Yellow River — truly 'over the long river, the setting sun hangs round.'

大漠孤烟直，长河落日圆，是边塞诗中的名句。

Dà mò gū yān zhí, cháng hé luò rì yuán, shì biānsài shī zhōng de míngjù.

'A lone plume rising over the great desert; the sun round above the long river' is a famous couplet of frontier poetry.

Tips

history

Second line of Wang Wei's (王维, Tang dynasty) 《使至塞上》 ('Mission to the Frontier'): 大漠孤烟直，长河落日圆. Written in 737 on a commission to the Hexi frontier; the couplet is routinely ranked among the finest visual compositions in Chinese poetry.

usage

Always cited together with its paired line 大漠孤烟直. 长河 is usually read as the Yellow River; the image turns on the near-perfect circle of a sun pinned against a horizontal expanse of water.

Stroke Order

长 cháng

河 hé

落 luò

日 rì

圆 yuán