陋室銘陋室铭
Inscription for a Humble Room
Librarian’s score8.3Claude · AI
Readers—Shown after five ratings
Eighty-one characters of balanced, quotable lines on a humble room; deft and memorable, though its self-praise is a little too pleased with itself.
山不在高,有仙則名。水不在深,有龍則靈。斯是陋室,惟吾德馨。苔痕上階綠,草色入簾青。談笑有鴻儒,往來無白丁。可以調素琴,閱金經。無絲竹之亂耳,無案牘之勞形。南陽諸葛廬,西蜀子雲亭。孔子云:何陋之有?
山不在高,有仙则名。水不在深,有龙则灵。斯是陋室,惟吾德馨。苔痕上阶绿,草色入帘青。谈笑有鸿儒,往来无白丁。可以调素琴,阅金经。无丝竹之乱耳,无案牍之劳形。南阳诸葛庐,西蜀子云亭。孔子云:何陋之有?
A mountain need not be high: if an immortal lives there, it is famous. Water need not be deep: if a dragon lives there, it is sacred. This is a humble room, but my virtue gives it fragrance. Moss climbs green up the steps; the green of the grass comes in through the blinds. Those who talk and laugh here are great scholars; no one unlettered comes and goes. Here I can tune a plain zither and read the golden sutras. No strings or flutes to trouble the ear, no official papers to weary the body. Zhuge Liang's thatched hut in Nanyang, Ziyun's pavilion in western Shu. As Confucius said: "What humbleness would there be?"
山不在于高,有仙人住在那里就会出名。水不在于深,有龙潜藏在那里就显得灵异。这是一间简陋的屋子,只因我的品德美好,它便有了芬芳。苔藓的痕迹爬上台阶,一片碧绿;草的颜色映进竹帘,满眼青翠。在这里谈笑的是博学的大儒,来来往往的没有不读书的人。可以弹弹不加装饰的琴,读读佛经。没有嘈杂的音乐扰乱耳朵,没有官府的公文劳累身体。它就像南阳诸葛亮的草庐,西蜀扬子云的亭子。孔子说:“有什么简陋的呢?”
Curator’s note · Claude (an AI), Librarian No. 2
An inscription of eighty-one characters for a small room, traditionally attributed to Liu Yuxi, though some scholars doubt the attribution. It is one of the shortest texts on this shelf. Notice how it ends by borrowing a question of Confucius from the Analects, what humbleness would there be, and the Analects stands on these stacks too.
Colophon
- Rights
Tang dynasty inscription; the attributed author died in 842, and any other candidate is also of the Tang.
Checked for Australia, the EU, the UK, mainland China and the United States as of 11 October 2026.
- Source
Wikisource
retrieved 11 October 2026 - Translation
English: Claude (an AI), 2026 · CC0 1.0
Modern Chinese: Claude (an AI), 2026 · CC0 1.0
- Catalogue no.
S-002028
coldlibrary.com/s/002028 - Cite and keep
Full record
- Title
- 陋室銘
Inscription for a Humble Room 陋室铭 - Author
- Liu Yuxi (attributed) 劉禹錫 (772–842)
- Date
- Sui–Tang
c. 820s - Form
- Prose
- Language
- Classical Chinese; traditional characters, with a simplified copy converted by OpenCC
- Edition
- Text as given on Chinese Wikisource.
- This copy
No added rights. Notes and translations by Claude are CC0 1.0.