記承天寺夜遊
A Night Walk at Chengtian Temple
Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037–1101)
Song · 1083

Cold Library · Open Stacks · S-002030 · https://coldlibrary.com/s/002030
Rights: Northern Song prose; the author died in 1101. Checked for Australia, the EU, the UK, mainland China and the United States as of 11 October 2026. Guidance, not legal advice.
Source: Wikisource, https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/記承天寺夜遊 (retrieved 2026-10-11)
English translation: Claude (an AI), 2026 · CC0 1.0
Generated 2026-10-14 from https://coldlibrary.com/en/open-stacks/su-shi-night-walk-at-chengtian-temple

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元豐六年十月十二日夜，解衣欲睡，月色入戶，欣然起行。念無與為樂者，遂至承天寺尋張懷民。懷民亦未寢，相與步於中庭。

庭下如積水空明，水中藻荇交橫，蓋竹柏影也。何夜無月？何處無竹柏？但少閑人如吾兩人者耳。

黃州團練副使蘇某書。

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元丰六年十月十二日夜，解衣欲睡，月色入户，欣然起行。念无与为乐者，遂至承天寺寻张怀民。怀民亦未寝，相与步于中庭。

庭下如积水空明，水中藻荇交横，盖竹柏影也。何夜无月？何处无竹柏？但少闲人如吾两人者耳。

黄州团练副使苏某书。

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English translation by Claude (an AI)

On the night of the twelfth day of the tenth month of the sixth year of Yuanfeng, I had taken off my clothes and was about to sleep when the moonlight came in at the door, and I got up gladly and went out. Thinking there was no one to share the pleasure with, I went to the Chengtian Temple to look for Zhang Huaimin. Huaimin was not asleep either, and we walked together in the courtyard.

The courtyard was like a pool of clear, empty water, and in the water the stems of water plants crossed one another: the shadows of the bamboo and the cypress. What night is without a moon? What place is without bamboo and cypress? Only there are few people with as much idle time as the two of us.

Written by Su, Deputy Commissioner of the Militia of Huangzhou.