Major Snow

Across all the mountains, not a single trace of a flying bird can be seen; along all the paths, no human footprints remain. On the river floats a lone boat, where an old man in a straw rain cape and bamboo hat fishes alone upon the cold river beneath the boundless snow.

This poem is one of the supreme works associated with the solar term Major Snow and one of the most famous snow poems in classical Chinese literature. The opening two lines, “千山鸟飞绝，万径人踪灭”, use extreme exaggeration to portray the absolute silence and desolation of a world buried beneath heavy snow. “千山”, “a thousand mountains,” and “万径”, “ten thousand paths,” enlarge the space to its furthest extent, while “绝”, “cut off,” and “灭”, “vanished,” create a sense of complete emptiness and stillness. This extreme barrenness is also a true portrayal of mountains sealed by heavy snow. The final two lines, “孤舟蓑笠翁，独钓寒江雪”, draw the view from a vast panorama into a close-up: between Heaven and Earth there remains only a lone boat, one fisherman, and one fishing line. This fisherman who “fishes alone” is the outward embodiment of the poet’s own unyielding and solitary spirit—in a snowy world where all things have fallen silent, he alone faces the cold of the entire world. In only twenty characters, the poem creates both the immense space of a thousand mountains and ten thousand paths and the minute focal point of a solitary boat and lone fisherman, fusing the grandeur of heavy snow with the proud solitude of individual character.