Humble Room Inscription / Liu Yuxi, 陋室銘

Liu Yuxi's humble room: Text, Pinyin, and Translation

Liu Yuxi's humble room: Text, Pinyin, and Translation with original text, pinyin, a literal rendering, a readable translation, source location, key terms, and a careful modern reading.

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Liu Yuxi Humble Room Inscription original Chinese pinyin translation meaning

Humble Room Inscription, Liu Yuxi, 陋室銘: read "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..." before the English explanation.

Original text

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？

Shan bu zai gao, you xian ze ming. Shui bu zai shen, you long ze ling. Si shi lou shi, wei wu de xin. Tai hen shang jie lu, cao se ru lian qing. Tan xiao you hong ru, wang lai wu bai ding. Ke yi tiao su qin, yue jin jing. Wu si zhu zhi luan er, wu an du zhi lao xing. Nanyang Zhuge lu, Xishu Ziyun ting. Kongzi yun: He lou zhi you?

Literal layer

A mountain need not be high; if it has an immortal, it is famous. Water need not be deep; if it has a dragon, it is numinous. This is a humble room; only my virtue is fragrant. Moss marks climb the steps green; grass color enters the curtain blue. In talk and laughter there are great scholars; in coming and going there are no unlearned commoners. I can tune a plain qin and read the golden scripture. There is no string-and-bamboo music to disturb the ear, no official documents to weary the body. There was Zhuge's hut in Nanyang and Ziyun's pavilion in western Shu. Confucius said: What humbleness is there?

Readable layer

Liu Yuxi's Humble Room Inscription argues that a room is not made worthy by size or luxury, but by the character, company, quiet practices, and freedom from bureaucratic burden found inside it.

Poem on the Double Ninth Festival from The Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access collection — **Poem on the Double Ninth Festival; Chen Chun; John Stewart Kennedy Fund, 1913; The Metropolitan Museum of Art.**Poem on the Double Ninth Festival is used as a public-domain poem or landscape surface for line-order reading on Liu Yuxi's humble room. The fit is semantic: the page asks readers to inspect Liu Yuxi, 陋室銘 and the term lou shi, while the image remains illustrative rather than proof of the exact manuscript, author portrait, or historical scene.

Reader focus

What this page helps you decide

Liu Yuxi's Humble Room Inscription is not a simple praise of poverty. It argues that a place is transformed by what gives it meaning. A mountain becomes known through an immortal; water becomes numinous through a dragon; a plain room becomes sufficient through virtue, cultivated company, quiet reading, music without display, and freedom from official paperwork. The famous closing question, What humbleness is there, only works after the inscription has redefined worth.

Watch lou shi, de xin, hong ru; these terms decide where the literal layer and the readable layer separate.
Compare this page with Han Yu's Mountain Stones before using the humble room as a generic simplicity slogan.

The Poem Before Paraphrase

This block uses Humble Room Inscription, Liu Yuxi, 陋室銘 as the anchor, with "山不在高，有仙則名。水不在深，有龍則靈。斯是陋室，惟吾德馨。..." kept in front of the explanation.

Full Text: The page uses the full inscription because each part builds the argument. The mountain and water analogies introduce the logic. The room description supplies evidence. The ancient exemplars and Confucius quotation close the defense. A single line about a humble room cannot carry the whole reasoning.

Mountain And Water Analogy: The opening says that height and depth are not decisive. A mountain is known because of an immortal; water is numinous because of a dragon. These analogies prepare the room claim. The room's visible plainness is not the final measure of its worth.

Virtue As Fragrance: Wei wu de xin is the core claim. The room is humble, but the speaker's virtue is fragrant. Xin can suggest fragrance or reputation. The line does not make poverty automatically noble. It says the person and conduct inside the room transform its meaning.

Images, Sound, And Emotional Turn

Green Steps And Curtain: The moss and grass lines create a quiet visual setting. Moss marks climb the steps green, and grass color enters the curtain blue-green. The room is simple, but not barren. The natural details replace luxury decoration with calm texture.

Companionship: Tan xiao you hong ru and wang lai wu bai ding define the room socially. Conversation brings cultivated people; the traffic of empty status is absent. The page reads this cautiously: the inscription values learned company, but the real issue is the quality of shared life, not snobbery alone.

Quiet Practice: The plain qin and golden scripture show activities inside the room. These practices are restrained, textual, and musical without excess. The next line clarifies the contrast: no noisy music disturbs the ear, and no official documents exhaust the body.

Keep the term set visible here: lou shi, de xin, hong ru. The reading changes if one of these terms is translated too smoothly.

Translation Choices To Keep Visible

Against Bureaucratic Burden: Wu an du zhi lao xing gives the room a political and bodily edge. Official documents are not just boring; they weary the body. The humble room becomes a space where cultivated life is protected from administrative burden and social performance.

Closing Question: The references to Zhuge's hut, Ziyun's pavilion, and Confucius make the room part of an older moral geography. He lou zhi you is a question, not a denial of physical plainness. The inscription asks readers to judge the room by virtue and practice rather than surface rank.

Liu Yuxi's humble room Reading Payoff: This page differs from Han Yu's Mountain Stones because Liu Yuxi defends a dwelling through moral analogy, while Han Yu finds freedom through travel. It differs from Gao Shi's farewell because the central pressure here is not departure but value under plain conditions. The article gives readers a source-based way to quote the humble room without flattening it into minimalist decor advice.

The reading should end in one practical move: Compare this page with Han Yu's Mountain Stones before using the humble room as a generic simplicity slogan.

Next reading

Links chosen for reading movement

Han Yu's Mountain Stones Text, Pinyin, and TranslationFrom Liu Yuxi's humble room, open Han Yu's Mountain Stones Text, Pinyin, and Translation to compare lou shi with a second checked passage; the path starts from Liu Yuxi, 陋室銘, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.Confucius Quotes About The Gentleman: Analects Source and MeaningFrom Liu Yuxi's humble room, open Confucius Quotes About The Gentleman to test the translation boundary against a neighboring source; the path starts from Liu Yuxi, 陋室銘, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.Laozi Quotes About Plainness And Desire: Original Text and MeaningFrom Liu Yuxi's humble room, open Laozi Quotes About Plainness And Desire to move from this wording to a concrete reader workflow; the path starts from Liu Yuxi, 陋室銘, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.Gao Shi's Farewell Poem Text, Pinyin, and TranslationFrom Liu Yuxi's humble room, open Gao Shi's Farewell Poem Text, Pinyin, and Translation to keep the next step tied to source evidence instead of a loose related list; the path starts from Liu Yuxi, 陋室銘, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.