Shang Ye

Shang Ye
Shang Ye
by Anonymous
Original title	上邪
Written	Generally attributed to the Han to Six Dynasties period
First published in	Anonymous
Country	China
Language	Classical Chinese
Series	Yuefu of Han
Subject(s)	Love, oath, fidelity
Genre(s)	Yuefu poetry, classical Chinese poetry
Meter	Irregular; mixed four-, five-, and six-character lines
Lines	9
	上邪 at Chinese Wikisource

Shang Ye (By Heaven!, Chinese: 上邪) is an ancient Chinese folk song about love, whose author is no longer known. The Collection of Music Bureau Poems (樂府詩集) version has a total of 9 lines and 33 characters.

Content

The poem list six "impossible things", only if all of them were to happen would the speaker be willing to break with the lover.

中文原文	English translation
上邪我欲與君相知長命無絕衰山無陵江水為竭冬雷震震夏雨雪天地合乃敢與君絕	By Heaven! I wish to be as one with you, For as long as life shall never fade or fail. When mountains have no peaks, When rivers run dry, When thunder rumbles in the depth of winter,^{[note 1]} When snow falls in the heat of summer, When heaven and earth merge into one— Only then would I dare to part from you.

In popular culture

It appears as a line in the television drama adapted from My Fair Princess, shortened to “When the mountains lose their ridges and heaven and earth unite, only then would I dare part from you.”^[1]

Note

^ In northern China, there is rarely thunder or rain in winter.

References

^ ETtoday新聞雲 (8 March 2017). "《還珠》紫薇告白金句錯19年！教授：瓊瑤背錯詩了 | ETtoday星光雲 | ETtoday新聞雲". star.ettoday.net (in Traditional Chinese). Retrieved 8 December 2025.

[1] In northern China, there is rarely thunder or rain in winter.

[2] ETtoday新聞雲 (8 March 2017). "《還珠》紫薇告白金句錯19年！教授：瓊瑤背錯詩了 | ETtoday星光雲 | ETtoday新聞雲". star.ettoday.net (in Traditional Chinese). Retrieved 8 December 2025.

[note 1]

[1]