《白头吟》 / Bai Tou Yin

Overview

《白头吟》 / Bai Tou Yin is the poem that Hanji 359-1 associates with 卓文君’s response to 司马相如’s reported wish to take a concubine.

Current Profile

The episode does not present “愿得一人心，白首不相离” as an uncomplicated love confession. It places the line after elopement, poverty, shared tavern work, and Sima’s later attachment to a woman associated with Maoling, making the poem a response to threatened abandonment and divided affection.

The host interprets the poem as “以退为进”: Zhuo Wenjun states a fidelity boundary and makes separation imaginable without a dramatic confrontation, supposedly opening the way to reunion. That reading is useful as evidence of the poem’s popular reception, but the supplied episode does not establish authorship, textual history, exact wording, historical occasion, or causal effect on the marriage.

Key Characteristics

• Literary work associated in the episode with Zhuo Wenjun.
• Contains the fidelity line quoted there as “愿得一人心，白首不相离.”
• Framed as a response to Sima Xiangru’s reported concubine plan rather than a simple romantic declaration.
• Read by the host as restrained boundary-setting and strategic withdrawal.

Evidence

• Narrative occasion: Hanji 359-1 places the poem after Sima’s reported attachment to another woman and wish to take her as a concubine.
• Fidelity language: Hanji 359-1 quotes “愿得一人心，白首不相离.”
• Reception frame: Hanji 359-1 calls the response “以退为进” and treats it as marital wisdom.

Qualifications

This page records one popular-history episode’s attribution and interpretation, not a settled textual study. The title uses “愿得一心人,” while the episode’s quoted line uses “愿得一人心”; neither wording is silently normalized here. Zhuo Wenjun’s authorship, the poem’s date and transmission, the Maoling-woman story, Sima’s intentions, and the claim that the poem produced reconciliation all require wider evidence. The host’s praise of restraint should not be generalized into advice for unequal or unsafe relationships.

What Changed

• Created a source-bounded work profile separating the poem’s fidelity theme from the episode’s claims about authorship and marital effect.
• Preserved the wording variant between the episode title and its quoted line.

Relationships

• 卓文君 - traditionally attributed author and speaker in the episode’s reception frame.
• 司马相如 - reported partner whose concubine plan supplies the narrative occasion.
• 《凤求凰》 - earlier courtship work paired with 《白头吟》 in the couple’s literary afterlife.
• 西汉 - historical setting assigned to the relationship narrative.