邢永根《咏半山园》诗曰：“半山虽可凭高瞩，终不如峰可绣天。尤得浮云遮望眼，谁人伴我说临川。”
《金陵文脉》33半山园
在浩瀚如海吟咏金陵的诗词歌赋中，王安石的《桂枝香·金陵怀古》，历千年而不朽：“登临送目，正故国晚秋，（天气初肃。）千里澄江似练，翠峰如簇。（归帆去棹残阳里，背西风，酒旗斜矗。彩舟云淡，星河鹭起，画图难足。 念往昔，繁华竞逐，叹门外楼头，悲恨相续。千古凭高对此，谩嗟荣辱。）六朝旧事随流水，但寒烟衰草凝绿。至今商女，时时犹唱，后庭遗曲。”诗里行间涌动着对金陵山水的热爱和政治家胸怀的感慨。
Of all the poems in praise of Nanjing, Wang Anshi’s Guizhixiang: Meditating on Jinling’s Past has won universal acclaim for nearly a
millennium: “Scaling the mountain to overlook, the late
autumn beauty of my homeland… Like a lucid belt the
Yangtze flows eastward, and blue mountain peaks point skyward. Gone are the
stories of Six Dynasties with the wind, but autumn grass tinges with green in
cold wind. Up till now, Shangnu still sings the old tune of Houting.” Between the lines surges his love for the beautiful
scenery of Jinling and his emotions as an ambitious statesman.
王安石生于江西临川，却与金陵有着不解之缘。他少年时随父定居南京，在此前后生活了20余年。王安石曾三任江宁府尹，两次出任宰相，是北宋伟大的政治家、文学家和诗人。公元1076年，56岁的王安石主导了熙宁变法，与保守派发生争端，被罢免宰相，归隐金陵。他在燕雀湖畔的“白塘”处，修建了住宅，因为此地距江宁城东门七里，距钟山主峰也是七里，所谓半途往上之处，王安石故将居室命名为“半山园”，自号为“半山老人”。
Wang Anshi was born in Linchuan county, Jiangxi
province, yet he had close association with Nanjing. When he was still a child,
Wang came to Nanjing with his father and spend a total of more than 20 years in
the city. He was not only a great statesman, but also a famous litterateur and
poet. He was appointed governor of Jiangning three times, and served as prime
minister twice. In 1067, Wang staged a political reform--the Xining Reform when
he was 56 years old. His reform brought him into fierce confrontation with the
conservatives of the court. As a result, he lost his premiership and began his
hermit life in Jinling. He built a villa at "White Pond" by Lake
Yanque. He named the villa Banshanyuan (meaning a villa half way to the mountaintop),
because it lay seven li to the east of the city and seven li to the peak of Mt.
Zhongshan. He called himself Banshan Laoren (Old man at Banshan).
半山园位于今中山门内北侧的古城墙边，是一座青砖灰瓦的古式建筑。据《建康志》记载，王安石的住房十分简朴，“仅蔽风雨，又下设垣墙，望之若逆旅之舍。”王安石则不以为然，他在住宅周围栽植树木，修建池塘，形成了一个有自然风景的家园，院内这两棵古老的桧树相传就是王安石亲手所载。
Banshanyuan, a blue-brick, gray-tile ancient style
villa, lies very close to the city wall of Nanjing, inside today's Zhongshanmen
Gate. According to History of Jiangkang, the simple, ordinary-looking villa was
surrounded by a low wall, and “can only serve to shelter
him from the weather.” But Wang didn't care. He planted trees
around the villa, remolded a pond, making himself a home with natural scenery.
The two juniper trees still standing are said to be planted by Wang himself.
王安石淡饭粗茶，起居宁静，过着退居山林的恬淡生活，他用诗句吟出了半山园春天的清雅秀丽：“春风过柳绿如缲，晴日囗红出小桃。池暖水香鱼出处，一环清浪涌亭皋”。
He lived a very simple and quiet life, a hermit life
at that. In his poem he depicted the elegant beauty of his villa in spring: “The spring wind gives the willow a touch of green, the
sunshine brings flowers to the peach trees, in the pond the fish feel the
warmth of water, and from the pavilion rings of ripples can be seen.”
闲暇时，这位曾操过时代舵盘的政治家，喜欢骑着驴漫游于钟山的山水之间，遍访石城的古迹名胜，领略大自然的壮美。此时，罢相闲居的王安石，布衣独行旷达坦然，神定气闲，与几年前的叱咤风云判若两人，诗人黄庭坚称赞其“视富贵如浮云”。
In his spare time, this one-time important political
figure would indulge himself in roaming on donkey’s
back, visiting scenic spots and places of historical interest, and enjoying the
beauty of nature. Now an ordinary person with no official title, Wang remained
open-minded and relaxed, totally different from the man who had harnessed the
torrential tides of the time. The Song Dynasty poet Huang Tingjian praised him
as a man “who regarded wealth and official position
as floating clouds”.
王安石是“唐宋八大家”之一，文章诗词，峭拔深刻，卓然自成一家。罢相还山后，虽身在江南，仍心驰魏阙，常思匡正前失。从头修为，赋诗作文，便是曾身在高层的王安石心灵的寄托。他在退隐半山园近十年的时间里，埋书著说，编撰成一部被用作国学教材的文字学著作《字说》，此十年，又是王安石诗词创作的高产时期，仅有关南京的诗词作品就达三百首之多，达到了“雅丽精绝，脱去流俗”的境界。
Wang Anshi, one of the eight famous men of letters of
the Tang and Song Dynasties, wrote beautiful essays and poems in his own style,
with magnificent elegance and profundity. Although he lived a hermit life, he
was still thinking of the destiny of his nation and of how to right the wrongs.
Writing poems and essays became his mental sustenance. In nearly a decade when
he lived in Banshanyuan, he devoted his time to writing the famous book On
Words, which later became a textbook for teaching the Chinese language. This
was also a decade that saw many of the poems by the prolific poet. More than
300 of these poems were in praise of Nanjing, and all were graceful, fantastic
and profusely spiritual.?
公元1084年，王安石身患重病，神宗皇帝特派国医到江宁府给他治病，病愈后，王安石上书皇帝，请准予将自己的住宅改建寺院，神宗赐额“报宁禅寺”。王安石居舍半山园为寺后，没有修建新居，就在秦淮河边租房居住，直到1086年，病逝后葬于钟山。
In 1084, Wang fell seriously ill. Emperor Shenzong
sent court doctors to Jiangning to give him treatment. After his recovery, Wang
wrote to the emperor, asking for permission to convert his villa into a temple.
The emperor granted it a name: Baoning Temple. Wang did not build any new house
for himself, instead he rented a house by the Qinhui River and lived there till
his death in 1086. He was buried on Zhongshan Mountain.
历史的烟海不会湮没前贤称颂于世的风采，一代政治家、文学家、诗人王安石，留存在世代相传的从宰相到平民的佳话中。
History will never forget the elegance of Wang Anshi,
the great statesman, litterateur and poet, and many stories still tell about
his life as a prime minister and as an ordinary man.
公元1084年，王安石身患重病，神宗皇帝特派国医到江宁府给他治病。病愈后，王安石上书皇帝，请准予将自己的住宅改建寺院，神宗赐额“报宁禅寺”。王安石居舍半山园为寺后，没有修建新居，就在秦淮河边租房居住，直到1086年病逝后葬于钟山。传世文集有《王临川集》、《临川集拾遗》等，传世词作有《桂枝香·金陵怀古》等，传世诗作有《登飞来峰》等。“飞来山上千寻塔，闻说鸡鸣见日升。不畏浮云遮望眼，自缘身在最高层。”这诗的意境与半山园形成天壤之别，可谓“半山远逊极天峰。”
