View/Open - University of Victoria

112
阴 火 潜 烧 天 地 炉 Fires burn underground in Heaven and Earth's furnace, 14
何 事 偏 烘 西 一 隅 ? Why does its combustion incline towards
the Western corner?
势 吞 月 窟 侵 太 白 The force of the steam's heat swallows moon caves 15
and attacks Venus, 16
气 连 赤 坂 通 单 于 Vapours continue into the Chi Pamirs 17 and through
Xiongnu lands.
送 君 一 醉 天 山 郭 Seeing you off drunk at a small town on Tian Mountain, 18
正 见 夕 阳 海 边 落 I just happen to see the evening sun setting in the corner
of the lake.
柏 台 霜 威 寒 逼 人 The official's cold and freezing severity intimidates
the people;
19
热 海 炎 气 为 之 薄 The scorching steam of Hot Lake is cooled by this.
In a poem ostensibly written to commemorate the sending off of Censor Cui, 20 the
“descriptions... of heat...contribute little to the human implications of friendship and parting[;] the
frontier landscape which so captivated Cen Shen is a blank slate empty of affective associations.
Consequently, the fullness... in which scene embodies sentiment...eludes this [poem of] parting”. 21
Rather than step into the formulaic predictability of a poem on a significant person's departure, 22 “the
14 The allusion here to Jia Yi's 贾 谊 (200-168 BCE) “Owl Fu” (“Funiao fu” 鵩 鸟 赋 ), and its importance in the
perceptualization of Cen Shen's thermal frontier, will be discussed in the following chapter.
15 “In ancient tradition and in Tang poetry the moon was pitted and honeycombed, like a volcanic rabbit warren. From Han
times at least we hear of 'moon dens' or 'moon burrows' (yueku 月 窟 )...In one sense it refers to the dank and gloomy
hiding place of the moon at the western verges of our world...It follows naturally that the expression also symbolizes the
cold and remote lands of the western barbarians...”. See Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void: T'ang Approaches to the
Stars (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), p. 187.
16 See chapter one, footnote 24. Venus was the quintessence of metal (Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void, p. 212) while
metal's directional equivalent has traditionally been that of the western regions (CSJJZ, p. 92). “In general it [Venus] was
a baleful star...and the mild associations that Venus has for us are almost totally lacking in Chinese imagery, for whom
white [Venus in Chinese being “great white”(taibai, “great 太 白 )] is the colour of the ghost world and, in its most
lustrous phase, of the flash of deadly weapons” . See Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void, p. 214.
17 Located in Yang county 洋 县 , Shaanxi 陕 西 province. See CSJJZ, p. 170.
18 The CSJJZ notes that reference here is to Luntai, which was located north of Tian mountain.
19 CSJJZ, p. 169-170.
20 The identity of Censor Cui is unclear.
21 Marie Chan, Cen Shen, p. 93. Marie Chan earlier remarks that in several poems, Cen Shen “combines his descriptions of
great snowfall and fearful heat with poetic farewells. These poems mark a departure from standard poetic practice which
explores the theme of farewell comprehensively, covering scene, sentiment and situation. Instead, Cen Shen singles out
the scene of parting for sustained description” (Ibid., p. 89).
22 Poems whose scenes often, though not inevitably, include farewell banquets, descriptions of the traveller's itinerary and
words of encouragement for the person setting off. See Marie Chan, Kao Shih, p. 85. “The typical poem of parting
contains references to the scene at parting as well as to the sentiments of that moment, to the situation which led to the
departure, and to the destination of the traveller. More often than not, the conclusion expresses regret, anticipates