View/Open - University of Victoria
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115<br />
河 岳 英 灵 集 ) 31 states that “the diction <strong>of</strong> Cen Shen's poetry is startling, his form strong and energetic;<br />
his meaning is also startling”, 32 an assessment which over a thousand years later would be cited as a<br />
33<br />
“precise and appropriate comment” (jingdangzhilun 精 当 之 论 ) from which to research the unusual<br />
and strange in Cen Shen's frontier poetry. Within the same era as Yin Fan's anthology, Du Fu 杜 甫<br />
(712-770), in the opening <strong>of</strong> his “A Meipi Lake Song” (“Meipi xing” 渼 陂 行 ), refers to the attraction<br />
Cen Shen, and apparently his brothers, too, had for the strange and extraordinary, though specifically<br />
what kind <strong>of</strong> peculiarities and in which medium is left vague and unspoken:<br />
岑 参 兄 弟 皆 好 奇 The brothers Cen have a passion for wonders,<br />
34<br />
携 我 远 来 游 渼 陂 And took me to visit Meipi far away. 35<br />
(lines 1-2)<br />
Comments on Cen Shen's “qi” 奇 come closer to referring to Cen Shen's frontier poetry with the Qing<br />
清 dynasty (1644-1911) poet and scholar Shen Deqian's 沈 德 潜 (1673-1769) laconic review <strong>of</strong> Cen<br />
Shen in his anthology Selections <strong>of</strong> Tang Poetry (Tangshi biecai 唐 诗 别 裁 ) in which, like Yin Fan over<br />
nine hundred years earlier, he writes that Cen Shen is able to compose poems with wondrous language,<br />
though adds that the poet is also especially skilled at writing frontier poems. 36<br />
Riding this ancient momentum, modern criticism has continued to support the intimacy between<br />
Cen Shen's frontier works and “qi” 奇 . These investigations are able to exceed the length <strong>of</strong> the single<br />
31 Written in 753. “Seven <strong>of</strong> Cen's poems are included in Yin Fan's Heyueyinglingji...[But since Yin Fan was] governed by<br />
a taste for expressions <strong>of</strong> remorse by frustrated literati, [he] did not select from the frontier works for which Cen Shen<br />
[was] to become best known. The seven poems by Cen Shen [in the anthology] either...celebrate... the life <strong>of</strong> retirement<br />
or are songs about life's brevity...”. See Marie Chan, Cen Shen, pp. 112-113.<br />
32 “ 参 诗 语 奇 , 体 峻 ; 意 亦 造 奇 ”. See Yin Fan 殷 璠 , Heyueyinglingji 河 岳 英 灵 集 [ 中 ], p. 1 in SKQS. The translation <strong>of</strong><br />
the quote is an adaptation <strong>of</strong> Marie Chan, Cen Shen, p. 113.<br />
33 See the introductory paragraph <strong>of</strong> Li Jin 李 锦 , “ Yuqi tijun, yi yi zaoqi: qianxi Cen Shen biansaishi de qi 语 奇 体 峻 , 意<br />
亦 造 奇 ': 浅 析 岑 参 边 塞 诗 的 奇 ”Neimenggu shifandaxue xuebao 内 蒙 古 师 范 大 学 学 报 ( 哲 学 社 会 科 学 版 ) No. 5<br />
(2006): 245-248.<br />
34 QTS 216.2261<br />
35 Stephen Owen, tr., The Great Age <strong>of</strong> Chinese Poetry, p. 191. Marie Chan translates the same lines as “The Cen brothers<br />
relish the strange; they take me afar for an excursion <strong>of</strong> Meipi”. See Marie Chan, Cen Shen, p. 5.<br />
36 “ 参 诗 能 作 奇 语 , 尤 长 于 边 塞 ”. See Shen Deqian, Tangshibiecai, p. 36.