View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
153<br />
towards the indefatigable and sonorous martial spirit drowning out the sad and piteous tones <strong>of</strong>ten<br />
heard in such poetry 70 , a heroic temperament easily discovered intertwined with the following<br />
“energetic” 71 and highly kinetic images in lines seven to ten <strong>of</strong> “Song <strong>of</strong> Lutai: Presented When<br />
Sending Off General Feng Leading His Troops on a Western Campaign” (“Luntai ge feng song Feng<br />
dafu chushi xizheng” 轮 台 歌 奉 送 封 大 夫 出 师 西 征 ):<br />
上 将 拥 旄 西 出 征<br />
平 明 吹 笛 大 军 行<br />
四 边 伐 鼓 雪 海 涌<br />
73<br />
三 军 大 呼 阴 山 动<br />
Yak tail adorned pennants 72 surround the general on his<br />
western campaign march,<br />
At sunrise pipes sound and the great army sets out.<br />
On all sides drums pound, the sea <strong>of</strong> snow roils;<br />
The entire army shouts, Yin mountain 74 shakes.<br />
The aforementioned opinions on the imagery and emotion <strong>of</strong> Cen Shen's winter landscapes are<br />
certainly not inaccurate; the only deficiencies for purposes here are in the limitations <strong>of</strong> their scope. But<br />
rather than find fault with the restricted range <strong>of</strong> these commentaries, the remainder <strong>of</strong> this chapter will<br />
instead contribute to the discussion <strong>of</strong> Cen Shen's places <strong>of</strong> quiver inducing cold by considering<br />
patterns in the perceptual facet <strong>of</strong> the poet-narrators' acts <strong>of</strong> focalization, 75 and how their manners <strong>of</strong><br />
focalization intertexutally link Cen Shen's major hibernal landscape poems. 76 These manners include<br />
shifts in the spatial coordinates <strong>of</strong> the poet-narrators' focalization <strong>of</strong> the poems' “cold” landscape (scale<br />
70 Yan Fuling, “ Han-Tang biansaishi zhuti yanjiu”, p. 39.<br />
71 Marie Chan, “The Frontier Poems <strong>of</strong> Ts'en Shen”, p. 432.<br />
72 Pennants that accompanied a military <strong>of</strong>ficer on campaign or on the battlefield. See note in CSJJZ, p. 147.<br />
73 CSJJZ, p. 146.<br />
74 Here a reference to Tian mountain and not the Yin mountain <strong>of</strong> Inner Mongolia. See Zhang Hui, ed., Cen Shen<br />
biansaishixuan, p. 56.<br />
75 The psychological facet <strong>of</strong> Cen Shen's hibernal landscapes will not be elaborated upon here. Chapter six, however, will<br />
be investigating the interaction <strong>of</strong> the perceptual and psychological facets in the focalization <strong>of</strong> landscapes characterized<br />
by great distances and homesickness.<br />
76 “Hibernal landscape poems” meaning those poems where the setting <strong>of</strong> the cold, snow laden frontier features<br />
predominantly, namely “The Ballad <strong>of</strong> Running Horse River: Presented Upon Escorting My Lord Feng With His Troops on<br />
a Western Campaign” (“Zoumachuan xing feng song chushi xizhang” 走 马 川 行 奉 送 出 师 西 征 ), “Song <strong>of</strong> Snow on Tian<br />
Mountain: Sending Off Xiao Zhi on His Return to the Capital” (“Tianshanxue ge song Xiao Zhi gui jing” 天 山 雪 歌 送 萧 治<br />
归 京 ), and “Song <strong>of</strong> White Snow: Sending Off Administrative Officer Wu on His Return to the Capital” (“Baixue ge song<br />
Wu panguan gui jing” 白 雪 歌 送 武 判 官 归 京 ). Although putatively “sending <strong>of</strong>f” poems, Cen Shen in these instances, as<br />
noted earlier, “describes...the scene with vigour [and] then ties it in the most tenuous way to the occasion”, foregrounding<br />
the landscape and not the circumstances <strong>of</strong> parting. See Stephen Owen, Great Age <strong>of</strong> Chinese Poetry, p. 177. See the second<br />
appendix <strong>of</strong> this thesis for their full translation.