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white in hot climates (baicao 白 草 ). The following outline 34 derives particulars from frontier themed
poems of the High Tang 35 (shengtang 盛 唐 ) period which include specific place names pertinent in
delineating the northern frontier. The aim of such a sketch is to familiarize the reader with physically
and temporarily distant locales common in frontier poetry as they relate to contemporary geographical
realities, and is by no means an exhaustive list of every town, region or topographical feature of the
Tang frontier.
The northeastern region of the Tang frontier can be visualized as having encompassed the Liao
river basin ( 辽 河 流 域 ) of modern Liaoning province, Yingzhou 36 营 州 (west of Jinzhou in Liaoning
province), Jimen 蓟 门 (modern Jixian county 蓟 县 north of Tianjin 天 津 ), and Youzhou 幽 州 (near
Beijing's Daxing county 大 兴 县 ), the latter having been both an important transportation junction in
the northeast and an area often alluded to in frontier poetry as having produced an great number of
martial talents. Gao Shi's “Song of Yingzhou” (“Yingzhou ge” 营 州 歌 ) presents a captivating vignette
of Yingzhou's residents and their seemingly superhuman skills in both imbibing and equestrianism 37 :
营 州 少 年 厌 原 野
皮 裘 蒙 茸 猎 城 下
虏 酒 千 钟 不 醉 人
The young men of Yingzhou are content with the wild plains,
In fuzzy fur garments they hunt below the citadel.
Lu 38 wine, a thousand goblets, does not intoxicate,
34 The following is a condensed lesson in frontier geography adapted from Ren Wenjing's Tangdai biansaishi de wenhua
chanshi, pp. 132-139.
35 In this instance, poems authored by Wang Changling 王 昌 龄 (690-756), Gao Shi (706-765) and Cen Shen 岑 参 (715-
770).
36 A footnote to Gao Shi's “Song of Yingzhou (“Yingzhou ge” 营 州 歌 ) remarks that Yingzhou had both Han and Qidan 契
丹 (a non-Chinese ethnic group of the northeast) inhabitants, and that the people of Yingzhou were especially gallant
and embodied a strong martial spirit. See GSJJZ, p. 37.
37 The poem is also a powerful example of one variant of frontier poetry: poems detailing the customs and culture of non-
Chinese peoples living in frontier regions. This and other features of frontier poetry will be discussed in the following
two chapters.
38 Term for northern, non-Chinese peoples.