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It was previously noted in this chapter that the frontier landscape in Cen Shen's poetry has often
been critically assessed as a “a land of frenetic movement” 81 where “the north wind blows sand and
rolls up white grasses ” while cold winds furiously blast like knives and arrows. 82 Such assessments,
while accurate to an extent, do elide the conventional stasis that still haunts Cen Shen's hibernal
landscape and participates in patterns of shifting movement and inertness, cycles of active and inactive
kinesis 83 which in tandem with other factors contribute, if in a minor fashion, to the actualization of the
cold environment, one in which sub-zero temperatures both brood in inactivity and lash out at great
speeds.
Alternating moments of stillness and highly kinetic activity as a feature of the hibernal
landscape are clear when “Song of Snow on Tian Mountain” and “Song of White Snow” are read
intertextually. The poet-narrrators in both works shift their focalization between the two states of
movement of the landscape but do so in different orders of procession. In “Song of Snow on Tian
Mountain” the cold exterior environment is focalized as cycles between two lines of stillness, two lines
81 Marie Chan, Cen Shen, p. 98. In an assessment of Cen Shen's non-frontier piece “Ascending the Stupa of the Temple of
Compassionate Mercy with Gao Shi and Xue Ju” (“Yu Gao Shi Xue Ju tong deng cien shi futu” 与 高 适 薛 据 同 登 慈 恩
寺 浮 图 ), Stephen Owen construes an “active topography”, a kinetic energy that also surges through Cen Shen's frontier
landscapes, rolling through the following lines: “A range of mountains like surging waves,/Rush eastwards as if heading
towards the royal court” 连 山 若 波 涛 , 奔 凑 似 朝 东 . See CSJJZ, p. 101. For the Owen observation see Stephen Owen,
Great Age of Chinese Poetry, p. 378.
82 “The north wind blows sand the rolls up white grasses” 北 风 吹 沙 卷 白 草 . See “Passing Yanzhi Mountain: Sent to Du
Wei” (“Guo Yanzhi ji Du Wei” 过 燕 支 寄 杜 位 ), CSJJZ, p. 75. The opening of “Song of White Snow” has a similar line
characterizing rapid movements of the frontier: “The north wind rolls up the ground, white grasses snap” 北 风 卷 地 白 草
折 . Stephen Owen notes that the use of 折 (zhe), meaning “separation of one part from another”, is especially violent
and hyperbolic. See Stephen Owen, Great Age of Chinese Poetry, p. 376. In a similar assessment, Ronald Miao regards
the wind in this sub-genre of poetry as emphasizing the abrasiveness of the frontier environment and its intolerance
towards human repose. See Ronald Miao, “T'ang Frontier Poetry”, p. 130. The wind in Bao Zhao's “Imitation: The Song
of Departing from the North Gate of Ji” is an early example of such belligerent blowing. See chapter two of this thesis
for the relevant quote. For knife-like winds, see “Ballad of Running Horse River” as well as “Song of General Zhao”
(quoted in chapter two of this thesis). Wang Changling in the second of four “Below the Frontier” (“Saixia qu” 塞 下 曲 )
also uses the same simile to illustrate the hibernal wind: “Watering horses and crossing autumn waters,/the water is
freezing and the wind is like a knife” 饮 马 渡 秋 水 , 水 寒 风 似 刀 . See QTS 140.1420. Winds swift and sharp as arrows fly
in Cen Shen's “Western Hostel of Yin Mountain Desert” (“Yinshan qi xiguan” 银 山 碛 西 馆 ): “At the entrance to the
gorge of Yin mountain the wind is like arrows” 银 山 峡 口 风 似 箭 . See CSJJZ, p. 79.
83 “Kinesis” here means the feature of movement. Thus, “active kinesis” is a state of movement; “inactive kinesis” is a
state of non-movement.