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12
不 教 胡 马 度 阴 山
46
No [Hu] horses would be allowed to pass the Yin Mountains. 47
(lines 2-3)
The first of four poems comprising Below the Frontier” (“Saixia qu sishou” 塞 下 曲 四 首 ) uses Xiao
Pass as a point of reference for the frontier:
蝉 鸣 空 桑 林
八 月 萧 关 道
48
Cicadas chirp within the empty mulberry grove,
The eighth month of the year, the road to Xiao Pass.
(lines 1-2)
Moving west, two regional features often alluded to in Tang frontier poetry include Liangzhou
凉 州 and Yumen 49 Pass (Yumen guan 玉 门 关 ). The former, equivalent to modern day Wuwei 武 威 in
northwest Gansu 甘 肃 province, was the site of a large population and stood at the crossroads of
Chinese and non-Chinese peoples 50 . The third and fourth lines of Cen Shen's “ Night Time Gathering
With Administrative Assistants at Lodgings in Liangzhou” (“Liangzhou guanzhong yu zhupanguan yeji
凉 州 馆 中 与 诸 判 官 夜 集 ) 51 relate these demographic and cultural features:
凉 州 七 里 十 万 家
Liangzhou is seven li 52 in area and has one-hundred thousand
homes, 53
46 QTS 143.1444.
47 Joseph J. Lee, tr., Wang Ch'angling, p. 94.
48 QTS 140 juan, 1420.
49 Literally “Jade Gate”
50 Ren Wenjing, Tangdai biansaishi de wenhua chanshi, p. 138.
51 Composed in 754 when Cen Shen was on his way to Beiting 北 庭 , a city north of today's Jimusa'er county 吉 木 萨 尔 县 ,
Xinjiang 新 疆 province.
52 One li being around 320 meters during the Tang dynasty
53 The implication being that “the city of Liangzhou is huge and densely populated” See Zhang Hui 张 辉 , ed., Cen Shen
biansaishi xuan 岑 参 边 塞 诗 选 (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1981), p. 47.