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seat was centred at modern day Kuche 库 车 in Xinjiang province. 60 With only the first two lines of
Cen Shen's “ Sending Off Administrative Assistant Li at the Western Desert on His Return to the
Capital (“Jixitou song lipanguan rujing” 碛 西 头 送 李 判 官 入 京 ), the distance to Anxi is
overwhelmingly felt through qualifications made to both the clerical position Cen Shen had taken as
well as the journey itself before arriving at Anxi where he would conduct his work:
一 身 从 远 使
万 里 向 安 西
61
I've come far to take up my post,
Ten thousand li to Anxi.
(lines1-2)
Cen Shen's second appointment (754-756) was under Gao Xianzhi's successor Feng Changqing 封 常
清 (d. 756), commander of the Protectorate of Beiting 62 (Beiting Duhu fu 北 庭 都 护 府 ). During the
course of his second assignment to the Tang frontier, Cen Shen was made Assistant Commissioner of
Expenses (Zhidufushi 支 都 副 使 ) for Beiting and spent much of his time at Luntai 轮 台 (modern
Miquan county 米 泉 县 in Xinjiang province) 63 . When visited through Cen Shen's “Impromptu Poem
about Luntai” (“Luntai jishi” 轮 台 即 事 ), this far western frontier region seems even more foreign and
strange than other remote territories:
轮 台 风 物 异 The scenery of Luntai is different ,
地 是 古 单 于
三 月 无 青 草
千 家 尽 白 榆
The Xiongnu 64 once lived on this land.
There is no green grass in the third month,
White elms 65 grow around all the thousands of homes.
60 Marie Chan, Cen Shen (Boston: Twayne, 1983), p. 8
61 CSJJZ, p. 83.
62 Beiting roughly equating to modern day Jimusa'er county, Xinjiang province.
63 Marie Chan, Cen Shen, p. 7.
64 Literally chanyu but I have translated it as Xiongnu following a note in the CSJJZ indicating that chanyu here refers to
Xiongnu, a term for non-Chinese peoples of the frontier.
65 A tree common on the frontier. An arboreal variant where the same colour qualifies frontier trees can be found in Bao
Zhao's 鲍 照 (415-466) “Imitation: Song of Frontier Life” (“Dai Bianjuxing” 代 边 居 行 ): “There are no tall trees on the
frontier/The swishing is of many white poplars” 边 地 无 高 木 , 萧 萧 多 白 杨 . See Gushi ji 古 诗 记 69.12 in Complete
Books of the Four Imperial Repositories (Sikuquanshu 四 库 全 书 ), hereafter abbreviated as SKQS.