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211<br />
Appendix I: Cen Shen's “Thermal” Poems<br />
热 海 行 送 崔 侍 御 还 京<br />
Song <strong>of</strong> Hot Lake: Sending Off Censor Cui On His Return<br />
to the Capital<br />
侧 闻 阴 山 胡 儿 语<br />
西 头 热 海 水 如 煮<br />
海 上 众 鸟 不 敢 飞<br />
中 有 鲤 鱼 长 且 肥<br />
I overheard the Hu people <strong>of</strong> Yin mountain 1 say<br />
that at the end <strong>of</strong> the Western frontier lies Hot Lake;<br />
its waters seem to boil.<br />
Flocks <strong>of</strong> birds don't dare fly overhead,<br />
In the lake carp are long and fat.<br />
岸 旁 青 草 常 不 歇 Green grasses on the shore grow for a long time<br />
and don't wither,<br />
空 中 白 雪 遥 旋 灭 Snow at a distance overhead swirls and then melts.<br />
蒸 沙 烁 石 燃 虏 云 Steaming sands and shining rocks burn the Lu clouds, 2<br />
沸 浪 炎 波 煎 汉 月 Boiling billows and heated waves boil the Han moon.<br />
阴 火 潜 烧 天 地 炉 Fires burn underground in Heaven and Earth's furnace,<br />
何 事 偏 烘 西 一 隅 ? why does its combustion incline towards<br />
the Western corner?<br />
势 吞 月 窟 侵 太 白 The force <strong>of</strong> the steam's heat swallows moon caves 3<br />
and attacks Venus, 4<br />
气 连 赤 坂 通 单 于 Vapours continue into the Chi Pamirs 5 and through<br />
Xiongnu lands.<br />
1<br />
Zhang Hui 张 辉 notes that Yin Mountain (Yinshan 阴 山 ) actually refers to the Tian Mountain (Tianshan 天 山 ) range in<br />
the border region <strong>of</strong> today's Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and not the Yin<br />
mountain range traversing parts <strong>of</strong> Inner Mongolia (Zhang Hui, ed., Cen Shen Biansai shixuan, p. 56).<br />
2<br />
Meaning “frontier clouds”.<br />
3<br />
“In ancient tradition and in Tang poetry the moon was pitted and honeycombed, like a volcanic rabbit warren. From Han<br />
times at least we hear <strong>of</strong> 'moon dens' or 'moon burrows' (yueku 月 窟 )...In one sense it refers to the dank and gloomy<br />
hiding place <strong>of</strong> the moon at the western verges <strong>of</strong> our world...It follows naturally that the expression also symbolizes the<br />
cold and remote lands <strong>of</strong> the western barbarians...”. See Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void: T'ang Approaches to the<br />
Stars (Berkeley: <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> California Press, 1977), p. 187.<br />
4<br />
See chapter one, footnote 24. Venus was the quintessence <strong>of</strong> metal (Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void, p. 212) while<br />
metal's directional equivalent has traditionally been that <strong>of</strong> the western regions. See CSJJZ, p. 92. “In general it [Venus]<br />
was a baleful star...and the mild associations that Venus has for us are almost totally lacking in Chinese imagery, for<br />
whom white [Venus in Chinese being “great white”(taibai, “great 太 白 )] is the colour <strong>of</strong> the ghost world and, in its most<br />
lustrous phase, <strong>of</strong> the flash <strong>of</strong> deadly weapons” . See Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void, p. 214.<br />
5<br />
Located in Yang county 洋 县 , Shaanxi 陕 西 province. See CSJJZ, p. 170.