View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
16<br />
Part One: Overview <strong>of</strong> High Tang Frontier Poetry<br />
Chapter Two: Basic Anatomy <strong>of</strong> a Subgenre : Key Traits <strong>of</strong> Frontier Poetry<br />
Before endeavouring to acquaint the reader with the core defining features <strong>of</strong> frontier poetry<br />
and how the High Tang period further enhanced them, an introduction will be made to a selection <strong>of</strong><br />
pre-Tang poetic works <strong>of</strong>ten credited with having influenced the imagery and ideas found throughout<br />
the evolution <strong>of</strong> frontier poetry up to and including the High Tang period. The purpose behind such a<br />
digression is to provide the reader with an impression <strong>of</strong> how, prior to the Tang, elements <strong>of</strong> the frontier<br />
poetry subgenre 1 gradually cohered and developed 2. In order to reduce the likelihood <strong>of</strong> disorganization<br />
from arising and infecting what is a series <strong>of</strong> temporally diverse poems, a general outline delimiting the<br />
thematic boundaries <strong>of</strong> frontier poetry will be given through which the poems' relevance in the<br />
formation <strong>of</strong> frontier poetry can be derived. This broad framework for identifying the sub-generic<br />
standards <strong>of</strong> frontier poems can be found in the following tripartite system <strong>of</strong> frontier poetry<br />
characteristics: 3<br />
The first, and most frequently employed, aspect <strong>of</strong> frontier poetry is reflections and responses to<br />
war on the frontier and facets <strong>of</strong> military life in such regions. This general theme includes statements <strong>of</strong><br />
parting where a person is leaving his home or hometown to serve in the army while his family and/or<br />
1 Here borrowing Owen's use <strong>of</strong> the term where subgenre “designate[s] classification by subject matter...[whereas] the<br />
term genre [is a] formal, metrical classification.” See Stephen Owen, The Poetry <strong>of</strong> the Early T'ang (New Haven: Yale<br />
<strong>University</strong> Press, 1977), p. 445.<br />
2 Though the Tang period continues into subsequent decades, I will be limiting discussion up until, though not completely<br />
through, this temporal station as the poems which are the main focus <strong>of</strong> the latter portion <strong>of</strong> this thesis – Cen Shen's<br />
frontier poetry – are <strong>of</strong> the High Tang years (713-765).<br />
3 Adapted from Xiao Chengyu 肖 澄 宇 “Guanyu Tangdai biansaishi pingjia de jige wenti 关 于 唐 代 边 塞 诗 评 价 的 几 个<br />
问 题 ”in Department <strong>of</strong> Chinese Studies <strong>of</strong> Northwest Normal <strong>University</strong> (Xibei shifan xueyuan zhongwenxi 西 北 师 范<br />
学 院 中 文 系 ) and the Academic Journal <strong>of</strong> Northwest Normal <strong>University</strong> (Xibei shifan xueyuan xuebao 西 北 师 范 学 报 ),<br />
ed., Tangdai biansashi yanjiu lunwen xuancui 唐 代 边 塞 诗 研 究 论 文 选 粹 (Lanzhou: Gansu jiaoyu chubanshe, 甘 肃 教<br />
育 出 版 社 1988), pp. 19-35.