View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
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214<br />
经 火 山<br />
Passing Fire Mountain<br />
火 山 今 始 见<br />
Fire Mountain 11 today seen for the first time,<br />
突 兀 蒲 昌 东 Towers to the east <strong>of</strong> Puchang. 12<br />
赤 焰 烧 虏 云 Red smoke scorches the Lu 13 clouds,<br />
炎 氛 蒸 塞 空 Blistering vapours steam the frontier emptiness.<br />
不 知 阴 阳 炭 How do the coals <strong>of</strong> Yin and Yang<br />
何 独 燃 此 中 Burn alone in the midst <strong>of</strong> this place? 14<br />
我 来 严 冬 时 I arrived when the year was at its coldest,<br />
山 下 多 炎 风 Below the mountain many scorching winds.<br />
人 马 尽 汗 流 Men and horses drenched in flowing sweat,<br />
15<br />
熟 知 造 化 功 Who knows <strong>of</strong> the exploits <strong>of</strong> nature's invention 16 ?<br />
11<br />
“The mountains lie on a major fault line dividing the Turpan [basin], which is itself a fault trough north <strong>of</strong> the Qurug Tag<br />
Mountain. At its lowest point, the trough descends to some 505 feet below sea level while surrounding areas bordering<br />
the Tarim River and Lop-nor Lake are between 2,000 and 3,000 feet above sea level. The area has great climatic<br />
extremes” (Marie Chan, Cen Shen, p. 81).<br />
12<br />
County whose borders are equivalent to today's Shanshan county 鄯 善 县 in Xinjiang Autonomous Region.<br />
13<br />
Referring to the northwestern frontier<br />
14<br />
An allusion to Jia Yi's 贾 谊 (201-169 BCE) “Rhyme-Prose on the Owl” (“Funiao fu” 鵩 鸟 赋 ).<br />
15<br />
CSJJZ, p. 79.<br />
16<br />
This final line resonates with two previous exclamations <strong>of</strong> near ineffable amazement over the ability <strong>of</strong> nature's creative<br />
forces to rattle the senses and confound the mind. Lines nine and ten <strong>of</strong> Li Bai's “Gazing Upon the Waterfall at Lu<br />
Mountain” (“Wang Lushan pubushui sanshou” 望 庐 山 瀑 布 水 二 首 ), “Look up and observe the strength <strong>of</strong> its shifting<br />
power/So strong, the exploits <strong>of</strong> nature's invention” 仰 观 势 转 雄 , 壮 哉 造 化 功 (QTS 180.837), are a near verbatim<br />
precedent to Cen Shen's call to the power <strong>of</strong> creation itself in his description <strong>of</strong> Fire Mountain. In the final couplet <strong>of</strong> an<br />
even earlier work by Zhang Jiuling 张 九 龄 , “Zhen Yang Gorge” (Zhenyangxia” 浈 阳 峡 ), the interrogative aspect <strong>of</strong> Cen<br />
Shen's statement can be found: “Saddened that such things arise far away and remote/Who knows the mind <strong>of</strong> nature's<br />
invention?” 惜 此 生 遐 远 , 谁 知 造 化 心 ? See QTS 48.590.
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