View/Open - University of Victoria
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interest in describing the frontier environment, be it perceptually or through its effects on those within<br />
its geographic confines, but frontier topography had still yet to receive the degree <strong>of</strong> attention attained<br />
in Cen Shen's frontier poetry. Even with this being the case, there are still examples from pre-Tang<br />
frontier-themed poetry that anticipate how the frontier landscape would be constructed as a linguistic<br />
entity which could move between foreground and background roles as a poem unfolded. .<br />
35<br />
The landscape itself <strong>of</strong> the extreme and inclement frontier regions began to gain poignant<br />
perceptual precision and emotional resonance in Cao Cao's 曹 操<br />
80<br />
“Song <strong>of</strong> Enduring Cold 81 ”<br />
(“Kuhan xing” 苦 寒 行 ). The poem's use <strong>of</strong> scene to convey emotion through exquisite details <strong>of</strong> the<br />
frontier environment made it especially distinct from previous works <strong>of</strong> a similar nature in which the<br />
actual setting had hitherto received a less sustained treatment <strong>of</strong> thermal, meteorological and animal<br />
detail. 82 Quoted below is the first half <strong>of</strong> the poem within which sharp mountain heights, cold moaning<br />
winds 83 and claw wielding predators conspire to test the mettle <strong>of</strong> the campaigning soldiers:<br />
80 Cao Cao (155-220), a powerful military leader in northern China during the turbulent years <strong>of</strong> the Han dynasty's<br />
decline, “seems to have possessed considerable learning and a fine literary sense, and is noted for his poems in the yuefu<br />
style”. See Burton Watson, Chinese Lyricism, pp. 37-38.<br />
81 “The Han period yuefu, as well as folk songs <strong>of</strong> the Book <strong>of</strong> Songs, <strong>of</strong>ten described the hardships <strong>of</strong> military service,<br />
usually from the point <strong>of</strong> view <strong>of</strong> the disgruntled common soldier. Cao Cao here takes up the same theme. But he writes<br />
neither as the leader <strong>of</strong> the campaign nor as a member <strong>of</strong> the rank and file; rather he seems to give voice to the<br />
complaints <strong>of</strong> the entire army as it stumbles over the bleak mountain trails” . See Burton Watson, Chinese Lyricism, p.<br />
38.<br />
82 Kam-lung Ng, “Tangdai biansaishi yanjiu”, p. 42.<br />
83 When it came to representing the frontier landscape, Cao Cao's “Song <strong>of</strong> Enduring Cold” was to become the touchstone<br />
in describing the inclement northern climes found in frontier poetry, “regions [which] were defined almost exclusively<br />
by cold and aridity...[from] early Chinese concept[s] <strong>of</strong> the world”. See Joseph R. Allen, In the Voices <strong>of</strong> Others, p. 89.<br />
But this dominant trope <strong>of</strong> thermally cold landscape imagery in the subgenre was also derivative <strong>of</strong> Han dynasty yuefu<br />
poems depicting the northern frontier, the geographic realities <strong>of</strong> the region itself, and historical texts denoting a<br />
northern territory as uncomfortably chilly. Such an environment could also act as a correlative for emotions engendered<br />
by the trials <strong>of</strong> frontier service, its accompanying isolation, and the pains <strong>of</strong> separation frequently expressed in the<br />
poetry prior to the Tang dynasty, and still present in Tang frontier poetry while also having to compete with feelings <strong>of</strong><br />
optimism and resolution towards martial activities at the frontier. See Yan Fuling 阎 福 玲 , “Han-Tang biansaishi zhuti<br />
yanjiu 汉 唐 边 塞 诗 主 题 研 究 ”PhD. Diss., Nanjing Normal <strong>University</strong> 南 京 师 范 大 学 博 士 学 位 论 文 , 2004, passim. An<br />
example <strong>of</strong> these divergent Tang responses to the frontier cold can be found when reading the first <strong>of</strong> Gao Shi's<br />
“Dispatching the Qingyi troops to Juyong” (“Shi qingyijun ru juyong sanshou” 使 青 夷 军 入 居 庸 三 首 ) against Cen<br />
Shen's “Ballad <strong>of</strong> Running Horse River: Presented When Sending Off Lord Feng Leading His Troops on a Western<br />
Campaign” (“Zoumachuanxing fengsong fengdafu chushi xizheng” 走 马 川 行 奉 送 封 大 夫 出 师 西 征 ). In Gao Shi's<br />
poem, a bone chilling frontier environment manifests the soldiers war weariness and pessimistic vision <strong>of</strong> martial service<br />
in the borderlands: “The horses' travels linger on and on/The campaign road, a leave-taking <strong>of</strong> twists and toils/Not<br />
knowing that frontier lands are different/Only shocked that our clothes are thin/Streams cold, spring sounds<br />
bitter/Mountain empty, tree leaves desiccated/Do not say at the far reaches <strong>of</strong> the frontier pass/that clouds and snow are<br />
still boundless 匹 马 行 将 久 , 征 途 去 转 难 . 不 知 边 地 别 , 只 讶 客 一 单 . 溪 冷 泉 声 苦 , 山 空 木 叶 干 . 莫 言 关 塞 极 , 云 雪 尚