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36
北 上 太 行 山
艰 哉 何 巍 巍
羊 肠 坂 诘 屈
车 轮 为 之 摧
North we climb the Tai-hang Mountains,
The going's hard on these steep heights.
Sheep Gut Slope dips and doubles,
Enough to make the cart wheels crack.
树 木 何 萧 瑟
北 风 声 正 悲
熊 罴 对 我 蹲
虎 豹 夹 路 啼
Stark and stiff the forest trees,
The voice of the north wind sad.
Crouching bears, black and brown, watch us pass,
Tigers and leopards howl beside the trail.
溪 谷 少 人 民
雪 落 何 霏 霏
延 颈 长 叹 息
Few men live in these valleys and ravines,
Where snow falls thick and blinding.
With a long sigh I stretch my neck,
84
远 行 多 所 怀 A distant campaign gives you much to think of. 85
(lines 1-12)
In examining pre-Tang frontier poetry from the angle of the frontier landscape, the period
between the Han dynasty and Northern-Southern dynasty, the Jin 晋 , was relatively uneventful. 86 It was
not until Bao Zhao's 鲍 照 (414-466) frontier themed poems that the environment of China's peripheral
regions would be presented with a vividness hitherto unseen 87 , one which would come to exert
incredible influence on later poets' construction of frontier scenes. Bao Zhao's “Imitation: Song of
Departing from the North Gate of Ji” (“Dai chuzi jibeimen xing” 代 出 自 蓟 北 门 行 ) evolves the
thermal theme of freezing temperatures to a degree only vaguely suggested in Cao Cao's “Song of
漫 漫 See GSJJZ, pp. 185-186. Counterbalancing this environmentally influenced, or environmentally manifested,
gloom is Cen Shen's freezing landscape, a place that seems to stimulate, and not wither, aspirations for achieving
military success. As the poem will be discussed at greater length in the second half of the thesis, the following is but an
excerpt selected to display the high-spirited attitude emerging from cold and piercing inclement winds: “The general
does not take off his armour at night/At midnight the army marches out, lances crash together/Wind like a dagger, faces
seem to be cut...When hearing of this the Lu cavalry must be disheartened and full of fear/I would guess that their shortswords
dare not meet yours;/At the west gate of Jushi awaiting the presentation of the spoils of war 将 军 金 甲 夜 不 脱 ,
半 夜 军 行 戈 相 拔 , 风 头 如 刀 面 如 割 ... 虏 骑 闻 之 应 胆 慑 , 料 知 短 兵 不 敢 接 , 车 师 西 门 伫 献 捷 . See CSJJZ, pp. 148.
84 YFSJ 33.496.
85 Burton Watson, tr., Chinese Lyricism, pp. 38.
86 Robert Shanmu Chen, “A Study of Bao Zhao and His Poetry” , pp. 178-180.
87 Ibid., p.184