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39<br />
Zhao's work intersects with the second line <strong>of</strong> Cen Shen's quatrain:<br />
九 月 天 山 风 似 刀<br />
城 南 猎 马 缩 寒 毛<br />
将 军 纵 博 场 场 胜<br />
98<br />
赌 得 单 于 貂 鼠 袍<br />
In the ninth month the wind on Tian mountain is like a<br />
knife,<br />
Hunting horses 96 south <strong>of</strong> the city wall have stiff cold<br />
coats.<br />
The general's fervent bets 97 are winners every round,<br />
Getting him a Xiongnu chief's marten skin coat.<br />
Three central characters 99 from Cen Shen and Bao Zhao's aforementioned poems form a nexus<br />
where the thermal quality <strong>of</strong> the frontier, as it affects horses, is expressed: 缩 (suo, constrict), 马 (ma,<br />
horse) and 毛 (mao, hair). However, this intertextual instance is not a slavish imitation by Cen Shen.<br />
Bao Zhao's cold-constricted horse hair (mao 毛 ) is described through simile, “like a hedgehog's spine”,<br />
a potent visual image 100 not adopted by Cen Shen who instead activates the thermal quality <strong>of</strong> the coldconstricted<br />
hair with the modifier 寒 (han, cold). However, the temperature <strong>of</strong> the frontier landscape<br />
had already been indicated in Bao Zhao's poem with the “frost” (shuang 霜 ) on the soldiers' armour,<br />
meaning the thermal quality was already echoing when the density <strong>of</strong> the horse's coat was focused<br />
upon in Bao Zhao's line. This constant presence <strong>of</strong> snow and frost allows for the tactility <strong>of</strong> both horses'<br />
hairs to include a quality <strong>of</strong> coldness.<br />
Another area <strong>of</strong> imagistic modification centres on the utilization <strong>of</strong> the horses themselves. Both<br />
poems' animals are on the frontier but their overt human designated purposes do not match: Bao Zhao's<br />
horse has a martial association, but it lacks preceding nouns or adjectives which could emphasize the<br />
96 As in horses ridden for hunting and not the objects <strong>of</strong> the hunt.<br />
97 The “bet” here is a competition to determine whose mounted archery skills are superior. See Zhang Hui 张 辉 , ed.,<br />
Censhen biansaishixuan, p. 76.<br />
98 CSJJZ, p. 173<br />
99 Chinese characters (hanzi 汉 字 )<br />
100 The term is here being used to denote “a mental event peculiarly connected with sensations” . See I.A. Richards, quoted<br />
in Ronald Miao, “T'ang Frontier Poetry: An Exercise in Archetypal Criticism” Tsing Hua Journal <strong>of</strong> Chinese Studies Vol.<br />
10 No. 2 (1974), pp. 114-140, especially p. 128. Such a usage releases “image” from visual limitations and allows aural,<br />
thermal, static and kinetic qualities <strong>of</strong> nouns (i.e. things) to be discussed under the “image” rubric.