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the accepted definition of frontier poetry of the Tang dynasty as poetry reflecting experiences of war
on the country's borders, conflict between ethnic Chinese and non-Chinese, and poetry composed by
those at the frontier or after having returned. 3 However, Hu finds certain weaknesses with such a
conception, especially when having to reconcile“frontier poetry” as written by those possessing frontier
experience with Yuefu 乐 府 topic poems related to themes of frontier war and environment written
neither at the frontier nor by people with even a modicum of personal familiarity with such regions.
Such terminological conflict leads Hu to doubt the integrity of any general definition of “frontier
poetry”, especially those which demand certain experiential requirements of its poets. The early
tentative conclusion reached by Hu is to regard the term “frontier poetry” itself as mere academic
convenience for classifying a large body of poetry that in reality exhibits a great number of
discrepancies in its compositional motivation, authorial experience and content. 4
Hu also has reservations concerning the tendency exhibited by some critics who view Tang
frontier poetry exclusively as a literary response to military confrontations erupting between Tang
China and its smaller neighbours. A critical practice which limits discussion to questions surrounding
the historical background to the wars themselves and a poet's own support or criticism of military
actions forces “frontier” poetry into a deep, even self-effacing, alliance with “war” poetry. Hu argues
that should a category of “frontier poetry” need to exist, it cannot simply be equated to poems about
war as that would preclude the inclusion of poems where attitudes towards policies of defence or
territorial expansion are a poem's focal point as well as works in which descriptions of frontier
3
Ibid., p. 37.
4
Compositional motivation in this context can be divided between frontier poems written as literary exercise
(wenhuaxing 文 化 型 ) and poems intended to reflect the multitude of effects frontier conflicts had on society (xieshixing
写 实 型 ). See Kam-lung Ng, “Tang dai biansaishi yanjiu”, p. 126. As for content, Hu Dajun's greatest concern is with
how certain salient, subgenre defining features of frontier poetry are also frequently found in other schools (pai 派 ) of
poetry, such as landscape poetry (shanshui shi 山 水 诗 ) and poems on history (yongshi shi 咏 史 诗 ). If an independent
school of “frontier poetry” is to be delineated, its essence (zhi 质 ), as distinct from other types of poetry, needs to be
derived from the varied content already found in works considered “frontier poetry” which, if viewed from the
perspective of a landscape or boudoir lament (guiyuan 闺 怨 ) poem, can also be construed as categorically relevant in
defining the poem under review as something other than a frontier poem.