View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
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49<br />
to implement his vision <strong>of</strong> national defence. Unheeded, the poet-narrator drifts down canyons and<br />
riverbeds <strong>of</strong> self-pity, turning a desire to fortify the country's frontier into an indulgence <strong>of</strong> his own<br />
grievances. Yet in another poem by Gao Shi, the second <strong>of</strong> “Jimen (Five Poems)” (“Jimen wushou” 蓟<br />
门 五 首 ), the poet-narrator shifts from a selfish paradigm to a selfless censuring <strong>of</strong> the poor care taken<br />
<strong>of</strong> the country's own soldiers while prisoners <strong>of</strong> war are well nourished and clothed:<br />
汉 家 能 用 武<br />
开 拓 穷 异 域<br />
戍 卒 厌 糟 糠<br />
降 胡 饱 衣 食<br />
关 亭 试 一 望<br />
The house <strong>of</strong> Han 7 is able to use martial power,<br />
<strong>Open</strong> up lands and exhaust unknown regions.<br />
Common soldiers tire <strong>of</strong> husks and chaff,<br />
Surrendered Hu are satisfied with their food and clothing.<br />
Taking a look from the frontier post,<br />
吾 欲 涕 沾 臆<br />
8<br />
Tears about to wet my chest. 9<br />
Should “serving one's country” be a core element <strong>of</strong> frontier poetry, 10 the very fact <strong>of</strong> there being a<br />
kaleidoscope <strong>of</strong> treatments <strong>of</strong> this facet introduces a lack <strong>of</strong> uniformity into the characteristic, a<br />
possibility which leads Hu to refute undue importance being ascribed to patriotism and yearnings for<br />
the exertion <strong>of</strong> grand efforts made on behalf <strong>of</strong> the nation as defining the frontier poetry subgenre.<br />
This potential <strong>of</strong> multitudinous variations <strong>of</strong> genre-defining themes is also considered<br />
troublesome by Hu when facing what he presents as another common determining factor constituting<br />
“frontier poetry” as an independent school: whether or not a poem is a direct descendent <strong>of</strong> frontier<br />
experience. Hu states that several levels <strong>of</strong> society were affected by the situation on the frontier, from<br />
political leaders to wives whose husbands were absent for years on end, thus indicating that the effects<br />
<strong>of</strong> frontier activities and policies, as well as the experiences <strong>of</strong> men serving in such regions, far<br />
7<br />
A reference to the Tang government.<br />
8<br />
GSJJZ, p. 35.<br />
9<br />
Translation follows Marie Chan's with some modifications. See Marie Chan, Kao Shih, p. 92.<br />
10<br />
It is instances such as these in which Hu's essay itself is problematic. In critiquing that which constitutes the “frontier<br />
poetry” subgenre, as well as exposing pitfalls in the notion itself <strong>of</strong> exclusive schools <strong>of</strong> poetry, Hu is required a priori<br />
to decide upon qualities which define the frontier poetry subgenre, the very entity criticized in the essay. The qualities<br />
chosen are not themselves absolute but are decided by Hu as well as gleaned from previous writings on the topic,<br />
writings which in turn have their own basis in, and bias towards, preexisting texts addressing the same issue.