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52<br />
The other major danger raised by Xiao relates to stylistic blurring caused by forced mutual<br />
membership into a single school <strong>of</strong> poetry. Xiao refers the reader to a line from Yan Yu's Canglang<br />
shihua 沧 浪 诗 话 frequently cited in discussions <strong>of</strong> frontier poetry which for centuries has been the<br />
gravitational pull forcing Gao Shi and Cen Shen into an uneasy stylistic relationship:<br />
“ 高 岑 之 诗 悲 壮 , 读 之 使 人 感 慨 .” 15<br />
Gao [Shi] and Cen [Shen]'s poetry is solemn and stirring; 16 when read they cause people to<br />
sigh with emotion.<br />
By the Ming dynasty, commentaries on poetry were refuting the intimate mingling <strong>of</strong> Gao Shi and Cen<br />
Shen initiated by Yan Yu. Hu Zhenheng's 胡 震 亨 Tangyinguiqian 唐 音 癸 签 , while still matching Gao<br />
Shi and Cen Shen for discussion, endeavours to significantly weaken the stylistic bonds between the<br />
two:<br />
“ 高 适 诗 尚 质 , 主 理 , 岑 参 诗 尚 巧 , 主 景 .” 17<br />
Gao Shi's poetry excels in its unaffectedness and stresses meaning; Cen Shen's poetry excels at<br />
technique and stresses scene.<br />
Finally, Lang Tinghuai 郎 廷 槐 <strong>of</strong> the Qing dynasty acknowledges Yan Yu's earlier bracketing <strong>of</strong> Gao<br />
Shi and Cen Shen into one set <strong>of</strong> poets by writing explicitly <strong>of</strong> the distance between the two even while<br />
concurrently employing Yan Yu's “solemn and stirring” assessment if only more selectively:<br />
15<br />
Yan Yu 严 羽 (fl. 1200), Canglang shihua 沧 浪 诗 话 , p. 14 in SKQS. The Canglang shihua is “one <strong>of</strong> the most<br />
important works on poetry criticism ever to appear in China. [Among its many contributions, the work] was instrumental<br />
in paving the way for later divisions <strong>of</strong> Tang poetry into Early (618-712), High (713-765), Middle (766-835) and Late<br />
(833-966)”. See Gunther Debon's entry in William H. Nienhauser, Jr., ed., The Indiana Companion to Traditional<br />
Chinese Literature, pp. 788-789.<br />
16<br />
Marie Chan translates Yan Yu's use <strong>of</strong> 悲 壮 as “manly sorrow”. See Marie Chan, Cen Shen, p. 113. Stephen Owen has<br />
occasion to translate the term as “bold melancholy”. See Stephen Owen, The Poetry <strong>of</strong> the Early T'ang, p. 182.<br />
17<br />
Hu Zhenheng 胡 震 亨 (1569-1644), Tangyinguiqian 唐 音 癸 签 , 5.8 in SKQS. The Tangyinguiqian “is (or was) an<br />
enormous compendium <strong>of</strong> Tang poetry and related material. Still not printed in its entirety, it served as one <strong>of</strong> the two<br />
main sources for the imperially completed Quan Tang Shi 全 唐 诗 ”. See Daniel Bryant's entry in William H.<br />
Nienhauser, Jr., ed., The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, p. 761.