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