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desire to dedicate oneself to the nation through frontier service regardless of any and all personal costs,
a stance frequently made in Early Tang frontier poems in which a strong emphasis on the desire for
success and fame attained through martial efforts was rarely balanced with the broader implications of
such yearnings addressed in High Tang frontier poetry. 25
55
Despite their temporal nearness, Early and High Tang views of frontier war were not always
harmonized; the former, when juxtaposed against the latter, veered more exclusively towards positive
and optimistic sentiments. 26 This attitude towards war on the frontier found in Early Tang frontier
poetry can be distilled into a common emotion of patriotic self-sacrifice in serving one's country 27
tinged at times with the selfish dream of personal advancement and recognition. An example of this
peculiar “selfless self-serving” is the final couplet of Yang Jiong's “Beyond the Frontier” (“Chusai” 出
塞 ) where a single-minded confidence voices the hopes of those serving the country on the frontier that
their efforts and hard work will be recognized:
丈 夫 皆 有 志
会 见 立 功 勋
28
We men of ambition all have aspirations,
We will see our merits and success established.
(lines 7-8)
Luo Binwang's 骆 宾 王 (619-687) “In the Army” (“Congjun xing” 从 军 行 ) also ends on a note of
grandiloquent bravado in which the speaker's own life is ostensibly subverted in service of his lord; 29
25
Zhang Fuqing 张 福 庆 , “Chutang sijie de biansaishi yu shengtang biansaishi zhi bijiao 初 唐 四 杰 的 边 塞 诗 与 盛 唐 边 塞
诗 之 比 较 ”, Waijiao xueyuan xuebao 外 交 学 院 学 报 2001.2, pp. 87-90. The article explains this passion as a reflection
of Tang China's growing strength and confidence during the Early Tang era as well as pride in repelling non-Chinese
tribes harassing the Tang border. Poetic statements of seeking to serve the state, however, were usually indirect
expressions of an urgent hope by scholars to climb the political ladder, a longing displayed through the articulation of
one's patriotic fervour.
26
Cen Shen, on the other hand, tends to revel where his contemporaries critiqued the effects of war in general, making his
particular “High Tang” angle less aligned with others'. One graphic example of Cen Shen's seeming fascination with
war's sanguine tendencies is the previously cited fifth of “Six Paeans Presented to Military Commissioner Feng On His
Victory at Boxian” 献 封 大 夫 破 播 仙 凯 歌 六 首 .
27
Hong Zang, Tangdai zhanzhengshi yanjiu, p. 40.
28
QTS 50.613.
29
Hong Zan, Tangdai zhanzhengshi yanjiu, p. 52. Hong also notes on pp. 42-43 that although many Early Tang frontier
poems with a focus on frontier war did detail the suffering incurred by war and the bitter desolation found in frontier
territories, the era distinguished itself in the subgenre through vigorous and spirited statements of loyalty to those in
authority. This support of righteous war (yizhan 义 战 ) in defence of the country and recognition of one's efforts while