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57<br />
and forever pacifying the borders 33 pervading the foundation <strong>of</strong> the poem, the poet-narrator here<br />
nonetheless welcomes becoming “a patriot willing to leave behind a life <strong>of</strong> ease and wealth to serve his<br />
country”. 34 The plain, almost natural, patriotism <strong>of</strong> the poet-narrator supersedes all traces <strong>of</strong> selfish<br />
desire; in fact, any possibility <strong>of</strong> the fervour so common in statements <strong>of</strong> taking up arms to fortify the<br />
frontier drowns in the poem's final sigh over the futility <strong>of</strong> all human ventures:<br />
本 为 贵 公 子<br />
平 生 实 爱 才<br />
感 时 思 报 国<br />
拔 剑 起 蒿 莱<br />
西 驰 丁 零 塞<br />
北 上 单 于 台<br />
登 山 见 千 里<br />
怀 古 心 悠 哉<br />
谁 言 未 忘 祸<br />
I am the child <strong>of</strong> a noble family,<br />
All my life I've admired talent.<br />
Stirred by the times, I longed to serve the state,<br />
Grasped my sword and rose up from the wilds.<br />
To the west I galloped to Ding Ling's passes,<br />
To the north I climbed the terrace <strong>of</strong> the Xiongnu chief.<br />
Went up a mountain, gazed a thousand miles,<br />
Meditating on the past 35 , my heart was grieved.<br />
No one can claim that we have forgotten our disasters,<br />
磨 灭 成 尘 埃<br />
36<br />
To be ground into grains <strong>of</strong> dust. 37<br />
While “Stirred By My Experiences, No. 35” demonstrates an absence <strong>of</strong> fear and hesitation in<br />
defending Tang territory against external existential threats, the verve in doing so, a spirit common in<br />
the aforementioned Early Tang examples <strong>of</strong> attitudes towards serving on the frontier, is destroyed in a<br />
collision between “the undaunted courage <strong>of</strong> the border poem” 38 and the reality <strong>of</strong> the situation, a clash<br />
<strong>of</strong> ideal and actuality that presages many High Tang treatments <strong>of</strong> war on the frontier.<br />
Li Qi's “Below the Frontier” (“Saixia qu” 塞 下 曲 ) is also an instance in which the bravado and<br />
33<br />
Stephen Owen, The Poetry <strong>of</strong> the Early T'ang, p. 222.<br />
34<br />
Richard M Ho, Ch'en Tzu-Ang: Innovator in T'ang Poetry, p. 125.<br />
35<br />
The final four lines <strong>of</strong> the poem have a potent huai gu 怀 古 quality, “a distinct genre [translated as] 'thinking <strong>of</strong><br />
antiquity', longing for the past [as well as 'meditating on the past]. It is not surprising that Chinese poets, living in a land<br />
<strong>of</strong> great antiquity which had witnessed the rise and fall <strong>of</strong> countless rulers and ruling houses, should <strong>of</strong>ten have dwelt on<br />
this theme”. See Burton Watson, Chinese Lyricism, 88. This amalgamation <strong>of</strong> “frontier poetry” and “huai gu” is further<br />
testament to the complication <strong>of</strong> poetic stances towards frontier war already at an incipient stage in Chen Zi'ang's<br />
examples <strong>of</strong> the subgenre.<br />
36<br />
QTS 83.894.<br />
37<br />
A slightly modified version <strong>of</strong> Stephen Owen, tr., The Poetry <strong>of</strong> the Early T'ang, p. 221.<br />
38<br />
Ibid., p. 222.