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enthusiasm for serving one's nation of Early Tang frontier poetry collapses into resignation once the
biological inevitability of ageing, as well as the vicissitudinous attitudes of those in power, are factored
into frontier service:
少 年 学 骑 射
When young he learned to shoot a bow on horseback,
勇 冠 并 州 儿 A brave young man, native son of Bingzhou. 39
直 爱 出 身 早 Only yearning to set off early,
边 功 沙 漠 垂 To find success on the frontier, at the desert border. 40
戎 鞭 腰 下 插 Horse whip at his waist,
羌 笛 雪 中 吹 Qiang 41 flute blowing in the snow.
膂 力 今 应 尽 His strength of body now soon exhausted,
42
将 军 犹 未 知 Generals still do not know of him.
The final couplet shudders with the realization that indefatigable self-sacrifice in the service of the
nation is not only affected by one's flagging health and inescapable fatigue but that dedication to the
country's territorial integrity, an honourable and worthy act, can actually be ignored and left scuttling
about the boots of grand martial figures. In only two lines, Li Qi blasts asunder the certainty stretching
from Cao Zhi's 43 “The White Horse” (“Baima pian” 白 马 篇 ) up through many Early Tang war-themed
frontier poems that the northern borderlands were a venue where military skills and patriotic fire could
open a road to success and recognition when the traditional scholarly route to such glory was
obstructed. A realistic (xieshixing 写 实 型 ) portrayal of being stationed on a war-ravaged frontier is
39
Bing was a province of northern China reputed for producing strong and vigorous warriors.
40
These first four lines run parallel to the opening six lines of Cao Zhi's 曹 植 “The White Horse” (“Baima pian” 白 马
篇 ): “On a white horse with gilded bridle/He gallops swiftly towards the north-west/May I ask who is this man?/ He's
the son of a knight from You or Bing/When still small he left his homeland/To make his name on the desert frontiers”
See Terrence C. Russell, tr., “The Poetry of Ts'ao Chih: A Critical Introduction”, MA thesis, University of British
Columbia, 1979, p. 183. 白 马 饰 金 羁 , 连 翩 西 北 驰 , 借 问 谁 家 子 , 幽 并 游 侠 儿 . 少 小 去 乡 邑 , 扬 声 沙 漠 陲 . See YFSJ 63.
914. It should be added, however, that where the militarily gifted young man of Cao's poem valiantly devotes his
seemingly eternal youthfulness to the defence of the nation, Li Qi's warrior more realistically ages and endures the
ignominy of living past his usefulness without even a modicum of recognition for services long rendered.
41
Nomadic people of ancient western China.
42
QTS 134.1359.
43
Cao Zhi, the son of Cao Cao. was “the first major figure in the new shi [lyric] tradition and one of the two or three
greatest poets of the pre-Tang period” . See Burton Watson, Chinese Lyricism, p. 39. For a brief overview of the
transformations and characteristics of the shi ( 诗 ) form see Watson's Chinese Lyricism, especially pp. 15-18.