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the Frontier” (“Saixia qu” “ 塞 下 曲 ), while in another work emphasizing the despair creeping out of the
ashes of extinguished bravado (such as in “Tribal Song”). But Gao Shi was not an oddity among High
Tang poets in his expressed feelings about frontier war. Cen Shen as well displayed a range of reactions
towards the phenomenon, even if the extent was limited vis-a-vis Gao Shi's exclamations. 56
One extreme of Cen Shen's relatively narrow gamut of responses to frontier war is found in the
first of the panegyric quatrains comprising “Six Paeans Presented to Military Commissioner Feng On
His Victory at Boxian” (“Xian Fengdafu po fanxian kaige liuzhang” 献 封 大 夫 破 播 仙 凯 歌 六 章 ). Cen
Shen frames borderland confrontation through a victorious general, allusively portrayed with Han
dynasty flavours, being graciously received by the emperor at the Unicorn pavilion. With patriotic
allusions 57 and imperial accolades used to honour the general without any hint of hesitation, Cen Shen's
poet-narrator proffers a proud, gilded assessment of frontier war:
汉 将 承 恩 西 破 戎
The Han general receives generous treatment destroying
the Rong 58 in the West,
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Cen Shen's position, at least through the poet-narrator of his frontier poetry, on military affairs of the Tang borderlands
tends towards admiration for strong and powerful generals and the eulogization of the grandeur of war 岑 参 ... 羡 慕 壮 武
的 将 军 ... 常 赞 颂 战 争 的 伟 大 . See Lu Kanru 陆 侃 如 Feng Yuanjun 冯 沅 君 Zhongguo shishi (zhong juan) 中 国 诗 史
[ 中 卷 ] (Hong Kong: Guwen shuju 古 文 书 局 , 1961), p. 437. Cen Shen also wrote poems which included windows into
frontier battles themselves, among which the most notable are “The Song of Luntai: Presented When Escorting Military
Commissioner Feng Leaving With His Troops on a Western Campaign (“Luntai ge song fengdafu chushixizheng” 轮 台
歌 奉 送 封 大 夫 出 师 西 征 ) and “The Ballad of Running Horse River: Presented Upon Escorting My Lord Feng Leaving
With His Troops on a Western Campaign” (“Zoumachuanxing song Fengdafu chushixizheng” 走 马 川 行 奉 送 封 大 夫 出
师 西 征 ). As this section of the thesis is a discussion of High Tang attitudes towards, and not depictions of, frontier war,
I've chosen at this time not to include any analysis of these works. However, important characteristics involved in the
rendering of frontier environments found in these poems will be addressed later in the thesis.
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Ren Wenjing suggests that although Han dynasty allusions were frequent in Early and High Tang frontier poetry,
employed as a means by which an atmosphere of heroism, prosperity, martial spirit and grandiosity could be conveyed,
the connotations of such allusions differed between the two times. In the Early Tang, the insertion of admired Han
generals often reflected a poet-narrator's desire to toss aside the pen and seek fame and fortune through military service.
But by the High Tang, use of such allusions had become more complex and intimately woven into specific frontier
circumstances in which reference to a Han general could signal disappointment with contemporary frontier policies,
implying that wise council and heroic deeds could only be found during a (somewhat) distant golden age. See Ren
Wenjing, Tangdai biansaishi de wenhua chanshi, p. 33 and Ren Wenjing “Luo Binwang de biansaishi”, pp. 13-14.
However, the variegated use of Han dynasty martial allusions in the High Tang could also insinuate that current military
feats actually outshone their Han cousins' deeds; an example of this positive reinforcement of the present is seen through
Cen Shen's hyperbolic praise of Feng Changqing, a general against whom the Han dynasty Er Shi (Li Guangli) cannot
measure.
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Non-Chinese people of ancient western China.