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旌 旆 逶 迤 碣 石 间
校 尉 羽 书 飞 瀚 海
单 于 猎 获 照 狼 山
Yu Pass, 82
Pennons and flags twist and stretch between
Jieshi Mountain. 83
The commander's feathered dispatch 84 flies across the
vast desert, 85
The Xiongnu chief's 86 hunting fires 87 illuminate Wolf
Mountain. 88
山 川 萧 条 极 边 土
Mountains and rivers cold and desolate to the
frontier's very edge,
胡 骑 凭 陵 杂 风 雨 Hu cavalry harassment fuses with wind and rain. 89
战 士 军 前 半 死 生 Soldiers at the front lines between life and death,
美 人 帐 下 犹 歌 舞 Beautiful women within a tent still sing and dance.
大 漠 穷 秋 塞 草 腓
Huge desert, late autumn, frontier grasses wither,
Jun's “Beyond the Frontier” (“Chusai” 出 塞 ), a poem cited earlier in this thesis. For instance: (Liu)“ 飞 将 出 长 城 ”(Gao)
“ 汉 将 辞 家 破 残 贼 ”and (Liu) “... 摐 金 鼓 /... 扬 旆 旌 ”(Gao) “ 摐 金 伐 鼓 下 榆 关 / 旌 旆 逶 迤 碣 石 间 ”. Yu Shiling's essay
provides a plethora of other intertextual resonances as well as short discussions of historical and geographical allusions
found in “Song of Yan”.
82
Name of an ancient pass located in modern day Qinhuangdao 秦 皇 岛 city, Hebei 河 北 provice. The “Yu” refers to Yu
river ( 榆 水 ) (Dr. Tsung-Cheng Lin, personal correspondence, February 2013).
83
Mountain north-west of Changli 昌 黎 county, Hebei province.
84
The attachment of a feather to military dispatches was an indication of urgency. The opening of Bao Zhao's “Song of
Departing From the North Gate of Ji” (”Dai chuzijibeimen xing” 代 出 自 蓟 北 门 行 ) uses similar imagery to convey the
urgency inherent within the early stages of battle: “A feathered dispatch from the border sentry tower/beacon fires have
reached [the capital] Xianyang” 羽 檄 起 边 亭 , 烽 火 入 咸 阳 . See YFSJ 61.891.
85
瀚 海 (hanhai)as meaning “vast desert” is not without its controversy. The term appears initially in the Shiji chapter
on the Xiongnu ( 史 记 . 匈 奴 列 传 ) as a possible reference to the north-eastern area of the Mongolian plateau. Since the
Tang dynasty, the term has generally referred to the desert of the Mongolian plateau, though its semantic reach,
according to Fu Jinchun and Ji Si, has also come to include Lake Baikal ( 北 海 or 贝 加 尔 湖 ) in southern Siberia. Fu
and Ji make this assertion through a literal reading of 瀚 海 in subsequent Tang poems where waves (bo 波 ) are observed
in conjunction with 瀚 海 , the suggestion being that the referent is aquatic. It is possible, however, that the 瀚 海 in Fu
and Ji's examples is actually a desert being described figuratively. For details on the desert-lake debate see Fu Jindun 傅
金 纯 and Ji Si 纪 思 , “Hanhai, langshan, yinghezai? 瀚 海 , 狼 山 , 应 何 在 ? Guyuan shizhuan xuebao 固 原 师 专 学 报
1995.1, pp. 28-29; 39. Owen's elaboration of the term also acknowledges its problematic nature: hanhai ( 瀚 海 ) “can be
used for the sea off the North China coast...but it is most commonly applied to the Gobi desert...It is perhaps best to take
it [in “Song of Yan”] as applying generally to the wastelands of the Northeast”. See Stephen Owen, The Great Age of
Chinese Poetry, p. 374.
86
Meaning the enemy.
87
Used metaphorically to refer to fires of military confrontation.
88
A mountain located in central Inner Mongolia; see also Fu Jinchun and Ji Si's article for extensive speculation on the
mountain's precise geographic coordinates.
89
Describes an enemy who is swift and violent: “ Xiongnu soldiers are swift, fierce and fast...they arrive like the wind and
rain and depart like lightening” 匈 奴 者 轻 疾 悍 亟 之 兵 也 ... 来 若 风 雨 解 若 收 电 , See Liu Xiang 刘 向 Xinxu shanmo 新
序 善 谟 10.18 in SKQS.