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wife, a domestic tearing caused by the exigencies of defending a nation's territory. After casting frontier
war as part of a historical continuum since Han times, and then stepping into the corruption and hollow
optimism of the phenomenon itself, the third thematic demarcation of “Song of Yan” conceives of
conflict through another juxtaposition, one also of lovers ripped asunder:
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铁 衣 远 戍 辛 勤 久
玉 箸 应 啼 别 离 后
少 妇 城 南 欲 断 肠
征 人 蓟 北 空 回 首
Coats of armour stationed far off toiling on and on
Jade chopsticks answer sobs after departing
Young wife 105 south of the city walls is about to breakdown
A soldier on campaign north of Ji vainly turns back
his head
(lines 17-20)
This matrimonial dissevering acknowledges earlier Yuefu treatments of the “Song of Yan” (“Yange
xing” 燕 歌 行 ) topic 106 while compounding the pain of the average frontier soldier, a misery of
battlefield fatigue affecting the emotional health of both the distant husband and lonely wife. The
following two lines, “drifting with the wind, how can they cross the frontier/far remote region: vast,
hazy and full of nothing”, seems to seal the alienation wreaked upon those unable to gamble among
cups of Jiaohe wine and roasted camel humps, men forbidden from attending frontier conviviality so
that they could wither into the wilderness and become “frontier soldiers like straw dogs 107 /battle-bones
105
The two types of women in the poem are affected by frontier war in different ways, yet both “offer two the most
devastating indictments against military activities: the dancer reveals the corruption of the heroic code [as well as a lack
of solicitude offered common soldiers by commanding officers]...[and] the wife represents the disruption of normal life”
See Marie Chan, “Kao Shih's 'Yen Ko-Hsing'”, p. 216. Gao Shi's “Below the Frontier” (“Saixia qu” 塞 下 曲 ) also directs
attention to the domestic effects of frontier war: “The wanderer goes with the army to fight in the wars/the moth-browed
lady, so alluring, retires to her empty boudoir”. See Marie Chan, tr., Kao Shih, p. 101. 荡 子 从 军 事 征 战 , 蛾 眉 婵 娟 守 空
闺 . See GSJJZ, p. 276.
106
Such as Cao Pi's “Song of Yan”, the nearest correspondence with Gao Shi's being the lines “grievous are his thoughts of
return, so he yearns for home/why do you linger so long, sojourning in other lands?/ forlorn, your wife keeps to her
empty chamber/cares come with thoughts of you whom I cannot forget”. See Marie Chan tr., “Kao-Shih's 'Yen Ko-
Hsing'”, p. 207. 慊 慊 思 归 恋 故 乡 , 君 何 淹 留 寄 他 方 . 贱 妾 茕 茕 守 空 房 , 忧 来 思 君 不 敢 忘 . See YFSJ 32.469.
107
Ceremonial artifacts used in ancient times which once used were tossed away. See chapter five of the Lao Zi 老 子 :
“Heaven and earth do not act out of benevolence; they regard all things as straw dogs. The sage does not act out of
benevolence; he regards the people as straw dogs” 天 地 不 仁 , 以 万 物 为 刍 狗 ; 圣 人 不 仁 , 以 百 姓 为 刍 狗 . See Li Jie 李
捷 ed., Laozi 老 子 (Hohhot: Yuanfang chufanshe 远 方 出 版 社 , 2009), p. 9.