View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
wife, a domestic tearing caused by the exigencies <strong>of</strong> defending a nation's territory. After casting frontier<br />
war as part <strong>of</strong> a historical continuum since Han times, and then stepping into the corruption and hollow<br />
optimism <strong>of</strong> the phenomenon itself, the third thematic demarcation <strong>of</strong> “Song <strong>of</strong> Yan” conceives <strong>of</strong><br />
conflict through another juxtaposition, one also <strong>of</strong> lovers ripped asunder:<br />
71<br />
铁 衣 远 戍 辛 勤 久<br />
玉 箸 应 啼 别 离 后<br />
少 妇 城 南 欲 断 肠<br />
征 人 蓟 北 空 回 首<br />
Coats <strong>of</strong> armour stationed far <strong>of</strong>f toiling on and on<br />
Jade chopsticks answer sobs after departing<br />
Young wife 105 south <strong>of</strong> the city walls is about to breakdown<br />
A soldier on campaign north <strong>of</strong> Ji vainly turns back<br />
his head<br />
(lines 17-20)<br />
This matrimonial dissevering acknowledges earlier Yuefu treatments <strong>of</strong> the “Song <strong>of</strong> Yan” (“Yange<br />
xing” 燕 歌 行 ) topic 106 while compounding the pain <strong>of</strong> the average frontier soldier, a misery <strong>of</strong><br />
battlefield fatigue affecting the emotional health <strong>of</strong> both the distant husband and lonely wife. The<br />
following two lines, “drifting with the wind, how can they cross the frontier/far remote region: vast,<br />
hazy and full <strong>of</strong> nothing”, seems to seal the alienation wreaked upon those unable to gamble among<br />
cups <strong>of</strong> Jiaohe wine and roasted camel humps, men forbidden from attending frontier conviviality so<br />
that they could wither into the wilderness and become “frontier soldiers like straw dogs 107 /battle-bones<br />
105<br />
The two types <strong>of</strong> women in the poem are affected by frontier war in different ways, yet both “<strong>of</strong>fer two the most<br />
devastating indictments against military activities: the dancer reveals the corruption <strong>of</strong> the heroic code [as well as a lack<br />
<strong>of</strong> solicitude <strong>of</strong>fered common soldiers by commanding <strong>of</strong>ficers]...[and] the wife represents the disruption <strong>of</strong> normal life”<br />
See Marie Chan, “Kao Shih's 'Yen Ko-Hsing'”, p. 216. Gao Shi's “Below the Frontier” (“Saixia qu” 塞 下 曲 ) also directs<br />
attention to the domestic effects <strong>of</strong> frontier war: “The wanderer goes with the army to fight in the wars/the moth-browed<br />
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<br />
闺 . See GSJJZ, p. 276.<br />
106<br />
Such as Cao Pi's “Song <strong>of</strong> Yan”, the nearest correspondence with Gao Shi's being the lines “grievous are his thoughts <strong>of</strong><br />
return, so he yearns for home/why do you linger so long, sojourning in other lands?/ forlorn, your wife keeps to her<br />
empty chamber/cares come with thoughts <strong>of</strong> you whom I cannot forget”. See Marie Chan tr., “Kao-Shih's 'Yen Ko-<br />
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.<br />
107<br />
Ceremonial artifacts used in ancient times which once used were tossed away. See chapter five <strong>of</strong> the Lao Zi 老 子 :<br />
“Heaven and earth do not act out <strong>of</strong> benevolence; they regard all things as straw dogs. The sage does not act out <strong>of</strong><br />
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<br />
捷 ed., Laozi 老 子 (Hohhot: Yuanfang chufanshe 远 方 出 版 社 , 2009), p. 9.