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.
80<br />
frontier are the use <strong>of</strong> negation <strong>of</strong> familiar imagery in Chinese poetry 153 and contrasting 154 the frontier<br />
environment with the familiar world <strong>of</strong> home. The former <strong>of</strong> these two techniques “permits [the poet]<br />
to introduce... stock images into frontier poetry [which are]... not primarily dictated by visual<br />
immediacy or realistic representation”, 155 thus allowing a means <strong>of</strong> producing works in the subgenre for<br />
those who could only imagine China's outer climes through the poetic manifestations <strong>of</strong> other writers.<br />
The result <strong>of</strong> such a practice is an exclusion <strong>of</strong> “the startling and strange aspects <strong>of</strong> the frontier<br />
landscape [as the readers themselves are] seldom...taken...beyond the confines <strong>of</strong> the familiar”. 156 The<br />
opening <strong>of</strong> Zhang Jingzhong's 张 敬 忠 (fl. 707) “Frontier Song” (“Bianci” 边 词 ) follows this procedure<br />
<strong>of</strong> describing a place in terms <strong>of</strong> what it is not:<br />
五 原 春 色 旧 来 迟 Spring scenes are always late in Wuyuan, 157<br />
二 月 垂 杨 未 挂 丝<br />
158<br />
In the second month no budding leaves hang from weeping<br />
willows.<br />
(lines 1-2)<br />
Orthodox images <strong>of</strong> “Spring” 159 and “willows” 160 are here only illusory wisps, present through their<br />
conspicuous absence and signalling a frontier identified in terms <strong>of</strong> how it lacks expected vegetative<br />
burgeoning. Li Bai's “Below the Frontier” (“Saixia qu” 塞 下 曲 ) employs a similar mechanism <strong>of</strong><br />
negation in the opening four lines <strong>of</strong> its frontier illustration:<br />
五 月 天 山 雪<br />
Snow on Tian mountain in the fifth month,<br />
153<br />
See the collation <strong>of</strong> nature imagery on pp. 127-137 <strong>of</strong> Burton Watson's Chinese Lyricism for how such elements pertain<br />
to Tang poetry. Marie Chan undertakes a similar exercise with a selection <strong>of</strong> frontier poetry and discovers that with “the<br />
possible exception <strong>of</strong> the ubiquitous desert and such objects associated with martial life as beacon fires, feathered<br />
dispatches and kettledrums, the frontier poem seldom introduces any image that is totally alien to the Chinese reader;<br />
animal, flora and fauna are taken from the stock imagery” . See Marie Chan, “The Frontier Poems <strong>of</strong> Ts'en Shen”, p.<br />
425. What will be demonstrated shortly, and later in this thesis, is the exception to such a rule represented by Cen Shen's<br />
cultural and geographic frontier landscape.<br />
154<br />
Li Mei, “Shilun Luo Binwang, Cen Shen biansaishi de wenhua guanzhao”, p. 161.<br />
155<br />
Marie Chan, “The Frontier Poems <strong>of</strong> Ts'en Shen”, p. 424.<br />
156<br />
Ibid., p. 424.<br />
157<br />
Wuyuan county 五 原 县 in today's Inner Mongolia<br />
158<br />
QTS 75.819.<br />
159<br />
The most frequent season mentioned in Tang poetry. See Burton Watson, Chinese Lyricism, p. 135.<br />
160<br />
After generic “grasses” (cao 草 ) and “reeds” , Marie Chan lists “willow” third in her frequency list <strong>of</strong> plants found in<br />
Tang frontier poetry. See Marie Chan, “The Frontier Poems <strong>of</strong> Ts'en Shen”, p. 425.