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Aside from the venatic and oenological skills of Tang China's peripheral peoples, local rituals
also featured in examples of the subgenre with a thematic foothold in descriptions of frontier people
and customs. Although known primarily for his landscape poetry, Wang Wei 王 维 (701-761) 197 did
compose a number of works whose topical scope permits them entry into the frontier poetry school.
One poem in particular, “Deity Worship at Liangzhou” (“Liangzhou saisheng” 凉 州 赛 神 ), briefly
illuminates a religious practice of Liangzhou denizens while concurrently reaffirming the vision seen in
the previous two poems of a frontier people who are physically healthy and hearty yet who in this case
are also seen to be devoted to supernatural deities charged with overseeing the fortunes of mounted
archers:
凉 州 城 外 少 行 人
百 尺 峰 头 望 虏 尘
健 儿 击 鼓 吹 羌 笛
198
共 赛 城 东 越 骑 神
Outside the walls of Liangzhou travellers are few,
From high mountain tops, the dust of Lu manoeuvres
are gazed upon.
Hearty men bang drums and play Qiang flutes,
And join together at the Eastern wall to worship the God of
Mounted Archers.
Whereas in many other frontier poems whose distant stirrings of desert dust inevitably lead the poetnarrator
to adopt a gaze fixated on martial conflict at its various stages of progress, 199 the focal
apparatus in Wang Wei's poem swivels from ever present military concerns in the second line towards
197
In 737, Wang Wei was assigned to the post of Investigating Censor (Jianchayushi 监 察 御 史 ) of Hexi 河 西 in Liangzhou
凉 州 ; the assignment included assisting the Grand Imperial Commissioner (Jiedudashi 节 度 大 使 ) of the border region,
Cui Xiyi 催 希 逸 , a general who had waged several campaigns against the non-Chinese tribes of the northwest frontier.
Wang Wei remained in the region until sometime after his superior's death in mid 738. See Pauline Yu, The Poetry of
Wang Wei (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980), p. 45.
198
QTS 128.1308.
199
For example at the beginning of battle in the opening line of Gao Shi's “Song of Yan” , and final pacification of the
enemy in the concluding quatrain of Cen Shen's “Six Paeans Presented to Military Commissioner Feng On His Victory
at Boxian” ( 献 封 大 夫 破 播 仙 凯 歌 六 首 ): “Dusk rain, flags and banners not yet dry/Hu dust, white grass, the sunlight
cold/Last night the general fought all the way until dawn/Of the Fan army one only sees empty saddles” 暮 雨 旌 旗 湿 未
干 , 胡 尘 白 草 日 光 寒 . 昨 夜 将 军 连 晓 战 , 藩 军 只 见 马 空 鞍 (CSJJZ, p. 154) as well as his “Song of Eliminating the Hu”
(“Miehu qu” 灭 胡 曲 ): The general has again eliminated the Hu/The army's spirit is strong/Dreary and desolate the Lu
dust has cleared/Tian mountain stands lofty and alone” 都 护 新 灭 胡 , 士 马 气 亦 粗 . 萧 条 虏 尘 净 , 突 兀 天 山 孤 . See
CSJJZ, p. 161.