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the physically immediate scene of the third and fourth lines in which both local music and religious
custom unfold. However, given that the widest delineation within which the events unfold – the frontier
– is a periphery of frequent instability, not even a noteworthy local religious celebration can seduce
both observant eyes from the ever restive horizon. 200
These poems by Wang Wei, Gao Shi and Cui Hao exemplify that subtype of frontier poem
whose thematic content is derived from descriptions of local people and customs, a pseudoethnographic
record of the non-Chinese inhabiting China's borderlands. With these northern climes
being the temporary homes of many men of letters (wenshi 文 士 ) serving in non-combat roles on the
frontier, observation of and interaction with the people and culture of the immediate area was
impossible to avoid; 201 the recently cited poems can testify to these non-imagined encounters. However,
the content of these cited compositions reveal only the larger world of the frontier exclusive of the
Chinese presence. Within this large expanse were army encampments in which Chinese and non-
Chinese socialized with one another beyond the battlefield. Frontier poems capturing these scenes are
able to present aspects of local peoples and customs difficult to access without the close intimacy
afforded by meetings and celebrations held within military camps.
The local world as witnessed through gatherings between native and non-native peoples in
Chinese army camps and barracks falls under the near exclusive purview of Cen Shen's contribution to
the subgenre. 202 In many frontier poems, such sites, like the surrounding frontier itself, were places
lacking any hint of warmth, joy or curiosity in matters unrelated to military conflict. 203 In fact, when a
200
Ren Wenjing, Zhongguo gudai biansaishishi, p. 186.
201
Li Mei, “Shilun Luo Binwang, Cen Shen biansaishi de wenhua guanzhao”, p. 159.
202
Besides supplementing the frontier subgenre with more than a few notable examples, these poems, with their “allusions
to [the] feasting...music and dancing that went on at these isolated Chinese camps and Government-houses”, are also of
“considerable value from an ethnological, historical and topographical point of view”. See Arthur Waley, “A Chinese
Poet in Central Asia”, in Arthur Waley, The Secret History of the Mongols and Other Pieces (London: George Allen &
Unwin Ltd., 1963), pp. 39-40; 45.
203
One notable exception outside of Cen Shen's oeuvre is Gao Shi's “Accompanying Censor Dou on a Cruise on Lingyun
Lake” (Pei Doushiyu fanlingyunchi” “ 陪 窦 侍 御 泛 灵 云 池 ) in which, as noted in chapter two of this thesis, the frontier
suddenly becomes a place of leisure and socializing.