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poem included reference to a frontier camp, such places were generally perceived by poet-narrators
from an external vantage point and through a militarized lens. 204 Although produced decades after Cen
Shen had passed away, the first three lines of Wang Jian's 王 建 (767-830) “Moon at the Mountain
Pass” ( 关 山 月 ) exemplifies such a convention:
关 山 月
营 开 道 白 前 军 发
冻 轮 当 碛 光 悠 悠
205
照 见 三 堆 两 堆 骨
Moon at the mountain pass,
The camp opens, the road is white, the front line army
heads out.
Frozen wheels in the desert, a light passing far
into the distance,
Illuminates piles and piles of bones.
(lines 1-4)
The army barracks in Wang's poem is a source of militaristic eruption, a power which soon after exiting
its protective cocoon and entering the enervating chill of the moon and endless desert expanse quickly
weakens and collapses into a morbid display of human wastage. Ma Dai 马 戴 (799-869), a
contemporary of Wang Jian, reverses the direction of violent movement into, and not out from, a
military dwelling in the final two lines of his “Beyond the Frontier” (“Chusai” 出 塞 ) while also
maintaining a strong martial association with the human structure:
卷 旗 夜 劫 单 于 帐
乱 砍 胡 兵 缺 宝 刀
206
Flags rolled up and looting the Xiongnu chief's tent
at night,
Frenetically hacking Hu soldiers and damaging my
precious sword.
(lines 3-4)
Depictions of army barracks included few specifics of frontier life either of non-Chinese or
Chinese peoples employed on these hinterlands. Although Gao Shi's “Song of Yan” features some
204
Meaning that the martial attributes of the entity “camp” or “barracks” were foregrounded.
205
YFSJ 23.338.
206
YFSJ 21.321.