View/Open - University of Victoria

ather enticing (if, according to some readings, morally questionable) entertainment in a commander's
tent during the height of battle, details remain scarce and the description is overall quite brief. For the
most part, the dwellings within army camps were dreary places in which
93
月 冷 边 帐 湿
207
the moon is cold, and the frontier tent is damp
a place in which even the writing devices needed for drafting commands or composing reports are
frozen solid. 208 This view seems to be the predominate impression, that is unless Cen Shen's occasional
deviant breaks from the norm, his visions of a congenial 209 and intercultural army barracks inclusive of
the immediate cultural landscape, is visited.
A good place to commence this examination is to drop by “Song: General Gai 210 of Yumen
Pass” 211 (“Yumenguan jiangjunge” 玉 门 关 将 军 歌 ) where an especially raucous gathering held “for a
field commander...not engaged on the battlefield... [was attended by] Cen Shen “on his way back to
court in 756” 212 . The poem begins with a description of the guest of honour, General Gai, where his
207
Line five from Zhang Ji's 张 籍 (767-830) “Beyond the Frontier” (“Chusai” 出 塞 ). See YFSJ 22.325.
208
Such as the interior chill of Cen Shen's “The Ballad of Running Horse River: Presented When Sending Off General Feng
Heading Out With His Troops on a Western Campaign” (Zoumachuanxing song chushixizheng” 走 马 川 行 送 出 师 西 征 ):
“In the camp, the inkstone's water for writing documents denouncing the enemy has frozen” 幕 中 草 檄 砚 水 凝 . See
CSJJZ, p. 148.
209
Although not including references to the local culture or peoples, the poet-narrator of “Presented to General Feng:
Dispatched to Jiaohe County. The county is at the foot of Fire Mountain, a place of intense heat without rain or snow”
[“Shijiaohequn...” 使 交 河 郡 郡 在 火 山 脚 其 地 苦 热 无 雨 雪 献 封 大 夫 ] appears to inhabit an army complex that when
unoccupied by military matters becomes a rather rowdy place: “In the army camp, days of nothing needing to be
done/Drunk and dancing, pouring wine into gold designed goblets” 军 中 日 无 事 , 醉 舞 倾 金 罍 . See CSJJZ, p. 152. Cen
Shen's “At Wuwei Sending Off Administrative Assistant Liu Dan On His Way to the Encampment at Anxi (also to be
shown to Commander Gao) ( 武 威 送 刘 单 判 官 赴 安 西 行 营 便 呈 高 开 府 ) also contains a similar scene of demilitarized
army life: “Setting out wine in the tall guest quarters at sunset/The moon over the frontier town is a deep blue/In the
army camp they slaughter plump cows/In the hall they array fine goblets/The red tears are candles dripping in their
holders/The mellow, moving songs are sung by girls in dazzling fresh make-up” 置 酒 高 馆 夕 , 边 城 月 苍 苍 . 军 中 宰 肥 牛 ,
堂 上 罗 羽 觞 . 红 泪 金 烛 盘 , 娇 歌 艳 新 妆 (CSJJZ, p. 91) as do these two lines from “Song of White Snow: Sending Off
Administrative Officer Wu on His Return to the Capital ( 白 雪 歌 送 武 判 官 归 京 ): “At the army camp wine is laid out and
drunk to the returning guest/ Hu songs are strum on pipas along with Qiang flutes” 中 军 置 酒 饮 归 客 , 胡 琴 琵 琶 与 羌 笛 .
See CSJJZ, p. 162.
210
The military commander referenced in the title was most likely general Gai Tinglun 盖 庭 伦 , Commander of Hexi (Hexi
bingmashi 河 西 兵 马 使 ). The CSJJZ bases this admittedly uncertain hypothesis on Wen Yiduo's 闻 一 多 Cen Jiazhou
xinian kaozheng 岑 嘉 州 系 年 考 证 . See CSJJZ, p. 166.
211
Yumen Pass (Yumen guan 玉 门 关 , lit. “Jade Pass”) is near today's Shuangtabao, Anxi county 安 西 县 双 塔 堡 , Gansu
province. The pass was a major thoroughfare to the western regions in the Han and Tang periods. See CSJJZ, p. 87.
212
Marie Chan, Cen Shen, p. 104.