Ts’en Shen (715–770)
Don’t you see how the Running Horse River flows along the edge of the Sea of Snow,1
Where vast and wild the brown of level sands reaches to the sky?
The wind howls at night in the ninth month over Lun-t’ai,
And a river full of broken boulders big as bushel baskets
Covers the earth with careening stones blown before the wind.
The Hsiung-nu2 grass turns yellow now, their horses fit and plump;
West of the Altai3 Range we see the dust of rebellion fly;
A general of the House of Han campaigns in the distant west.
The general4 leaves his iron armor on throughout the night;
Troops move out at midnight to the sound of rattling halberds—
The wind cuts like a knifeblade, faces feel the slash.
Snow clings to the horses’ coats, their sweat ascends in steam,
Only to turn to ice again on dappled and piebald backs;
Urgent dispatches are drafted in tents, the ink congeals on the stone.
When the Hunnish horsemen hear, their hearts will tremble within;
We know they will not dare to cross their swords and spears with ours:
At the west gate of Chü-shih5 camp we await the display of your spoils.
Translated by Daniel Bryant
Ts’en Shen, whose father died when he was still a child, came from an impoverished family. Nonetheless, he became a Presented Scholar in the year 744 and served for many years as an official on the western frontiers of the empire. Thus he had a personal understanding of army life in remote places and under difficult conditions. He also became familiar with the customs of non-Han peoples. This experience, unusual for a reputable Chinese author, is reflected in his poems.
The district of An-hsi, where Ts’en served for some years, was located in the far west, in what is now Sinkiang or Chinese Turkestan. It has even been suggested that Ts’en may have been present at the fateful battle of Talas (751), when Arab armies defeated the Chinese still farther to the west. Ts’en’s return to court and appointment as Omissioner was the result of a petition signed by a number of officials including the poet Tu Fu. This took place at a crucial juncture in T’ang history, for Ts’en joined the court in Ling-wu, where the new emperor, Su Tsung, was rallying forces for the battle against An Lu-shan, whose army had occupied the capital.
1. The geography of this poem is, if not fanciful, at least difficult of precise definition. The Running Horse River and the Sea of Snow are entirely unidentifiable. One source places them both in Russian Turkestan. More likely, they are either long forgotten local names or fictitious ones used for effect.
2. The Hsiung-nu (Huns) were the most important nomad enemies of the Chinese during the Han dynasty. Although they were ancient history by Ts’en’s day, he uses the name to refer to the frontier barbarians of his own time. This practice of referring to contemporary persons and events in the guise of their Han dynasty counterparts was extremely common among T’ang poets.
3. “Altai” here translates the term “Metal Mountains.” Of the various explanations offered for this name, the Altai mountain range is the closest to the general area, but it is uncertain if Ts’en is referring to this range or to any particular place at all. Context suggests that it may be equivalent to T’ien-shan (Heavenly Mountains).
4. General Feng Chang-ch’ing, who appears in the titles of several of Ts’en’s poems, was at the time military governor of the western frontier with the title Protector General of Pei-t’ing. His predecessor, the Korean Kao Hsien-chih, lost the battle of Talas to the Arabs in 751. While their victory at Talas was as much the extreme point of Arab expansion into central Asia as their defeat at Tours had been of their advance into western Europe a few years before, the Arabs failed to follow up their advantage. The Chinese were put on the defensive by the defeat and began losing ground to the local nomads from this time on. Ts’en Shen joined Feng’s staff in 754 at the age of forty. He hoped, by doing so, to rise to a high place in the government, an ambition that had remained frustrated while he was in metropolitan China, despite his literary talents and distinguished family background. All this may help explain the respectful and laudatory tone with which Ts’en describes his commander’s exploits. General Feng’s career came to an unhappy end within a few years. He was defeated by the rebel An Lu-shan and subsequently put to death.
5. Chü-shih was the Han name for the area around the eastern part of the T’ien-shan in modern Dzungaria and Turfan.