Gao Shi 高适： frontier poet in the Tang Dyansty
Gao Shi (高适 704-765), also name Gao Dafu, was born in Bohai County of Cangzhou (now in Jing County of Hebei Province). In the eight years of Tianbao ( in 749) in the Tang Dynasty, Gao Shi passed the Imperial Examination and began to be an official, and served as a general to guard in Tongtguan Pass. In the second year of Guangde (in 764), he became an assistant of the dynasty court. In the first year of Yongtai (in 765), he died at the age of 62. Gao Shi was praised as one of the four famous frontier poets in the Tang Dynasty.
The poetry of Gao Shi was more realism than romanticism. In describing life on the frontier,Gao Shi sought to reveal the severity of battles and the hardships enduredby soldiers. Very sympathetic to the soldiers, in Song of the Northern Frontier, he vividly described the desolate barren land, the fierce cast ofwar and a soldier's complex psychology.
Gao Shi's poems are powerful,simple and heroic. He has also written some excellent stanzas on parting, such as Bid Farewell to Dong the Oldest Among His Brothers and Bid Farewell to Wei, the Adjutant These poems are also imbued with theheroic spirit of his frontier poems.
Gao Shi and Cen Shen, both veterans of military service, excelled at writing seven-character line verse. Their poems reflect a common desireto devote their lives to their country-but the artistic techniques adopted in their poems are widely different.
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