Beyond the Border, Wang Changling (Tang Shi #315)
Wednesday, 15 April 2020 13:23![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammerThe Qin had that bright moon, the Han had this frontier—
Ten-thousand li in length but soldiers don’t return.
If only the Dragon City’s Flying General were here:
He’d not permit Hu horses to come across the Yin Mountains.
出塞
秦时明月汉时关，
万里长征人未还。
但使龙城飞将在，
不教胡马渡阴山。
The Great Wall is conventionally described as 10,000 li (3000 miles) long, and the Yin Mountains are in what’s now Inner Mongolia. The Flying General was Li Guang (d.119 BCE), who won several important defensive victories against the feared Xiongnu steppe nomads.
---L.
Ten-thousand li in length but soldiers don’t return.
If only the Dragon City’s Flying General were here:
He’d not permit Hu horses to come across the Yin Mountains.
出塞
秦时明月汉时关，
万里长征人未还。
但使龙城飞将在，
不教胡马渡阴山。
The Great Wall is conventionally described as 10,000 li (3000 miles) long, and the Yin Mountains are in what’s now Inner Mongolia. The Flying General was Li Guang (d.119 BCE), who won several important defensive victories against the feared Xiongnu steppe nomads.
---L.