“王维出塞”及《使至塞上》本事新论

New Perspectives on“Wang Wei’s Expedition to the Frontier”and the Background of“Envoy to the Frontier”

自明人顾起经笺注王维诗以来,“王维出塞”便成为一桩公案。顾氏认为王维曾两度出塞,《使至塞上》作于首次出塞之时。清人赵殿成始将《使至塞上》系于王维入河西幕的开元二十五年。此后,学界多认为“王维出塞”仅一次。今人继承赵说,并将“河西节度使崔希逸破吐蕃”指为《使至塞上》的本事。然从《使至塞上》的文本内容出发,结合王维河西时期作品可知,此诗系年和本事皆有纰漏。“王维出塞”实为两次,《使至塞上》并非作于开元二十五年,亦与崔希逸破吐蕃之战无关,宜系于首次出塞的开元二十四年春。

Since the Ming scholar Gu Qijing annotated Wang Wei’s poems,the issue of“Wang Wei’s expedition to the frontier”has become a scholarly debate.Gu believed that Wang Wei went to the frontier twice,with“Envoy to the Frontier”written during his first expedition.The Qing scholar Zhao Diancheng first associated“Envoy to the Frontier”with Wang Wei’s entry into the Hexi region in the twenty-fifth year of the Kaiyuan era.Since then,most scholars have believed that Wang Wei only went to the frontier once.Modern scholars have followed Zhao’s view and identified the“defeat of the Tibetan forces by Cui Xiyi,the Military Commissioner of Hexi”as the background of“Envoy to the Frontier.”However,based on the content of“Envoy to the Frontier”and Wang Wei’s works from his Hexi period,it is evident that there are discrepancies in the dating and background of this poem.Wang Wei’s expeditions to the frontier actually occurred twice,and“Envoy to the Frontier”was not written in the twenty-fifth year of the Kaiyuan era,nor is it related to Cui Xiyi’s defeat of the Tibetan forces.It should be dated to the spring of the twenty-fourth year of the Kaiyuan era,during Wang Wei’s first expedition to the frontier.