Poems written by Fan Cheng - ta's while on a mission to the Chin Dynasty in the north have always been with great respect as patriotic works. In this paper, we shall take a look at how he constructs a barbar-ian northland in these poems by using various temporal juxtapositions from the perspective of the barbarian / Chinese dichotomy. Fan looked on the people living in the northern lands abandoned by the Northern Song Dynasty through the eyes of a Song nationalist. In these poems Fan uses numerous examples contrasting the current state of the territory under Chin control with its condition while under the rule of the Northern Song Dynasty to set up distinctions such as dilapidation / prosperity, ignorance / cultivation, dirty / clean, and animal/human. Comparisons of the current situation with even earlier times achieve similar results. The purpose of this complicated poetic strategy is to show the seizure of these lands by the Chin Dynasty as resulting in every negative consequence imaginable to a Chinese man of letters. Fan portrays lands that in the distant past gave rise to the finest people, products and civilization as being bereft of everything worthy of mention.Insofar as a recourse to past memories implies a dissatisfaction with the current situation perhaps Fan's use of so many juxtapositions was for the purpose of expressing his frustration with the present.