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Du Fu (; 712–770) was a
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
poet and politician. Along with his elder contemporary and friend Li Bai (Li Po), he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets.Ebrey, 103. His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a successful
civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
, but he proved unable to make the necessary accommodations. His life, like the whole country, was devastated by the
An Lushan Rebellion The An Lushan Rebellion was an uprising against the Tang dynasty of China towards the mid-point of the dynasty (from 755 to 763), with an attempt to replace it with the Yan dynasty. The rebellion was originally led by An Lushan, a general off ...
of 755, and his last 15 years were a time of almost constant unrest. Although initially he was little-known to other writers, his works came to be hugely influential in both Chinese and Japanese literary culture. Of his poetic writing, nearly fifteen hundred poems have been preserved over the ages. He has been called the "Poet-Historian" and the "Poet-Sage" by Chinese critics, while the range of his work has allowed him to be introduced to Western readers as "the Chinese
Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...
,
Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
,
Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom ...
,
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth, Béranger, Hugo or Baudelaire".Hung, 1.


Life

Traditional Chinese
literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. ...
emphasised the life of the author when interpreting a work, a practice which the American scholar Burton Watson attributed to "the close links that traditional Chinese thought posits between art and morality". Since many of Du Fu's poems feature morality and history, this practice is particularly important.Watson, xvii. Another reason, identified by the Chinese historian William Hung, is that Chinese poems are typically concise, omitting context that might be relevant, but which an informed contemporary could be assumed to know. For modern Western readers, "The less accurately we know the time, the place and the circumstances in the background, the more liable we are to imagine it incorrectly, and the result will be that we either misunderstand the poem or fail to understand it altogether".Hung, 5. Stephen Owen suggests a third factor particular to Du Fu, arguing that the variety of the poet's work required consideration of his whole life, rather than the "reductive" categorisations used for more limited poets.Owen (1981), 184.


Early years

Most of what is known of Du Fu's life comes from his poems. His paternal grandfather was
Du Shenyan Du Shenyan (, ca. 645–708Wu, 42Luo Yuming ''A Concise History of Chinese Literature'', p. 269) was a Chinese poet and politician. He was a poet of the early Tang dynasty, and one of whose poems was collected in the popular anthology ''Three Hund ...
, a noted politician and poet during the reign of Empress
Wu Zetian Wu Zetian (17 February 624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was the ''de facto'' ruler of the Tang dynasty from 665 to 705, ruling first through others and then (from 690) in her own right. From 665 to 690, she was first empres ...
(r. 690–705). Du Fu was born in 712; the exact birthplace is unknown, except that it was near
Luoyang Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyan ...
, Henan province ( Gong county is a favourite candidate). In later life, he considered himself to belong to the capital city of
Chang'an Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin ...
, ancestral hometown of the Du family.Hung, 19. Du Fu's mother died shortly after he was born, and he was partially raised by his aunt. He had an elder brother, who died young. He also had three half brothers and one half sister, to whom he frequently refers in his poems, although he never mentions his stepmother.Hung, 19. The son of a minor scholar-official, his youth was spent on the standard education of a future civil servant: study and memorisation of the
Confucian classics Chinese classic texts or canonical texts () or simply dianji (典籍) refers to the Chinese texts which originated before the imperial unification by the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, particularly the "Four Books and Five Classics" of the Neo-Confucian ...
of
philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...
, history and poetry. He later claimed to have produced creditable poems by his early teens, but these have been lost.Hung, 21. In the early 730s, he travelled in the
Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with it ...
and
Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...
area; his earliest surviving poem, describing a poetry contest, is thought to date from the end of this period, around 735.Hung, 24. In that year, he took the
Imperial examination The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...
, likely in
Chang'an Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin ...
. He failed, to his surprise and that of centuries of later critics. Hung concludes that he probably failed because his
prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the fo ...
style at the time was too dense and obscure, while Chou suggests his failure to cultivate connections in the capital may have been to blame. After this failure, he went back to travelling, this time around
Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in His ...
and
Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...
. His father died around 740. Du Fu would have been allowed to enter the civil service because of his father's rank, but he is thought to have given up the privilege in favour of one of his half brothers.Hung, 33. He spent the next four years living in the Luoyang area, fulfilling his duties in domestic affairs.Chou, 9. In the autumn of 744, he met Li Bai (Li Po) for the first time, and the two poets formed a friendship. David Young describes this as "the most significant formative element in Du Fu's artistic development" because it gave him a living example of the reclusive poet-scholar life to which he was attracted after his failure in the civil service exam.Young, 2. The relationship was somewhat one-sided, however. Du Fu was by some years the younger, while Li Bai was already a poetic star. We have twelve poems to or about Li Bai from the younger poet, but only one in the other direction. They met again only once, in 745.Davis, 146 In 746, he moved to the capital in an attempt to resurrect his official career. He took the civil service exam a second time during the following year, but all the candidates were failed by the
prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
(apparently in order to prevent the emergence of possible rivals). He never again attempted the examinations, instead petitioning the emperor directly in 751, 754 and probably again in 755. He married around 752, and by 757 the couple had had five children—three sons and two daughters—but one of the sons died in infancy in 755. From 754 he began to have lung problems (probably
asthma Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, co ...
), the first of a series of ailments which dogged him for the rest of his life. It was in that year that Du Fu was forced to move his family due to the turmoil of a famine brought about by massive floods in the region. In 755, he received an appointment as Registrar of the Right Commandant's office of the Crown Prince's Palace.Hung, 86. Although this was a minor post, in normal times it would have been at least the start of an official career. Even before he had begun work, however, the position was swept away by events.


War

The
An Lushan Rebellion The An Lushan Rebellion was an uprising against the Tang dynasty of China towards the mid-point of the dynasty (from 755 to 763), with an attempt to replace it with the Yan dynasty. The rebellion was originally led by An Lushan, a general off ...
began in December 755, and was not completely suppressed for almost eight years. It caused enormous disruption to Chinese society: the census of 754 recorded 52.9 million people, but ten years later, the census counted just 16.9 million, the remainder having been displaced or killed.Hung, 202. During this time, Du Fu led a largely itinerant life unsettled by wars, associated famines and
imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texas ...
displeasure. This period of unhappiness was the making of Du Fu as a poet: Eva Shan Chou has written that, "What he saw around him—the lives of his family, neighbors, and strangers– what he heard, and what he hoped for or feared from the progress of various campaigns—these became the enduring themes of his poetry".Chou, 62. Even when he learned of the death of his youngest child, he turned to the suffering of others in his poetry instead of dwelling upon his own misfortunes. Du Fu wrote: In 756, Emperor Xuanzong was forced to flee the capital and abdicate. Du Fu, who had been away from the city, took his family to a place of safety and attempted to join the court of the new emperor ( Suzong), but he was captured by the rebels and taken to Chang'an.Hung, 101. In the autumn, his youngest son, Du Zongwu (Baby Bear), was born. Around this time Du Fu is thought to have contracted malaria.Hung, 110. He escaped from Chang'an the following year, and was appointed Reminder when he rejoined the court in May 757.Hung, 108. This post gave access to the emperor but was largely ceremonial. Du Fu's conscientiousness compelled him to try to make use of it: he caused trouble for himself by protesting the removal of his friend and patron Fang Guan on a petty charge. He was arrested but was pardoned in June.Hung, 108. He was granted leave to visit his family in September, but he soon rejoined the court and on 8 December 757, he returned to Chang'an with the emperor following its recapture by government forces.Hung, 121. However, his advice continued to be unappreciated, and in the summer of 758 he was demoted to a post as Commissioner of Education in Huazhou.Hung, 130. The position was not to his taste: in one poem, he wrote: He moved on in the summer of 759; this has traditionally been ascribed to famine, but Hung believes that frustration is a more likely reason.Hung, 142. He next spent around six weeks in Qinzhou (now Tianshui, Gansu province), where he wrote more than sixty poems.


Chengdu

In December 759, he briefly stayed in Tonggu (modern Gansu). He departed on 24 December for
Chengdu Chengdu (, ; simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), alternatively romanized as Chengtu, is a sub-provincial city which serves as the capital of the Chinese provin ...
(
Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of t ...
province),Hung, 159. where he was hosted by local Prefect and fellow poet Pei Di. Du subsequently based himself in Sichuan for most of the next five years.Hung, ''passim''. By the autumn of that year he was in financial trouble, and sent poems begging help to various acquaintances. He was relieved by Yan Wu, a friend and former colleague who was appointed governor general at Chengdu. Despite his financial problems, this was one of the happiest and most peaceful periods of his life. Many of Du's poems from this period are peaceful depictions of his life at Du Fu Thatched Cottage. In 762, he left the city to escape a rebellion, but he returned in summer 764 when he was appointed an advisor to Yan, who was involved in campaigns against the
Tibetan Empire The Tibetan Empire (, ; ) was an empire centered on the Tibetan Plateau, formed as a result of imperial expansion under the Yarlung dynasty heralded by its 33rd king, Songtsen Gampo, in the 7th century. The empire further expanded under the 3 ...
.Hung, 208.


Last years

Luoyang, the region of his birthplace, was recovered by government forces in the winter of 762, and in the spring of 765 Du Fu and his family sailed down the
Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...
, apparently with the intention of making their way there.Hung, 215. They travelled slowly, held up by his ill-health (by this time he was suffering from poor eyesight, deafness and general old age in addition to his previous ailments). They stayed in Kuizhou (in what is now Baidicheng, Chongqing) at the entrance to the
Three Gorges The Three Gorges () are three adjacent gorges along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, in the hinterland of the People's Republic of China. With a subtropical monsoon climate, they are known for their scenery. The "Three Gorges Scenic A ...
for almost two years from late spring 766.Hung, 221. This period was Du Fu's last great poetic flowering, and here he wrote 400 poems in his dense, late style.Hung, 221. In autumn 766, Bo Maolin became governor of the region: he supported Du Fu financially and employed him as his unofficial secretary.Hung, 227. In March 768, he resumed his journey and got as far as
Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangx ...
province, where he died in Tanzhou (now
Changsha Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a population of over 10 million, and ...
) in November or December 770, in his 58th year. He was survived by his wife and two sons, who remained in the area for some years at least. His last known descendant is a grandson who requested a grave inscription for the poet from Yuan Zhen in 813.Watson, xviii. Hung summarises his life by concluding that, "He appeared to be a filial son, an affectionate father, a generous brother, a faithful husband, a loyal friend, a dutiful official, and a patriotic subject."Hung, 282. Below is an example of one of Du Fu's later works, "To My Retired Friend Wei" (''Zēng Wèi Bā Chǔshì'' ). Like many other poems in the Tang it featured the theme of a long parting between friends, which was often due to officials being frequently transferred to the provinces:Ebrey (1999), 120.


Health

Du Fu is the first person in the historical record identified as a diabetic patient. In his later years, he suffered from
diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ...
and
pulmonary tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...
, and died on board a ship on the
Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...
, aged 58 years old.


Works

Criticism of Du Fu's works has focused on his strong sense of history, his moral engagement, and his technical excellence.


History

Since the
Song dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the res ...
, critics have called Du Fu the "poet saint" (, ''shī shèng'').Schmidt, 420. The most directly historical of his poems are those commenting on military tactics or the successes and failures of the government, or the poems of advice which he wrote to the emperor. Indirectly, he wrote about the effect of the times in which he lived on himself, and on the ordinary people of China. As Watson notes, this is information "of a kind seldom found in the officially compiled histories of the era".Chou, xvii Du Fu's political comments are based on emotion rather than calculation: his prescriptions have been paraphrased as, "Let us all be less selfish, let us all do what we are supposed to do". Since his views were impossible to disagree with, his forcefully expressed truisms enabled his installation as the central figure of Chinese poetic history.Chou, 16.


Moral engagement

A second favourite
epithet An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...
of Chinese critics is that of "poet sage" (, ''shī shèng''), a counterpart to the philosophical sage,
Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...
.Yao and Li, 82. One of the earliest surviving works, ''The Song of the Wagons'' (from around 750), gives voice to the sufferings of a conscript soldier in the imperial army and a clear-sighted consciousness of suffering. These concerns are continuously articulated in poems on the lives of both soldiers and civilians produced by Du Fu throughout his life.Watson, xvii. Although Du Fu's frequent references to his own difficulties can give the impression of an all-consuming solipsism, Hawkes argues that his "famous compassion in fact includes himself, viewed quite objectively and almost as an afterthought". He therefore "lends grandeur" to the wider picture by comparing it to "his own slightly comical triviality".Hawkes, 204. Du Fu's compassion, for himself and for others, was part of his general broadening of the scope of poetry: he devoted many works to topics which had previously been considered unsuitable for poetic treatment. Zhang Jie wrote that for Du Fu, "everything in this world is poetry",Chou, 67. Du wrote extensively on subjects such as domestic life, calligraphy, paintings, animals, and other poems.Davis, 140.


Technical excellence

Du Fu's work is notable above all for its range. Chinese critics traditionally used the term (''jídàchéng'', "complete symphony"), a reference to
Mencius Mencius ( ); born Mèng Kē (); or Mèngzǐ (; 372–289 BC) was a Chinese Confucian philosopher who has often been described as the "second Sage", that is, second to Confucius himself. He is part of Confucius' fourth generation of discip ...
' description of
Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...
. Yuan Zhen was the first to note the breadth of Du Fu's achievement, writing in 813 that his predecessor "united in his work traits which previous men had displayed only singly".Chou, 42. He mastered all the forms of Chinese poetry: Chou says that in every form he "either made outstanding advances or contributed outstanding examples".Chou, 56. Furthermore, his poems use a wide range of registers, from the direct and
colloquial Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom normally employed in conve ...
to the allusive and self-consciously literary.Owen (1981), 218–19. This variety is manifested even within individual works: Owen identifies the, "rapid stylistic and thematic shifts" in poems which enable the poet to represent different facets of a situation,Owen (1981), 184. while Chou uses the term "juxtaposition" as the major analytical tool in her work.Chou, chapters 3–4. Du Fu is noted for having written more on poetics and painting than any other writer of his time. He wrote eighteen poems on painting alone, more than any other Tang poet. Du Fu's seemingly negative commentary on the prized horse paintings of
Han Gan Han Gan (Chinese: 韩干/韓幹) (c. 706–783) was a Chinese painter during the Tang Dynasty. He came from a poor family in either Chang'an, modern-day Xi'an, Shaanxi; Lantian, modern-day Shaanxi; or Daliang, modern-day Kaifeng, Henan. ...
ignited a controversy that has persisted to the present day. The tenor of his work changed as he developed his style and adapted to his surroundings (" chameleon-like" according to Watson): his earliest works are in a relatively derivative, courtly style, but he came into his own in the years of the rebellion. Owen comments on the "grim simplicity" of the Qinzhou poems, which mirrors the desert landscape;Owen (1997), 425. the works from his Chengdu period are "light, often finely observed";Owen (1997), 427. while the poems from the late Kuizhou period have a "density and power of vision".Owen (1997), 433. Although he wrote in all poetic forms, Du Fu is best known for his '' lǜshi'', a type of poem with strict constraints on form and content, for example: About two-thirds of Du Fu's 1500 extant works are in this form, and he is generally considered to be its leading exponent. His best ''lǜshi'' use the parallelisms required by the form to add expressive content rather than as mere technical restrictions. Hawkes comments that "it is amazing that Tu Fu is able to use so immensely stylized a form in so natural a manner".Hawkes, 46.


Influence

According to the ''
Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...
'', Du Fu's writings are considered by many literary critics to be among the greatest of all time, and it states "his dense, compressed language makes use of all the connotative overtones of a phrase and of all the intonational potentials of the individual word, qualities that no translation can ever reveal." In his lifetime and immediately following his death, Du Fu was not greatly appreciated.Cai, 38. In part this can be attributed to his stylistic and formal innovations, some of which are still "considered extremely daring and bizarre by Chinese critics."Hawkes, 4. There are few contemporary references to him—only eleven poems from six writers—and these describe him in terms of affection, but not as a paragon of poetic or moral ideals.Chou, 30. Du Fu is also poorly represented in contemporary anthologies of poetry.Chou, 31. However, as Hung notes, he "is the only Chinese poet whose influence grew with time",Chou, 1. and his works began to increase in popularity in the ninth century. Early positive comments came from
Bai Juyi Bai Juyi (also Bo Juyi or Po Chü-i; ; 772–846), courtesy name Letian (樂天), was a renowned Chinese poet and Tang dynasty government official. Many of his poems concern his career or observations made about everyday life, including as g ...
, who praised the moral sentiments of some of Du Fu's works (although he found these in only a small fraction of the poems), and from Han Yu, who wrote a piece defending Du Fu and Li Bai on aesthetic grounds from attacks made against them.Chou, 33. Both these writers showed the influence of Du Fu in their own poetic work.Owen (1981), 217. By the beginning of the 10th century,
Wei Zhuang Wei Zhuang (, 836?See, e.g.Mao Lanqiu, ''The Continued Study of the Birth Year Given in Xia Chengtao's ''the Chronicles of Wei Zhuang–910''Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms'' (十國春秋)vol. 40), style name Duanyi (), was a Chin ...
constructed the first replica of his thatched cottage in Sichuan.Chou, 35. It was in the 11th century, during the Northern Song era that Du Fu's reputation reached its peak. In this period a comprehensive re-evaluation of earlier poets took place, in which Wang Wei, Li Bai and Du Fu came to be regarded as representing respectively the
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
, Daoist and
Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...
strands of Chinese culture.Chou, 26. At the same time, the development of
Neo-Confucianism Neo-Confucianism (, often shortened to ''lǐxué'' 理學, literally "School of Principle") is a moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, and originated with Han Yu (768–824) and Li Ao (772–841) ...
ensured that Du Fu, as its poetic exemplar, occupied the paramount position.Ch'en, 265. Su Shi famously expressed this reasoning when he wrote that Du Fu was "preeminent ... because ... through all his vicissitudes, he never for the space of a meal forgot his sovereign".Chou, 23. His influence was helped by his ability to reconcile apparent opposites: political conservatives were attracted by his loyalty to the established order, while political radicals embraced his concern for the poor. Literary conservatives could look to his technical mastery, while literary radicals were inspired by his innovations.Owen (1981), 183–84. Since the establishment of the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
, Du Fu's loyalty to the state and concern for the poor have been interpreted as embryonic nationalism and socialism, and he has been praised for his use of simple, " people's language".Chou, 66. Du Fu's popularity grew to such an extent that it is as hard to measure his influence as that of Shakespeare in England: it was hard for any Chinese poet ''not'' to be influenced by him.Owen (1997), 413. While there was never another Du Fu, individual poets followed in the traditions of specific aspects of his work:
Bai Juyi Bai Juyi (also Bo Juyi or Po Chü-i; ; 772–846), courtesy name Letian (樂天), was a renowned Chinese poet and Tang dynasty government official. Many of his poems concern his career or observations made about everyday life, including as g ...
's concern for the poor,
Lu You Lu You (; 1125–1210) was a Chinese historian and poet of the Southern Song Dynasty (南宋). Career Early life and marriage Lu You was born on a boat floating in the Wei River early on a rainy morning, November 13, 1125. At the time of his ...
's patriotism, and Mei Yaochen's reflections on the quotidian are a few examples. More broadly, Du Fu's work in transforming the ''lǜshi'' from mere
word play Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, pho ...
into "a vehicle for serious poetic utterance"Watson, 270. set the stage for every subsequent writer in the genre. In its publishing of Burton Watson's translation of Du Fu's poems, the
Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fie ...
commented that "Du Fu (712–777) has been called China's greatest poet, and some call him the greatest nonepic, nondramatic poet whose writings survive in any language."


Influence on Japanese literature

Du Fu's poetry has made a profound impact on Japanese literature, especially on the literature from the
Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by ...
and on scholars and poets in the
Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...
, including Matsuo Bashō, the very greatest of all
haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a '' kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a '' kigo'', or ...
poets. Even in modern Japanese, the term is mostly synonymous with Du Fu. Until the 13th century, the Japanese preferred Bai Juyi above all poets and there were few references to Du Fu, although his influence can be seen in some kanshi ("Chinese poetry made by Japanese poets") anthologies such as '' Bunka Shūreishū'' in the 9th century. The first notable Japanese appreciator of Du Fu's poetry was Kokan Shiren (1278–1346), a Rinzai Zen patriarch and one of the most prominent authors of the literature of the Five Mountains; he highly praised Du Fu and made a commentary on some poems of Du Fu from the perspective of a Zen priest in Vol. 11 of ''Saihokushū''. His student
Chūgan Engetsu , Japanese poet, occupies a prominent place in Japanese Literature of the Five Mountains, literature in Chinese written in Japan. Chugan's achievement was his mastery of this difficult medium, a signal of the ripening of Five Mountains poetry and ...
composed many kanshi which were clearly stated to be "influenced by Du Fu" in their prefaces. Chūgan's student Gidō Shūshin had close connection with the Court and Ashikaga Shogunate and propagated Du Fu's poetry in the mundane world; one day Nijō Yoshimoto, the Kampaku regent of the Court and the highest authority of renga poetry, asked Gidō, "Should I learn the poetry of Du Fu and Li Bai?" Gidō dared to reply, "Yes if you do have enough capability. No if do not." Since then, there had been many seminars on Du Fu's poetry both in Zen temples and in the aristocratic society, and as a result his poetry was often cited in Japanese literature in the Muromachi period, e.g., ''
Taiheiki The (Chronicle of Great Peace) is a Japanese historical epic (see ''gunki monogatari'') written in the late 14th century and covers the period from 1319 to 1367. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Taiheiki''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', pp. 923� ...
'', a historical epic in the late 14th century, and some noh plays such as ''Hyakuman'', ''Bashō'', and ''Shunkan''. During the
Kan'ei was a after '' Genna'' and before ''Shōhō.'' This period spanned the years from February 1624 through December 1644. The reigning emperors and empress were , and .Titsingh, Isaac. (1834) ''Annales des empereurs du japon'', p. 411./ref> Chan ...
era of the Edo period (1624–1643), ''Shào Chuán'' () of the
Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
's was imported into Japan, and it gained explosive popularity in Confucian scholars and
chōnin was a social class that emerged in Japan during the early years of the Tokugawa period. In the social hierarchy, it was considered subordinate to the samurai warrior class. Social Class The ''chōnin'' emerged in ''joka-machi'' or castle ...
(townspeople) class. The commentary established Du Fu's fame as the highest of all poets; for instance, Hayashi Shunsai, a notable Confucian scholar, commented in Vol. 37 of ''Gahō Bunshū'' that Zǐměi u Fuwas the very best poet in history and praised Shào Chuán's commentary for its simplicity and readability, while he criticised old commentaries during the
Yuan Dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fif ...
as too unfathomable. Matsuo Bashō, the greatest haiku poet, was also strongly influenced by Du Fu; in ''
Oku no Hosomichi ''Oku no Hosomichi'' (, originally ), translated as ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' and ''The Narrow Road to the Interior'', is a major work of ''haibun'' by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō, considered one of the major texts of Japanese l ...
'', his masterpiece, he cites the first two lines of '' A Spring View'' () before a haiku as its introduction and also many of his other haiku have similar wording and themes. It is said that when he died in
Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
during a long travel, a copy of Du Fu's poetry was found with him as one of a few precious items which he was able to carry around.


Translation

A variety of styles have been used in efforts to translate Du Fu's work into English. As Burton Watson remarks in '' The Selected Poems of Du Fu'', "There are many different ways to approach the problems involved in translating Du Fu, which is why we need as many different translations as possible" (p. xxii). The translators have had to contend with bringing out the formal constraints of the original without sounding laboured to a Western ear (particularly when translating regulated verse, or ''lǜshi''), and accommodating the complex allusions contained particularly in the later works (Hawkes writes that "his poems do not as a rule come through very well in translation"—p. ix). One extreme on each issue is represented by
Kenneth Rexroth Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth (1905–1982) was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider ...
's '' One Hundred Poems From the Chinese''. His are free translations, which seek to conceal the parallelisms through enjambement and expansion and contraction of the content; his responses to the allusions are firstly to omit most of these poems from his selection, and secondly to "translate out" the references in those works which he does select.Rexroth, 136–37. Other translators have placed much greater weight on trying to convey a sense of the poetic forms used by Du Fu. Vikram Seth in '' Three Chinese Poets'' uses English-style rhyme schemes, whereas Keith Holyoak in '' Facing the Moon'' approximates the Chinese rhyme scheme; both use end-stopped lines and preserve some degree of parallelism. In '' The Selected Poems of Du Fu'', Burton Watson follows the parallelisms quite strictly, persuading the western reader to adapt to the poems rather than vice versa. Similarly, he deals with the allusion of the later works by combining literal translation with extensive annotation.Watson, ''passim''. Arthur Cooper also translated selected poems of Du Fu and Li Bai, which were published under the Penguin Classics imprint. David Hinton has also published selected poems for New Directions, first in 1989 followed by an expanded and revised edition in 2020. In 2015, Stephen Owen published annotated translations, with facing Chinese texts, of the complete poetry of Du Fu in six volumes.


See also

* " Autumn Day in Kui Prefecture" * Classical Chinese poetry *
Simians (Chinese poetry) Simians of various sorts (including the monkey, gibbon, and other primates of real or mythological nature) are an important motif in Chinese poetry. Examples of simian imagery have an important place in Chinese poetry ranging from the ''Chu Ci'' ...
* Tang Dynasty art * Tang poetry *
Three perfections The three perfections () is a term referring to Chinese , , and understood and practiced as related endeavors. The earliest recorded mention known of "the three perfections" is found in The New Book of Tang, where the term is used to describe the ...
– integration of calligraphy, poetry and painting * Du Fu Thatched Cottage * Du Fu River Pavilion


References


Bibliography

* Cai, Guoying; (1975). ''Chinese Poems with English Translation''. 正中書局. * Chang, H. C. (1977). ''Chinese Literature 2: Nature Poetry''. New York: Columbia University Press. * Ch'en Wen-hua. ''T'ang Sung tzu-liao k'ao''. * Chou, Eva Shan; (1995). ''Reconsidering Tu Fu: Literary Greatness and Cultural Context''.
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pr ...
. . * Cooper, Arthur (translator); (1986). ''Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems''. Viking Press. . * Davis, Albert Richard; (1971). ''Tu Fu''. Twayne Publishers. * Ebrey, Walthall, Palais, (2006). ''East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. * Ebrey, Patricia Buckley (1999). ''The Cambridge Illustrated History of China''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (paperback). * Hawkes, David; (2016). ''A Little Primer of Tu Fu''. New York Review Books, revised ed., . * Hinton, David (translator); (2019). ''The selected poems of Tu Fu''. New York : New Directions Publishing. * Holyoak, Keith (translator); (2007). ''Facing the Moon: Poems of Li Bai and Du Fu''. Durham, NH: Oyster River Press. * Hsieh, Daniel; (1994). "Du Fu's 'Gazing at the Mountain'". ''Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews''. 1–18. * Hung, William; (1952). ''Tu Fu: China's Greatest Poet''.
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...
. * Kizer, Carolyn; (1964). "Versions from Tu Fu". ''The Hudson Review''. Vol. 17, No. 2. 226–230. * Lee, Joseph J; (1970). "Tu Fu's Art Criticism and Han Kan's Horse Painting". ''Journal of the American Oriental Society''. Vol. 90, No. 3. 449–461. * McCraw, David; (1992). ''Du Fu's Laments from the South''. University of Hawaii Press * Owen, Stephen; (1981). ''The Great Age of Chinese Poetry: The High T'ang''.
Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Univers ...
. . * Owen, Stephen (editor); (1997). ''An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911''. W.W. Norton & Company. . * Complete English translation
Open Access
* Rexroth, Kenneth (translator); (1971). ''One Hundred Poems From the Chinese''. New Directions Press. . * Seth, Vikram (translator); (1992). ''Three Chinese Poets: Translations of Poems by Wang Wei, Li Bai, and Du Fu''. Faber & Faber. * Schmidt, Jerry Dean; (2003). ''Harmony Garden''.
Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...
. * Suzuki, Torao and Yoichi Kurokawa; (1966) (in Japanese) .
Iwanami Shoten is a Japanese publishing company based in Tokyo.Louis Frédéric, ''Japan Encyclopedia'', Harvard University Press, 2005, p. 409. Iwanami Shoten was founded in 1913 by Iwanami Shigeo. Its first major publication was Natsume Sōseki's novel ''K ...
. . *
Watson, Burton Burton Dewitt Watson (June 13, 1925April 1, 2017) was an American sinologist, translator, and writer known for his English translations of Chinese and Japanese literature.Stirling 2006, pg. 92 Watson's translations received many awards, includin ...
(editor); (1984). ''The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry''.
Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fie ...
. . * Watson, Burton (translator); (2002). ''The Selected Poems of Du Fu''. Columbia University Press. * Yao, Dan and Li, Ziliang (2006). ''Chinese Literature''. 五洲传播出版社. . * Young, David (translator); (2008). ''Du Fu: A Life in Poetry''.
Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
.


Further reading

* Motsch, Monika.
Slow Poison or Magic Carpet: The Du Fu Translations by Erwin Ritter von Zach
"
Archive
In: Alleton, Vivianne and Michael Lackner (editors). '' De l'un au multiple: traductions du chinois vers les langues européennes Translations from Chinese into European Languages''. Éditions de la maison des sciences de l'homme (Les Editions de la MSH, FR), 1999,
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
. p. 100–111. , 9782735107681. * McMullen, David L.
Recollection without Tranquility: Du Fu, the Imperial Gardens, and the State
"
Archive
''Asia Major'' ( FR), vol. 14–2, 2001. p. 189–252. * Owen, Stephen ranslator & editor Warner, Ding Xiang ditor Kroll, Paul ditor(2016)
The Poetry of Du Fu
. '' De Gruyter Mouton''.


External links


Du Fu's poems
included in ''300 Selected Tang poems'', translated by
Witter Bynner Harold Witter Bynner (August 10, 1881 – June 1, 1968), also known by the pen name Emanuel Morgan, was an American poet and translator. He was known for his long residence in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and association with other literary figures the ...

Du Fu: Poems
A collection of Du Fu's poetry by multiple translators.
Du Fu in English
at ''Poems Found in Translation'' *

organised roughly by date written; shows both simplified and traditional characters * * * * Books of the '' Quan Tangshi'' that include collected poems of Du Fu at the Chinese Text Project: *
Book 216Book 217Book 218Book 219Book 220
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Book 221Book 222Book 223Book 224Book 225
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Book 226Book 227Book 228Book 229Book 230
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Book 231Book 232Book 233Book 234
{{DEFAULTSORT:Du Fu 712 births 770 deaths 8th-century Chinese poets Du clan of Jingzhao Poets from Henan Politicians from Zhengzhou Tang dynasty politicians from Henan Three Hundred Tang Poems poets Writers from Zhengzhou