Du Fu (杜甫)
There are no contemporaneous portraits of Du Fu; this is a later artist's impression
Born	712
Died	770
Occupation	Poet
Influenced	Bai Juyi, Su Shi, Lu You, Huang Tingjian

Du Fu (Chinese: 杜甫; Wade-Giles: Tu Fu, 712–770) was a prominent Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty. Along with Li Bai (Li Po), he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets.^[1] His own greatest ambition was to help his country by becoming a successful civil servant, but he proved unable to make the necessary accommodations. His life, like the whole country, was devastated by the An Lushan Rebellion of 755, and the last 15 years of his life were a time of almost constant unrest. Download high resolution version (480x634, 40 KB) Description: Photograph of a old painting of Du Fu. ... Events Ansprand succeeds Aripert as king of the Lombards. ... Emperor Kōnin ascends to the throne of Japan, succeeding Empress Shōtoku. ... This article is about work. ... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ... This is a Chinese name; the family name is Bai. ... Su Shi (蘇軾) (1037-1101) was a writer, poet, artist, calligrapher and statesman of the Song Dynasty, one of the major poets of the Song era. ... Lu You (陆游 or 陸遊)(1125- 1210) was a Chinese poet of the southern Song dynasty. ... Huang Tingjian (黄庭堅) (1045-1105), a chinese painter and calligrapher, was one of the Four masters of the Song Dynasty. ... Wade-Giles, sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration) system for the Chinese language based on Mandarin. ... Du Fu, also known as Tu Fu, Chinese poet Categories: | ... Du Fu, also known as Tu Fu, Chinese poet Categories: | ... Poets who wrote or write much of their poetry in the Chinese language. ... For the band, see Tang Dynasty (band). ... Li Po redirects here. ... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... The Anshi Rebellion (安史之亂 pinyin: an1 shi3 zhi1 luan4) occurred in China, during the Tang Dynasty, from 756 to 763. ...

Initially little known, his works came to be hugely influential in both Chinese and Japanese culture. Of his poetic writing, nearly fifteen hundred poems written by Du Fu have been handed down over the ages.^[1] He has been called 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, Horace, Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth, Béranger, Hugo or Baudelaire".^[2] For this articles equivalent regarding the East, see Eastern culture. ... For other uses, see Virgil (disambiguation). ... Horace, as imagined by Anton von Werner Quintus Horatius Flaccus, (December 8, 65 BC - November 27, 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. ... For other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation) Publius Ovidius Naso (March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD) was a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid who wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. ... Shakespeare redirects here. ... For other persons named John Milton, see John Milton (disambiguation). ... For the chain gang fugitive and author from Georgia, see Robert Elliott Burns. ... Wordsworth redirects here. ... Pierre-Jean de Béranger (August 19, 1780 - July 16, 1857), was a French songwriter. ... Victor-Marie Hugo (IPA: (26 February 1802 — 22 May 1885) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights campaigner, and perhaps the most influential exponent of the Romantic movement in France. ... Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (April 9, 1821–August 31, 1867) was one of the most influential French poets. ...

Life

Traditionally, Chinese literary criticism has placed great emphasis on knowledge of the life of the author when interpreting a work, a practice which Watson attributes to "the close links that traditional Chinese thought posits between art and morality".^[3] This becomes all the more important in the case of a writer such as Du Fu, in whose poems morality and history are so prominent. Another reason, identified by the Chinese historian William Hung, is that Chinese poems are typically extremely concise, omitting circumstantial factors which may be relevant, but which could be reconstructed by an informed contemporary. For modern western readers therefore, "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".^[4] This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Pinyin, more formally called Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ), is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ... Wade-Giles, sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration) system for the Chinese language based on Mandarin. ... Standard Cantonese is a variant, and is generally considered the prestige dialect of Cantonese Chinese. ... Cha can also refer to a Latin American dance, also called the Cha-cha-cha. ... Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article is about the philosophical concept of Art. ... Morality (from the Latin manner, character, proper behavior) has three principal meanings. ... This article is about the study of the past in human terms. ... For this articles equivalent regarding the East, see Eastern culture. ...

Early years

. Most of what is known of Du Fu’s life comes from his own poems. Like many other Chinese poets, he came from a noble family (they claimed descent from the emperor Yao) which had fallen into relative poverty (although Hung estimates that his family income was still eleven times that of an averagely comfortable family). He was born in 712: the exact birthplace is unknown, except that it was near Luoyang, Henan province (Gong county is a favourite candidate). In later life he considered himself to belong to the capital city of Chang'an. Emperor Yao (Traditional Chinese:å ¯, Simplified Chinese:å°§) (2337 - 2258 BC) was a semi-mythical Chinese ruler, one of the Three August Ones and the Five Emperors. ... For other uses, see Changan (disambiguation). ...

Du Fu's China

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. modified version of Image:Map of China (physical). ... modified version of Image:Map of China (physical). ...

As 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 of philosophy, history and poetry. He later claimed to have produced creditable poems by his early teens, but these have been lost. Chinese classic texts or Chinese canonical texts are the classical literature in Chinese culture that are considered to be the best or the most valuable. ... For other uses, see Philosophy (disambiguation). ...

In the early 730s he travelled in the Jiangsu/Zhejiang area; his earliest surviving poem, describing a poetry contest, is thought to date from the end of this period, around 735. In that year he travelled to Chang'an to take the civil service exam but was unsuccessful, to his surprise and that of centuries of later critics. Hung concludes that he probably failed because his prose style at the time was too dense and obscure, while Chou suggests that 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 and Hebei.   (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-su; Postal map spelling: Kiangsu) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. ... Zhejiang (also spelled Chehkiang or Chekiang) is an eastern coastal province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... For other uses, see Changan (disambiguation). ... The Imperial examinations (Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ) in Imperial China determined who among the population would be permitted to enter the states bureaucracy. ... Prose is writing distinguished from poetry by its greater variety of rhythm and its closer resemblance to everyday speech. ...   (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Shan-tung) is a coastal province of eastern Peoples Republic of China. ... Hebei (Chinese: 河北; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ho-pei; Postal System Pinyin: Hopeh) is a northern province of the Peoples Republic of China. ...

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. He spent the next four years living in the Luoyang area, fulfilling his duties in domestic affairs.

In the autumn of 744 he met Li Bai (Li Po) for the first time, and the two poets formed a somewhat one-sided friendship: 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. Li Po redirects here. ...

In 746 he moved to the capital in an attempt to resurrect his official career. He participated in a second exam the following year, but all the candidates were failed by the prime minister (apparently in order to prevent the emergence of possible rivals). Thereafter 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), 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.^[1] A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. ...

In 755 he finally received an appointment as Registrar of the Right Commandant's office of the Crown Prince's Palace. 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 began in December 755, and was not completely crushed for almost eight years. It caused enormous disruption to Chinese society: the census of 754 recorded 52.9 million people, but that of 764 just 16.9 million, the remainder having been killed or displaced. During this time, Du Fu led a largely itinerant life, being kept unsettled by wars, associated famines and imperial displeasure. This period of unhappiness, however, 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".^[5] 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.^[1] Du Fu wrote: The Anshi Rebellion (&#23433;&#21490;&#20043;&#20098; pinyin: an1 shi3 zhi1 luan4) occurred in China, during the Tang Dynasty, from 756 to 763. ... For other uses, see War (disambiguation). ... <nowiki>Insert non-formatted text hereBold text</nowiki>A famine is a social and economic crisis that is commonly accompanied by widespread malnutrition, starvation, epidemic and increased mortality. ... For the volcano in Indonesia, see Emperor of China (volcano). ...

"Brooding on what I have lived through, if even I know such suffering, the common man must surely be rattled by the winds."^[1]

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 up with the court of the new emperor (Suzong), but he was captured by the rebels and taken to Chang’an. In the autumn, his youngest son Du Zongwu (Baby Bear) was born. Around this time Du Fu is thought to have contracted malaria. Emperor Tang Xuanzong (&#21776;&#29572;&#23447;) (685 - 762), born Li Longji (&#26446;&#38534;&#22522;), was the sixth emperor of the Tang dynasty of China reigining from 712 to 756. ... Royal court (as distinguished from a court of law) may refer to a number of institutions: A noble court - the household or entourage of a monarch or other ruler The Royal Court of Jersey - the main court of justice of Jersey The Royal Court of Guernsey - the main court of... Emperor Tang Suzong (è‚…å®— (711-762, r. ... Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites. ...

He escaped from Chang'an the following year, and was appointed Reminder when he rejoined the court in May 757. 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 soon caused trouble for himself by protesting against the removal of his friend and patron Fang Guan on a petty charge; he was then himself arrested, but was pardoned in June. He was granted leave to visit his family in September, but he soon rejoined the court and on December 8, 757, he returned to Chang’an with the emperor following its recapture by government forces. 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. The position was not to his taste: in one poem, he wrote: For the Breton religious festivals, see Pardon (ceremony). ... is the 342nd day of the year (343rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events March 9 - A major earthquake strikes Palestine and Syria Offa becomes king of Mercia. ...

"I am about to scream madly in the office/Especially when they bring more papers to pile higher on my desk."

He moved on again in the summer of 759; this has traditionally been ascribed to famine, but Hung believes that frustration is a more likely reason. He next spent around six weeks in Qinzhou (now Tianshui, Gansu province), where he wrote over sixty poems. Tianshui (Chinese: 天水; pinyin: ) is the second largest city in Gansu province in northwest China. ... Gansu (Simplified Chinese: 甘肃; Traditional Chinese: 甘肅; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kan-su, Kansu, or Kan-suh) is a province located in the northwest of the Peoples Republic of China. ...

Chengdu

In 760 he arrived in Chengdu (Sichuan province), where he based himself for most of the next five years. 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, and many of his poems from this period are peaceful depictions of his life in his famous "thatched hut".^[1] In 762 he left the city to escape a rebellion, but he returned in the summer of 764 and was appointed military advisor to Yan, who was involved in campaigns against the Tibetans. Not to be confused with Chengde. ...   (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: SzÅ­4-chuan1; Postal map spelling: Szechwan and Szechuan) is a province in the central-western China with its capital at Chengdu. ... Entrance gate of Thatched Cottage of Du Fu in Chengdu Reconstructed Thatched Cottage of Du Fu A study in the Thatched Cottage of Du Fu A bronze sculpture of Du Fu in front of the Hall of Great Poets Du Fu Cao Tang (Thatched Cottage of Du Fu) is a... This article is about historical/cultural Tibet. ...

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, apparently with the intention of making their way back there. 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 (now Baidi, Chongqing) at the entrance to the Three Gorges for almost two years from late spring 766. This period was Du Fu's last great poetic flowering, and here he wrote 400 poems in his dense, late style. In autumn 766 Bo Maolin became governor of the region: he supported Du Fu financially and employed him as his unofficial secretary. The Yangtze River or Chang Jiang (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ), or Drichu in Tibetan (Tibetan: འབ; Wylie: bri chu) is the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the world, after the Nile in Africa, and the Amazon in South America. ... Visual perception is one of the senses, consisting of the ability to detect light and interpret (see) it as the perception known as sight or naked eye vision. ... This article discusses the way the word deaf is used and how deafness is perceived by hearing and Deaf communities. ... Paul Kruger in his old age. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Chongqing (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Postal map spelling: Chungching, also Chungking) is the largest and most populous of the Peoples Republic of Chinas four provincial-level municipalities, and the only one in the less densely populated western half of China. ... The Three Gorges (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: [ ]) region is a scenic area along the Yangtze River in the Peoples Republic of China with a total length of approximately 20000 km. ...

In March 768 he began his journey again and got as far as Hunan province, where he died in Tanzhou (now Changsha) in November or December 770, in his 59th 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. Not to be confused with the unrelated provinces of Hainan, Henan, and Yunnan. ... Changsha (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chang-sha) is the capital city of Hunan, a province of Southcentral China, located on the lower reaches of Xiangjiang river, a branch of the Yangtze River. ... Pinyin Yuan Zhen (779 to 831) was an important Chinese writer in the middle Tang Dynasty. ...

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."

Works

Part of Du Fu's poem "On Visiting the Temple of Laozi", as copied by a 16th-century calligrapher.

Criticism of Du Fu's works has focused on his strong sense of history, his moral engagement, and his technical excellence. part of Tung Chi-changs copy (1555-1638) of Hsu Haos calligraphy of Du Fus poem On Visiting the Temple of Laozi from http://www. ... Contemporary Western Calligraphy. ...

History

Since the Song dynasty Du Fu has been called by critics the "poet historian" (詩史 shī shǐ). 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".^[6] Northern Song in 1111 AD Capital Bianjing (汴京) (960–1127) Linan (臨安) (1127–1276) Language(s) Chinese Religion Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism Government Monarchy Emperor  - 960–976 Emperor Taizu  - 1126–1127 Emperor Qinzong  - 1127–1162 Emperor Gaozong  - 1278–1279 Emperor Bing History  - Zhao Kuangyin taking over the throne of the Later Zhou... This article is about the occupation of studying history. ... Military tactics is the collective name for methods of engaging and defeating an enemy in battle. ...

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".^[7] Since his views were impossible to disagree with, however, his forcefully expressed truisms enabled his installation as the central figure of Chinese poetic history.

Moral engagement

A second favourite epithet of Chinese critics is that of "poet sage" (詩聖 shī shèng), a counterpart to the philosophical sage, Confucius. 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, even before the beginning of the rebellion; this poem brings out the tension between the need of acceptance and fulfilment of one's duties, and a clear-sighted consciousness of the suffering which this can involve. These themes are continuously articulated in the poems on the lives of both soldiers and civilians which Du Fu produced throughout his life. An epithet (Greek - επιθετον and Latin - epitheton; literally meaning imposed) is a descriptive word or phrase. ... Confucius (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kung-fu-tzu), lit. ... Duty is a term loosely appliedDuty to any action (or course of action) whichDutyDuty is regarded as morally incumbent, apart from personal likes and dislikes or any external compulsion. ...

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".^[8] Solipsism (Latin: solus, alone + ipse, self) is the philosophical idea that My mind is the only thing that I know exists. Solipsism is an epistemological or metaphysical position that knowledge of anything outside the mind is unjustified. ...

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",^[9] and he wrote extensively on subjects such as domestic life, calligraphy, paintings, animals and other poems.

Technical excellence

Du Fu's work is notable above all for its range. Chinese critics traditionally used the term 集大成 (jídàchéng- "complete symphony"), a reference to Mencius' description of Confucius. 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".^[10] He mastered all the forms of Chinese poetry: Chou says that in every form he "either made outstanding advances or contributed outstanding examples".^[11] Furthermore, his poems use a wide range of registers, from the direct and colloquial to the allusive and self-consciously literary. 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;^[12] the works from his Chengdu period are "light, often finely observed";^[13] while the poems from the late Kuizhou period have a "density and power of vision".^[14] Mencius (Romanization; 孟子, pinyin: Mèng Zǐ; Wade-Giles: Meng Tzu; most accepted dates: 372 – 289 BCE; other possible dates: 385 – 303/302 BCE) was a Chinese philosopher who was arguably the most famous Confucian after Confucius himself. ... Confucius (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kung-fu-tzu), lit. ... Pinyin Yuan Zhen (779 to 831) was an important Chinese writer in the middle Tang Dynasty. ... Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong Hand-painted Chinese New Years duilian (對聯 couplet), a by-product of Chinese poetry, pasted on the sides of doors leading to peoples homes, at Lijiang City, Yunnan Poetry is the most highly regarded literary genre in ancient China. ... In linguistics, a register is a subset of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. ... A colloquialism is an informal expression, that is, an expression not used in formal speech or writing. ... Allusion is a figure of speech, in which one refers covertly or indirectly to an object or circumstance that has occurred or existed in an external content. ... For other uses, see Chameleon (disambiguation). ...

Although he wrote in all poetic forms, Du Fu is best known for his lǜshi, a type of poem with strict constraints on the form and content of the work. About two thirds of his 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".^[15] Shi (è©©) is the Chinese word for poem; it can also be used to mean Chinese poetry other than lyrics, or (most commonly) the classical form of poetry developed in the late Han dynasty and which reached its zenith in the Tang dynasty. ...

Influence

In his lifetime, and immediately following his death, Du Fu was not greatly appreciated. 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".^[16] 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.^[17] Du Fu is also poorly represented in contemporary anthologies of poetry.

However, as Hung notes, he "is the only Chinese poet whose influence grew with time",^[18] and in the ninth century he began to increase in popularity. Early positive comments came from Bai Juyi, 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. By the beginning of the 10th century, Wei Zhuang had constructed the first replica of his thatched cottage in Sichuan. This is a Chinese name; the family name is Bai. ... Hán Yù (韓愈) (768 - 824), was a precursor of Neo-Confucianism as well as an essayist and poet. ... Li Po redirects here. ... Wei Zhuang 韋 莊 or Wei Chuang (836–910), Chinese poet and Tang period (618-906) historical figure, is best known for his poety in shih and tz’u styles. ...

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, Taoist and Confucian strands of Chinese culture.^[19] At the same time, the development of Neo-Confucianism ensured that Du Fu, as its poetic exemplar, occupied the paramount position.^[20] 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".^[21] 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. Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China, 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".^[22] Alternative meaning: Song Dynasty (420-479) The Song dynasty (Chinese: &#23435;&#26397;) was a ruling dynasty in China from 960-1279. ... Wang Wei (王維) (701 - 761), sometimes titled the Poet Buddha, was a Tang Dynasty Chinese poet, musician, painter and statesman. ... A statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha in Tawang Gompa, India. ... Taoism (or Daoism) is the English name referring to a variety of related Chinese philosophical traditions and concepts. ... A Confucian temple in Wuwei, Peoples Republic of China. ... Neo-Confucianism (traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: )/(traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is a form of Confucianism that was primarily developed during the Sung Dynasty, but which can be traced back to Han Yu and Li Ao in the Tang Dynasty. ... Su Shi (蘇軾) (1037-1101) was a writer, poet, artist, calligrapher and statesman of the Song Dynasty, one of the major poets of the Song era. ... Conservatism is a term used to describe political philosophies that favor tradition and gradual change, where tradition refers to religious, cultural, or nationally defined beliefs and customs. ... The term Radical (latin radix meaning root) was used from the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement and has since been used as a label in political science for those favouring or trying to produce thoroughgoing political reforms which can include changes to the social order to... Vernacular Chinese (pinyin: báihuà; Wade-Giles: paihua) is a style or register of the written Chinese language essentially modeled after the spoken language and associated with Standard Mandarin. ...

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. While there was never another Du Fu, individual poets followed in the traditions of specific aspects of his work: Bai Juyi's concern for the poor, Lu You'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 into "a vehicle for serious poetic utterance"^[23] set the stage for every subsequent writer in the genre. For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... This is a Chinese name; the family name is Bai. ... Lu You (陆游 or 陸遊)(1125- 1210) was a Chinese poet of the southern Song dynasty. ... Mei Yaochen (&#26757;&#23591;&#33251;) (1002 - 1060) was a poet of the Song dynasty. ... This article is about Word play. ...

Du Fu has also been influential beyond China, although in common with the other High Tang poets, his reception into the Japanese literary culture was relatively late. It was not until the 17th century that he was accorded the same respect in Japan as in China, but he then had a particular influence on Matsuo Bashō. In the 20th century, he was the favourite poet of Kenneth Rexroth, who has described him as "the greatest non-epic, non dramatic poet who has survived in any language", and commented that, "he has made me a better man, as a moral agent and as a perceiving organism".^[24] A statue of Bashō in Hiraizumi, Iwate. ... Kenneth Rexroth (December 22, 1905 – June 6, 1982) was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of narrative poetry, characterized by great length, multiple settings, large numbers of characters, or long span of time involved. ... For other uses, see Drama (disambiguation). ...

Translation

There have been a number of notable translations of Du Fu’s work into English. The translators have each had to contend with the same problems of bringing out the formal constraints of the original without sounding laboured to the western ear (particularly when translating lǜshi), and of dealing with the 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’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. Kenneth Rexroth (December 22, 1905 – June 6, 1982) was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: One Hundred Poems From the Chinese ... Enjambement is the breaking of a syntactic unit (a phrase, clause, or sentence) by the end of a line or between two verses. ...

An example of the opposite approach is Burton Watson's The Selected Poems of Du Fu. 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. Burton Watson (born 1925) is one of the worlds best-known translators of the Chinese and Japanese literary works. ... Annotation is extra information associated with a particular point in a document or other piece of information. ...

See also

• Tang Dynasty art
• List of Chinese people

Night Shining White, a handscroll attributed to Han Gan (active 742–756). ... The following is a list of famous Chinese-speaking/writing people. ...

Notes

References

• 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. ISBN 0-521-44039-4.
• Cooper, Arthur (translator); (1986). Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems. Viking Press. ISBN 0-14-044272-3.
• Ebrey, Walthall, Palais, (2006). East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
• Hawkes, David; (1967). A Little Primer of Tu Fu. Oxford University Press. ISBN 962-7255-02-5.
• Hung, William; (1952). Tu Fu: China's Greatest Poet. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-7581-4322-2.
• McCraw, David; (1992). Du Fu's Laments from the South. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0824814223.
• Owen, Stephen (editor); (1997). An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-97106-6.
• Rexroth, Kenneth (translator); (1971). One Hundred Poems From the Chinese. New Directions Press. ISBN 0811201805.
• Watson, Burton (editor); (1984). The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-05683-4.
• Watson, Burton (translator); (2002). The Selected Poems of Du Fu. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-12829-0.

David Hawkes (1923- ) is a British Sinologist. ... Kenneth Rexroth (December 22, 1905 – June 6, 1982) was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. ... Burton Watson (born 1925) is one of the worlds best-known translators of the Chinese and Japanese literary works. ... Burton Watson (born 1925) is one of the worlds best-known translators of the Chinese and Japanese literary works. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Du Fu

• Tu Fu's poems included in 300 Selected Tang poems, translated by Witter Bynner
• Du Fu's poems organized roughly by date written; shows both simplified and traditional characters
• Du Fu at the Open Directory Project