Du Fu

Chinese poet

• Born: 712
• Birthplace: Gongxian, China
• Died: 770
• Place of death: Tanzhou (now Changsha), Hunan Province, China

Du Fu is considered the greatest of the Chinese poets as well as one of the giant figures of world literature.

Early Life

Du Fu (doo foo) descended from the nobility, and his family tradition was both scholarly and military. He was the thirteenth-generation descendant of Du You (Tu Yu), a marquess and an army general who was married to a princess of the imperial family. Du Fu’s great-grandfather was Du Yiyi (Tu I-i), a mid-level government official. His grandfather was Du Shenyan (Tu Shen-yen), a jinshi (a high-level scholar) who served in minor official positions and was a respected poet. Du Fu’s father, Du Xian (Tu Hsien), served in minor government posts. His mother, a woman of imperial blood, apparently died giving birth to Du Fu.

Little is known about Du Fu’s childhood or teenage years and the education he received. He studied the Confucian classics to prepare himself to take the examination for the jinshi degree, the gateway to officialdom for most men. Evidence also suggests that he attended private schools. Apart from his acquaintance with the Four Books and the Five Classics (Wujing), he probably also studied Sunzi’s military classic, the Sunzi Bingfa (c. 5th-3d century b.c.e.; The Art of War, 1910).

What is known about Du Fu’s early life comes largely from his poems , many of which are autobiographical. In a poem written in 762, known as “Brave Adventures,” he refers to himself at the age of seven when he writes, “My thoughts already concerned heroic deeds;/ My first song was on the phoenix, the harbinger of a sagacious reign.” In the same poem, he refers to himself at the age of nine, when he began to practice calligraphy by writing “big characters” (that is, foot-square characters), which accumulated until there “were enough to fill a bag.” He also remarks that his nature was “spirited,” that he was already “fond of wine,” that he “hated evil” unremittingly, and that he abandoned children his own age to associate exclusively with adults. At age fourteen or fifteen, Du Fu had entered into literary competition, and the local literati declared him a prodigy. In another poem written about the same time (c. 760), entitled “A Hundred Anxieties,” Du Fu reveals that despite his seriousness about learning and writing at this age, he was still very much a boy: At fifteen, his “heart was still childish,” he was as “strong as a brown calf,” and in one day he “could climb the trees a thousand times.”

At age nineteen, Du Fu began to see the world. He set forth in a southwesterly direction toward the lands of “Wu and Yüeh” (modern Jiangsu and Zhejiang). His journey was to last four years (731-735). He described his visit to Suzhou, a city noted for its scenic wonders and rich past. In viewing the city’s ancient ruins, Du Fu recalled certain historical personages and the events associated with them. His journey completed, he returned northward by boat, eventually reaching his home in Jingzhao.

In the following year (736), Du Fu, now in the prime of life at age twenty-four, was invited by his prefecture to Chang’an to sit for the examination for the jinshi degree. However, for reasons unknown, he failed the examination.

Life’s Work

Du Fu’s failure in the examination practically put an end to his chances to have an official career. Although embittered, he never actually gave up this ambition and continually sought an official appointment by other means. In the meantime, he paid his respects to the prefect of Jingzhao and then left for his parents’ residence at Yanzhou, where he would have to face their disappointment.

Soon, however, Du Fu set out on another journey. This time he went to Qi and Zhao (modern Shandong and southern Hebei). This trip would occupy him for another four years (736-740). His activities during these travels are also described in “Brave Adventures.” He employed himself mainly by honing his skills in falconry, horsemanship, archery, and hunting. He recalled this period of his life in another poem, written in 766, entitled “Song of the White-Headed.” In this poem, he regrets that his present age no longer permits him to perform the exciting and adventurous feats of his youth:

Suddenly I think of youthful days,When frosty dew froze on the steps and door.On a Tatar horse I clasped an ornamented bow;My humming string was not loosed in vain.My long shaft sped after the cunning hare;Its swift feathers fitted to the bow’s full moon.Mournful, the Song of the White-headed;Deserted now, the haunts of the gallants.

Du Fu’s second journey was brought to a close by the death of his father in 740. He had to make the funeral arrangements, tend to his father’s affairs, and find a place for the family to live. Du Fu chose Yanshi, northeast of Luoyang, the eastern capital. There he built a house, which the family occupied in 741.

Soon Du Fu took up residence in Luoyang. There he met the older poet Li Bo (Li Po), who had just been dismissed from the court in Chang’an. With Li Bo and another distinguished poet, Gao Shi (Kao Shih), Du Fu made excursions to various historic sites in Henan. Du Fu and Li Bo met again for the last time the following year (745). At this time Du Fu wrote two poems concerning their friendship. (Later, about 758, not having heard from Li Bo since their parting, Du Fu wrote his two famous poems entitled “Dreaming of Li Bo Two Poems.”) Sometime between 742 and 745, Du Fu had married and fathered a child. In 746, he and his family moved to Chang’an. There, he once again sought an official appointment.

The years from about 730 to 745 may be taken as the formative stage, or First Period, of Du Fu’s poetic development. Yet only four of his poems written during this period are extant. Du Fu’s violation of conventional literary techniques can be seen in one of these poems, “A Poetry Contest After Dinner at the Zuo Villa.” Here he departs from the traditional decorum of subgenres and their themes, since his poem is both about meeting and about departing. He draws an extensive contrast in comparing the “firmament” to a “thatched roof . . . studded with stars.” He also tries to balance the demands of “the book and the sword” (shu jian) in the statement “We consult books. . . . We re-examine the sword.”

In addition, Du Fu affirms that his victory in the poetry contest (described in the poem) was, in effect, a conquest of Wu. (He wrote that the poem was chanted in the Wu dialect.) It was an action equal to the political and military feats of the heroes of China’s antiquity. Du Fu refers to the small boat of Fan Li (fifth century b.c.e.), the minister of Ku Jian, king of Wu. It is said that Fan Li, having enabled his king to gain a military victory, declined a reward for his service and sailed away in a small boat. From this poem, therefore, it is clear as in “Brave Adventures” and “Song of the White-Headed” that in the Tang Dynasty (T’ang; 618-907), there was no separation between the scholar and the man of action. Du Fu was a shi in the older sense of the Chinese “scholar-knight.”

Du Fu spent the years from 746 to 759 in or near Chang’an. For ten years, he indulged in a frustrating effort to get a government post. The reigning emperor, Xuanzong (Hsüan-tsung, r. 712-756), was old and neglectful of public affairs. He left his rule entirely in the hands of a despotic minister, Li Linfu, who had many enemies especially the heir apparent and his entourage. When Du Fu arrived in the capital, he obtained the patronage of the prince of Ruyang (Ju-yang). Although this connection was politically harmless, Du Fu also had ties with the heir apparent. Li Linfu eventually dispelled members of the heir apparent’s entourage. Du Fu had family ties with the despotic minister that saved him from also being banished. Nevertheless, his connection with the heir apparent blocked Du Fu’s chances for government service for some time to come.

In 747, Xuanzong held a special examination to discover new talent. Du Fu was again hopeful. Yet, fearful of the success of those taking the exams, Li Linfu arranged that all be failed. During the next three years, Du Fu tried to appeal to the emperor directly. He presented him with works of the fu genre that were accompanied by pleas for favor. Finally, he got the emperor’s attention with his three fu on major rites. In 753, a special examination was prepared for him, and this time he passed. During the next five years, a turbulent period when the heir apparent finally assumed power, Du Fu was given various ceremonial posts. In 758, however, he was ousted when one of his friends fell into disfavor with the emperor.

The years from 746 to 759 constituted the maturing stage, or Second Period, of Du Fu’s work as a poet. Generally, in this period he developed a new kind of “realism.” His earlier tendency to combine, reconcile, and balance opposing elements seen earlier in his merging of poetic subgenres and themes and in his balancing of the demands of “the book and the sword” was expanded and developed in other directions. He mixed prose (fu) and verse (shi); introduced new “unpoetic’” subjects in combination with old “poetic” ones; merged private circumstances and concerns with public and national ones that embraced political, military, and economic factors; and transposed general descriptive judgments into specific ethical judgments that placed blame directly on specific persons.

Among Du Fu’s most outstanding poems of this period are “The Ballad of the War Chariots,” “Frontier Duties: Nine Poems,” and “Five Hundred Words to Express My Feelings When I Went from the Capital to Fengxian.” These first two poems were written toward the end of 750, and the third was written near the end of 755, before Du Fu knew of the outbreak of the rebellion that resulted in the heir apparent’s rise to power. When Du Fu was banished from court in 758, he was sent to Huazhou, 60 miles (96 kilometers) east of the capital, to become commissioner of education.

In the early part of 759, Du Fu was sent on a mission to Luoyang. On his way home, he wrote two notable poems on recruiting officers at Xinan and Shihao. Yet not long after his return to Huazhou, he resigned his position, probably because at this time he believed that his official services were futile. Then he and his family set out on a long journey, with pauses of some duration at Tsinchow (modern Tianshui) and Tunggu (modern Zhengzhou). His journey finally ended by wintertime in Chengdu, where the following year he was to occupy his famous thatched hut. Du Fu was forty-eight years old, and he was not in good health. (He had had lung trouble since 754.) Although by this time he had written many distinguished poems, some of Du Fu’s greatest poems were yet to come.

During the years from 759 to 770, the Third Period, Du Fu produced an abundance of mature poetry. Although he never actually gave up his ambition to perform public service, it seemed that age and bad health made him more content to devote himself almost entirely to his writings. He was much taken by his thatched hut, located on the outskirts of Chengdu, which he regarded as an ideal hermitage. At least two poems were inspired by the hut’s location and completion: “Choice of a Domicile” and “The Hut Completed.” “My Thatched Roof Whirled Away by an Autumn Gale” is one of his greatest poems, combining dismay, love, pathos, and the tragedy of aging.

Du Fu’s old friend and patron Yan Wu soon was appointed military commissioner of Chengdu. He, in turn, appointed Du Fu to his military staff. Du Fu served Yan as military adviser from 764 to 765, resigning probably because of age and poor health. His ambivalent attitude toward his position can be detected in his poems “Overnight at the General Headquarters” and “Twenty Rhymes to Dispel Gloom: Presented to His Excellency Yan.”

Yan Wu died suddenly in 765. It appears that Du Fu had left Chengdu just before his friend’s death and at the time was sailing with his family down the Min River on his way to Rongzhou (modern Yibin), in Sichuan. His health failing, Du Fu continued to travel, eventually arriving in Kuizhou (modern Fengjie), Sichuan, to which he refers in his poetry as “the White Emperor’s city.” He found a generous patron there and stayed for two years. During this time, he wrote a number of distinguished poems: his lüshi series “Generals: Five Poems,” “Thoughts on Historical Sites: Five Poems,” and the series generally regarded as the finest of his masterpieces, “Autumn Thoughts: Eight Poems.” He also wrote eight “in memoriam” poems, including a beautiful tribute to his deceased friend Yan Wu.

Old and sick, Du Fu died in Hunan, in the winter of 770. In Du Fu’s Third Period, the ill and relatively isolated poet created works that displayed greater technical prowess and a higher level of perfection. The playful representation of the early poems gave way to the rich symbolism of the later ones, syntax became more complex and ambiguous, and realism was transformed into surrealism. The great works of this period are characterized by classical precision in versification and idiosyncratic freedom of diction and syntax.

Significance

Du Fu’s preeminence as a poet is unquestionable. He not only is the most celebrated poet in Chinese literature but also bears comparison to the chief figures of the various national literatures of the West. His literary accomplishment is a major contribution in the formation of literary values generally. Although no coterie formed around him during his time and the impact of his genius was not felt for decades after his death, once his preeminence was apparent, no later Chinese poet could afford to ignore his work.

Du Fu is perhaps the most learned poet of China and its most complicated stylist. His poetry is characterized by recondite allusions; a feeling for the historicity of language; rapid stylistic and thematic shifts; social, political, military, and economic analysis; ethics, cosmology, aesthetics; and a decided interest in historical context. Indeed, this last interest gave him the designation of the shishi, or the “poet historian.” In his view of old age and of art as timeless and distinct from the changes of life, he resembles William Butler Yeats. In his appreciation of nature, rusticity, and the common man (who, to Du Fu, may be good or evil, as an aristocrat may also be), he resembles William Wordsworth. In his treatment of society and his mockery, bitterness, and humor, he resembles François Villon. In his interest in history, government, and economics, he resembles Ezra Pound.

Bibliography

Chou, Eva Shan. Reconsidering Tu Fu: Literary Greatness and Cultural Context. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Chou examines the styles and techniques of Du Fu’s poetry as well as his literary legacy. Contains some translations of poems. Bibliography and index.

Cooper, Arthur, comp. and trans. Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems Selected and Translated with an Introduction and Notes. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1973. The translations are generally excellent, and the extensive background material on the history of Chinese poetry and literature is helpful. Discusses Du Fu’s connection with Li Po.

Du Fu. The Selected Poems of Du Fu. Translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. A collection of Du Fu’s poems, translated into English by a noted specialist on China.

Du Fu. The Selected Poems of Tu Fu. Translated by David Hinton. New York: New Directions, 1989. A collection of Du Fu’s poetic works, translated into English.

McCraw, David R. Du Fu’s Laments from the South. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1992. An examination of Du Fu’s travels in Sichuan and his poetic output. Bibliography and indexes.

Pine, Red, trans. Poems of the Masters: China’s Classic Anthology of T’ang and Sung Dynasty Verse. Port Townsend, Wash.: Copper Canyon Press, 2003. A collection of poetry from the Tang and Song Dynasties that includes the work of Du Fu. Indexes.

Seaton, J. P., and James Cryer, trans. Bright Moon, Perching Bird: Poems by Li Po and Tu Fu. Scranton, Pa.: Harper & Row, 1987. This work, part of the Wesleyan Poetry in Translation series, features the works of Li Bo and Du Fu, two Tang poets. Provides some information on Tang Dynasty poetry.

Seth, Vikram, trans. Three Chinese Poets: Translations of Poems by Wang Wei, Li Bai, and Du Fu. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1992. A collection of poems by Du Fu, Li Bo, and Wang Wei. Commentary provides useful information.