Tu fu chinese poet biography

Tang dynasty Chinese poet (–)

In this Chinese name, the family name is Du (Tu).

Du Fu (Chinese: 杜甫; pinyin: Dù Fǔ; Wade–Giles: Tu Fu; –) was a Chinese poet and politician during the Tang dynasty. Together with his elder contemporary and friend Li Bai, Du is often considered one of the greatest Chinese poets. His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant, but Du proved unable to make the necessary accommodations. His life, like all of China, was devastated by the An Lushan rebellion of , 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, Horace, Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth, Béranger, Hugo or Baudelaire".

Life

Traditional Chinese literary criticism 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. 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

This is a Chinesename; the family name is Du (Tu).

Du Fu (Chinese: 杜甫; pinyin: Dù Fǔ; AD) was a Chinese realisticpoet. He was also called Zi Mei. Du Fu is often regarded, along with Li Bai and Wang Wei, as one of the three greatest poets in China's literary history. He has been called Poet-Historian and the Poet-Sage by Chinese critics. Today we know about 1, of his poems. His poetry describes human suffering that he had witnessed throughout his life. It also reflected on the troubled times during the Tang Dynasty. In he was forced to flee his home and was separated from his family for a year.

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References

• Chou, Eva Shan; (). Reconsidering Tu Fu: Literary Greatness and Cultural Context. Cambridge University Press. ISBN&#;
• Hung, William; (). Tu Fu: China's Greatest Poet. Harvard University Press. ISBN&#;

Du Fu ( AD) is regarded by many Chinese as their greatest poet. He was well known in his day, and made friends with other poets such as Li Bai, another famous poet in the Tang dynasty. As a member of the elite in society he lived in the capital at Chang’an, now known as Xi’an. Later he was dubbed the 'Poet Historian', for writing down what he saw with his own eyes during the An Lu Shan rebellion. Du Fu saw the terrible time that war-torn China suffered, especially the pain and suffering amongst the ordinary people, and the court running away from the capital.

This poem called ‘Spring Scene’ describes what it feels like when the poet finds himself alone in the middle of occupied Chang’an, despairing of his hopes for his country. In this poem he writes about the season of spring in the capital with nature blossoming in ignorance of what is happening to the people, although he can imagine that the birdsong and the dewdrops reflect his own feeling. Yet his sense of isolation from his friends and his family ends the poem on an almost comic note as he ruefully reflects on his thinning hair.

Du Fu was a prolific poet, consummate in the art of poetry but spent his life trying to get into the upper echelons of government, which he never really succeeded. He did not make much money and died in virtual penury. He was considered by his peers as a good poet, living as he did at a time that produced excellent poetry, but it was not until a couple of hundred years later in the Song Dynasty was he acclaimed as a ‘Sage Poet’ for his compassion for others, especially the lowly, in his many poems throughout his life.

Du Fu’s poems do not usually come through very well in translation it must be admitted. Perhaps the nearest to reading the poems in the original is to look at David Hawkes’ ‘A Little Primer of Tu Fu’ (the poet’s surname is sometimes transliterated as &

Highly recommended to anyone interested in Chinese traditional poetry and culture, and the way it is received in China today. I looked at an aspect of Michael Wood&#;s In the Footsteps of Du Fu: China&#;s Greatest Poet (1) in my last post (2). This is a full book review. The back cover provides an accurate basic summary of its contents: &#;For a thousand years Du Fu ( CE) has been China&#;s most loved poet. Born into the golden age of the Tang Dynasty, he saw his world collapse in famine, war and chaos. The poet and his family became impoverished refugees, but his profound vision and his empathy for the sufferings of humanity endured, and have endeared him to readers ever since. &#; Broadcaster and historian Michael Wood follows in Du Fu&#;s footsteps on a pilgrimage through the physical and emotional landscapes of his life and work&#;.

The book, lavishly illustrated, is divided into 24 chapters. Many of these are headed by place names. Michael Wood visited most of them on his own journey, talking with scholars and enthusiasts and also taking time to observe the very different China of today. The narrative is somewhat tilted towards the last 15 years of Du Fu&#;s life, when the War of An Lushan (3) displaced Du Fu and turned him into an internal refugee, constantly on the move, for the rest of his life. It is also seen as the period of his best poetry.

The first chapters of the book emphasise the easy optimism of Du Fu&#;s early years. A new Emperor, himself a painter, musician and poet, launched a cultural rebirth. He was a patron of libraries and scholars. He ruled a prosperous and peaceful country. Du Fu writes nostalgically of childhood years in which &#;rice was succulent &#; the granaries were full, and there was not a robber on the road in all the 9 provinces of China&#;. Growing up in the city of Gong-yi on the Yellow River, the son of an Imperial official, Du Fu looked forward to a successful life as both official and poe