Du Fu

Lore & Background

Most of what is known of Du Fu's life comes from his poems. His paternal grandfather was Du Shenyan, a noted politician and poet during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian (r. 690–705). Du Fu 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, ancestral hometown of the Du family. His 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. 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. In the early 730s, he travelled in the Jiangsu and 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 took the Imperial examination, likely in Chang'an. He failed, to his surprise and that of centuries of later critics. After this failure, he went back to travelling, this time around Shandong and Hebei. His father died around 740. In the autumn of 744, he met Li Bai 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. The relationship was somewhat one-sided: 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. In 746, he moved to the capital to 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 (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), the first of a series of ailments which dogged him for the rest of his life. In 755, he 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.

Reader's Guide

Du Fu's significance lies in how he turned the chaos of the An Lushan rebellion into enduring poetry. The rebellion began in December 755 and was not completely suppressed for almost eight years. It caused enormous disruption: 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. During this time, Du Fu led a largely itinerant life unsettled by wars, associated famines and imperial displeasure. 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.' Even when he learned of the death of his youngest child, he turned to the suffering of others: 'Brooding on what I have lived through, if even I know such suffering, the common man must surely be rattled by the winds.' His well-known poem 'The View in Spring' (Chūn wàng 春望) movingly conveys a glimpse of life in Chang'an under rebel occupation. After escaping from Chang'an in 757, he was appointed Reminder, but caused trouble by protesting the removal of his friend Fang Guan. He was arrested but pardoned in June. In 758 he was demoted to Commissioner of Education in Huazhou. He moved on in summer 759, traditionally ascribed to famine, but Hung believes frustration is more likely. He spent around six weeks in Qinzhou, writing more than sixty poems. In December 759 he journeyed to Chengdu, where he was hosted by Prefect Pei Di. His time in Chengdu was one of the happiest and most peaceful periods of his life, with many poems depicting life in his simple thatched cottage. In 762 he left to escape a rebellion, but returned in summer 764 when appointed an advisor to Yan Wu. In spring 765 he and his family sailed down the Yangtze, intending to reach Luoyang, but were held up by his ill-health—poor eyesight, deafness, and general old age in addition to previous ailments. They stayed in Kuizhou at the entrance to the Three Gorges. Chinese critics call him the 'Poet-Historian' and the 'Poet-Sage', while Western readers have compared him to Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth, Béranger, Hugo, or Baudelaire.

Did You Know?

• Du Fu's earliest surviving poem, describing a poetry contest, is thought to date from around 735.
• He met Li Bai in the autumn of 744, and they formed a friendship; Du wrote twelve poems to or about Li Bai, but only one exists from Li Bai to Du Fu.
• The An Lushan rebellion caused the Chinese census to drop from 52.9 million people in 754 to just 16.9 million ten years later.
• Du Fu had five children—three sons and two daughters—by 757, but one son died in infancy in 755.
• From 754 he began to have lung problems (probably asthma), the first of a series of ailments that dogged him for the rest of his life.