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Du Fu

Original nameDu FuAlsoThe Poet-Sage

The "Poet-Sage," who wrote an age’s suffering into verse

Those Who Pinned the Moment to Forever · Poets
PoetryRealismHomelandSuffering

Who they are

The great High-Tang poet named with Li Bai, revered as the "Poet-Sage," his verse called "poet-history." His life was one of wandering; he lived through the An Lushan rebellion and wrote the drift and destitution of the people in war, and his own hardship, line by line into his poems. "Behind red gates meat and wine go to waste; on the road lie the bones of the frozen dead"; "the state shattered, mountains and rivers remain." His verse, deep and halting, holds a scholar’s deepest compassion for homeland and all under heaven. If Li Bai is the immortal in the sky, Du Fu is the man on the earth.

Primary sourcesThe Collected Works of Du Fu

Key stories

His Thatched Hut Wrecked by the Autumn Wind

In his later years Du Fu lived in a broken thatched hut in Chengdu; the roof was torn off by the autumn wind, and his whole family shivered through a rainy night. In just such straits he wrote "My Thatched Hut Wrecked by the Autumn Wind," ending: "Oh for a mansion of ten thousand rooms, to shelter all the world’s cold scholars in joy!" — himself shivering, yet thinking of every suffering soul having a roof. This reaching from oneself to all is the very weight of the title "Poet-Sage."

Relationships

Disciple
🌕Su Shi　later masters such as Su Shi privately took Du Fu as their model🐸Matsuo Bashō　Japan’s haiku sage Bashō too was deeply steeped in Tang poetry, Du Fu among it
Ally
🍶Li Bai

Echoes today

Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.

"Poet-history" and love of homelandDu Fu wrote an age’s suffering into verse, his poems called "poet-history"; the reaching from oneself to all of "oh for a mansion of ten thousand rooms" became the model expression of the Chinese scholar’s love of homeland.

Appears in

Tang and Song: The Golden Age of PoetryThe "Immortal Poet" Li Bai and the "Poet-Sage" Du Fu
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