Du Fu

Du Fu, styled Zimei and self-styled Shaoling Ye Lao (Hermit of Shaoling), was a native of Gongxian during the Tang dynasty and one of China’s greatest realist poets. His life spanned the cataclysmic An Lushan Rebellion, during which he endured exile, displacement, and firsthand experience of the people’s suffering—inspiring masterpieces such as the 'Three Officers' and 'Three Partings', and 'My Thatched Roof Swept Away by Autumn Gales', among over one thousand surviving poems collectively hailed as the 'Poetic History'. Deeply concerned for state and society, he wrote, 'All my life I worry for the common people; sighing, my bowels burn with fervent heat.' In his later years, he lived in poverty and ill health at the Thatched Cottage in Chengdu and later in Kuizhou, yet his poetic artistry matured ever further—marked by rigorous tonal discipline, somber depth, and rhythmic intensity—earning him the title Sage of Poetry. For over a millennium, his verses have drawn commentaries from countless scholars, giving rise to the literary phenomenon known as 'A Thousand Commentaries on Du Fu'. Students and poets venerate Du Fu, praying for unbroken continuity of the literary tradition and an inexhaustible spring of poetic inspiration.