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Du Fu

Type Figure Region China Time 712–770 Also known as Du Zimei、Shaoling Yelao、Du Gongbu

Du Fu (712–770), courtesy name Zimei, self-styled Shaoling Yelao, the master of Tang-dynasty realist poetry, paired with Li Bai as 'Li and Du' and re…

Timeline

  1. 735–755Gong County (Henan Prefecture) · HenanDu Fu came from the Du clan of Jingzhao; as a youth he read widely, travelled through Qi and Zhao, and in the third year of Tianbao met Li Bai and Gao Shi in Liang and Song. Repeatedly failing the examinations, he spent ten years stranded in Chang'an, witnessing the extravagance of the powerful and the decline of scholars, and his style grew increasingly somber.
  2. 756–770Chengdu · SichuanAfter the outbreak of the An Lushan Rebellion Du Fu was displaced and wandering; he served as Left Reminder, later abandoning office to travel west, building a thatched cottage at Chengdu. In his later years he drifted through Jing and Xiang, his poetry growing ever more forceful, writing many famous pieces on war and popular suffering, and finally dying on a boat on the Xiang River.

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