Du Fu (712-770) was a great poet of the Tang dynasty, called the "Poet Sage" and a close friend of the "Poet Immortal" Li Bai. His life was hard, and seeing the suffering of ordinary people, he wrote many moving poems.
His poetry is called "a history in verse" because it records the era. "Behind vermilion gates meat and wine go to waste; on the road lie frozen bones" captures the luxury of the rich and the misery of the poor. He wrote about himself — and about the people.
While living in Chengdu, Du Fu built the "Du Fu Thatched Cottage", now a beautiful park and museum. To know Du Fu, visit the cottage in Chengdu — quiet and poetic.
Du Fu (712-770), the great Tang poet, is paired with Li Bai as "Li Du". If Li Bai is the romantic "Poet Immortal", Du Fu is the realistic "Poet Sage" - his verse records the true history of the Tang decline and is called "poetic history".
His life was hard: born to a scholarly family, he sought office in Chang an as a young man, then the An Lushan Rebellion broke out. Displaced by war, he witnessed the suffering of ordinary people and wrote masterpieces like the Three Officials and Three Partings. "Wine and meat rot behind vermilion gates, frozen bodies lie on the road" - ten characters that capture the cruelty of inequality.
His most famous poem is Spring View: "the state is broken, hills and rivers remain; in the city spring, grass and trees grow deep. Moved by the times, flowers shed tears; hating parting, birds startle the heart." With the country in ruins, every blossom brings tears.
His poetry holds warmth as well as suffering. In Song of My Thatched Hut Broken by the Autumn Wind, with his own roof gone, he dreams: "when will a mansion of ten thousand rooms shelter all the poor scholars in the world with joyful faces?" This empathy for others makes Du Fu the poet of the people.
Chengdu Du Fu Thatched Cottage, where he spent his late years, is now a world-class cultural landmark - ancient trees, winding streams and stone inscriptions of his poems, the best place to understand him.
His influence runs deep: he founded the tradition of realism and social critique and is honoured as the Poet Sage. Reading Du Fu today, we read not only verse but the resilience and compassion of the Chinese people facing hardship.
A reading tip: read Du Fu poems in the order of his life - from the young ambition of Gazing at Mount Tai, to the wartime sorrow of Spring View, to the empathy of the Thatched Hut song. You will see how a man grows deep and warm through hardship - that is why we still read Du Fu after 1,300 years.
If you plan to visit Chengdu, put the Thatched Cottage on your list without regret: volunteer guides offer free sessions on Du Fu life, and between red walls and bamboo shadows sits a teahouse where reading Spring View over an afternoon becomes a miniature cultural journey.
Another must-read is Climbing High, called by critics "the best regulated verse of all time": "endless forests shed their leaves, rustling down; the long river never stops its rolling on." Fourteen characters capture autumn desolation and the passage of life. While reading, notice the parallelism: both lines match in length and structure - the beauty of Chinese prosody.
