Chengdu, Sichuan

9. Poet Du Fu

Du Fu (about712-770) was born in China and raised as a Confucian, but failed to gain the government post he sought. He subsequently traveled throughout China, observing the conditions of the people and commenting on his impressions in poems. He was a friend of Li Po, and the Confucianism in his poetry sometimes complements the Taoism in Li Po's. His conviviality also complemented that of Li Po. Du Fu was an outspoken critic of the bloodshed in border wars and in the rebellions that often followed them. The poem below on the pressing of peasantry into military service, and the one that follows it, illustrate his opposition to war. The poem on fireflies shows him reflecting on his own mortality, while the poem on the parrot can be seen as a protest against the way beauty is trapped and imprisoned.