Tu Fu was a great Chinese poet of the T'ang (618-907) dynasty.

 

He is known as a poet-historian for his portrayal of the social and political disorders of his time and is also noted for his artistry and craftsmanship.

 

Born in Kung-hsien, Honan, of a scholar-official family, Tu Fu lost his mother in early childhood. His father, a minor district official, remarried, and the boy lived for some time with his aunt in Loyang, the eastern capital. In his youth he travelled widely in the Yangtze River and Yellow River regions. He first met the poet Li Po (c. 701–762) in 744 in North China and formed a lasting friendship with him. In 746 Tu Fu went to Ch'ang-an, the capital, in search of an official position, but he failed to pass the literary examination or to win the support of influential people. In 751 he sent a fu (rhymed prose) composition to the emperor for each of three grand state ceremonials. While the emperor appreciated Tu Fu's literary talents, he failed to award the poet an office or payment.

 

After a long, uneventful wait in Ch'angan, where Tu Fu's resources were exhausted and his health declined, he was offered a minor position at court. Just then the An Lushan rebellion broke out (December 755). The country was thrown into chaos when rebels tried to overthrow the T'ang Dynasty. The rebels captured Tu Fu, but he escaped. He lived the life of a refugee (someone forced away from home for political reasons) for some time before he was able to join the new emperor's court in exile, a court set up in foreign lands after being ousted. As a reward for his loyalty, he was appointed "Junior Reminder" in attendance upon the emperor. In late 757 he returned with the court to Ch'ang-an, which had been recovered from the rebels, but he did not stay there long. He had offended the emperor with his advice and was banished (sent away) to a provincial post, or a remote border post. He soon gave it

 

up and in the fall of 759 started a long journey away from the capital.

 

Tu Fu spent the next nine years (759–768), the most fruitful period of his poetic career, in various cities in Szechwan, China. He settled down with his family in Ch'eng-tu, the provincial capital, where he built a thatched cottage and led a quiet, happy, though still extremely poor life. Occasionally he had to go from one city to another to seek employment or to escape uprisings within the province. For a year or so, he was appointed by Yen Wu, the governor general of Ch'eng-tu district, as military adviser in the governor's headquarters and assistant secretary in the Board of Works. Upon Yen Wu's death in 765, Tu Fu left Ch'eng-tu for a trip that took him to a number of places along the Yangtze River. Three years later he reached Hunan. After having roamed up and down the rivers and lakes there for almost two years (768–770), he died of sickness on a boat in the winter of 770.

 

Tu Fu's poetry

 

The rich and varied experiences in Tu Fu's life went into the making of a great poet. His works reveal his loyalty and love of the country, his dreams and frustrations, and his sympathy for the sad status of the common people. He was an eyewitness to the historical events in a critical period that saw a great, prosperous nation ruined by military rebellions and wars with border tribes. Eager to serve the country, Tu Fu was helpless in stopping its disasters and could only faithfully record in poems his own observations and feelings. While some of his poems reflect his mood in happier moments, most of them tell of his poverty, his separation from and longings for his family, his terrible life during the war, and his encounters with refugees, draftees, and recruiting officers.

 

Tu Fu possesses a remarkable power of description, with which he clearly presents human affairs and natural scenery. Into his poetry he introduces an intense, dramatic, and touching personalism through the use of symbols and images, irony and contrast. Above all, he has the ability to rise above the world of reality to the world of imagination. An artist among poets, he excelled in a difficult verse-form called lü-shih (regulated verse), of which he is considered a master.

 

 

Tu Fu

 

 

 

 

Lady Kung-sun's Dance of the Sword Mime

 

 

 

Translated by Arthur Cooper

 

 

 

 

 

A great dancer there was,

the Lady Kung-sun,

And her 'Mime of the Sword'

made the World marvel!

 

Those, many as the hills,

who had watched breathless

Thought sky and earth themselves

moved to her rhythms:

 

As she flashed, the Nine Suns

fell to the Archer;

She flew, she was a Sky God

on saddled dragon;

 

She came on, the pent storm

before it thunders;

And she ceased, the cold light

of frozen rivers!

 

Her red lips and pearl sleeves

are long since resting,

But a dancer revives

of late their fragrance:

 

The Lady of Lin-ying

in White King city

Did the piece with such grace

and lively spirit

 

That I asked! Her reply

gave the good reason

And we thought of those times

with deepening sadness:

 

There had waited at Court

eight thousand Ladies

(With Kung-sun, from the first,

chief at the Sword Dance);

 

And fifty years had passed

(a palm turned downward)

While the winds, bringing dust,

darkened the Palace

 

And they scattered like mist

those in Pear Garden,

On whose visages still

its sun shines bleakly!

 

But now trees had clasped hands

at Golden Granary

And grass played it's sad tunes

on Ch'u-tang's Ramparts,

 

For the swift pipes had ceased

playing to tortoiseshell;

The moon rose in the East,

joy brought great sorrow:

 

An old man knows no more

where he is going;

On these wild hills, footsore,

he will not hurry!

 

Tu Fu

 

 

 

 

At an Evening picnic

 

 

 

Translated by Arthur Cooper

 

 

 

i

 

Sunset's the time to take the boat out

 

When a light breeze raises slow ripples,

 

Bamboo hidden in the picnic place

 

And lotus fresh in the evening cool.

 

 

 

But while the bucks are mixing iced drinks

 

And beauties snow a lotus salad,

 

A slip of cloud comes black overhead:

 

Before it rains my sonnet must end.

 

ii

 

It has rained too, soaked those on the seats

 

As a squall rose to beat the boat side,

 

The girls of Yueh wear wet scarlet skirts

 

And those from Yen weep tears of eyeblack:

 

 

 

The painter peels its bough on the bank,

 

The curtains curl and flowers strew the foam;

 

All the way home there's a howling storm

 

And on the shore is Autumn in June!