Editing Du Mu (section)

==Biography==
Du Mu was born in the Tang capital [[Chang'an]] (modern [[Xi'an]]) into an elite family, the [[Du clan of Jingzhao|Jingzhao Du clan]], whose fortunes were declining.  His grandfather was [[Du You]], a minister at the Tang court and the compiler of the Tang Dynasty encyclopedia ''[[Tongdian]]''.  He passed the ''[[Jinshi (imperial examination)|jinshi]]'' ("Presented Scholar") level of the [[imperial civil service examination]] in 828 at the age of 25, and began his career as a bureaucrat holding a series of minor posts,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.renditions.org/renditions/authors/dum.html |title=Du Mu (Tu Mu) 803-852  |url-status=usurped |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515061429/http://www.renditions.org/renditions/authors/dum.html|archivedate=15 May 2011 }}</ref> first as an editor of at the Institute for the Advancement of Literature. A few months later, he joined the entourage of Shen Chuanshi ({{lang|zh|沈傳師}}), a surveillance commissioner, first to [[Nanchang|Hongzhou]], then a year later to [[Xuancheng|Xuanzhou]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Late Tang: Chinese Poetry of the Mid-Ninth Century (827-860) |first=Stephen |last=Owen|authorlink =Stephen Owen (academic)|publisher=Harvard University Asia Center |page=260 |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-674-03328-3 }}</ref>  In 833 he was sent to join [[Niu Sengru]] in [[Yangzhou]].   In Yangzhou he began to mature as a poet.  In 835 he was appointed investigating censor and returned to the capital where, possibly concerned about being drawn into a factional dispute involving his friend Li Gan who had opposed [[Zheng Zhu]], he asked to be transferred to [[Luoyang]].  This was granted, and he avoided the purge that followed the [[Ganlu Incident|Sweet Dew Incident]] which happened later in the year.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Late Tang: Chinese Poetry of the Mid-Ninth Century (827-860) |first=Stephen |last=Owen|authorlink =Stephen Owen (academic)|publisher=Harvard University Asia Center |pages=271–272 |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-674-03328-3 }}</ref>

Du Mu held many official positions in various locales through the years, but he never achieved a high rank, perhaps due to enemies made in the factional dispute at the imperial court in 835.  In 837 he returned to Yangzhou to care for his younger brother Du Yi who was sick and had become blind, then went to work in Xuanzhou, taking his brother with him.  In 838 he was appointed Rectifier of Omission of the Left and Senior Compiler of the History Office, and he returned to Chang'an. In 840 he was promoted to Vice Director of the Catering Bureau, then transferred to the position of Vice Director of the Board of Review in 841. Starting in 842 he was made governor of a succession of small poor rural prefectures, first [[Huangzhou]], then [[Chizhou]] and Muzhou.  Du was dissatisfied with the appointment and he appeared to blame it on [[Li Deyu]]. He began to feel his career was a failure and he expressed his dissatisfaction in his poems.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Late Tang: Chinese Poetry of the Mid-Ninth Century (827-860) |first=Stephen |last=Owen|authorlink =Stephen Owen (academic)|publisher=Harvard University Asia Center |page=289 |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-674-03328-3 }}</ref>

In 848 Du Mu returned to Chang'an after being appointed Vice Director of Merit Titles and was awarded his old post in the History Office. He was transferred to the post of the Vice Director of the Ministry of Personnel in 849, then was appointed governor of [[Huzhou]] in 850 at his own request. He was recalled to Chang'an in 851 to the post of Director of the Bureau of Evaluation and Drafter, and was appointed to the office of Secretariat and Drafter in 852.  He fell ill that winter and died before the next lunar year.