Editing Du Fu (section)

== Works ==
[[File:Dongqichang Dufu Shi.jpg|thumb|400px|A calligraphic copy of Du Fu's poem "Zui Ge Xing" by [[Dong Qichang]]]]

Criticism of Du Fu's works has focused on his strong sense of history, his moral engagement, and his technical excellence.

=== History ===
Since the [[Song dynasty]], critics have called Du Fu the "poet for history" ({{lang|zh-Hant|詩史}}, ''  shī shǐ'').<ref>{{cite book|last=Schmidt|first=Jerry Dean|title=Harmony Garden: The Life, Literary Criticism, and Poetry of Yuan Mei (1716–1798)|publisher=Routledge|year=2003|isbn=978-0-7007-1525-1|location=London|pages=420}}</ref> The most directly historical of his poems are those commenting on [[military tactic]]s or the successes and failures of the government, or the poems of advice which he wrote to the emperor. Indirectly, he wrote about the effect of the times in which he lived on himself, and on the ordinary people of China. As Watson notes, this is information "of a kind seldom found in the officially compiled histories of the era".{{Sfn|Chou|1995|p=xvii}}

Du Fu's political comments are based on emotion rather than calculation: his prescriptions have been paraphrased as, "Let us all be less selfish, let us all do what we are supposed to do". Since his views were impossible to disagree with, his forcefully expressed truisms enabled his installation as the central figure of Chinese poetic history.{{Sfn|Chou|1995|p=16}}

=== Moral engagement ===
A second favourite [[epithet]] of Chinese critics is that of "poet sage" ({{lang|zh-Hant|詩聖}}, ''shī shèng''), a counterpart to the philosophical sage, [[Confucius]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Yao|first1=Dan|title=Chinese Literature|last2=Li|first2=Ziliang|publisher=China Intercontinental Press|year=2005|isbn=978-7-5085-0979-2|location=Beijing|pages=82}}</ref> One of the earliest surviving works, ''The Song of the Wagons'' (from around 750), gives voice to the sufferings of a [[conscription|conscript]] soldier in the imperial army and a clear-sighted consciousness of suffering. These concerns are continuously articulated in poems on the lives of both soldiers and civilians produced by Du Fu throughout his life.{{Sfn|Watson|1984|p=xvii}}

Although Du Fu's frequent references to his own difficulties can give the impression of an all-consuming [[solipsism]], Hawkes argues that his "famous compassion in fact includes himself, viewed quite objectively and almost as an afterthought". He therefore "lends grandeur" to the wider picture by comparing it to "his own slightly comical triviality".{{Sfn|Hawkes|2016|p=204}}

Du Fu's compassion, for himself and for others, was part of his general broadening of the scope of poetry: he devoted many works to topics which had previously been considered unsuitable for poetic treatment. Zhang Jie wrote that for Du Fu, "everything in this world is poetry",{{Sfn|Chou|1995|p=67}}  Du wrote extensively on subjects such as domestic life, calligraphy, paintings, animals, and other poems.{{Sfn|Davis|1971|p=140}}

=== Technical excellence ===
Du Fu's work is notable above all for its range. Chinese critics traditionally used the term {{lang|zh-Hant|集大成}} (''jídàchéng'', "complete symphony"), a reference to [[Mencius]]' description of [[Confucius]]. [[Yuan Zhen]] was the first to note the breadth of Du Fu's achievement, writing in 813 that his predecessor "united in his work traits which previous men had displayed only singly".{{Sfn|Chou|1995|p=42}} He mastered all the forms of [[Chinese poetry]]: Chou says that in every form he "either made outstanding advances or contributed outstanding examples".{{Sfn|Chou|1995|p=56}} Furthermore, his poems use a wide range of [[Register (sociolinguistics)|registers]], from the direct and [[colloquial]] to the [[allusion|allusive]] and self-consciously literary.{{Sfn|Owen|1981|pp=218-219}} This variety is manifested even within individual works: Owen identifies the, "rapid stylistic and thematic shifts" in poems which enable the poet to represent different facets of a situation,{{Sfn|Owen|1981|p=184}} while Chou uses the term "juxtaposition" as the major analytical tool in her work.{{Sfn|Chou|1995|pp=107-192}} Du Fu is noted for having written more on poetics and painting than any other writer of his time. He wrote eighteen poems on painting alone, more than any other Tang poet. Du Fu's seemingly negative commentary on the prized horse paintings of [[Han Gan]] ignited a controversy that has persisted to the present day.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lee|first=Joseph J.|date=Summer 1970|title=Tu Fu's Art Criticism and Han Kan's Horse Painting|journal=[[Journal of the American Oriental Society]]|volume=90|issue=3|pages=449–461|doi=10.2307/597089|jstor=597089}}</ref>

The tenor of his work changed as he developed his style and adapted to his surroundings ("[[chameleon]]-like" according to Watson): his earliest works are in a relatively derivative, courtly style, but he came into his own in the years of the rebellion. Owen comments on the "grim simplicity" of the Qinzhou poems, which mirrors the desert landscape;{{Sfn|Owen|1997|p=425}} the works from his Chengdu period are "light, often finely observed";{{Sfn|Owen|1997|p=427}} while the poems from the late Kuizhou period have a "density and power of vision".{{Sfn|Owen|1997|p=433}}

Although he wrote in all poetic forms, Du Fu is best known for his ''[[Lüshi (poetry)|lüshi]]'', a type of poem with strict constraints on form and content, for example:
{{Text and translation|Language=[[Chinese language|Chinese]]|
<poem>
Leaving the Audience by the quiet corridors,
Stately and beautiful, we pass through the Palace gates,
Turning in different directions: you go to the West
With the Ministers of State. I, otherwise.

On my side, the willow-twigs are fragile, greening.
You are struck by scarlet flowers over there.
Our separate ways! You write so well, so kindly,
To caution, in vain, a garrulous old man.</poem>
|<poem>{{lang|zh|窈窕清禁闥，
罷朝歸不同。
君隨丞相後，
我往日華東。}}

{{lang|zh|冉冉柳枝碧，
娟娟花蕊紅。
故人得佳句，
獨贈白頭翁。}}</poem>
|"Memorial in Reply to a Friend's Advice" ({{lang|zh|奉答岑參補闕見贈)}}.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kizer|first=Carolyn |date=Summer 1964|title=Versions from Tu Fu|journal=[[The Hudson Review]]|volume=17|issue=2|pages=226–230|doi=10.2307/3848394|jstor=3848394}}</ref>}}

About two-thirds of Du Fu's 1500 extant works are in this form, and he is generally considered to be its leading exponent. His best ''lǜshi'' use the parallelisms required by the form to add expressive content rather than as mere technical restrictions. Hawkes comments that "it is amazing that Tu Fu is able to use so immensely stylized a form in so natural a manner".{{Sfn|Hawkes|2016|p=46}}