Because he lived near Shaoling in the south of the city when he was in Chang 'an, he called himself Shaoling at night. When I was in Chengdu, I was recommended as a foreign minister, a staff officer and a proofreader. Later generations also called him Du Shaoling and Du Gongbu.
Du Fu grew up in a family with a literary tradition of "serving Confucianism and guarding officials". Du Fu's grandfather Du Fu was a famous poet in the post-Wu period and a member of the official banquet. His father, Du Xian, served as Sima of Yanzhou and magistrate of Fengtian County. He began to learn poetry at the age of 7, and at the age of 15, poetry attracted the attention of Luoyang celebrities. From the age of 20, his life can be divided into four periods.
The roaming period was from the 19th year of Xuanzong Kaiyuan (73 1) to the 4th year of Tianbao (745). Du Fu wandered for a long time twice. The first time was in Jiangnan. He has been to Jinling and Gusu, crossed Zhejiang, and went boating in Tunxi until he reached the foot of Tianmu Mountain. In the twenty-third year of Kaiyuan, he returned to Luoyang to take the Jinshi exam and was not admitted. The following year, he began to roam Qi and Zhao for the second time. In his later years, he recalled the scene at that time: "On the occasion of Qi and Zhao, Qiu Ma was quite wild." During these two wanderings, he saw the beautiful and majestic mountains and rivers of the motherland, absorbed the cultures of Jiangnan and Shandong, broadened his horizons and enriched his knowledge. In the 29th year of Kaiyuan, I lived in shouyangshan between Luoyang and Yanshi, and probably married my wife Yang at this time. In the third year of Tianbao, Li Bai met in Luoyang. They traveled around Qilu, visited Taoism to find friends, talked about poetry and papers, and sometimes talked about current affairs, and formed a profound friendship. The following autumn, Du Fu will go west to Chang 'an, and Li Bai will revisit Jiangdong. They broke up in Yanzhou and never met again. Du Fu wrote many touching poems in memory of Li Bai.
During the Chang 'an period, from the fifth year of Tianbao to the fourteenth year of Tianbao, Du Fu lived in Chang 'an for 10 years, and his life, thoughts and creation all changed greatly. He went to Chang 'an to get an official position and make achievements. In the sixth year of Tianbao, people with skills were selected by Xuanzong to Kyoto, and Du Fu took the exam. However, due to Li's destruction, a famous China book, no candidate was selected. In the tenth year of Tianbao, Xuanzong held three grand ceremonies to worship Laozi, Imperial Palace and Heaven and Earth. Du Fu wrote three "Gifts", which was appreciated by Xuanzong, and ordered the Prime Minister to examine his writings, ready to go, and no more. He kept writing poems and giving them to powerful people, hoping to get their recommendation, but to no avail. Finally, You Wei led the government to join Cao Jun, which was the last day of Du Fu's stay in Chang 'an and the eve of An Shi Rebellion.
Zuo Shi was exiled from Su Zong to Deyuanzai (756) and Gan Yuan for two years (759). After the Anshi Rebellion, he went south and quickly occupied Luoyang and Chang 'an. Du Fu is now in Zhangzhou. He heard that Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty fled to the west of Sichuan and Su Zong ascended the throne in Lingwu, so he settled his family in Qiang village in the north of the city and went north to Lingwu alone. Unfortunately, the rebels stopped him and sent him to Chang 'an. Du Fu was caught in a thief for nearly half a year. He watched the solemn pacified capital desolate and miserable, and listened to the news that Tang Jun was wiped out after two counterattacks in Chen Tao and Qingban. He was filled with grief and indignation, and wrote such poems as Sad Chen Tao, Sad Qing Ban, Spring Hope and Aijiangtou.
Wandering in the southwest, from the first year of the reign of Su Zong Shang Yuan (760) to the fifth year of the reign of Da Li (770). 1 1 year, Du Fu spent eight years in Shu and three years in Jingxiang. Du Fu said that he was "wandering in the southwest between heaven and earth" in Kuizhou (Ode to Monument). In fact, he has lived in Chengdu for five years and his life is relatively stable. In the spring of the first year of Shangyuan, a thatched cottage was built near Huanhuaxi in the west of Chengdu, ending four years of exile and obtaining a place to live. He left the troubled and sorrowful Central Plains, and his eyes showed a beautiful pastoral scene. Flowers, birds, insects and fish seem to be attentive to him, which makes him temporarily rest from years of hard work and anxiety. He also wrote many poems, praising nature with infinite love. However, he never forgot those people who were exiled and had nowhere to live. In "The Song of Autumn Wind Breaking the Cottage", he sang the famous sentence "There are thousands of spacious buildings in Qian Qian, and the poor in the world are happy."
Four or five years in Dali is the last two years of Du Fu's life. He has no fixed address, and travels between Yueyang, Changsha, Hengzhou and Leiyang, spending most of his time on the boat. Dali died on a boat on the Xiangjiang River between Changsha and Yueyang in the winter of five years, at the age of 59. Before he died, he wrote a long poem with 36 rhymes, Sleeping on a Sleeping Boat in the Storm. There is a line in the poem that "the blood of the war is still there, and the sound of the army is still moving to this day", and he is still thinking about the disaster of the country. After Du Fu's death, the coffin was buried in Yueyang. It was 43 years later, that is, in the eighth year of Xian Zongyuan (8 13), and his grandson Du Cai was buried in shouyangshan, Henan.
During the period of 1 1, Du Fu wrote more than 1000 poems, accounting for more than 73% of all Du Fu's poems, most of which are modern poems-quatrains and metrical poems, as well as long poems.
Du Fu's poems are called "the history of poetry". However, Du Fu's poetry, as a "history of poetry", is not an objective narrative. They write history in the style of poetry, but at the same time, they deeply reflect the reality and express the author's mood through a unique style. Pu Qilong, a Qing Dynasty man, said: "Poems of Shaoling are a person's temperament, and things of the Three Dynasties must be sent to others." (Reading-Jie's Poems on Chronology of Shaoling) Most of Du Fu's poems involve major issues such as politics, economy, military affairs and people's life in Xuanzong, Suzong and Daizong periods, but they are permeated with the poet's true feelings everywhere. For example, Du Fu's two masterpieces in his middle age, From Beijing to Fengxian, Singing 500 Words and Northern Expedition, contain lyricism, narration, discipline, reasoning, observing nature, exposing social contradictions, inner conflicts, political aspirations and opinions, personal experiences and family misfortunes, disasters of the country and people, and hopes for the future. These two long poems contain such rich contents that the author's emotions fluctuate and his language gallops, which proves that he is keenly sensitive to various phenomena of nature and society in this unfortunate era. Such a poem is a self-report of the poet's life and heart, and also a portrayal of the times and society. The fate of individuals is closely related to the fate of the people of the country, and the two have also reached a high degree of artistic integration. Another example is "Going to Jionji Pagoda with Gentlemen" and "Aijiangtou", which are short in length, but also have this feature.
Du Fu regards poetry as a lifelong career and thinks that "poetry is my family's business" (Zongwu Holy Day). He began to study poetry at the age of seven and never stopped writing poetry until the eve of his death. From the Anshi Rebellion to his arrival in Chengdu, he wrote the most profound poems in the most difficult years. He was sickly in Kuizhou and wrote the most. He is rich in life experience, full of political enthusiasm for patriotism and love for the people, and has also made great efforts in artistic skills. "Words don't astonish and die endlessly" (Talking about the water on the river like the tide) and "Singing by a New Poet" (the seventh of twelve poems to relieve boredom) show his serious attitude in creation. Du Fu also commented on poems with poems, and expressed his thoughts of inheriting fine traditions and commenting on poets in ancient and modern times in "Drama is six quatrains" and "Twelve Poems for Relieving boredom" (the fourth to the eighth).
Du Fu greatly expanded the field of poetry in both content and form. Hu Zhenheng in Ming Dynasty said: "Entering poetry with current events began in Du Shaoling." This sentence (Tang Yin returns the money) is not entirely true, because before Du Fu, there were poems describing current events, but it is rare for Du Fu to go deep into the people, gain insight into the disadvantages of the times, and integrate all major issues with social significance into "amazing" poems. Yang Lun said: "Since the Six Dynasties, Yuefu imitated plagiarism, and Chen Xiangyin was the most disgusting. When Zi Mei came out, she felt what she felt at that time. When she went to Benjamin, she was in trouble. The people there were very poor. She asked questions at will and tried to get rid of the stereotypes of her predecessors. " Although this is a comment on "Three Officials" and "Three Farewells", it can also summarize most of Du Fu's important poems. Yuan Zhen wrote Du Fu's inscription on the tomb of Yuan Wailang Du Jun in the Tang Dynasty, saying that "since the poet, no one has ever been as beautiful as a child".
Du Fu's poems have various forms. Du Fu can master all kinds of forms of poetry best, and can make each form get new development. He is good at recording trekking, social Vientiane, people's life and many dramatic speech actions in five-character ancient poems. His writing style is vivid, which makes people feel that it is not limited to five words, and his tone is natural. The most obvious example is Qiang village, which gave eight guards, three officials, three farewells, was drunk by the mud of abundance, beautiful, strict, clean and so on. He is good at expressing uninhibited or depressed feelings in seven-character ancient poems, and expressing his views on politics and society, such as Drunk Songs for Zheng Guangwen, Washing Terracotta Warriors and Horses, Seven Poems of Yuan Qu Living in Bronze Drum, Autumn Wind Breaking the Cottage, Suiyan Hang and so on. Du Fu's five-character poems and seven-character poems are very skillful and have achieved great success, accounting for more than half of Du Fu's poems. Five-character poems were seen in Du Fu's roaming period, and most of the famous seven-character poems were produced after he arrived in Chengdu. Du Fu's profound feelings are condensed in the Five Laws and fully developed in the Seven Laws. Five methods, such as longing for spring, Li Bai at the end of the day, traveling after, "Delighting in Rain on a Spring Night", water sill to send the heart, guest night, nine days to board Zizhou City, conscription, night to express one's feelings, Sujiang Biange, climbing Yueyang Tower, and seven methods, such as books and buildings. Du Fu also wrote many five-character poems and several seven-character poems, which greatly developed the lines of poetry. For example, Li's "Autumn Guest Hundred Rhymes" is as long as 1000 words. Except for a few natural ones (such as five lines and ten rhymes to send Gong Yan to court, Ling Zhou Road to send your majesty to his post, and seven lines and two Qingming poems), most of them piled up too many allusions, which covered up rich emotions or filled the emptiness of entertainment content. The quatrains in Du Fu's poems were basically written in the last 1 1 year of wandering in the southwest. Due to the great achievements of Du Fu's classical poems and metrical poems, his quatrains are often ignored. However, Du Fu still made a lot of contributions to quatrains, expressing emotion on the spot, reflecting the riots and people's lives in central Sichuan, and absorbing the essence of folk songs.
Generally speaking, Du Fu is always hungry and cold, with the ambition of saving the world, living in poverty but not world-weariness; In terms of poetic art, it combines the achievements of classical poetry and innovates and develops it, which has a wide influence on later poets.