As Irving Lo has written of him in Sunflower Splendor: "Certainly no Chinese writer has mirrored in his work more completely the world he lives in than Tu Fu. Nor has anyone revealed himself with greater passion and candor, or displayed a greater dedication to his craft, or achieved such consummate mastery of his art." Lo's words echo what the Chinese have felt about this writer for more than 10 centuries, for he is revered as the finest poet China has ever produced.
Tu Fu truly is outstanding for his humility, his passion, his social concern, and his extraordinary experimentations with the shih form. Though he never passed the official examinations and held only minor posts, he wrote prolifically of his patriotic concern for the nation's welfare and his own search for the most suitable way to be true to himself and to serve society. He had the misfortune of living just as the T'ang dynasty was reeling under the great challenge of the An Lu-shan Rebellion. As a result, he spent some of his best years away from his beloved capital of Ch'ang-an seeking refuge from the incessant warfare and resulting social dislocations in the north. Two of his most moving ballads in the folk style are narrative accounts, one of meeting soldiers on the road, and the other of meeting an abandoned imperial prince on a crossroads near the capital after the emperor and his entourage have fled to the southwest.
Tu Fu's poetry is complex, polished, and emotionally powerful. One of his poems contains the line "If my words don't startle people, I won't rest even in death."
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