In the second year of Du Fu Zhide (757), he was awarded the left legacy, and in June of the following year, he was demoted to Huazhou Sigong to join the army. This is another important turning point in Du Fu's life trajectory. We were very surprised to find that the invisible hand had a good grasp of the fate of the future poet!Probably in the eyes of the mysterious "master", Du Fu has been in office for a year, and he already knows a lot about all aspects of government affairs, and it is meaningless to stay any longer.
After Du Fu was demoted, the number of poems reflecting social reality began to increase. The extremely prestigious "Three Officials" and "Three Farewells" were written when Ren Huazhou Sigong joined the army. When Du Fu later drifted to Kuizhou, he also recalled: "I used to be a Peng's official to Sanfu, and I remembered a lot of poetry in Tongguan. (Gorge Views).
In July of the second year of the Qianyuan Dynasty (759), Du Fu abandoned his official position due to disappointment with the government and the great hunger in Guanzhong, and took his family to Qinzhou (now Tianshui, Gansu)—a new turning point. It seems that everything is under God's control, and everything is developing according to God's arrangement. The two periods of official time are two years in total. If Du Fu's career is smooth, he has been an official and has been promoted, he will deviate from the life track of the poet's growth. In fact, as long as he is politically unethical, Du Fu is really not suitable to be an official, or officialdom is not suitable for Du Fu to stay for a long time. Look at the "Qujiang Two Songs" and "Qujiang Wine" written when he was Ren Zuo, you can see how bad his mood is. As for "The Case of the Bitter Heat in Early Autumn", which was written in Huazhou, the depressed and depressed mood was even worse than when Ren Zuo picked up the relics.
Du Fu was unable to solve the problem of food and clothing in Qinzhou, and took his family to Tonggu (now Chengxian County, Gansu), but the situation in Tonggu was even worse. In this case, a new turning point is bound to occur. According to the war situation at that time and the geographical location of Tonggu, the east, north and west directions do not need to be considered, only to the south, into Shu. Although the road to Shu is extremely difficult, there is no choice.
From Qinzhou to Tonggu, Du Fu wrote twelve poemsFrom Tonggu to Chengdu, Du Fu also wrote twelve poems. These two long journeys can be regarded as an opportunity for Shangcang Yu to become Du Fu's landscape poems. The twenty-four poems are basically landscape poems. Although Du Fu is not known for his landscape poetry, his attainments in landscape poetry are unparalleled. is also difficult to write about Shu Dao, Du Fu's "Mupiling" is better than Li Bai's famous "Shu Dao Difficult". Li Bai's "Shu Road Difficulty" is mainly fictional, he has not walked through Shu Dao, and there is no way to write without fiction. Du Fu wrote the difficulty of Shu Road, which was written based on his own personal experience, mainly based on real writing, and Pu Qilong said that "the plank road map may not be able to".
Next is the period of "five years of Keshu County, one year of living in Zizhou". Chengdu and its surrounding areas have provided Du Fu with a large enough stage for life. After Du Fu entered Shu, except for the period of avoiding chaos in Zi, Lang and other places (the time was about one year and eight months), it was relatively difficult, but it was generally relatively comfortable. Before Du Fu entered Shu, he had been wandering for a long time, he was too tired, and he urgently needed a peaceful place to recuperate. The western suburbs of Chengdu is an ideal place to live, where it avoids the hustle and bustle of the city, but it is not far from the city, in terms of transportation, life is stable, the neighborhood is scarce but simple and kind, and there are friends who are officials to take care of, it is indeed suitable for living.
This period was an important period in Du Fu's creative career. Different from Du Fu's poems in other periods, among the 430 poems written in this period, there are a large number of pastoral poems with the theme of daily life and natural scenes. Why did Du Fu's idylls suddenly increase during the Shu period?This is because the poet has been suffering from mourning and physical and mental exhaustion for many years, and now that he has made his home in the suburbs of Chengdu, he can finally breathe a sigh of relief. First, he is in a calm mood, and secondly, he has more leisure time, which makes it easy for him to be interested in his daily life and the plants and trees around him, and to discover the beauty of art. It is not surprising that his observations are so keen, and his use of language is so handy, that there has been a great increase in idyllics.
However, the arrangement of fate did not let Du Fu grow old here, and Du Fu himself had no intention of living in Shu. As a result, Du Fu started the next stage of his life - the Kuizhou (now Fengjie, Chongqing) period.
Du Fu lived in Shu for five or six years, composed 430 poems, and the average annual output was amazingIn less than two years in Kuizhou, he composed more than 430 poems, and the average annual output is even higher, which is even more amazing. Masterpieces such as "Five Songs of the Generals", "Eight Songs of Autumn Xing" and "Five Songs of Yonghuai Monuments" were all composed during this period.
Kuizhou and Chengdu are far apart, although Kuizhou is still in the large range of "Bashu", but the terroir of Bazhou and Shu is very different. Du Fu's poems mostly have distinctive regional characteristics, Shu poems mostly have the breath of Shu landscapes, and Kuizhou poems are often branded with Kuizhou scenery. In Du Fu's later years, the times were turbulent, his livelihood was difficult, and he was adrift. It seems that God intended to let Du Fu leave poems of different styles and regional characteristics to the world.
Compared with the Central Plains, Kuizhou is a relatively remote place. The poets of the Tang Dynasty, although there were many people who passed through Kuizhou by waterway, there were probably very few who lived in Kuizhou for a period of time. Du Fu has lived in Kuizhou for nearly two years, maybe this is fate. The majestic and magnificent scenery of the White Emperor City and Qutang Gorge provided an opportunity for Du Fu's creative inspiration, so Du Fu was lucky;Du Fu wrote a lot of poems about the White Emperor City and Qutang Gorge, which can be said to be a protruding peak in Tang poetry, so Kuizhou is even more lucky.
Du Fu believed that Kuizhou was "more than good in form" ("Reading Things in the Gorge"), and his younger brother Du Guan sent a letter from Jiangling, urging him to live in Jiangling. So Du Fu left Kuizhou with his family and went to Jiangling. Unexpectedly, during the period in Gangneung, he lived in poverty and was very unsatisfactory. About half a year later, Du Fu and his family wandered to Yuezhou (now Yueyang), Tanzhou (now Changsha), Hengzhou (now Hengyang) and other places in Hunan. During the period of wandering in Jingxiang, Du Fu's physical condition was even worse than before, and his life situation was even more difficult. However, with amazing perseverance, the poet composed more than 150 poems in less than three years, fully demonstrating his always vigorous creative vitality. In terms of overall style, the poems of this period are more tragic.
If Du Fu doesn't leave Kuizhou, he and his family will still have enough food and clothing. He was spared the pain of displacement and lived longer. His poetry creation, when he was in Chengdu Thatched Cottage, was already worthy of the title of "Poetry Saint", why should God bear to let the poet suffer more?Perhaps, God is to do the ultimate in the creation of poetryPerhaps, what God is looking for is the effect of tragedy.
There are many famous poets in the Tang Dynasty, why is Du Fu the only one called the poet saint?The reason why Du Fu became a poet saint is the result of many subjective and objective factors. In his "Commentary on Du Fu", Mr. Mo Lifeng discussed the "conditions for giving birth to a 'poet saint'", mentioning factors such as the era, family, endowment, and acquired academic ability. I thought it would be worth adding that it's called "serendipity". In terms of era, family, endowment and academic ability, there are many poets who are similar to or relatively close to Du Fu, but none of them have become poets. Why?Because the opportunity has not yet arrived. Looking at Du Fu's turbulent and tortuous life experience, we have to sigh how important "chance" is to create a "poetic saint". Maybe we don't have to sigh for Du Fu's fate, because all the arrangements of God for Du Fu's fate seem to be rushing to create a "poet saint" who has never been seen before or since.