On April 6, 2020, the BBC launched a documentary on the theme of poetry, but its protagonist is not the well-known Shakespeare, Dante, and Whitman in the West, but the well-known "poet" Du Fu, the documentary is called "Du Fu: China's Greatest Poet", in which the BBC's most popular host historian Michael Wood retraces Du Fu's footprints, and Ian McKellen, the British national treasure actor and Gandalf actor in "The Lord of the Rings", recites Du Fu's English version. And invited Harvard University sinologist Yuwen Suoan, Chinese University professor Zeng Xiangbo and Oxford University Dr. Liu Tao to do multi-perspective professional interpretation. In this way, Du Fu was solemnly introduced to the world and caused a sensation.
Why was Du Fu treated so ceremoniously by the BBC? Perhaps, as the famous American sinologist Christopher Lupke said, Du Fu is the patriarch of ancient and modern Chinese poets. Ye Jiaying also believes that Du Fu is the master of realist poetry, and few people before Du Fu can face reality like him, so Du Fu is also known as the history of poetry.
However, Hong Ye, a well-known Chinese scholar in the United States, also commented in his only academic book, Du Fu: China's Greatest Poet: "The vast majority of Chinese historians, philosophers and poets place Du Fu in the highest palace of glory, because for them, when the poet Du Fu pursues the broadest diversity and deepest authenticity of poetry, Du Fu personally represents the greatest sympathy and the highest ethical standards." When talking about classical Chinese poets, Du Fu is the one who deserves the most "most" words.
But Xiaojun found that when we talk about Du Fu, what we can imagine is often the image of Du Fu in his later years. After all, of the more than 1,400 poems that Du Fu has handed down, more than 90% are written after he turned 40. As for Du Fu's early image, it is estimated that in the past two years, what impressed everyone the most was the complaint in "Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang'an", "Anyone who writes poets will be!" "The image of a bear child.
After all, under the influence of textbooks since he was a child, and with the blessing of Du Fu's surviving poems, he has long been fixed in the image of an elder who has been weathered and worried about the country and the people.
In fact, Du Fu was born in the most prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty, and as the son of an official eunuch, he also experienced the Johnson and prosperity of the Tang Dynasty.
His grandfather Du Xianyan was a famous poet and court in the Tang Dynasty, so he had the opportunity to watch Gongsun Auntie dance the sword at the age of 6; At the age of 9, he copied Yu Shinan's calligraphy; At the age of 12, you can often listen to the songs of Li Guinian. When he was young, he also chanted poetry in front of the palace and hunted in mountains and lakes.
As Li Bai's fan brother, he also followed the poet to find immortals and visit the Tao, and made an appointment to pick Yao grass. It's just that Li Bai is a transcendent immortal after all, and Du Fu is a down-to-earth person after all. So, after bidding farewell to Li Bai, Du Fu returned to Chang'an and stayed for ten years.
In the past ten years, what he has gained is not a prominent official position, but an understanding of reality. However, the saddest thing in life is that after enjoying the prosperity, he witnessed the decline of the country step by step. His footsteps have also gone from the garden of the aristocracy to the poor people.
When the smoke rose and the mansion was in decline, he watched the blood fall into the mountains and rivers and the people were displaced, but he couldn't do anything, because he was also in this dire situation.
He became more and more familiar with the days of hunger and cold, and the birth of his son also made Du Fu's life more and more embarrassing. However, he resigned from the position given by the imperial court. In the corruption of the troubled times, being an official means whipping the people, which is so cruel to Du Fu that it is unbearable, but in exchange for this, his youngest son who is less than one year old dies of hunger.
However, his starving son made him feel sorry for the whole world. After all, as a poor man who was hungry and cold, he still had some privileges. He didn't have to do military service, he didn't have to pay taxes, and even if he lived like this, the suffering of others was even more conceivable.
Therefore, with the pen in his hand, he recorded the tragedy he personally experienced, and wrote "New Officials", "Stone Trench Officials", and "Tongguan Officials" called "Three Officials", and "Farewell to the Newlyweds", "Farewell to the Elderly", and "Farewell to the Homeless" called "Three Farewells".
He wrote the suffering people into his poems, and the injustice of the troubled times into his poems, and gradually became the poet we know.
In the end, the 59-year-old Du Fu was destitute and died quietly on a lonely boat.
And the portrayal of his life is as the poem of the Song Dynasty poet Xu Jun said:
Thousands of miles away alone, the soul of poetry ends up in Huanhua Village.
Rather be poor than freeze and starve to death, how can you forget the Supreme in one meal?
Du Fu" Du Fu's life went from prosperity to embarrassment, but what we see in his poems is not from lamentation of his own fate, but from compassion for the fate of most people.
Wang Guowei once said: "Heaven achieves a man with a hundred evils." ”
But Du Fu is in a predicament, writing about the greatness of human nature.