# Du Fu
Du Fu (杜甫), courtesy name Zimei (子美), was a poet and minor official of the [Tang dynasty](https://www.edgepedia.org/tang-dynasty) whose family came originally from Xiangyang (襄阳) and later settled in Gong county (巩县) in Henan; he served the emperors Xuanzong (玄宗) and Suzong (肃宗) in a sequence of low and middle-ranking posts and became, in the judgment of the Tang essayist Yuan Zhen (元稹), the greatest poet since antiquity.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) According to the China Biographical Database, he lived from 712 to 770, dying at 59.[2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0003915)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name and courtesy name | Du Fu (杜甫), courtesy name Zimei (子美)[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) |
| Dates | 712–770, death age 59[2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0003915) |
| Principal offices | Right Reminder (右拾遗) under Suzong; Huazhou 司功参军; military counselor (节度参谋) and acting Vice Director in the Ministry of Works (检校工部员外郎) under Yan Wu in Chengdu[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) • [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0003915) |
| Best-known act | The memorial defending the dismissed chancellor Fang Guan (房琯), which cost him his court post[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) |
| Epithets | Du Gongbu (杜工部), Du Shiyi (杜拾遗), and the honorific Shisheng (诗圣), "Poet Sage"[2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0003915) |
| Burial | Moved by his grandson to a grave before Shouyang Mountain (首阳山) in Yanshi (偃师县)[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) |
| Works | A collected works in about 50 juan, per the Old Tang History[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) |
## Origins and family
According to the *Old Tang History*, whose biography of him opens with the family line, his great-grandfather Du Yiyi (杜依艺) ended his career as magistrate of Gong, his grandfather [Du Shenyan](https://www.edgepedia.org/du-shenyan) (杜审言) as 膳部员外郎, and his father Du Xian (杜闲) as magistrate of Fengtian (奉天令).[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) The CBDB row adds his wife, a daughter of the Yang family (杨氏), at least two sons, Du Zongwen (杜宗文) and Du Zongwu (杜宗武), and the grandson Du Siye (杜嗣业) who later handled his burial.[2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0003915) According to *Changwang Qianqiu: Du Fu's Confucian Thought and Its Practice*, in a memorial of his own Du Fu traced the family's commitment to "Confucian learning and official service" back to his ancestors Du Shu (杜恕) and Du Yu (杜预), a self-description modern scholars cite as evidence of a Confucian scholarly lineage.[3](https://gdxk.ccut.edu.cn/__local/9/54/E0/5D4FEC0FF66A2964DCA167AC302_2ACF7379_13C079.pdf)
## Career
Du Fu sat for the jinshi examination in the early Tianbao era and failed.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) Late in the Tianbao period he presented the *Three Great Rites Rhapsodies* (三大礼赋); Xuanzong was impressed, summoned him for a test of his writing, and appointed him 兵曹参军 of the Jingzhao prefectural government.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) He was named District Defender of Hexi but did not take up the post, accepting instead the post of 胄曹参军 of the Right Guard.[2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0003915) • [4](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_27617113)
When [An Lushan](https://www.edgepedia.org/an-lushan) took the capital in the fifteenth Tianbao year, Suzong was raising troops at Lingwu (灵武); Du Fu escaped by night from the occupied capital, made his way west, and was appointed Right Reminder (右拾遗) at Pengyuan (彭原郡).[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) According to *Recollection without Tranquility*, this close-service period lasted from early summer 757 to mid-758, after which he never again served near an emperor.[5](https://www11.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/storage/w2_file/1501MzZQtQa.pdf) The turning point came over [Fang Guan](https://www.edgepedia.org/fang-guan) (房琯), a friend from before either man had office, who had asked to lead an army against the rebels and was defeated at Chentaoxie (陈涛斜) that October. When Fang was dismissed as chancellor the following spring, Du Fu submitted a memorial arguing that Fang was talented and should not be removed. Suzong was angered, demoted Fang to a provincial governorship, and sent Du Fu out of court as 司功参军 of Huazhou (华州).[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下)
With the region around the capital in disorder and grain prices soaring, he moved to Tonggu county (同谷县) in Chengzhou, carrying firewood and gathering wild grain; the history records that several of his children starved to death.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) He was later summoned as 功曹参军 of Jingzhao.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) In the winter, when Yan Wu (严武), the Duke of Zheng, took command in Chengdu (成都), he recommended Du Fu as military counselor (节度参谋) with the acting title of Vice Director in the Ministry of Works, and the crimson fish pouch was bestowed on him.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) The two families were old connections and Yan treated him generously, but the biography describes Du Fu as petulant and unrestrained, and tells how he once climbed onto Yan Wu's bed while drunk and stared at him, saying, "Yan Tingzhi could have such a son as this!"[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) A modern study calls this episode fiction from the storytellers' tradition and notes that the two men's own writings show a friendly relationship.[6](https://dushuhao.com/library/chapter/14362/7.html)
After Yan Wu died in the summer, Du Fu had no patron, and the province fell into chaos: Guo Yi'ai (郭英乂) replaced Yan and was killed by Cui Ning (崔宁), while Yang Zilin (杨子琳) attacked the west of Sichuan. Du Fu took his family east through the gorges toward Jingzhou (江陵) and the Yangtze region, but found Jiangling in revolt, moved up the Xiang River, visited Mount Heng (衡山), and settled at Leiyang (耒阳). Blocked once by floodwater for ten days without food, he was fetched back by the county magistrate in his own boat.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下)
## Political influence
Du Fu's direct mark on government was brief and came through the remonstrator's office. His one documented act of policy intervention, the memorial against Fang Guan's dismissal, failed in its object and ended his court career.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) A study of his political thought notes that he had set out to "assist the ruler to surpass Yao and Shun," criticized Xuanzong's border wars and heavy taxation in his poetry, and, while the An Lushan rebellion was still unfinished, warned in verse that regional commanders might become warlords defying the center.[7](https://www.dushuhao.com/library/chapter/14362/1.html) Yet the same modern assessment that credits this sensibility concludes that his concern for the weak gave his poetry great moral authority while having no concrete practical effect on policy.[5](https://www11.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/storage/w2_file/1501MzZQtQa.pdf) His longer institutional influence ran through values rather than office: Chen Ruoshui (陈弱水) judges that Du Fu "can undoubtedly be seen as a precursor figure of the mid-Tang Confucian revival."[3](https://gdxk.ccut.edu.cn/__local/9/54/E0/5D4FEC0FF66A2964DCA167AC302_2ACF7379_13C079.pdf) Whether he belonged to Fang Guan's political faction is itself disputed; one recent study argues he belonged to no fixed faction, his social identity being an interweaving of Confucian clansman, court remonstrator, and itinerant poet.[8](http://cxtc.magtechjournal.com/CN/Y2026/V41/I2/123)
## Death, titles, and heirs
The Old Tang History places his death at Leiyang, after eating beef and drinking white wine in a single evening, at age 59; the CBDB row gives 770 (the fifth year of Dali) as his death year, which is the generally accepted year, though scholars have also proposed other dates.[2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0003915) • [1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) • [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0003915) Modern scholars largely reject the death-by-feasting account; one monograph argues that his late years were marked by severe chronic illness (diabetes-like wasting and rheumatic complaints), which was the real cause of death.[9](https://www.ch.ntnu.edu.tw/BOC/downloadfile.php?issue_id=13&paper_id=92&periodicalsPage=2) • [6](https://dushuhao.com/library/chapter/14362/7.html) His son Du Zongwu died in exile in the Hu and Xiang region.
## Assessment
The Old Tang History pairs him with [Li Bai](https://www.edgepedia.org/li-bai) (李白) as the poets of the late Tianbao years, but records that Li Bai, proud of his own unbounded style, mocked Du Fu's constrained manner in the Fandang Mountain jest.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) The chapter then quotes in full Yuan Zhen's Yuanhe-era comparison of the two, which ranks Du Fu far above: "if one takes him as doing what others could not, then since poets began there has been none like Zimei."[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) Writers after Yuan Zhen accepted that judgment.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下) The New Tang History's surviving sentences on him are brief but include the note that he wrote the *Eight Lamentations* (八哀诗) on learning of Li Yong's death under false accusation, and a poem of his praising a friend's forty years of literary fame.[10](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/新唐書/卷202)
The two histories differ in tone. According to the preface to *Dushi Xiangzhu* on the Congta library site, the Old Tang History paints a man of "narrow temper and no measure" who presumed on favor, while the New Tang History praises his integrity through the disorders, saying his songs grieved for the times and that he never forgot his ruler, so that people pitied his loyalty.[11](https://www.congta.com/shu/c/CXwoFAyl) • [12](https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1782544565168981.html)
## Legacy
Reverence for Du Fu began within decades of his death. Around 772 the prefect Fan Huang (樊晃) gathered 290 of his poems into six juan, the *Small Collection of the Ministry of Works Gentleman Du* (杜工部小集).[12](https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1782544565168981.html) In 1039 Wang Zhu (王洙) compiled the twenty-juan *Collected Works of Du Gongbu* with 1,405 poems and 29 prose pieces, and in 1059 [Wang Qi](https://www.edgepedia.org/wang-qi) (王琪) and others revised it and printed 10,000 copies.[12](https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1782544565168981.html) Yuan Zhen's tomb inscription, written at Du Siye's request, fixed the literary verdict.[12](https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1782544565168981.html) The title "Poet Sage" (诗圣) was formally bestowed in the late Ming, when Wang Sishi (王嗣奭) wrote, "the Lotus is titled Poet Immortal; my old master is titled Poet Sage."[12](https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1782544565168981.html) In the [Yuan dynasty](https://www.edgepedia.org/yuan-dynasty), Emperor Shundi conferred the posthumous title Wenzhen (文贞) on Du Fu, as the *Yuan History* records for the fourth month of the third Zhiyuan year (至元三年).[13](https://news.neamco.com/2025-07/11/content_38146687.htm)
Memorial sites spread across the places he lived. Santai county, where he lived a year and eight months between 762 and 764, has had at least four Du Fu memorial buildings, including a modern cottage opened to visitors in September 1987 on a site of over 10,000 square meters.[15](https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20220110A026FI00) In Pingjiang, Hunan, a tomb and shrine complex first built in the Tang and repaired in 1883 stands beside a local Du lineage said to descend from him, now in its sixtieth generation with more than 2,000 members.[13](https://news.neamco.com/2025-07/11/content_38146687.htm)
## References
1. 《旧唐书》卷一百九十下 (biography of Du Fu), Wikisource transcription. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/舊唐書/卷190下
2. China Biographical Database (CBDB), person 3915 杜甫. https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0003915
3. 《怅望千秋：杜甫的儒家思想及其践行》, academic paper. https://gdxk.ccut.edu.cn/__local/9/54/E0/5D4FEC0FF66A2964DCA167AC302_2ACF7379_13C079.pdf
4. 《三万里长安，五千年中华，仅此一诗圣》, The Paper. https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_27617113
5. "Recollection without Tranquility," Academia Sinica Institute of History and Philology repository. https://www11.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/storage/w2_file/1501MzZQtQa.pdf
6. 《杜甫学史》第7章 唐五代. https://dushuhao.com/library/chapter/14362/7.html
7. 《杜甫学史》第1章 绪论. https://www.dushuhao.com/library/chapter/14362/1.html
8. 《角色与诗心：杜甫的社会身份及其诗歌创作》, journal article. http://cxtc.magtechjournal.com/CN/Y2026/V41/I2/123
9. 《重组杜甫的面貌》, National Taiwan Normal University journal article. https://www.ch.ntnu.edu.tw/BOC/downloadfile.php?issue_id=13&paper_id=92&periodicalsPage=2
10. 《新唐书》卷二百零二, Wikisource transcription. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/新唐書/卷202
11. 《杜诗详注》序, Congtao Library. https://www.congta.com/shu/c/CXwoFAyl
12. 《青莲号诗仙，我翁号诗圣：杜甫是如何从「诗史」到「诗圣」的？》, Beijing News. https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1782544565168981.html
13. 《大地上的孤舟》, Guangming Online. https://news.neamco.com/2025-07/11/content_38146687.htm
14. 《杜甫》, Bashu Quanshu. https://ahcm365.com/html/mingxiangudai13024152475509.html
15. 《三台杜甫草堂的千年兴衰》, news report citing the *Xinxiu Tongchuan Fu Zhi*. https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20220110A026FI00
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Asian history › China › Early Tang (618 to 755) › Religion, arts, and scholarship*
*Initially written Sep 23, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license