Character Catalog

One of Du Fu's first great political poems, denouncing the endless wars waged by Emperor Xuanzong on the frontiers. It marks the beginning of the realistic and humanist style that would define the greatness of his work.

Composed during his captivity in Chang'an, then occupied by rebel forces, this eight-line poem is one of the most celebrated in all of Chinese literature. Through striking imagery, it conveys the anguish of witnessing one's country torn apart by war.

A series of six narrative poems depicting the devastation of civil war on ordinary people: forced conscription, family separations, and grief. Masterpieces of social realism, these poems are sometimes compared to the novels of Victor Hugo for their compassion toward the downtrodden.

A poem born from a domestic incident — a storm that destroyed his hut — transformed into a universal meditation on human suffering. Its conclusion, expressing a wish for shelter for all the poor of the world, is one of the finest expressions of humanism in world poetry.

A sequence of eight lyric poems composed in Kuizhou when Du Fu was old and ill. Regarded as the technical pinnacle of his art, they combine perfect formal mastery with profound melancholy, and are studied in every major Chinese anthology.

A collection of approximately 1,500 poems attributed to Du Fu, compiled after his death. It is one of the richest poetic corpora in classical Chinese literature, spanning forty years of creative output.

The empire is broken; mountains and rivers remain. Spring comes to the city; grass and trees grow deep. Moved by the troubled times, even flowers draw tears; grieved by separation, even birds break the heart.

Carts rumble, horses neigh, soldiers march with bows and arrows at their belts. Fathers, mothers, wives, and children run to see them off; the dust of Xianyang swallows the bridge.

Ah! If only a vast mansion of a thousand rooms could suddenly appear, sheltering all the poor scholars of the world, every face bright with joy! Even if my hut alone were ruined and I froze to death — that would be enough for me!

The old man of Shihao — soldiers come in the night to seize men. The old man escapes over the wall; his old wife goes out to meet them. The soldiers' fury is fearsome, the old woman's lament is bitter.

White dew devastates the maple forests of Wu and the Gorges; the waves of the Wushan river touch the sky in dark mist. The chrysanthemums have bloomed twice — tears for days gone by; the solitary boat has always been moored to my homeward heart.

Capital of the Tang dynasty and the most populous city in the world at the time, with over one million inhabitants. Du Fu spent many difficult years there, failing the imperial examinations and seeking a position at court, before being driven out by the An Lushan Rebellion.

Du Fu had this modest bamboo-and-thatch dwelling built in 759, on the banks of the Huanhua River in Chengdu. He lived there for four relatively peaceful years and composed more than 240 poems; the site is now a classified national museum.

An ancient imperial capital where Du Fu spent his childhood and youth, and where he met Li Bai in 744. The city was sacked during the An Lushan Rebellion, and Du Fu mourned its destruction in several poems.

Du Fu passed through these spectacular gorges during his journeys between Chengdu and Hunan. This grand and melancholy landscape inspired his celebrated 'Autumn Meditations', composed at Kuizhou (present-day Fengjie) while he was held back by illness.

It was on the shores of this great lake in Hunan that Du Fu spent his final years, drifting from town to town on a boat, sick and destitute. He died there in 770, far from everything he had ever known.