General
High Tang
Middle Tang
Late Tang

Activities...

Games
Lesson Plan
Quiz

From 713 to 765, there existed three of the most well known poets in all of Chinese history: Li Bai, Du Fu, and Wang Wei. Each possessing a distinctly different style, together they define an important era of literature.

Li Bai (710-762)

Li Bai is the most famous poet of all time. Known as the "Poet Immortal", his style is romantic and subjective. He celebrated drinking, friendship, nature, along with solitude and passage of time. With an imaginative mind, Li brought a fresh approach to old themes. He was influenced by Confucian philosophy, as shown through The Book of Poetry, which reflects northern culture. Also affected by Taoist principles, he wrote The Verse of Chu, a representation of southern culture.

This poet's life can be summed up by his contemporary Du Fu's "To Li Bai Quatrain":

When autumn comes, you're drifting still like thistledown;
You try to find the way to heaven, but you fail.
In singing and drinking dead your days are drown.
For whom will fly the roc? For whom will leap the whale?

As seen here, Li Bai spent much of his life drinking and letting time pass by. He could not serve his country, due to the Confucian ideal, nor could he find the Taoist spiritual freedom, which was to seek the way to heaven. He traveled a great deal, but never sat the imperial exams or held a post for long. Because he rarely mentioned specific contemporary events in his poetry, little is known about his life or his exact movements. He is known to have married several times and have had children, and to have had deep Taoist interests. During his service to Prince Yong, the emperor who feared that his son would usurp his powers killed the prince. Li was implicated in the plot and was exiled to the southwest. Later, he was pardoned and wandered around. Despite the condemnation and his restlessness, Li made great impression on other poets of his time, and served as a paradigm.

In Li's work, he portrays the natural grace of nature, as seen in "The Moon over Mount Brow"; he depicts images of the sublime and graceful, the swift and the fierce; he describes human feelings, comparing them to natural phenomena. Li's poetry is also marked by masculine grandeur, as seen in "Watching from Afar the Waterfall on Mount Lu". In general, his poetry can be described as sunny and calm. From his work, his lively imagination and deep sensitivity to beauty are revealed with the tireless search for spiritual freedom. Some say that the vigor and flamboyance of Li's poetry is only a façade that covers the loneliness in his life. His longer poems were composed in irregular meters, which represented the author as heady and daring. Even though the poet saw himself as a man in heroic and romantic opposition to the world, and was torn by nostalgia, he achieved great success in his lifetime.

Du Fu (712-770)

Du Fu was Li Bai's opposite in many ways, despite the fact that they were friends. Known as "Poet Sage" or "Poet Historian", Du bemoaned the passage of time, instead of appreciating it. He was a satirist and a critic, and his style was much more realistic as opposed to Li's romanticism. He held a reputation for versatility, having expert use of all types of poetic style, as well as mastery of regulated verse. He possessed the strong Confucian sense of duty, and served in the Tang Dynasty in hopes to assuage the ills of the nation.

Du Fu was born into a distinguished, yet not wealthy, family in Henan province. His grandfather was also a famous poet, and his literary promise was shown as early as in his teens. After failing to pass the imperial exams in his early 20's and 30's, he realized that he still needed the salary of an official. In 755, a minor office low in the official hierarchy was given to him, but the An Lushan Rebelilion in 756 broke out, and he was caught by rebels and brought to Changan. Many of his greatest pieces date from this period. Luckily, in 757, Du was appointed a higher rank as a reward for loyalty. Unfortunately, he soon lost this position as well. In the last decade of his life, he wrote half of his 1450 poems. Du Fu undertook a journey down the YangTze River in 765 and fell ill on the way. He died while traveling in 770.

Du Fu's poetry explicitly described the grief of famine and misrule, reproaching men in power, as seen in the following couplet:

The mansions burst with wine and meat;
The poor die frozen on the street.

Du's attitude towards nature is different from Wang Wei's and Li Bai's: not retreat or drama, but an emotional or moral entity set in human life. His realistic style and less lonesome perspective are what separated him the most from Li Bai --the only poet who matched his ability-as seen in the following chart:

Describing ...	Li	Du
Yangtze R.	The endless river rolls beyond the azure sky (view from one mind)	The endless river rolls its waves from hour to hour (obvious to all)
Sailing through Three Gorges	In his own joy	Joy of family and everyone
Clouds/Birds	Poet lonely as the cloud and free as the bird	Observer of rising clouds and fleeting birds
Rain	Did not like it; coming from "dark, dark clouds"	Happy to see it; "mutely moisten all"
Feelings	More personal; lonely but detached from solitude	More sympathetic; lonely and could not free self from attachment to the dynasty

Wang Wei (699?-761)

A painter, musician, and writer, Wang Wei was a leading poet in the High Tang. Born into a distinguished literary family, Wang was a young prodigy who passed the civil service exam at merely 23 years of age. He led a long distinguished career in government service, but spent periods of banishment or voluntary withdrawal to the countryside. A devout Buddhist, his entire poetic output is characterized as so many Buddhist sermons. Wang enjoyed nature, celebrating the quiet joys of rural life in his work. He found calm affirmation in poetry, which was reflected through his pieces. He always filled his series of posts, but remained more interested in country life.

Wang Wei's poetry shows impartiality, solitude, and describes quiet retreat into nature. It is associated with running water, evening and dawn, bamboo, and absence of the voices of man. Emptiness is Wang's signature style. Although he is best known for descriptions of life in the country, he also often composed works of the public nature, relating to court functions.