Confucian Prophet: Political Thought In Du Fu’s Poetry (752–757) ...

Confucian tradition encompasses many currents of thought and many developments of a set of original ideas themselves not definable in monolithic terms. Moreover, the tradition tended toward syncretic absorption of ideas from diverse sources. What strain of Confucian thought is Du most plausibly identified with? Are there other currents of thought that one can plausibly identify in Du’s poetry? Are there nuances in his thought relative to the inherited tradition? Does Du’s poetry contain possible philosophical innovations? It is not possible to pose these questions when his poetry is read within the parameters of a predetermined model. The result is that these and many other questions have not been asked.

Thus, my focus does not emphasize Du the author but rather Du as the implied author or poetic persona; it emphasizes language and poetic structure. These latter considerations open new views into how political thought might be seen more clearly in Du’s poetry when read as a literary and philosophical construct in dialogue with the literary and philosophical tradition, rather than as a record of direct experience. I am concerned less with the conflation of the man and his writing and more with the problem of how one can read Du’s poetry as objects of philosophic contemplation and analysis. I do not seek to deny Du his authorial voice. Nor do I seek to reduce his poetry to mere “texts” as an exercise in structuralist or poststructuralist criticism. What I seek to do is to concentrate on the relationship between Du’s language and political ideas, to restore the fabric of the literary and philosophical tradition upon which Du embroiders his poetry, for it is in contrast to the fabric that the embroidered design acquires its color.³

From this perspective, one can ask about the world of political ideas in Du’s poetry. One can ask whether there is a philosophical view of the nature of the ideal king and whether that idea is consistent with classical models or with later ideas of the emperor as cosmic pivot. One can also ask whether there is an idea of order in the universe and, if so, whether it is mechanistic or moral in nature. One can ask whether