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

four, there is a general consensus on a body of specific texts and authors that should form the basis of a revival of culture following the rebellion. Among these are the Shi jing, the Zuo zhuan 左傳, Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi 荀子 (313–238 BC), Qu Yuan, Song Yu, Jia Yi, Yang Xiong, Ban Biao 班彪 (3–54), and Wang Can 王粲 (177–217). While Li Hua maintained that with Qu Yuan and Song Yu “the six classics became concealed,” he still considered them important writers who expressed their lamentations over the loss of virtue in their own age.²⁴

That Du Fu’s view toward the revival of portions of the literary canon at this moment in history was largely in agreement with the consensus described here is shown by his engagement, as seen in the chapters that follow, with roughly the same range of texts and authors, the Shang shu, Shi jing, Chu ci, Zuo zhuan, Mencius, the Analects 論語, Xunzi, Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒 (180–115 BC), Jia Yi, the Shanhai jing 山海經, and the Jian’an poets, among others.²⁵ Also central to Du’s poetry of this age is the Wen xuan 文選, which contains many of the writings listed here and many more. The Wen xuan was probably one of the most important influences over the literary minds of most of the scholars and writers of the age. Yoshikawa Kojiro asserts that this is Du’s primary source text.²⁶ Its importance cannot be doubted, for its prestige in the Tang was at great heights. Li Shan’s 李善 (630–689) commentary was accepted into the imperial library in 758, and under Xuanzong, who personally promoted its study, its influence was felt in the choice of topics for the jinshi 進士 examination, the “Presented Scholar” exam all scholars were required to pass in order to qualify for government service.²⁷ One more source in particular is worth noting here, the poetry of Tao Qian. Although he is not often considered a part of the fugu movement in literature or the scholarly enterprise of reviving the principles of the ancients in political and intellectual culture, Tao Qian’s influence in the Tang was nearly pervasive in both literary and intellectual terms. Wendy Swartz argues that it was the Song poets who began to abandon the Tang tendency toward Tao’s “sequencing of images and imagery as narration” in favor of a more serious engagement with Tao’s philosophical ideas,