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

(718–772); Dugu Ji 獨孤及 (725–777); and Yan Zhenqing 顏真卿 (709–784), all contemporaries of Du.⁷ Du Fu was arguably among the very first writers to respond to these events. Whereas most scholars began a reassessment of Tang political culture sometime after the rebellion, Du wrote his most important political poems in direct response to events, not in retrospect but while in progress, as a witness to their reality. As noted previously, “Climbing the Pagoda” was composed in 752 and “Traveling from the Capital” in 755, just before the rebellion, and the rest of them were written as the wars to suppress the insurrection raged. Du therefore is unique in that his thought encompasses both the rebellion and the condition of Tang politics prior to it.

Second, Du’s poetic representations are of actual institutions and events. They are inherently political. The settings and the issues they deal with naturally lead to philosophical inquiry not just about their momentary significance but about their political nature, their value as institutions in the context of the poem. For example, Du depicts the imperial court in several poems in a state of political decline. This raises questions concerning why the court is dysfunctional and against what ideal standard it is depicted as such. Similarly, if the floods in the capital area in 754 became a political issue of consequence in elite factional conflict, what does the appearance of flood imagery in almost all of these poems have to say about the philosophical tradition that sees floods as important political events? This logic applies to all of the imagery in the poems considered here.

The second obstacle has to do with methodology. Having eschewed the tendency so strong in Du Fu studies to conflate the poet with the poem, I am left with the language of the poem. In that regard, I cited earlier some of the New Critical theorists as guides toward a concentration on the implied author and poetics, including certain structural features of poetry such as the juxtaposition of scenes, imagery, association, resonance, and so forth. But I do not wish to go so far as to say that the investigation of these poems should be entirely ahistorical or that