Du Fu’s Political Perspectives: His Outlook on Governorships and his Response to Yuan Jie’s Daozhou Verses

Abstract

This article explores Du Fu’s political outlook by comparing his career with that of his contemporary Yuan Jie. These two men knew of each other from their late youth. Both started their official careers late; both were interested in withdrawal and the retired life. But where Du Fu abandoned his official career from 759, to lead an itinerant life dependent on others for support, Yuan went on to serve under dangerous conditions. When in 767 Du Fu read two angry poems in which Yuan Jie as governor of Daozhou in Hunan in 764 had charged central government commissioners with extortionate tax demands, he expressed fulsome admiration for Yuan’s stand. This article agrees with Daniel Hsieh (Tang Studies 32 (2014): 1–20, “Meeting Through Poetry: Du Fu’s 杜甫 (712–770) ‘Written in Accord with Prefect Yuan’s “Ballad of Chongling”’”) that Du Fu in his tribute to Yuan intended to justify his own identity as a poet, contrasting his literary achievement with Yuan Jie’s as a serving official. But it also provides a different perspective on their relationship to explain Du Fu’s reluctance to let Yuan see his tribute.

Keywords:

• Du Fu
• Yuan Jie
• prefectural governors
• the retired life
• verse describing popular suffering

Notes on Contributor

David L. McMullen served for nearly four decades as a University Assistant Lecturer, Lecturer, and Professor of Chinese in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge. He retired in 2006 but remains a Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge.

Notes

1 William Hung, Tu Fu, China’s Greatest Poet (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1952), 124, 209; “Tu Fu Again,” Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 10 (1974): 3–4; Eva Shan Chou, Reconsidering Tu Fu (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995); Charles Hartman, “The Tang Poet Du Fu and the Song Dynasty Literati,” CLEAR 30 (2008): 43–74.

2 Stephen Owen, The Poetry of Du Fu (Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2016, 6 Volumes), 1:liv, lxii. My debt to Professor Owen’s monumental work will be apparent in the following pages. I have used his poem nos. to cite Du Fu’s verse in my notes. But translations of Tang verse in this article are my own.

3 Tang Studies 32 (2014): 1–20. Hsieh, “Meeting Through Poetry,” 4–6, translates in full Du Fu’s poem praising Yuan Jie.

4 For Yuan Jie, see the nianpu and appendixes in Sun Wang 孫望 ed., Xin jiao Yuan Cishan ji 新校元次山集 (rpt. Taipei: Shijie shuju, 1964, hereafter YCSJ and Sun, Nianpu). I have followed this chronology for Yuan Jie. For Du Fu, I have usually followed the chronology in Xiao Difei 蕭滌非et al. ed., Du Fu quanji jiaozhu 杜甫全集校注 (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 2013, hereafter DFQJJZ), passim and the nianpu by Zhang Zhonggang 張忠綱, Du Fu nianpu jianbian 杜甫年譜簡編, DFQJJZ 12:6511–77, hereafter Du Fu nianpu.

5 Chen Yixin 陳貽焮, Du Fu pingzhuan 杜甫評傳 (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2003), 1013.

6 DFQJJZ 8:16.4813–22; Owen, 5:191–93, Poem 19.10; YCSJ appendix 1, 161–62. See Chou, Reconsidering Du Fu, 15, 32, n. 72.

7 For an exceptionally insightful analysis of Du Fu’s engagement with the literary tradition, see Nicholas Morrow Williams, “Sashimi and History: On a New Translation of Du Fu,” China Review International 21 (2014): 201–44.

8 For Yuan Jie, see YCSJ, Appendix 4; for Du Fu, Hung, Tu Fu, 17–19.

9 DFQJJZ 7:14.4083; Owen, 4:303, Poem 16.17; Zhao Jianming 趙建明, Du Shenyan yanjiu 杜審言研究 (Chengdu: Ba Shu shushe, 2016), 149–50.

10 YCSJ 7.108, “Yu Lü xiang gong shu” 與呂相公書.

11 Sun, Nianpu, 20; DFQJJZ 7:14.4084, and n. 25 on p. 4094; Owen, 4:307, Poem 16.17; Hung, Tu Fu, 28, 181.

12 DFQJJZ 1:2.277; Owen, 1:51, Poem 1.35.

13 YCSJ 7.100–101, “Qie zhong ji xu” 篋中集序. This preface come close to defining this culture.

14 Du Fu nianpu, DFQJJZ 12:6514. For Du Fu in Chang’an in 746, see DFQJJZ 11:22.6340–45.

15 Sun, Nianpu, 17–18. Chen, Du Fu pingzhuan, 103–4 indicates this was a decree examination.

16 For Du Fu, see DFQJJZ 1:1.148; Owen, 1:43, Poem 1.32; for Yuan see YCSJ 7.105, “Bie Han Fangyuan xu” 別韓方源序.

17 YCSJ 4.51–53, “Yu you” 喻友.

18 DFQJJZ 1:1.148; Owen, 1:43; Poem 1.32; Chen, Du Fu pingzhuan, 105; DFQJJZ 1:2.276; Owen, 1:51, Poem 1.35; DFQJJZ 1.2.328; Owen, 1:100–104, Poem 2.31.

19 Hung, Tu Fu, 69.

20 See D. L. McMullen, “Recollection without Tranquility: Du Fu, the Imperial Gardens and the State,” Asia Major 14 (2001): 194–95. See also Zhang Yue’s 張說 xingzhuang 行狀 for Du Fu’s hero Guo Yuanzhen 郭元振 (656–713), Wen yuan ying hua 文苑英華 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1966), 972.5b: si zhi Yao Shun 思致堯舜.

21 YCSJ 7.107–8, “Yu Lü xiang gong shu” 與呂相公書; cf. YCSJ 5.74–75, “Shu shi” 述時.

22 YCSJ 5.77, “Shu ju” 述居, gives a description of the site and his life style.

23 YCSJ 4, 54–55, “Gai lun” 丐論; YCSJ 8.130–31, “Yu He yuanwai shu” 與何員外書.

24 YCSJ 5.64–65, “Chu gui” 處規.

25 For Yan Zhenqing and his connections with Yuan Jie, see Amy McNair, The Upright Brush: Yan Zhenqing’s Calligraphy and Song Literati Politics (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1998), 35, 50–53, 126.

26 YCSJ 2.22, “Xia ke yao” 下客謠.

27 Hung, Tu Fu, 29–30; 180–81; DFQJJZ 7:14.4083; Owen, 4:303, Poem 16.17.

28 Sun, Nianpu, 20.

29 Hung, Tu Fu, 67–68; 79–80. DFQJJZ 11:22.6373–80, dated 751; DFQJJZ 1:2.328, dated 753; Owen, 1:100–105, Poem 2.31; Xianyu had been heavily defeated in Yang Guozhong’s 楊國忠Nanzhao 南詔 campaign; Yang Guozhong had concealed his defeat and had him appointed to the governorship of the capital, only later to banish him. Du Fu wrote a flattering poem asking for his patronage. Also DFQJJZ 1:2.276; Owen, 1:51, Poem 1.35. DFQJJZ 6:12.3396; Owen, 4:67, Poem 14.55.

30 Hung, Tu Fu, 69–70, 213; DFQJJZ 6:12.3373; Owen, 4:59–61, Poem 14.49.

31 YCSJ 4.55–62, “Shuo Chu Hehuang wang fu” 說楚何荒王賦. Yuan’s three part fu 賦tells how a historian of Chu 楚, responding to a ruler of Liang, describes the profligacy of three Chu rulers whose spectacular license had been “omitted” from the record. The vocabulary is highly abstruse. For Su’s praise, see Sun, Nianpu, 20. See also Hsieh, “Meeting through Poetry,” 8, n. 22.

32 DFQJJZ 2:3.668–95; Owen, 1:209–17, Poem 4.6. Hung, Tu Fu, 87–89; Eva Shan Chou, “Tu Fu’s ‘General Ho’ Poems: Social Obligations and Poetic Response,” HJAS 60 (2000): 165–204, esp. 199–201. YCSJ 7.105, “Bie Han Fangyuan xu” 別韓方源序.

33 Hung, Tu Fu, 86; Du Fu nianpu, 6530.

34 Cefu yuan gui 冊府元龜 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1960, hereafter CFYG), 329.12a/b.

35 DFQJJZ 1:2.388; Owen, 1:91, Poem 2.23. Compare the similar objection to flogging in Gao Shi’s “Fengqiu xian” 封丘縣, on resigning as junior officer: “Flogging the commoners fills a man with sorrow” 鞭韃黎庶令人悲. Liu Kaiyang 劉開楊, Gao Shi shi ji biannian jianzhu 高適詩集編年箋註 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981), 230; also DFQJJZ 2.3668–95; Owen, 1:209–17, Poem 4.6.

36 DFQJJZ 8.15.4161; Owen, 4:285, Poem 16.14; see below also.

37 For officials quitting a junior officerships, see Jiu Tang shu 舊唐書 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975, hereafter JTS), 97.3039, Liu Youqiu, as junior officer of Langzhong 閬中: WYYH 960.12a–13b, muzhiming for Dugu Zheng, favorite younger brother of Dugu Ji, as junior officer of Zhiding 直定, for another brother of whom, Dugu Mian, see YCSJ 9.143–44, “Chaoyang yan ming” 朝陽岩銘.

38 Hung, Tu Fu, 86–87; Du Fu nianpu, 6530.

39 YCSJ 6.82–83, “Yuan Luxian mu biao” 元魯縣墓表.

40 Hung, Tu Fu, 160–61; cf. Dugu Ji, Piling ji 毘陵集 (Sibu congkan ed.), 6.4a.

41 Hung, Tu Fu, 109; JTS 111.3323–24; Piling ji 6.3a; 6.11a/b. See also below.

42 YCSJ 2.25, “Tian guan yin” 忝官引; YCSJ 7.102, “Ci jiancha yushi biao” 辭監察御史表; YCSJ 6.97, “Yu Li Xianggong shu” 與李相公書.

43 Sun, Nianpu, does not identify this place.

44 YCSJ 2.24–25, “Yu Rangxi linli” 與瀼溪鄰里; “Yu Rangxi xiang jiuyou” 與瀼溪鄉舊遊.

45 YCSJ 2.24, “Ji Yuan Xiu” 寄元休; YCSJ 2.26, “Tian guan yin” 添官引, YCSJ 7.111, “Qi mian guan gui yang biao” 乞免官歸養表.

46 DFQJJZ 3:6.1642; Owen 2:213, Poem 8.21.

47 DFQJJZ 11:22.6415–35; Hung, Tu Fu, 131.

48 DFQJJZ 3:5.1151; Owen, 2:46–47, Poem 6.33. Wenxuan 文選 (Taipei: Qiming shuju, 1960), 43.600: Xi Kang 嵇康 letter to Shan Tao 山濤, “Juejiao shu” 絕交書.

49 Hung, Tu Fu, 239; cf. Piling ji 6.4a.

50 Xin Tang shu 新唐書 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975, hereafter XTS), 143.4682.

51 YCSJ 3.35, “Zei tui shi guanli” 賊退示官吏.

52 ZZTJ 221.7091; JTS 10.257, JTS 114.3365. The military governor of Shannandong was murdered, and Lai Tian 來瑱 (d. 763) was appointed to replace him. Kang Yuan 康元 as the treacherous rebel officer at Xiangzhou is confirmed by the epitaph for Jie Mo 介模 (725–775); see Zhou Shaoliang 周紹良and Zhao Chao 趙超, eds., Tangdai muzhi huibian xuji 唐代墓誌彙編續集 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1992), 716. Sun’s Nianpu, 39, antedates the retrieval of this muzhi.

53 JTS 114.3364–65, biog. of Lai Tian.

54 YCSJ 7.105, “Bie Han Fangyuan xu” 別韓方源序.

55 Du Fu’s comment on Lai Tian was given in DFQJJZ 6:11.3249; Owen, 3:402–5, Poem 13.71.

56 Piling ji 6.9a/b; Piling ji 6.10a/b.

57 YCSJ 2.24–25, “Yu Rangxi linli” 與瀼溪鄰里.

58 Sun Nianpu, 54–55. Yuan was granted the non-functional office of compiler (zhuzuolang 著作郎).

59 Du Fu’s flights were not likely to have been solitary: cf. in 763, when considering fleeing Sichuan for Hubei, “What I dread is that the outlaws will be many, / and I will witness the elite in flight again” 所憂盜賊多，重見衣冠走; see DFQJJZ 5:10.3006; Owen 3:299, Poem 12.85. Owen has “those in caps and gowns.”

60 Liu Kaiyang, Gao Shi shi ji biannian jianzhu, Part 5, appendices, 398–400, “Xishan sancheng zhi shu lun” 西山三城置戍論. XTS 143.4680–81 calls this a memorial (shu 疏). Gao Shi anticipates Yuan Jie’s predicament at Daozhou, emphasizing the repeated taxation demands (andie qianzhong 案牒千重), the penalties for officials who failed their quotas, and peasantry absconding.

61 DFQJJZ 4:7.1885; Owen 2:287, Poem 9.11.

62 Hung, Tu Fu, 208–10; DFQJJZ 11:22.6478–690.

63 Lai Ruihe 賴瑞和, Tangdai gaoceng wenguan 唐代高層文官 (Taipei: Lianjing chuban gongsi, 2016), 66.

64 YCSJ 2.26, “Fan shang man zuo” 樊上漫作; YCSJ 2.31–32, “Man chou Jia mianzhou” 漫酬賈沔州.

65 DFQJJZ 6:11.3074–76; 6:11.3077–79; Owen, 3:309, Poems 13.1, 13.2; Chen, Du Fu pingzhuan, 737.

66 DFQJJZ 4:8.2353–57; Owen, 3:52, Poem 10.49; DFQJJZ 4:8.2321–25; Owen, 3:58–60, Poem 10.55.

67 DFQJJZ 4:7.2023–25; Owen, 2:318–19, Poem 9.43.

68 YCSJ 2.32, “Man chou Jia Mianzhou” 漫酬賈沔州.

69 DFQJJZ 5:10.2923–25; Owen 3:265, Poem 12.61; YCSJ 8.114–15, “Man lun” 漫論.

70 DFQJJZ 8:16.4813–22; Owen, 5:188–193, Poem 19.40.

71 DFQJJZ 5:10.3016–18; Owen, 3:303, Poem 12.87 .

72 DFQJJZ 9:18.5374–77; Owen, 5:364–65, Poem 21.13.

73 YCSJ 2.27, “Yu Chang Wuzhi” 喻常吾直.

74 DFQJJZ 1:1.229–41; Owen, 1:81, Poem 2.2.13.

75 YCSJ 2.30–31, “Chou Meng Wuchang ku xue” 酬孟武昌苦雪; YTSC 2.27, “Xue zhong huai Meng Wuchang” 雪中懷孟武昌; DFQJJZ 9:18.5360; 9.18.5372; Owen, 5:370–77, Poems 21.18–19, 21.20, 21.22–23.

76 YCSJ 3.42–42, “Shiyu hu shang zuo” 石魚湖上作.

77 DFQJJZ 9:17.5081–98, esp. 5084–85; Owen, 5:269–71, Poems 20.49–52, esp. 269; see McMullen, “Recollection without Tranquility,” 246.

78 YCSJ 5.74–75, “Shu shi” 述時.

79 YCSJ 6.106, “Da Tang zhongxing song” 大唐中興頌; Sun, Nianpu 50–51; for a translation, see McNair, The Upright Brush, 50–53.

80 Li Yong, by having the gates to the imperial city at Luoyang closed, ensured the defeat of Li Chongfu’s 李重福 coup against Zhongzong; see ZZTJ 210.6654.

81 DFQJJZ 4:8.2723; Owen, 3:176–77, Poem 11.60. Tang Wen 唐雯, “Tang guoshi zhong de shishi zhebi yu xingxiang jiangou” 唐國史中的史實遮蔽與形象建構, Zhongguo shehui kexue, 2012.03: 182–208; Li Jinxiu 李錦綉, “Shilun Tang Ruizong diwei de shandai” 試論唐睿宗玄宗地位的嬗代, Yuan xue 3 (1995): 161–79.

82 See DFQJJZ 5:9.2728; Owen 3:176–77, Poem 11.61.

83 See also McMullen, “Recollection without Tranquility,” 192.

84 He did, however, express sympathy for Xuanzong’s loneliness; see McMullen, “Recollection without Tranquility,” 222.

85 DFQJJZ 3:6.1466; Owen, 2:149, Poem 7.51.

86 DFQJJZ 7:14.4129–44, esp. n. 17; Owen, 4:292–99, Poem 16.15; ZZTJ 221. JTS 128.3591–92.

87 ZZTJ 220.7059; Li Yu 李瑀, Prince of Hanzhong 漢中, Xuanzong’s nephew, Du Fu’s friend, was the Commissioner for the [Marriage] Ritual Document (celishi 冊禮使); DFQJJZ 3:8.1521–24; Owen 2:166, Poem 7.63; McMullen, “Put Not Your Trust in Princes,” at n. 254.

88 JTS 111.3329.

89 DFQJJZ 9:18.5269; Owen, 5:326–27, Poem 20.99.

90 DFQJJZ 11:22.6415–35; DFQJJZ 11:22.6478–90.

91 YCSJ 2.17–18, “Min huang ge” 閔荒歌.

92 E.g. Tang da zhaoling ji 唐大詔令集 (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1959), 79.451, edict of 714, 9th month; 79.454, edict of 731.

93 YCSJ 2.20–21, “Pin fu ci” 貧婦詞 ; “Nong chen yuan” 農臣怨.

94 Hung, Tu Fu, 108–9.

95 YCSJ 6.91–92, “Yu Wei shangshu shu” 與韋尚書書.

96 YCSJ 7.101, “Qing ji jiangshi fumu liang zhuang” 請給將士父母糧狀.

97 YCSJ 7.102, “Qing shouyang guruo zhuang” 請收養孤弱狀.

98 Hung, “Tu Fu Again,” 26 (cf. Hung Tu Fu, 168); DFQJJZ 4:7.1966–67, 1969–70; Hung endorses the variant line from Qiu Zhao’ao 仇兆鰲, Du shi xiang zhu 杜詩詳注: 但有故人分祿米 instead of 多病所須唯藥物. Owen, 2:305, Poem 9.30, adopts this variant (cf. WYYH 318.12a, which reads 供綠水). Chou suggests the “old friend” was the governor of Chengdu Pei Mian.

99 YCSJ 7.99–100, “Qing shengguan zhuang” 請省官狀. DFQJJZ 10:29.5855; Owen, 6:135, Poem 23.5; see also Christopher M.B. Nugent, Manifest in Words, Written on Paper (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2010), 158, who has the more suggestive translation “the hangers on of the regional government.”

100 Hou Han shu 83.2776; DFQJJZ 3:5.1379; Owen, 2:121, Poem 7.20; DFQJJZ 8:16.4673; Owen, 5:159, Poem 19.22, dated 767 at Kuizhou. See also Hung, Tu Fu, 209–10. But in what Hung identifies as his last extant poem, Du Fu comes close to denying that he accepted money from colleagues, inferring that any gifts were confidential. See Hung “Tu Fu Again,” 26; Hung Tu Fu, 280; DFQJJZ 10:20.6094–6100; Owen, 6:233, Poem 23.49, esp. n. 7.

101 YCSJ 2.27, “Yu Chang Wuzhi” 喻常吾直.

102 YCSJ 8.121–22, “Xiahou Yuezhou biao” 夏侯岳州表.

103 YCSJ 8.129–30, “Cui Tanzhou biao” 崔潭州表.

104 Hsieh, “Meeting through Poetry,” 4–5.

105 DFQJJZ 7:14.4084; Owen, 4:302–13, Poem 16.17.

106 Hung, Tu Fu, 64. However, much of Du Fu’s early verse was not preserved.

107 Hung, Tu Fu, 87.

108 DFQJJZ 7:14.4085; Owen, 4:302–13, Poem 16.17.

109 DFQJJZ 7:14.4085; Owen 4:311, Poem 16.17. Chen, Du Fu pingzhuan, 396: this was an emphatically derogatory term that Zhang Jiuling 張九齡 (678–740) had used to criticize appointing placemen to county magistracies in the Kaiyuan period; Qujiang ji 曲江集 (Sibu congkan ed.), 16.5b, “Shang fengshi shu” 上封事書. Du Fu used it again of his own appointment on Yan Wu’s staff ; DFQJJZ 8:16.4834–92; Owen, 5:197, Poem 19.41. The term is also entered in the Dunhuang ms P.2504, “Tang zhiguan biao” 唐職官表.

110 Hung, Tu Fu, 109; 124.

111 In DFQJJZ 2:4.1021–28, Owen, 2:4–5, Poems 6.3 and 6.4. Burning private copies of official documents is recorded of Gao Shilian 高士廉 (ca. 576–647) and Lu Yuanfang 陸元方 (639–701), in the seventh century, See JTS 65.3444; JTS 88.2875. By the ninth century it may have been customary for monitory officials, and even been a trope in social verse for monitors, or even possibly as homage to Du Fu himself; see the poems by Quan Deyu 權德輿 (761–818) in Quan Tang shi 全唐詩 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1960; hereafter QTS), 324.3640, “Song Lu shiyi zhizhao fu xingzai” 送陸拾遺祗召赴行在; 365.3647, “He Zhang mijian gelao xian sui guo Jiang shiyi yin cheng liang sheng zhugong bing jianshi” 和張秘監閣老獻歲過蔣拾遺因呈兩省諸公幷見示; 326.3654, “Feng he Wei jianyi song shuibu jiaxiong” 奉賀韋諫議送水部家兄.

112 JTS 111.3327. When the court returned to Chang’an, Zhang Hao memorialized that the chanting of “several hundred monks,” audible from inside the palace, “would [never] bring about the Great Peace.”

113 DFQJJZ 3:5.1280–1324; Owen, 2:83–97, Poems 7.1–7.

114 DFQJJZ 6:11.3059–74, dated 764; Owen 3:190–95, Poems 11.72–76; DFQJJZ 7:14.4083–110, dated 769; Owen, 4:302–13, Poem 16.17; also, DFQJJZ 10:20.5901, Poem dated 769; Owen 6:133, Poem 23.4.

115 DFQJJZ 5:10.2905–9; Owen, 3:259, Poem 12.57.

116 DFQJJZ 6:11.3214–17; Owen, 3:401, Poem 13.70.

117 DFQJJZ 9:17.5056; Owen, 5:166–67, Poem 20.47.

118 For analysis of the governor’s position in the Tang, see Lai, Tangdai gaoceng wenguan, 443–531.

119 Zhenguan zheng yao 貞觀政要 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2003), 3.157; 2.117. Relevant edicts on governorships are excerpted in Tang hui yao 68.1196–1201: see also CFYG 671.26a–28a; 673.8b–11a; 674.17a–19a, etc.; Tangda zhaoling ji 100.508.

120 Cf. also Da Tang Kaiyuan li 大唐開元禮 (reprinted with preface by Ikeda On 池田溫, Tokyo: Koten kenkyūkai, 1972), 130.3b–8a. YCSJ 8.126–27, “Guangde er nian he she biao” 廣德二年賀赦表; “Yongtai yuannian he she biao” 永泰元年賀赦表.

121 QTS 3.27, “Ci zhu zhou cishi yi ti zuoyou” 賜諸州刺史以題座右; “Song Zhongzhou taishou Kang [Tang] Zhaoyuan deng” 送忠州太守康（唐）昭遠等; “Song Li Yong zhi ren Huatai” 送李邕之任滑臺. Cf. Yuhai 29.14b–15b.

122 Tang da zhaoling ji 100.508, edicts of 718, 720; WYYH 410.1b–4a. Tang hui yao 68–70.1196–1201.

123 Liu Fang 柳芳 (fl. ca. 766) criticized the proliferation of financial commissioners with staff under Xuanzong; see WYYH 747.10b–12a,“Shi huo lun” 食貨論.

124 CFYG 532.2a–7b.

125 DFQJJZ 5.9.2615; Owen 3:131, Poem 11.27; DFQJJZ 5.9.2703; Owen, 3:164–65, Poem 11.55; DFQJJZ 5.9.2698–703, dated 762; Owen, 3:163, Poem 11.54. Chen, Du Fu pingzhuan, 509; YCSJ 7.100–101, “Qie zhong ji xu” 篋中集序; YCSJ 3.36, “Liu shi yu yueye yanhui” 劉侍御月夜讌㑹; YCSJ 10.154–55, “Wen bian xu” 文編序.

126 CFYG 532.20b–22a; JTS 98.3065.

127 For Chen Zi’ang and Zhang Jiuling, see Lai, Gaoceng wen guan, 468–70.

128 Owen, 4:283, Poem 16.13. For Chen Zi’ang’s memorial, see Chen Boyu wen ji 陳伯玉文集 (Sibu congkan ed.), 8.16b–18a; for Zhang Jiuling’s memorial see Qujiang ji, 16.5a–9b; For Huang Ba see Han shu 89.3629–31.

129 DFQJJZ 7:14.4006; Owen, 4:259–67, Poem 16.10.

130 DFQJJZ 3:6.1629–42; Owen, 3:200, Poem 8.20.

131 DFQJJZ 3:6.1642–66; Owen, 2:206, Poem 8.21.

132 DFQJJZ 5:10.2800; Owen, 3:214, Poem 12.17. Shei 誰as the first word in a couplet is to be understood as an indefinite, “Whosoever … .”

133 DFQJJZ 9:18.5342–44; Owen, 5:42–43, Poem 18.27; Fukutane, Gan Shinkei, 154, “Zhongsan dafu Jingzhao yin Hanyang jun taishou zeng taizi shaobao Xianyu gong shendao beiming” 中散大夫京兆尹漢陽郡太守贈太子少保鮮于公神道碑銘.

134 DFQJJZ 8:16.4892–4814; Owen, 5:212–19, Poem 19.42. For Huang Ba, see also DFQJJZ 9:18.5339–40; Owen, 6:99, Poem 22.63.

135 DFQJJZ 9:18.5418–20; Owen, 3:335, Poem 13.24.

136 DFQJJZ 7:13.3726–33; Owen, 4.215–17, Poem 15.64. The suspicion is that Du Fu in his laudatory references to Li Mian hoped that Li, surely destined to high office at Chang’an, might help him return there.

137 YCSJ 8.119–20, “Bian huo er pian” 辯惑二篇; Hou Han shu 後漢書 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1965), 41.1403; 43.1470.

138 YCSJ 8.129–30, “Cui Tanzhou biao” 崔潭州表; Sun, Nianpu, 72, has Cui Guan 崔灌; Hung, Tu Fu, 263.

139 YCSJ 8.126, “Xian ling zhen” 縣令箴.

140 YCSJ 10.146–47, “Cishi ting ji” 刺史廳記.

141 McMullen, “Put Not Your Trust in Princes,” 18, n. 67; JTS 10.245; Li Yi had been demoted to be governor of Jianghua 江華 in 757 for failure to requisition “public and private horses” for Suzong’s recovery campaign. His Daozhou tenure might well have followed this.

142 YCSJ 3.38, “Bie He Yuan” 別何員. Yuan again accused venal tax collectors of being “less than outlaws.”

143 See Hung, Tu Fu, 185, for an encomium for his patron Yan Wu, delivered by a drunken farmer. A low level of irony is possible here.

144 ZZTJ 222.7119. For Daozhou as a prefecture for banishment, see e.g. JTS 106.3255, Gao Guangji 高廣濟 as deputy governor; JTS 108.3280, Yuan’s successor the high ranking Cui Huan 崔渙 (d. 768), who died at Daozhou later that year; JTS 118. 3419, ZZTJ 226.7267, the chief minister Yang Yan 楊炎 (727–781) in 777 as marshal; WYYH 801.7b–8b, Lü Wen 呂溫 (772–811) in 808, as governor, commending Yuan Jie.

145 YCSJ Appendix 3, 174–75, “Rongzhou jinglüe shi Yuan Jie wenji hou xu” 容州經略使元結文集後序 by Li Shangyin 李商隱 (ca. 818–858).

146 Sun, Nianpu, 64.

147 Yuan’s XTS biography, says that Daizong allowed this. That same year, Yuan also formally congratulated the emperor on having promulgated a grand amnesty; YTSC 8.126.

148 In 757, on arrival as governor of Tongzhou 同州, Yan Zhenqing had written of the invasions that had reduced the population of his prefecture; Fukutane, Gan Shinkei, 42, “Xie Fengyi taishou shang biao” 謝封翊太守上表; Nempu, 421. In 759, Gao Shi had described the tax and corvee position of the prefectures of Sichuan and the repeated central government documents demanding returns; see above, n. 40.

149 Hsieh, “Meeting through Poetry,” 16–17.

150 YCSJ 9.135–36, “Yanghua yan ming” 陽華岩銘.

151 YCSJ 3.38–39, “Song Meng jiaoshu wang Nanhai” 送孟校書往南海.

152 Yuan acknowledged a general amnesty in 766; see YCSJ 8.127, “Yongtai yuannian he she biao” 永泰元年賀赦表, unconnected with his second request for tax remission.

153 Sun, Nianpu, 69.

154 DFQJJZ 8:16.4813; Chen, Du Fu pingzhuan, 1011–14; Hsieh, “Meeting through Poetry,” 8.

155 Yang Shiming 楊世明, Liu Changqing ji biannian jiaozhu 劉長卿集編年校注 (Beijing: Renmin Wenxue chubanshe, 1999), 336–37.

156 DFQJJZ 9:18.5297; Owen, 5:352–55, Poem 21.5, “Ke tan” 可嘆.

157 YCSJ 9.143–44, “Chaoyang yan ming” 朝陽岩銘; Sun, Nianpu, 79.

158 DFQJJZ 5:10.2905; Owen, 3:258, Poem 12.57.

159 DFQJJZ 11:22.6490–94.

160 DFQJJZ 10:20.6040–46; Owen, 6:211, Poem 23.40. Cf. DFQJJZ 7:13.3726–27; Owen 4:216–17, Poem 15.64; DFQJJZ 9:18.5297–307, Owen, 5:353–55, Poem 21.5.

161 Piling ji 6.4, of Lu Yi 盧弈 (d. 756), a dynastic hero, who had paid the ultimate price for shou guan at Luoyang; JTS 137.4894, of Lü Yin 呂諲, Yuan Jie’s terminally ill senior commander at Jingzhou; Piling ji 6.3a/b, of the veteran loyalist servant Miao Jinqing 苗晉卿 (685–765), who had braved Suzong’s harsh regime at Chang’an.

162 DFQJJZ 8:15.4224; Owen 5:16–17, Poems 18.6–7.

163 DFQJJZ 8:15.4161; Owen, 4:285–93, Poem 16.140–41; Chen, Du Fu pingzhuan, 1011–14 does not make a link between these two poems.

164 Here following the chronology noted in DFQJJZ 8:15.4163, n. 1.

165 Diansi is drawn from the canonical Zhou li 周禮and refers to specialist administration functions which are the responsibility of particular offices. Du Fu here refers to the tension between established posts such as governors and ad hoc commissioners empowered to override prefectural administrations.

166 Du Fu used the phrase “wen chuangyi” 問瘡痍, unique to him, once before, in DFQJJZ 6:11.3059–74, dated 764. Owen, 3:190–95, Poems 11.72–76. The phrase may be a sarcastic variant of the orthodox “guan feng wen su” 觀風問俗; see e.g., Tang da zhaoling ji 79.451, edict of 714. For “open wounds” remaining uncured, see Han shu 37.1977, biography of Ji Bu 季布.

167 Variants liu 流 and xiu 秀, accepting the former.

168 DFQJJZ 6:12.3428–33; Owen, 4:77, Poem 14.63, Hung, Tu Fu, 256.

169 Hsieh, “Meeting through Poetry,” 6–7. Du Fu’s phrase wushuai 吾衰 in DFQJJZ 7:14.4120, Owen, 4:314–15, poem written in 766 (吾衰將焉托) is a direct reference to Li Bai’s (吾衰竟誰陳); see Li Tai Bai quan ji 李太白全集 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1977), 2.87. Du Fu believed that, since both Li Bai and Gao Shi were now dead, there was therefore no one to continue Confucius’s cultural project. The Analects statement both refer to is Analects 7/5. See also McMullen, “Other Men’s Flowers”, forthcoming.

170 DFQJJZ 8:18.4584–93; Owen, 5:150–53, Poem 19.19. Xinzhou is an anachronistic name for Kuizhou.

171 Hung, Tu Fu, 262; DFQJJZ 10.19.5661; Owen, 6:38–41, Poem 22.27; cf. YCSJ 3.34–35 for the much starker situation Yuan Jie described in 764 in Daozhou four years earlier.

172 DFQJJZ 10:19.5815–21; Owen 6:98–103, Poem 22.64. For Du Fu’s friendship with Pei, see DFQJJZ 1.2.481–84; Owen, 1:151, Poem 3.21.

173 DFQJJZ 10:20.5862; Owen, Vol. 6, 136–41, Poem 23.6. But cf. the different tone in DFQJJZ 10:20.5965, esp. n. 18; Owen, 6:179, Poem 23.25, esp. n. 7, dated to 770;

174 DFQJJZ 10:20.5901; Owen, 6:133, Poem 23.4.

175 Cf. also his praise for Yang Ji 陽濟 in DFQJJZ 10:20.6018–20; Owen 6:203, Poem 23.37. Cf. YCSJ 8.129–30. This Cui Guan 崔灌 is not the Cui Guan 崔瓘, also once governor of Tanzhou, whom Yuan Jie praised in 765; Hung, Notes, 112.

176 DFQJJZ 10:20.6039–48; Owen, 6:206–11, Poem 23.40.

177 Williams, “Sashimi and History”; esp. pp. 212–17; Eva Chou, Reconsidering Du Fu, 42–43. The sheer amount of commentary in the 12 volumes of DFQJJZ and the numberless allusions in Du Fu’s verse it documents further prove this point.

178 YCSJ 10.154–55, “Wen bian xu” 文編序.

179 DFQJJZ 3:6.1642; Owen, 2:214, Poem 8.21.

180 YCSJ 3.35, “Chongling xing” 舂陵行.