Du Fu is a famous poet who wrote during 712 AD to 770 AD. He was mainly known by people because of his poems. Many people called him minister of Du Shaoling. He was born in Gong Xian county in Henan province. His mother died soon after he was born so he was raised by his aunt. His family consist of a older brother who died young, three step brothers and 1 step sister which he talks about in his poems a lot. As he grew up, he considered himself to belong in the city of Chang’an because that was the hometown of the Du family.
As a child, Du Fu learned about the philosophy of Confucius, the history of China, and poetry. As he reached his teenage years, he begun to study poetry more and wrote his own poems but sadly these poems were lost. Until the age of 35, Du Fu traveled, read, and wrote poems about the things he see in daily life. Around 730 AD, he took the civil service exam but sadly failed due to his obscure writing style. After he failed the exam, he went back to
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Du Fu could of retook the civil service exam because of his father’s rank in government but gave up to give his step brother a chance. Over the next 4 years he served his duty by helping the government.
In the Autumn of 744 he met Li Bai for the first time and became great friends with him. Du Fu is around 11 years younger than Li Bai, while Li Bai was already well known for his poems. There were already around 12 poems written by younger poets about Li Bai while there was only 1 written about Du Fu. The two poets were often referred to as Da Li Du (Big Li and Du)
In 746 AD, he decided to go back to the capital and retake the civil service exam but failed due to the prime minister. The prime minister failed everyone that year because he wanted to prevent the emergence of possible rivals. No more attempts at the civil service exam were made by Du Fu after this one. Instead of taking the exam, he tried to make his work appeal to the