Du Fu

Du Fu
Posthumous portrait
Native name	杜甫
Born	712 possibly Gong County, Henan, Tang China
Died	770 (aged 57–58) Tan Prefecture, Tang China
Occupation	Poetry, politician
Children	Zongwen Zongwu Feng'er
Relatives	Du Shenyan (grandfather) Du Xian (father)

Du Fu
Du's name in Chinese characters
Chinese name
Chinese	杜甫
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Dù Fǔ Wade–Giles Tu4 Fu3 IPA [tû fù] Wu Suzhounese Dôu Fù Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Douh Fú Jyutping Dou6 Fu2 IPA [tɔw˨ fu˧˥] Southern Min Hokkien POJ Tō͘ Hú Tâi-lô Tōo Hú Middle Chinese Middle Chinese /duoX pɨoX/
Courtesy name
Chinese	子美
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zǐmeǐ Wade–Giles Tzu3-mei3 IPA [tsì.mèɪ] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Jí-méih Jyutping Zi2 mei5 IPA [tsi˧˥.mej˩˧]
Art name
Chinese	少陵野老
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Shàolíng Yělǎo Wade–Giles Shao4-ling2 Yeh3-lao3 IPA [ʂâʊ.lǐŋ iɤ̀.làʊ] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Siú-lìhng Yéh-lóuh Jyutping Siu2 ling4 Je5 lou5 IPA [siw˧˥.lɪŋ˧˥ jɛ˩˧.lɔw˩˧]
Japanese name
Kanji	杜甫
Hiragana	とほ
Transcriptions Romanization To Ho

Du Fu (Chinese: 杜甫; Wade–Giles: Tu Fu; 712–770) was a Chinese poet and politician during the Tang dynasty. Together with his elder contemporary and friend Li Bai, Du is often considered one of the greatest Chinese poets.^[1] His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant, but Du proved unable to make the necessary accommodations. His life, like all of China, was devastated by the An Lushan Rebellion of 755, and his last 15 years were a time of almost constant unrest.

Although initially he was little-known to other writers, his works came to be hugely influential in both Chinese and Japanese literary culture. Of his poetic writing, nearly fifteen hundred poems have been preserved over the ages.^[1] He has been called the "Poet-Historian" and the "Poet-Sage" by Chinese critics, while the range of his work has allowed him to be introduced to Western readers as "the Chinese Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth, Béranger, Hugo or Baudelaire".^[2]