Du Fu

Poet & Sage

(712 – Unknown) · East Asia

Tang dynasty Chinese poet whose work earned him the title Poet Sage, one of the two supreme poets of classical Chinese literature alongside Li Bai. His poetry, unlike Li Bai's romanticism, is marked by Confucian social concern and direct engagement with the suffering caused by war and famine. He lived through the devastating An Lushan Rebellion and his poems of that period are considered among the greatest war poetry in any language.