{"title":"DU FU 杜甫 ON THE HAN DYNASTY: A MEDIEVAL VIEW OF THE CLASSICAL CHINESE EMPIRE","authors":"D. Mcmullen","doi":"10.1017/eac.2022.14","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Du Fu, one of the two most celebrated poets of the Tang, was very much a product of his era in the way that he found a usable past in Han-dynasty verse, episodes, and people. From 750 on, his writings were replete with allusions to the Han, some subtle and others more forthright. Taken together, these allusions suggest his firm beliefs in the course of history determined by human moral agency, in morality as “a man's own charge”; also in the role of fate determining the succession of dynasties, even as he deplored the workings of capricious fate on individual lives. Such beliefs are unremarkable in content, being much closer to conventional Tang concepts of the individual than most commentaries on Du Fu allow.","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Early China","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2022.14","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"ASIAN STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Du Fu, one of the two most celebrated poets of the Tang, was very much a product of his era in the way that he found a usable past in Han-dynasty verse, episodes, and people. From 750 on, his writings were replete with allusions to the Han, some subtle and others more forthright. Taken together, these allusions suggest his firm beliefs in the course of history determined by human moral agency, in morality as “a man's own charge”; also in the role of fate determining the succession of dynasties, even as he deplored the workings of capricious fate on individual lives. Such beliefs are unremarkable in content, being much closer to conventional Tang concepts of the individual than most commentaries on Du Fu allow.
期刊介绍:
Early China publishes original research on all aspects of the culture and civilization of China from earliest times through the Han dynasty period (CE 220). The journal is interdisciplinary in scope, including articles on Chinese archaeology, history, philosophy, religion, literature, and paleography. It is the only English-language journal to publish solely on early China, and to include information on all relevant publications in all languages. The journal is of interest to scholars of archaeology and of other ancient cultures as well as sinologists.