Sources of Difficulty

This essay examines the common notion, beginning in the Song period, that Du Fu is a difficult poet to read and understand. By comparing the lexical range and allusions found in a representative set of Du Fu’s works with the vocabulary and literary-historical knowledge found in a range of medieval educational texts, I argue that if Du Fu’s poetry, in both shi and fu forms, would likely be understandable to any Tang period reader with a basic literary education. Moreover, on a basic linguistic and cultural level, Du Fu’s poetry appears to have been no more difficult than that of Wang Wei, a poet who does not have a similar reputation for difficulty. Du Fu’s poetic language does make demands of his readers, but those demands are not based on the difficulty of his vocabulary and allusions.