Although Du Mu was the grandson of the Prime Minister, his father died around the age of 10, and his family was not well off. Du Mu himself once said that "a young child is lonely and poor". When Du Mu was a teenager, he crusaded against the buffer region in Tang Xianzong, inspiring state affairs. After reading, he cared about the military, and later annotated thirteen articles of Sun Tzu's Art of War.
Du Mu, a teenager, has begun to show his literary talent and political ambition. Tang Jingzong wrote the famous satire Epang Palace Fu. In the Book of Shang Zhaoyi Liu Situ, our envoy from Youzhou suggested that we should be loyal to the imperial court and not take credit for the crusade against the three towns of Heshuo.
At the age of 25, Du Mu wrote a five-character ancient poem "Poem of Feeling for the Heart" to express his views on the issue of the buffer region. At this time, Du Mu was already very famous and his works were circulated.
In the second year of Daiwa (828), Du Mu took the Jinshi exam. Because he was born in a noble family and the son of a prime minister, there were no fewer than twenty people who chose him in the court. Among them, Wu Wuling contributed a lot. As a result, Du Mu was ranked fifth in Jinshi. According to the system of the Tang dynasty, after being admitted to the Jinshi, you have to go to the official department to pass the exam before you can get an official position.
After Du Mu arrived in Chang 'an, he caught up with the imperial examination. Du Mu was admitted because he was a virtuous and upright founder.
After Du Mu graduated, he was awarded the title of President Ting and tried to get Wu Weibing Cao to join the army. Six months later, Jiangxi observer Shen Chuanshi was appointed as the chief of staff. According to the practice of the Tang Dynasty, he was appointed as the inspector of Yong Lian, with the title of Jing Dali.
In the ninth year of Daiwa (835), Du Mu was recruited by the imperial court to go to Chang 'an.
In the second year of Kaicheng (837), because my brother was seriously ill in Yangzhou, I asked for leave to see my brother. Due to his brother's serious eye disease, Du Mu quit his office job in order to take care of his brother.
In the spring of four years, Du Mu settled his younger brother in Jiangzhou cousin and went to Chang 'an to take up his new job. After five years of development, Du Mu was promoted to be a member of the Food Department. In the first year of Huichang (84 1), he was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in the spring of the following year, he was released to Huangzhou Secretariat.
In the fourth year of Huichang (844), Du Mu moved to Chizhou as a secretariat. In the sixth year of Huichang (846), Du Mu moved to Zhou Mu as a secretariat. Du Mu served as Si Xun's foreign minister for less than a year. Because of the low salary of Beijing officials, it is difficult for him to support his family. He asked for the release of Hangzhou secretariat, but it was not approved. In the fourth year of Dazhong (850), he was promoted to the official department.
A year later, he was promoted to a doctor in the examination and imperial edict. In the second year of Chang 'an, he moved to Zhongshu Sheren. During this period, Du Mu renovated his ancestral villa in Fan Chuan and often made friends here in his spare time. In six years (852), he was seriously ill and died in winter.
Most scholars in the late Tang Dynasty like to write metrical poems and quatrains, but they are not good at long five-character ancient poems. But this is what Du Mu is good at. His long poem and five-character ancient poems are vigorous and powerful. In the late Tang Dynasty, Zhang Wei classified Du Mu's poems as "noble" in Preface of Poet's Subject and Object. Du Mu is also good at the Seven Rhymes and is one of the best poets in the late Tang Dynasty.
Extended data:
Du Mu likes to talk about soldiers since he was a child. I have written many articles about military affairs. There are several articles on the problem of the buffer region and the general plan of using troops, such as Sin Yan, On War, Defending the Imperial Guard and the Original Sixteen Guards. Sima Guang used them more when he wrote Zi Tongzhi Jian. "Epang Palace Fu" is a masterpiece through the ages.
Du Mu's poems are all included in Fan Chuan's anthology. Fan Chuan is the name of the river next to the villa in the south of Chang 'an City. Du Mu loved this place all his life: not only his poetry anthology is called "Fan Chuan Anthology", but also his title is "Fan Chuan".
Baidu Encyclopedia-Du Mu