The greatest feature of Du Fu's poems is realism, which describes the pain of that era and the real world he saw and heard.
Then, what kind of world did Du Fu encounter and what kind of stories did he record in history?
"Fat people have a mother to send, thin people alone. White water flows eastward, and Qingshan is still crying. "
"There's no one in the room, except the grandchild. She hasn't left yet, and there is no skirt in and out. Although I am weak, please come back at night and prepare for the morning cooking. "
"Forever pain long sick mother, five years committee ditch creek. I was born weak and sour about life. Life is homeless, why steam! "
"Go out with a clerk, peers are bitter. Fortunately, there are teeth and the bone marrow is dry. "
The above extreme poems are all from Du Fu's "Three Officials and Three Farewells", which tells a sad and heartbreaking story.
There was a parting wound, and the mother sent her child to the battlefield and never came back.
There is a sad story that the man in the family died, leaving only orphans and widows, but they were forcibly expropriated.
There is the pain of broken hometown, no neighborhood, and no burial after mother's death.
There are also old people who are unwilling to go out and go to the front with their old and tired bodies.
The sad songs of this period are all seen by Du Fu with his own eyes and heard by his own ears, which is a true portrayal of his time.
All this happened in the era of An Shi Rebellion. Du Fu was originally a poet in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, but in his later years he experienced a tragic war of An Shi Rebellion.
In the 14th year of Tianbao, An Lushan Shi Siming rebelled and led hundreds of thousands of troops to attack Chang 'an in the Central Plains. Chaos and war are everywhere, people are ravaged by war and are starving everywhere.
Although the Tang Dynasty later organized troops to fight back in order to recover lost territory, the sufferings of the people did not decrease.
Some of Du Fu's poems were written during the war between Tang Jun and the rebels. The troops of the Tang Dynasty tried their best, but they still couldn't win. So it doesn't matter whether the people in the Tang Dynasty recruit or not, what matters is only military victory.
So there appeared all kinds of evil deeds written by Du Fu, all kinds of tragic scenes, wherever the war went, families were ruined, men were killed and slaughtered, men were dragged to the front, women were taken away, or even there were no clothes, and even old men and women were dragged into the army as cannon fodder.
The land is barren, and the people's families are surrounded by high walls and poor. Even so, they will be exploited by cruel officials.
This hellish scene on earth happened in a few years not far from the prosperous Tang Dynasty. In just a few years, it has turned upside down, and the fate of many people has been reversed from now on, and they can never go back.
Du Fu's poems in his early years were quite heroic, but they were a little more sad after middle age. But since the Anshi Rebellion, he has completely become a poet who cares about the country and the people and sympathizes with the people. His poems have really matured and become great at this stage.
Pain, suffering, grief and indignation have created Du Fu's unprecedented great works, and also achieved the title of "Poet Saint". Du Fu sacrificed his youth, his life and even his son's life, and won the glory in the history of China literature.