1. Background of the times
Li Bai is 11 years older than Du Fu. Li Bai's poems were mainly written during the Kaiyuan period of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. At that time, there were great peace events and singing and dancing, so most of Li Bai's poems were broad, bold and heroic.
Du Fu's poems mainly come from the Tianbao period, when the Anshi Rebellion broke out, the country was broken, wars were frequent, people were devastated, and the land was barren. Therefore, Du Fu's poems are generally related to the suffering of the people.
2. Different personalities
Li Bai lived in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. He had a heroic personality and loved the mountains and rivers of his motherland. He traveled all over the north and south and wrote a large number of magnificent poems praising famous mountains and rivers. His poems are bold and unrestrained, fresh and elegant, rich in imagination, wonderful in artistic conception, and brisk in language. People call him the "Poetic Immortal".
Du Fu's early character was also bold and unrestrained. However, in his later period, he suffered successive blows from the failure of his official career and the collapse of his country. His character became more calm, and his poetry also changed to realism.
3. Different experiences
Li Bai's official career was relatively smooth throughout his life. He was deeply loved by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and became famous all over the world at a young age. Du Fu was impoverished throughout his life, his official career was not smooth, and he experienced a living environment where the country was broken and wars were frequent, which led to the completely different styles of the two.
Extended information
The poetic achievements of Li Bai and Du Fu
1. Li Bai
Li Bai’s poems are majestic and elegant, with extremely high artistic achievements. . He eulogized the mountains, rivers and beautiful natural scenery of the motherland, with a majestic and unrestrained style, handsome and fresh, full of romantic spirit, and achieved the unity of content and art. He was called the "Exiled Immortal" by He Zhizhang, and most of his poems mainly described landscapes and expressed inner emotions.
Li Bai's poems have the artistic charm of "the pen falls in the storm, and the poem becomes the weeping ghosts and gods", which is also the most distinctive artistic feature of his poems. Li Bai's poems are rich in self-expression and have a strong subjective lyrical color, and the expression of emotions has an overwhelming momentum. Together with Du Fu, he is known as the "Big Li Du."
Li Bai often uses imagination, exaggeration, metaphor, personification and other techniques in his poems to create a magical, magnificent and moving artistic conception. This is Li Bai's romanticism The reason why his poems give people a sense of boldness and elegance is as if they were immortals.
Li Bai's poems had a profound impact on later generations, including Han Yu, Meng Jiao, and Li He in the mid-Tang Dynasty, and Su Shi, Lu You, and others in the Song Dynasty. Xin Qiji, Gao Qi, Yang Shen, Gong Zizhen and other famous poets in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were all greatly influenced by Li Bai's poetry.
2. Du Fu
In Du Fu's middle age, his poetic style was depressed and depressed. , concerned about the country and the people, Du Fu's poems are called "the history of poetry". His poems are famous for their ancient style and rhythmic poetry, with various styles. The four words "depressed and frustrated" accurately summarize the style of his own works, and the main style is melancholy.
Du Fu lived during the historical period when the Tang Dynasty was transitioning from prosperity to decline. His poems mostly dealt with social unrest, political darkness, and people's suffering. His poems reflected the social contradictions and people's suffering at that time. His poems recorded The great historical changes in the Tang Dynasty from prosperity to decline express the lofty Confucian spirit of benevolence and strong sense of worry, so it is known as the "history of poetry"
Du Fu is concerned about the country and the people, has a noble personality and exquisite poetic skills. Du Fu wrote more than 1,500 poems in his life, many of which are famous poems that have been passed down through the ages. Du Fu's poems that have been handed down are the most extensive among the Tang poems. He was one of the most outstanding poets in the Tang Dynasty and had a profound influence on later generations. The work is called the devastation of the world, the sage in poetry; the misery of the people, the waves in the pen, is a representative work of realist poetry.