The vast majority of ancient poets in China also took Confucianism as the main body. However, Du Fu is the only person who really promotes Confucianism and should occupy an important position in the history of Confucianism. This is not only because Du Fu pretends to be a "Confucian scholar", but more importantly, his deep heart is always full of compassionate humanitarian spirit. This spirit goes deep into its bone marrow and melts into its blood. It made Du Fu have a deep understanding of the sense of hardship, the spirit of benevolence, the heart of compassion and the way of loyalty and forgiveness advocated by Confucius and Mencius, and expressed it incisively and vividly with strong feelings, which touched and infected readers.
First, the sense of urgency
Du Fu lived in exile all his life, and Du Fu Caotang was Du Fu's former residence when he lived in Chengdu. In the winter of 759 AD, Du Fu moved his family from Longyou (now the south of Gansu Province) to Shuzhong in order to avoid the Anshi Rebellion. With the help of relatives and friends, we built a small house to live by the picturesque Huanhua River in the western suburbs of Chengdu. The following spring, the hut was built and named "Chengdu Caotang". Poets have lived here for nearly four years, and more than 240 poems have been handed down to this day. Because Chengdu is far away from the war-torn Central Plains and the Caotang is located in the countryside, the poet's life is relatively stable and his mood is relatively quiet, which makes his poetry creation in the Caotang mostly with pastoral flavor, such as Tang Cheng, Jiangcun and Delighting in Rain on a Spring Night. However, Du Fu is, after all, a poet with great political aspirations. The sense of responsibility to help the world and the people has always existed in his heart, so that he can never forget the reality. Therefore, once there are factors that revive his sense of hardship in reality, the poet will return to the creative track of worrying about the country and the people. The famous Autumn Wind Breaking the Cottage was written under such circumstances. "August autumn high wind roars, roll triple MAO on my home. Hair flew over the river and sprinkled on the periphery of the river. The highest one hangs a long forest tip, and the lower one floats into the pond. " The poet's hut, temporarily settled down, was thus opened by the whistling autumn wind! "Nancun that group of children bully me, who can stand crossing the street as a thief. I openly carried Mao into the bamboo forest, and my lips were so dry that I couldn't breathe. When I came back, I sighed with a cane. " The poet did not deeply blame them for bullying the old man, which shows that the poet is generous at heart. "After a while, the wind will calm down, and the autumn will be bleak and dark. The cloth has been cold and iron for many years, and the pride is cracked. There is no dry place in the bedside table, and the feet are numb with rain. Since I have insomnia, how can I get wet all night? " After years of war, suffering and hardship, the poet has mixed feelings. "Between Andrew's mansion and thousands of rooms, all the poor people in the world are smiling, and the wind and rain are as still as a mountain! Oh! Suddenly seeing this house in front of me, it is enough for me to freeze to death alone. " This is the most important part of the poem. This kind of thinking and feeling of putting yourself in others' shoes because of your own suffering, as long as others are not suffering, you would rather suffer, which is the concentrated embodiment of the poet's sense of suffering.
Second, the spirit of love and compassion.
As a representative figure of realistic poetry in Tang Dynasty, most of Du Fu's poems show compassion for life. "If you don't starve to death, Confucianism will die." Du Fu's poems exude the idea of benevolence everywhere, and his life experience is full of bitterness, and he enjoys the human suffering with the broad masses of the people. Du Fu's poems exude a cordial feeling, but lack the rigidity of "outline". "Two orioles singing green willows, a line of egrets on the sky. The window contains autumn snow in Xiling, and the Wu Dong Wan Li boat stops at the door. " (quatrains) is one of Du Fu's few masterpieces, full of love for the mountains and rivers of the motherland. If the image gives me the feeling that a hundred flowers are blooming, then the artistic conception gives me the feeling that spring is beautiful. The artistic conception of this poem is a sunny and sunny spring, a spring that can be immersive. The scenery in the poem is far and near, dynamic and quiet, without a word of affection, but full of affection, which makes people immersed in a beautiful and prosperous natural scenery. "In Fuzhou, far away, she was watching the moonlight, looking at it alone from the window of her room. For our boys and girls, poor little baby, too young to know where the capital is. Her cloudy hair is sweet with mist, and her jade-white shoulders are cold in the moonlight. When can we lie on the screen again and look at the bright light and stop crying? ? "(Moonlit Night) The artistic conception of this poem is sad and beautiful, full of the poet's expectation and longing. The poet imagined the situation at home, a quiet, beautiful and affectionate moonlit night. Few ancient poets in China showed such kindness to their wives and children as Du Fu did. This poem shows the poet's strong yearning for his wife and infinite love for his children. " Her hair smells like mist, and her shoulders are cold. "How beautiful the image of his wife is in Du Fu's mind, which shows his respect and yearning for his wife and also contains guilt. "It's almost difficult to meet friends, because the morning star and the evening star. When is the evening? What is candlelight? Two men who were young not long ago now have gray temples. It shocked us to find that half of our friends had died, which made us sad. We didn't expect that it would be 20 years before I could visit you again? When I left, you were unmarried, and the men and women suddenly left. They were very kind to their father's old friends. They asked me where I went during the trip. The children began to drink before the question and answer was over. Spring chives are cut in the night rain, and brown rice is cooked fresh in a special way. My host announced that it was a festival, and he urged me to drink ten cups. But what kind of ten glasses of wine can make me so drunk, because your love is always in my heart. . The mountains will separate us tomorrow. Who can say for sure after tomorrow? ! "(Give Eight Guards to Chu Shi) This poem shows the bitterness of life and the beauty of friendship. On a dark rainy night, the displaced poet visited an old friend after a long separation. In Chu Shi's "exclamation" named Wei Ba, the poet felt the surprise and enthusiasm of his friend and warmed his sad mood. From "being nice to their father's old friend" to "I love you forever? "A series of action language made the poet feel a warm and friendly rainy night with distinct layers and a warm and beautiful atmosphere, which comforted some bitter journeys. So, two old friends lamented the passage of life and felt sad for the impermanence of the world.
Third, the way of loyalty and forgiveness.
Du Fu's poems, which have been handed down to this day, are mostly written after staying in Chang 'an. Since Chang 'an Poetry, Du Fu's spirit of worrying about the country and the people has been manifested in most of his works. From the ambition of the early years: "to the monarch Yao Shun, and then make the customs pure"; Until the end of his life, he was still mourning: "The blood of war is still there, and the voice of the army has been moved to this day." Whether in prosperity or adversity, Du Fu's heart of boxing is always so persistent. Du Fu not only never forgets the monarch and his subjects, but what is even more touching is that he regards this feeling as a part of his life. From Beijing to Fengxian, 500 words describes the feelings of loyalty to the monarch and patriotism at the beginning. At that time, there were two roads in front of Du Fu. One is to retire to the countryside and live a romantic life of "freely sending the sun and the moon"; One is to be an official and get involved in all kinds of complicated official struggles. The choice aroused Du Fu's inner agitation. Finally, Du Fu expressed his heart: "Is there a lack of corridors and temples today? Sunflowers are sunny, and physical properties are hard to win! " Loyalty to the monarch and patriotism have become the nature of poets, eg the sun shines on sunflowers.
The most important content in Du Fu's later poems is reflected in his position and feelings of worrying about the country and the people. For him, this kind of thought mostly comes from a conscious personality consciousness. As he said, "In ancient times, when people were in chaos, sages and sages did their best. In Hu Weiwei's twilight years, he was worried about his country and people, and his heart was weak. ("Xiting Luri") "This feeling of caring for others is essentially a kind of personality consciousness that exists with heaven and earth and is concentric with everything. His "Forty Rhymes" embodies this idea. In the poem, he recalls that he fell out of favor with Su Zong, hating that "illness comes from the discussion of monarch and minister, and he is ashamed of morality and privacy", and points out that although he is in the Jianghu, thinking about it is still a matter of national security. The anxiety expressed in the poem is profound and incisive. For example, "fierce soldiers cast farm tools and obsessed with book curtains." The temple is unpredictable, and heaven is really worried. "He saw that the war has been preliminarily decided and the crisis still exists. However, the rulers, such as Yuan Zai and Wang Jin, just seek luck by killing Buddha. They talk nonsense and stop the army. This is the worry of today. He also said, "The emissary is divided into the king's orders, and the ministers are divided into divisions. I'm afraid that all the rides are closed, unlike asking Cang Yi. "He realized that the war destroyed the power of the people, and the court still had to collect the power of the people blindly, regardless of the lives of the people. This is the greatest social tragedy. Therefore, he has such a sigh: "The jackal mourns Chu, and Lin mourns like Ni". His concern for the world has transcended his personal gains and losses, as well as his resentment against a surname and a gentleman. Du Fu's loyalty to the monarch and patriotism is not the "foolish loyalty" advocated by later Confucianism: "If you want my minister to die, I have to die". Du Fu dared to criticize and satirize the emperor, and his loyalty to the emperor was mainly manifested in his criticism and satire. Du Fu dares to write such works: "The frontier court is bleeding into sea water, but my emperor is unwilling to open the border" (Military Vehicle Shop); " Tang Yao is so self-righteous. How can he know that he is old? "(Qinzhou Zashi);" Don't you think of yourself as wormwood ("Meeting")! These poems have anger besides "resentment", but they are not contradictory to loyalty to the monarch and patriotism.
Du Fu was proud of his Confucian identity and based on Confucianism all his life. This makes him, as a "poet saint", the idol of China traditional intellectuals and the embodiment of Confucian cultural ideal personality. Du Fu's poetic style also marks the highest poetic spirit of traditional Confucianism and sets an example for future writers. The Confucian spirit in Du Fu's poems has a great influence on later generations, and its significance has gone beyond the scope of poetry history. The so-called "poetic sage" also contains the elements of Confucian "moral sage". As the spiritual idol of later poets, his Confucianism has no less influence on the history of thought than his poetic art.