The poets are kind of linked by a culture of poetry writing. I mea it's between poet to poet em. Their poems written by poets for other poets. We hear of lebis following an ancient style, and dufu a new style. But what at the time when theyre having a clet, or people following them changing their minds because of what they said? By a time af te tal dynasty, we are talking about two different categories of poetry.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss two of China’s greatest poets, Li Bai and Du Fu, who wrote in the 8th century in the Tang Era. Li Bai (701-762AD) is known for personal poems, many of them about drinking wine, and for finding the enjoyment in life. Du Fu (712-770AD), a few years younger, is more of an everyman, writing in the upheaval of the An Lushan Rebellion (755-763AD). Together they have been a central part of Chinese culture for over a millennium, reflecting the balance between the individual and the public life, and one sign of their enduring appeal is that there is rarely agreement on which of them is the greater.
The image above is intended to depict Du Fu.
With
Tim Barrett
Professor Emeritus of East Asian History at SOAS, University of London
Tian Yuan Tan
Shaw Professor of Chinese at the University of Oxford and Professorial Fellow at University College
And
Frances Wood
Former Curator of the Chinese Collections at the British Library
Producer: Simon Tillotson