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[REVIEW] “Interrogative Reflections: Nine Views of Reading Du Fu” by Marsha McDonald

Xiaofei Tian (editor). Reading Du Fu: Nine Views, Hong Kong University Press, 2020. 200 pgs.

The idea for Reading Du Fu: Nine Views grew out of a two-day conference on Du Fu held at Harvard University in October 2016. At the end of 2015, Berlin’s De Gruyter Press had published an English-Chinese edition of Du Fu’s extant works, translated by Harvard’s Stephen Owen (who has also contributed an essay to this volume). Ten years in the making, this edition was the inaugural volume of De Gruyter’s open-access series, The Library of Chinese Humanities, and served as an inspiration for the 2016 conference.

As editor of Nine Views, Chinese literature scholar and Harvard professor Xiaofei Tian has carefully curated a collection of English essays on Du Fu. For centuries, renowned Chinese critics have written extensive analyses of Du Fu’s poetry, and international scholars have contributed equally rigorous studies. What, then, remains to be said? Tian advocates for a renewed focus on “interrogative” reflections—critical inquiries grounded in close readings of Du Fu’s actual texts. She argues that the work itself should be the central pillar of both criticism and analysis. This return to source texts, she believes, is especially vital when writing in English.

The poems—or verses from poems in paintings—examined in these nine essays contain a distinctive interior melody, guiding readers through real-time pathos, aesthetic history, and deeply personal, often emotionally charged, pictorial spaces. The essays highlight the necessity of close reading. For English readers, this “return to the source” is invaluable. Additionally, the bilingual Chinese-English presentation of Du Fu’s poems allows those familiar with Chinese to make direct comparisons, further enriching the reading experience.

Organised into three sections, the book explores themes that Tian believes are underrepresented in English-language studies of Du Fu: “Home, Locale, Empire,” “Poetry and Buddhism,” and “Reception and Re-creation.” Each section contains four, two, and three chapters, respectively. While the book can be read sequentially, its structure invites an individualised approach—readers are free to select essays based on interest rather than follow a prescribed order.

I must admit that I read Ronald Egan’s essay, “Ming-Qing Paintings Inscribed with Du Fu’s Lines,” the final piece in the book, first. My introduction to Du Fu (712–770) was not through academia but through art. As a young artist, I was drawn to paintings inscribed with his verses, which led me to his poetry. For me, reading and listening to Du Fu’s poems (in both English and Chinese) is a profoundly visual, even kinaesthetic, experience—a dance of forms as well as words. Egan’s discussion of the sustained use of Du Fu’s verse in Ming-Qing (1368–1911) paintings is captivating. Often, painters selected couplets—frequently lesser-known verses—for their evocative imagery. Egan explores this interplay between poetry and landscape painting, illustrating how it conveys and simultaneously defies both temporal and imagined vistas. His discussion of two seventeenth-century albums—one by Wang Shimin (1592–1680) and the other by Shitao (1642–1707)—demonstrates their contrasting foci on the seen (Wang) and the unseen (Shitao).

^{Wang Shimin (1592-1680), Qing dynasty. Dated 1666. Source.
Album of 12 leaves, ink and color on paper, each leaf about h: 39 cm, w: 25.5 cm}

The two other essays in this third section, “Reception and Re-creation”—Christopher Nugent’s “Sources of Difficulty: Reading and Understanding Du Fu” and David Der-wei Wang’s “Six Modernist Poets in Search of Du Fu”—demonstrate the poet’s enduring influence from the Tang dynasty to the present day. The diverse range of works selected by each scholar, along with the real and imagined responses they have elicited from readers and poets spanning from the Tang dynasty to the People’s Republic, can at times feel overwhelming. Nevertheless, these essays compellingly illustrate how Du Fu’s oeuvre has not confined but rather expanded his audience, while simultaneously enriching his artistic legacy.

All great works challenge our understanding of them, and the poetry of Du Fu is no exception. This, as Tian observes, can be attributed not only to the poet’s well-earned stature but also to the deeply ingrained stereotypes that have shaped perceptions of him. Du Fu is often revered as a paragon of Confucian virtue, an unwavering champion of the people, an impeccably principled ethicist, and an almost transcendental sage. Yet, as Tian argues, where in these grand portrayals is the flawed, relatable human being—the refugee father tormented by his sons’ disrupted, war-ravaged education and their bleak prospects, the lonely friend yearning for the warmth of witty, humorous repartee, or the irritable, famished grouch lamenting the dreadful food he has been forced to endure?

Living through the turmoil of the An Lushan Rebellion during the Middle Tang period (755–763), Du Fu and his family, like countless others, were forced into a life of displacement, not just once but repeatedly. Their search for refuge proved maddeningly elusive—each momentary sanctuary was fleeting, compelling them to wander, find brief respite, and then flee once more.

The four essayists featured in the section “Home, Local, Empire” explore the themes of Du Fu’s sense of place and his enduring placelessness. Stephen Owen, Jack Chen, Gregory Patterson, and Lucas Bender, through meticulous close readings of selected poems, illuminate the poet’s repeated struggles to secure and sustain a stable existence—even at the periphery of an empire to which he once pledged allegiance and called home.

Du Fu’s deeply personal yet expansive depiction of his experiences was not impervious to external cultural influences. The Tang empire, vast and heterogeneous, was a crucible of diverse traditions and ideologies. In the section “Poetry and Buddhism”, Paul Rouzer’s essay “Refuges and Refugees” presents compelling arguments by drawing on Wang Wei’s poetry, specific works by Du Fu, and the poet’s interactions with a Buddhist priest to explore his ambivalence towards this foreign yet increasingly pervasive religion. Through close readings of Du Fu’s poems, Rouzer contends that while the poet was intrigued by new literary forms and philosophical ideas, he remained reluctant to fully embrace Buddhism at the expense of his foundational Daoist and Confucian beliefs. Tian also contributes to this discourse with “Feeding the Phoenix,” an essay that examines Buddhism’s social presence in Tang society and its influence on Du Fu. Focusing on the Qinzhou-Tonggu Series, a suite of poems inspired by Buddhist themes, Tian offers insight into the poet’s engagement with Buddhist thought and its complex role within the broader cultural landscape of the time.

Du Fu experienced hunger, the threat of violence, and the relentless uncertainty of political upheaval—hardships that likely contributed to his deteriorating health and premature death at the age of 58. Now widely regarded by scholars and poets as one of China’s greatest literary figures, and an indispensable voice in the global literary canon, his work continues to inspire rigorous scholarly inquiry while also captivating and delighting poets and artists alike. The nine essays presented in this volume illuminate not only Du Fu’s formidable intellect but also his nuanced mastery of poetic forms. Furthermore, they acknowledge his keen awareness of historical events and their profound impact on the lives of ordinary people swept up in the turbulence of his era. Reading Du Fu: Nine Views is a significant and welcome contribution to Du Fu studies in English, offering both scholars and enthusiasts an enriching and rewarding engagement with the poet’s life and work.

Stephen Owen’s English translations of Du Fu’s extant 1400 poems are available as an open-access downloadable document here.

^{How to cite: McDonald, Marsha. “Interrogative Reflections: Nine Views of Reading Du Fu.” Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 2 Mar. 2025, chajournal.com/2025/03/03/nine-views.}

Marsha McDonald lives in Vilar de Andorinho, Portugal. An artist and writer, she works and exhibits between North America, Europe, and Asia. She has received grants from the Pollock-Krasner, Puffin, Mary Nohl (travel), Lynden Sculpture Garden, Gallery 224 Artservancy (artist working within conserved land in Wisconsin USA), and a New York Fellowship. Her writing has appeared in Otoliths (Australia), The Drum and The Cantabrigian (Cambridge MA), Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine, Cha (Hong Kong), and La Piccioleta Barca (Milan). She has collaborated with artists and writers in the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, North America, and Japan. In 2024, she will be an arts resident at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland and Studio Kura in Kyushu, Japan. Visit her website for more information. [All contributions by Marsha McDonald.]

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