s loyalty to friends, but very poorly of his
judgment
in political matters.
Du Fu - 5
Unauthenticated Download Date | 10/1/17 7:36 AM Returning Home On Foot: A Ballad 323 I suffer being tied down by a minor post, 8 lowering my head, I am shamed before men of the wilds.
5.
21 Returning Home On Foot: A Ballad1 In years of your prime Your Excellency has met with perilous times, running the state depends indeed on the qualities of a hero.
Since the dynasty?
s altars of Earth and Grain are as they are right now, 4 who but you, sir, by martial measures can quell ruin and rebellion?
The thousand officials at Fengxiang for now are all well fed, but no more can their clothes be light and their horses sleek.
Of the courtiers in gowns of blue, the one in the hardest straits2 8 is this white-haired Reminder going home on foot.
Friendships formed in human life take no account of age, in considering association why need one put sameness of temper first?
In the mountains my wife and children weep facing the heavens, 12 from your stables I need the wind-chasing brown charger.
The minister Fang Guan, whose military ineptness had led to the defeat of�the imperial army at Chentao and Changban, fell from Suzong?
s favor.
Du Fu was a friend and strong supporter of Fang Guan, and he spoke up in Fang Guan?
s defense, which weakened Du Fu?
s own position at court.
This speaks well of Du Fu?
s loyalty to friends, but very poorly of his judgment in political matters. Du Fu asked Suzong to ? ignore small things and note greater things. ? Losing a very large imperial army to a scholar? s folly is hard to forgive as a ? small thing. ? Guo Ziyi, by contrast, lost many battles and, deservedly, retained the emperor? s support. Fang Guan? s usefulness in the crisis was a delusion that Suzong could not afford to entertain. Du�Fu? s politically stupid protest was initially forgiven on the grounds that one should not stifle protest. It was forgiven but not forgotten. Du Fu never 1 Original note: ?
s loyalty to friends, but very poorly of his judgment in political matters. Du Fu asked Suzong to ? ignore small things and note greater things. ? Losing a very large imperial army to a scholar? s folly is hard to forgive as a ? small thing. ? Guo Ziyi, by contrast, lost many battles and, deservedly, retained the emperor? s support. Fang Guan? s usefulness in the crisis was a delusion that Suzong could not afford to entertain. Du�Fu? s politically stupid protest was initially forgiven on the grounds that one should not stifle protest. It was forgiven but not forgotten. Du Fu never 1 Original note: ?
