No More Learning

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Unauthenticated Download Date | 10/1/17 7:36 AM Seeing Off Attendant Censor Fan (23) on his Way to a Post 291 Whirling gusts blow on the solitary tree, the bright sun shines on the sleeve I grasp. 1 Moved to tears in the gray-green mist, 32 mountain gates, closed in ten thousand layers. The one who stays is gloomy in the vastness, and the traveler is now far in the distance. I pace about, sad at this parting of the living, 36 cramped up, old in my generation. They sang of people left over from the time of Tao and Tang,2 the Later Han continued a line of emperors. 3 Distressed that I don? t look like one to restore the dynasty, 40 I would just go off from this point on. Not a few of Du Fu? s poems from this period are seeing such men off as they went to take up their posts. In poetic terms Du Fu gives the background of the situation, explains why the post is a critical one in terms of the current military situation, and gives the recipient a sense that what he is doing is important. He often does this in his later poetry as well, but the clarity of the problems in the current political crisis gives these poems an edge. In peaceful times to be sent from the imperial presence to a post in the provinces would be a cause for resentment? even though in this case there was probably no diminishment in his grade in the civil service. Du Fu explains why this is a mark of imperial confidence in the recipient? s abilities and how crucial the post is? ensuring the transport of tax revenues to the throne.