Another reason, identified by the Chinese historian William Hung, is that Chinese poems are typically concise, omitting context that might be relevant, but which an informed contemporary could be assumed to know. Since many of Du Fu's poems feature morality and history, this practice is particularly important. Life Traditional Chinese literary criticism emphasized the life of the author when interpreting a work, a practice which the American scholar Burton Watson attributed to 'the close links that traditional Chinese thought posits between art and morality'. He has been called the 'Poet-Historian' and the 'Poet-Sage' by Chinese critics, while the range of his work has allowed him to be introduced to Western readers as 'the Chinese Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth, Béranger, Hugo or Baudelaire'.

Of his poetic writing, nearly fifteen hundred poems have been preserved over the ages. Although initially he was little-known to other writers, his works came to be hugely influential in both Chinese and Japanese literary culture. His life, like the whole country, was devastated by the An Lushan Rebellion of 755, and his last 15 years were a time of almost constant unrest. His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant, but he proved unable to make the necessary accommodations. Along with his elder contemporary and friend Li Bai (Li Po), he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets.

Du Fu (Chinese: 杜甫 Wade–Giles: Tu Fu 712–770) was a Chinese poet and politician of the Tang dynasty.

Li Po and Tu Fu by Tu Fu