Understanding Du Fu's Line on Yu Xin | Generated by AI
Question: How to understand Du Fu’s line “庾信平生最萧瑟，暮年诗赋动江关”?
Answer:
This line comes from the first poem in Du Fu’s famous group 《咏怀古迹五首》 (Five Poems on Reflecting on Ancient Sites and Personal Feelings), written in 766 CE while he was in Kuizhou (near the Three Gorges area).
Literal Translation
- 庾信平生最萧瑟 → Yu Xin’s whole life was the most desolate / bleak / withered.
- 暮年诗赋动江关 → In his old age, his poems and rhapsodies (fu) moved / shook the Jiang Pass / the region of the Yangtze gorges.
Common smooth rendering:
“Yu Xin’s life was the most desolate of all;
in his twilight years his poetry and prose shook the Jiang region.”
Core Meaning and Layers
-
Surface level — praising Yu Xin
Du Fu greatly admired Yu Xin (庾信, 513–581), a major poet of the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
Yu Xin was originally from the Liang dynasty (南朝梁). After the chaos of Hou Jing’s rebellion (similar in destructiveness to An Lushan’s rebellion for Du Fu), he was sent as envoy to the Western Wei (北朝), but was detained for 27 years, forced to serve the Northern dynasties (Western Wei and Northern Zhou).
Throughout his life he felt deeply displaced, homesick, and sorrowful — hence “most desolate /萧瑟”.
Only in old age did his style change dramatically: from earlier ornate, flowery palace-style writing to a much deeper, more vigorous, sorrow-laden, and emotionally powerful style (especially in his masterpiece 《哀江南赋》 — Rhapsody Lamenting the South).
This late work expressed intense grief over the fall of the Liang dynasty and his personal exile; its emotional force “moved / shook” the Jiang region (江关 usually refers to the Jiangling / Jingzhou area, the old Liang capital region, symbolizing wide influence across the south or even the literary world). - Deeper layer — Du Fu speaking about himself
Du Fu uses Yu Xin as a mirror for his own situation (借古人抒己怀).- Like Yu Xin, Du Fu suffered from massive rebellion (An Lushan), lost his country’s stability, wandered far from home (northeast → southwest), and lived in exile.
- By 766 Du Fu was already old (55 years old), sick, poor, stuck in the remote Three Gorges region, unable to return north.
- The phrase “most desolate” applies equally to Du Fu’s own life at that moment.
- “Mature poetry in old age moves people” is also Du Fu’s hope / self-encouragement: despite (or because of) extreme hardship, his late poetry had become deeper, more powerful, and more moving — just like Yu Xin’s late works.
- Artistic technique
The whole poem uses “双管齐下” (two pipes played together): the last two lines are ostensibly about Yu Xin but simultaneously about Du Fu himself.
This creates a profound “同病相怜” (sharing the same suffering) feeling.
Du Fu had earlier praised Yu Xin with the famous line “庾信文章老更成” (Yu Xin’s writing grows even better with age) — here he develops that idea into a full emotional identification.
Quick Summary of Understanding
- Yu Xin’s life = extreme personal and national tragedy → lifelong desolation
- Late works = sorrow turned into great artistic power → moved the literary world / southern region
- Du Fu’s real voice = “My life is just as desolate, and I hope / believe that my old-age poetry, born from pain, can also have deep and lasting impact.”
This couplet is one of the most moving and self-revealing lines in all of Du Fu’s late poetry — it shows both admiration for a predecessor and quiet dignity in the face of his own tragic fate.
References:
- 咏怀古迹五首·其一 全诗赏析 (Gushiwen.cn)
- 杜甫《咏怀古迹五首·其一》赏析 (various classical poetry sites including Zhihu and academic notes)
- Standard Du Fu annotations (e.g., Xiao Difei edition and Tang poetry dictionaries)