Fine Flowers from an Evil Tree: Du Fu's Last Friendship and Its Sequel

Abstract

Du Fu has been praised for many qualities: his command of the medieval literary heritage; his technical skill as a verse writer and compulsion to innovate; his social conscience; his knowledge of the contemporary political and military situation. Another characteristic, which critics have found almost endearing, is that he “preferred to speak well of people” (le dao ren shan 樂道人善).1 This article concerns his enthusiasm for Su Huan 蘇渙 (d. 775), probably the last new friend he made in his life, a man whose verse he praised in excited terms. Su Huan, however, only three years after Du Fu’s death, proved to be a traitor to the Tang dynasty: he was party to a rebellion in the far south of China that took years to subdue and cost several thousand lives. Soon after this, Li Mian 李勉 (717–788), whom Du Fu had known for some years, discussed the question of whether an evil man like Su could write good verse and whether his verse should be preserved.