Du Fu failed the imperial examinations, never held a significant government post, and spent most of his adult life as a refugee fleeing the An Lushan Rebellion — one of the deadliest conflicts in human history. He died obscure and impoverished. Chinese literary tradition now considers him the greatest poet in the language, the “Poet-Sage” whose work captured the suffering of ordinary people during catastrophe with a moral seriousness no other Chinese poet has matched.

This episode traces Du Fu from his early ambitions through the examination failures, the An Lushan Rebellion, the refugee years, and the posthumous recognition that elevated him above every other poet in Chinese literature.

• Du Fu’s early ambitions for a government career and the examination failures that thwarted them
• The An Lushan Rebellion and the refugee wandering that provided his greatest material
• The poetry of witness — ordinary suffering rendered with extraordinary moral precision
• The posthumous elevation to “Poet-Sage” and his status as the supreme voice of Chinese poetry