Yet as my head the pillows pressed, my soul had found thy side.

Oh! Chiang Nan's a hundred miles, yet in a moment's space
I've flown away to Chiang Nan and touched a dreaming face.






Tu Fu

A.D. 712-770





Tu Fu, whom his countrymen called the God of Verse, was born in the province
of Hu-Kuang, and this was his portrait from contemporaries:

He was tall and slightly built, yet robust with finely chiselled features;
his manners were exquisite, and his appearance distinguished.
He came of a literary family, and, as he says of himself,
from his seventh to his fortieth year study and letter occupied
all his available time. At the age of twenty-seven he came to the capital
with his fame in front of him, and there Li Po the poet and Ts`en-Ts`an
became his friends, and Ming Huang his patron. He obtained a post at Court
somewhat similar to that of Master of Ceremonies in our own Court.
Yet the poet had few sympathies outside the artistic life.