Compare poets DuFu with LiBai
...ve poverty. As a son of a minor scholar-official, his youth was spent on the standard education of learning the Confucian classics of philosophy, history, and poetry. Unlike Du Fu, Li Bai was the son of a rich merchant and his education was more flexible. Apart from the Confucianism, Li Bai was also influenced a lot by Taoism. Du Fu’s ambition was to help his country by being a successful civil servant, so he traveled to Chang’an to take the civil service exam. Unfortunately and ironically, this talented young man failed. Though he finally received a minor post after many years, this position was swept away by some events. On the contrary, although Li Bai expressed his wish to become an official, he did not sit for the Chinese civil service examination. Instead, beginning at age 25, Li Bai traveled around China with the wealth he inherited from his parents and composed many poems, which have made him famous forever. The An Lushan Rebellion was the turning point of the Tang Dynasty, and it destroyed the prosperity that took years to build up. Du Fu was kept unsettled and suffered a lot from the wars. The unhappy and unstable period, however, made Du Fu a poet. What he saw, heard, and felt during the constant wars became the enduring themes of his poetry. In contrast to Du Fu, Li Bai died only a few years aft...