Author · China
Du Fu
Died in 770
Du Fu was born in 712 near Luoyang, in Henan, into an impoverished noble family according to the New World Encyclopedia; his mother died shortly after his birth. He failed the examinations around 735, then in 747, a session in which the Prime Minister had all the candidates fail. Appointed in 755 to a post that the An Lushan rebellion swept away, he was captured by the rebels in 756, escaped the following year and joined the court, then was demoted in 758 to Huazhou. He later lived for several years in Chengdu and died in 770 in Tanzhou, present-day Changsha.