Wall Carvings, Elixirs, And the Celestial King: An Exegetic Exercise on Du Fu's Poems on Two Palaces‪.‬

National crises and personal plight set the murky tone of Du Fu's [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (712-70) poetry after the An Lushan [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (d. 757) rebellion, which began to cause havoc in the Tang empire in the winter of 755-56, especially when the Tang emperors were later forced for a time to abandon the capital Chang'an, which had been occupied by the rebels. At the court of Emperor Suzong [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (r. 756-62) in Fengxiang [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (modern Fengxiang, Shaanxi), Du, then Reminder of the Right, protested against the emperor's decision to demote Fang Guan [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (697-763) as punishment for having suffered a military defeat at the hands of the rebels. For remonstrating this way Du Fu received the death penalty, which he avoided due to a successful appeal on his behalf by Zhang Hao [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (d. 764). Fang Guan was demoted, (1) and Du Fu was "granted" a leave of absence. In the autumn of 757, our poet wrote two poems on his visits to two palaces, namely, the Jiucheng [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Nine-Tier (2)) and the Yuhua [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Jade Flower), on his long journey to rejoin his family in Fuzhou [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (modern Fuxian [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], Shaanxi). The present study discusses the sentiments Du Fu might have meant to evoke in the two poems in question. (3) These poems seem to suggest that Du Fu was the first to turn the motif of palace poetry from panegyric to lyric. (4) But what kind of lyric sentiment is expressed in these poems? Were they composed as satire? If so, who or what was the target?