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Du Gongbu nianpu 杜工部年譜

Oct 24, 2013 © Ulrich Theobald

Du Gongbu nianpu 杜工部年譜 "Annalistic Biography of Minister of Works Du Fu", also called Du Gongbu caotang shi nianpu 杜工部草堂詩年譜 is an annalistic biography (nianpu 年譜) of the Tang-period 唐 (618-907) poet and politician Du Fu 杜甫 (712-770), who was Minister of Works (gongbu 工部).

The book was written by the Song-period 宋 (960-1279) scholar Zhao Zili 趙子櫟 (d. 1137), courtesy name Mengshou 夢授. He hailed from Tianshui 天水 (modern Tianshui, Gansu) and was a descendant of Emperor Taizu 宋太祖 (r. 960-975), the founder of the dynasty. He obtained his jinshi degree in 1091 and was appointed auxiliary academician (zhixueshi 直學士) in the Baowen Hall 寶文閣.

Zhao Zili's book is only one of a series of biographies of Du Fu that were written during the Song period, such as those of Lü Dafang 呂大防 (1027-1097), Cai Xingzong 蔡興宗, Lu Yin 魯訔, Ji Minfu 計敏夫, Huang He 黃鶴, Lü Ruo 呂若, Bao Biao 鮑彪 (jinshi degree 1128), Liang Quandao 梁權道, Wu Renjie 吳仁杰 (jinshi degree 1178) or Xu Zhai 徐宅.

The most important scholarly finding of Zhao Zili's book is the date of Du Fu's birth and death that he fixed as 712 and 770, and not, as formerly done, 713 and 771.

The Du Gongbu nianpu is to be found in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, and also in the collected writings of Du Fu, Du Gongbu ji 杜工部集 published in 1957 by the Commercial Press 商務印書館.

Sources:
Bian Xiaoxuan 卞孝萱 (200). "Du Gongbu nianpu 杜工部年譜", in Bian Xiaoxuan 卞孝萱, ed. Tangdai wenxue baike cidian 唐代文學百科辭典 (Beijing: Hanyu da cidian chubanshe), 1078.
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰, ed. (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe), Vol. 1, 967.
Xu Xin 徐昕 (2013). "Liang Quandao Du Gongbu nianpu yanjiu 梁權道《杜工部年譜》研究", Huainan Shifan Xueyuan xuebao 淮南師範學院學報, 2013 (7).