Writers › Writer / Poet
Du Mu
Late Tang poet and grandson of the chancellor Du You, author of the Epang Palace Rhapsody, paired with Li Shangyin as the Lesser Li and Du
Mural of Rhapsody on the Epang Palace, a work by this person.
The vast Epang Palace spreads across hills in a maze of halls and covered corridors before flames consume its roofs. Splendor turns to ruin, carrying the essay’s warning against extravagance and power.
Also known as Zi Muzhi · Hao Fan Chuan Ju Shi · Du Ziwei
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Du Mu, courtesy name Muzhi, came from Wannian near Chang'an and was a grandson of Du You, chancellor and author of the *Comprehensive Statutes* (*Tongdian*). He passed the jinshi examination in 828 and a special decree examination that year, then served on the staffs of Shen Chuanshi in Jiangxi and Xuanshe and of Niu Sengru at Yangzhou. From the Huichang years he governed Huangzhou, Chizhou and Muzhou and later Huzhou, and at court he rose to Secretariat drafter, hence the name Du Ziwei. He wrote essays on frontier warfare, and his commentary on the *Art of War* (*Sunzi*) was later included in the *Sunzi with Eleven Commentaries*. He died in 852, and his nephew Pei Yanhan collected his work as the *Fanchuan Collection* (*Fanchuan wenji*) in twenty chapters. His early *Epang Palace Rhapsody* (*Epang gong fu*), which used the fall of Qin as a warning to the court, was chosen for the Qing anthology *Guwen guanzhi*.
Life and times
Dates 803 CE–852 CE