Du Fu's Song of War Term Paper

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" Du Fu, of course, is speaking of the An Lushan Rebellion, which was not put down for nearly a decade in mid-eighth century China.

Emperor Wu's wars have essentially decimated the land. The lands are barren -- in more ways than one. The consequences of war are numerous: the men are gone, so in villages where couples should normally be uniting and having children, no children are had. The image Du Fu uses is of stark fields where "nothing grows but weeds," but the image could easily be construed as being representative of the lack of new life in the "two hundred districts / And in thousands of villages."

The next image Du Fu employs is one of heartbreaking sorrow: "and though strong women have bent to the ploughing, / East and west the furrows are all broken down." Du Fu's image is akin to the ballads of Ireland, "The Fields of Athenry," "Foggy Dew," and several others, in which war has acted as a scourge. While the image literally shows how women have had to take over the men's jobs while the men fight, it also acts a symbol of one of the casualties of war: delineation. The normal, traditional roles of men and women are lost in war time: men must leave their ploughs to do battle, and women must perform double duty keeping the house and tending to the fields to keep themselves and their families alive.

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As Du Fu states, "the furrows are all broken down." Another word for furrows could be channels or lines -- used for irrigation and separation of fields. War, however, has caused the lines to be erased -- has caused the normal channels for water (and grace) to be obliterated. The sense is one of utter ruin, desolation, and hopelessness.

The final image of "new ghosts…wailing with the old, loudest in the dark sky of a stormy day" may be understood as Du Fu's referencing of himself as a soldier of war (also taken prisoner). Like the other Tang poets who were also officials and had a first had view of war, Du Fu's poetry join the ranks of the Tang Dynasty's other poets, each giving voice to the senselessness of the dark days of war -- yet having no concrete or visible effect, rather only serving to haunt China with memories of its own history.

In conclusion, Du Fu's "Song of War Chariots" is a bold condemnation of the wars that ravaged the Tang Dynasty during Du Fu's time. The poet employs imagery, symbolism and the thematic elements of death and destruction to emphasize the significance of the poem. It is a thunderous work that begins with the noise of the war chariots and ends with the howling of ghosts reminding the Dynasty of the horrors of war.

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