s are going unplowed, a symbol of the extra load work placed on the people still left in the village. But line 11, “The wars have not yet stopped” makes you think about the sense of Confucianist duty Tu Fu feels. Subjects of the emperor must fulfill their duty, and sooner or later the war will be over and everything will go back to normal. There is no contempt for the war, but more an acceptance of the inevitable. And yet Tu Fu feels ashamed. Is it because he just came back from the emperor’s court and is associated with the struggle, or is it because he himself is not fighting while the elder’s children are? Or could it be the same kind of shame and guilt a survivor of a car crash feels before the parents of his friend, who perished in that same wreck? Whatever the answer is, they all feel for each other and “tears flow freely”. Ch’iang Village brings forward compassion for others and it has a really humane, warm touch. What starts out with ignorant chickens ends with tears. The emotions the elders feel get transposed onto Tu Fu himself. He is no stranger to adversity; he too was separated from his family. And yet instead of showing his strength to them, he cries with them. This is the kind of realism that grabs you and won’t let go and this is the reason that 13 centuries later we can still relate to Tu Fu’s poetry. ...
