Du Fu: I Stand Alone As A Hardcore Individualist Poem

    The work of Du Fu strikes me as that of a man who conformed to what he was expected to in his youth, but rebelled later in life, as an older man. Ironic, considering how in most western societies, conformity comes with age, and rebellion with youth.
    Du Fu was a Confucianist poet, and Confucianism tends to shun the idea of individualism. However, Du Fu's I Stand Alone strikes me as an almost Randian level of radical hardcore individualism. A number of other works by this same author show a distinct tonal shift from the laments of youth that the young didn't respect their elders into the laments of an old man who's wasted his life in piety rather than forging a path for himself. It strikes me as somewhat ironic.