A Study of Du Fu’s Poetry in the West in Modern Times

Abstract

Chinese classical literature has attracted much attention in the Western world. As an important part of Chinese classical literature, Du Fu’s poetry, also as an important carrier, plays a great role in the international communication of cultural confidence. In recent years, some domestic research institutions and scholars have also written literature reviews on the research progress of Du Fu, but few works of literature comprehensively review related western research results. With the combination of big data and visualization tools, this study uses the title keyword “Du Fu Poetry” to search the English literature of Google scholar. VOSviewer is used to make visual analysis and draw a knowledge map from the aspects of literature quantity, authors, research institutions, co-citation, keyword clustering, etc., to analyze the research situation and hotspots of the Western study of Du’s poetry. The following conclusions are drawn: 1) In recent decades, western translation of Du Fu’s poetry have emerged constantly, attracting more and more famous international publishing houses to cooperate; 2) The study of Du’s poetry abroad mainly focuses on the English translation of Du’s poetry as well as the interpretation and evaluation of poets' thoughts; 3) The study of Du’s poetry abroad ignores the dynamic study of Du's poetry development, and there are some obvious cultural errors or omissions in translation. In a word, this study objectively reflects the development, theme and hotspots of modern western Du Fu poetry research, which has certain significance for fully understanding the general situation of Du Fu research field in Western countries and help to deepen Du Fu’s research.