Poetic soul of a nation

A user named Holland_tom posted on Twitter: "If anyone's looking to have their minds taken off the COVID-19 horrors by learning about the glories of (the) Chinese civilization, Michael Wood's documentary about the great poet Du Fu looks just the ticket."

Another highlight is the sonorous vocal stylings of Ian McKellen, the highly acclaimed British stage and screen actor－who famously played the wizard Gandalf in the cinematic adaptation of JRR Tolkien's seminal work, The Lord of the Rings－adding gravitas to the recitations of Du's 15 poems, including My Brave Adventures.

In the documentary, Sinologist Stephen Owen of Harvard University compares Du with Western literary masters Dante and Shakespeare, and claims that these poets create the very values by which poetry is judged, and poems in the late Tang Dynasty are "the greatest words in the Chinese language".