Introduction: Tradition and transformation
Time and authority : early poems (before 755)
Omen and chaos : poems of frustration and foreboding (through 755)
Convention and nature : the outbreak of the rebellion (756-57)
Narrative and experience : poems of the western frontiers (late 759)
Vision and the mundane : Du Fu's years in Western Sichuan (760-65)
History and community : Kuizhou poems (766-68)
Contingency and adaptation : last poems (768-70)
Conclusion: Poetry and ethics.