Dù Mù 杜牧 (803–852, zì Mùzhī 牧之), a Jīngzhào Wànnián native, was the grandson of the great Tang historian and statesman Dù Yòu 杜佑 (735–812, author of the Tōng diǎn). Jìnshì of Dàhé 2 (828); he served as guǎnjì under Niú Sēngrú in Yángzhōu, in subsequent posts at Hóngzhōu, Xuānzhōu, Yángzhōu, and Chángān, and rose to zhōngshū shèrén (Drafter of the Imperial Secretariat). He died in winter of Dàzhōng 6 (Western calendar end of 852 / start of 853; CBDB gives 853, standard reference 852).
Dù Mù is, with Lǐ Shāngyǐn 李商隱, the supreme WǎnTáng poet — the LǐDù late-Táng pairing parallel to the earlier YuánBái; he is also called Xiǎo Dù (Little Dù) to distinguish from the great Dù Fǔ. His verse: the Qīngmíng, Bó Qínhuái, Chìbì, Shān xíng, and Jiāngnán chūn quatrains are among the most-anthologized Tang poems; the Zhāng Hǎohǎo shī, Dù Qiūniáng shī, and Qiǎnhuái — longer narrative-confessional pieces — define his autobiographical lyric. His prose: the A-fáng gōng fù 阿房宮賦 is a school-text classic (translation of Qín-empire decadence into late-Táng warning); the Zuì yán 罪言 (the long memorial on the fānzhèn crisis) was lifted essentially verbatim by Sòng Qí into the Xīn Tángshū fānzhèn zhuàn xù; and his commentary on the Sūnzǐ (the Sūnzǐ zhù) is the principal Tang-period exegesis of the military classic.
Principal work in the corpus: Fánchuān jí KR4c0072 (the catalog meta gives 17 juǎn; Péi Yánhàn’s original was 20 juǎn + wàijí 1 + biéjí 1; the Liú Kèzhuāng xùbiéjí 3 juǎn contained mostly Xǔ Hún misattributions). CBDB id 21194.