It's usually assumed to be the voice of the author, that's right. I'm finding lots of Du Fu's voices rather mystifying: did he really think that he could go around giving military advice to soldiers? There's a lack of humility there which seems odd for him.
But perhaps there is a more confident, worldly and patrician side to Du. I'm having to furiously rewrite one of the translations from later in this same series after your interesting comments about his attitude to sex last time! It's all very interesting. There's every possibility of making an interpretive mistake, but that's the exciting bit!
It sounds like he's being treated with a degree of respect by the sergeant - incidentally I'm curious as to what extent the officer/NCO distinction exists in Chinese militaries. Was it like the Roman system where most of what we'd consider to be junior officer roles would be done by centurions of increasing seniority, and the bottom rung for men of a higher social class starting out on a military career (necessarily also a political career) would be more equivalent to a modern staff officer post? Perhaps 'patrician' is very much the word.
Sorry it took ages to get back to you. I was hoping to find an actual answer to your question, and I haven't really had the time. My impression is that what you're suggesting is right: essentially the officer roles were reserved for the upper classes, and that the common soldiery would give a lot of respect to any passing toff if they knew what was good for them. Du Fu was an incredibly junior capital official - but he was still a capital official (and from a line of capital officials, to boot), that made him a bigwig anywhere outside the highest levels of Chang'an society. He would have plenty of experience being a social superior. (See also https://tangpoetry.substack.com/p/du-fu-sets-his-sights-high for a sense of his self-worth.)
Definitely a change in tone!
Who's speaking in the last stanza? Is that Du recording his reply to the sergeant?
It's usually assumed to be the voice of the author, that's right. I'm finding lots of Du Fu's voices rather mystifying: did he really think that he could go around giving military advice to soldiers? There's a lack of humility there which seems odd for him.
But perhaps there is a more confident, worldly and patrician side to Du. I'm having to furiously rewrite one of the translations from later in this same series after your interesting comments about his attitude to sex last time! It's all very interesting. There's every possibility of making an interpretive mistake, but that's the exciting bit!
It sounds like he's being treated with a degree of respect by the sergeant - incidentally I'm curious as to what extent the officer/NCO distinction exists in Chinese militaries. Was it like the Roman system where most of what we'd consider to be junior officer roles would be done by centurions of increasing seniority, and the bottom rung for men of a higher social class starting out on a military career (necessarily also a political career) would be more equivalent to a modern staff officer post? Perhaps 'patrician' is very much the word.
Sorry it took ages to get back to you. I was hoping to find an actual answer to your question, and I haven't really had the time. My impression is that what you're suggesting is right: essentially the officer roles were reserved for the upper classes, and that the common soldiery would give a lot of respect to any passing toff if they knew what was good for them. Du Fu was an incredibly junior capital official - but he was still a capital official (and from a line of capital officials, to boot), that made him a bigwig anywhere outside the highest levels of Chang'an society. He would have plenty of experience being a social superior. (See also https://tangpoetry.substack.com/p/du-fu-sets-his-sights-high for a sense of his self-worth.)