Dear friends: Welcome to visit Du Fu Thatched Cottage.
Du Fu Thatched Cottage in Chengdu was the residence of Du Fu, the great poet of the Tang Dynasty, when he lived in Chengdu. In the winter of 759 AD, Du Fu took his family to Shu from Longyou (now southern Gansu Province) to avoid the "Anshi Rebellion". Relying on the help of relatives and friends, he built a thatched house to live on the banks of the picturesque Huanhua Creek in the western suburbs of Chengdu. In the spring of the next year, the thatched cottage was completed and was called "Chengdu Thatched Cottage".
The poet lived here for nearly four years and wrote more than 240 poems that have been handed down to this day. Since Chengdu is far away from the war-torn Central Plains and the thatched cottage is located in the countryside, the poet's life is relatively stable and his mood is relatively peaceful. This makes most of his poetry creations in the thatched cottage have a pastoral flavor, such as "Tangcheng", "Jiangcun", This is true for chapters such as "Spring Night Joyful Rain". However, Du Fu was, after all, a poet with lofty political ambitions. His concern and worry about the future of the country and the fate of the people made him never forget reality. Therefore, poetry works that care about the country and the people are still an important part of his creation. Famous poems written during this period such as "Song of Thatched Cottage Broken by the Autumn Wind", "Hateful Farewell", "Sick Orange", and "Withered Brown" are all touching and immortal works of realism. It is precisely because Du Fu's poetry creation in Chengdu left us precious literary wealth that later generations hailed Du Fu Thatched Cottage in Chengdu as a holy place in the history of Chinese literature.
In 1961, the State Council announced it as one of the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units.
Main entrance
When we arrived at the main entrance of the thatched cottage, we saw a sparkling river flowing through the door. This is the Huanhua River mentioned many times in Du Fu's poems.
Speaking of the origin of the poetic name "Huanhua Creek", there is a touching story. It is said that in the Tang Dynasty, there lived a girl named Ren by the stream. She was beautiful and kind-hearted. One day, while she was doing laundry by the stream, a monk covered in scabies walked over. Everyone on the road stayed away, but Miss Ren did not give way. So the monk took off his robes stained with pus and blood and asked her to wash them, and the girl happily accepted. Unexpectedly, as soon as the robe entered the water, lotus flowers filled the stream. When I looked at the monk again, he had already disappeared. People were very surprised and named this river Huanhua Creek.
In fact, the name of Huanhua Creek has nothing to do with the Ren family. A more credible theory is that at that time, most of the people living along the stream were engaged in papermaking. They used the stream water to make ten-color paper, "the color was like flowers," hence the name of the stream. In the Tang Dynasty, Huanhua Creek was wide and deep, allowing large boats to sail, and the scenery along the creek was beautiful. Du Fu vividly described it in a "quatrain": "Two yellow pengs sing green willows, and a row of egrets ascend to the blue sky. The windows contain the Qianqiu snow of Xiling (Chengdu) To the west is the Minshan Mountains, where the ancient air was clear and you could overlook the snow-capped mountains). The Dongwu Wanli Boat is parked at the door (Huanhua Creek belongs to the Yangtze River system, and you can go straight down to Dongwu by boat from the Fu River). The words were written by Prince Guo, the seventeenth son of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty and the younger brother of Emperor Yongzheng. The couplet "West House of Wanli Bridge, Beizhuang of Baihuatan" is a sentence from Du Fu's poem "Residence at Huaijin Water". It points out the geographical location of the thatched cottage: "Wanli Bridge" is located at the current South Gate Bridge. According to historical records during the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang, the Prime Minister of Shu, sent Fei Wei on his mission to Soochow and held a farewell banquet here. Zhuge Liang deeply felt that Fei Wei had a long journey. The task of uniting Wu to fight Wei was arduous, so he said: "A journey of thousands of miles begins here. "The bridge got its name from this. The Cottage is to the west of the bridge; "Baihuatan" is the place now known as "Longzhao Weir" in the upper reaches of Huanhua River. Some people say that it got its name because the water here is shallow and the waves are rolling like hundreds of flowers. Some people say it was because the flowers and trees along the Huanhua Stream were luxuriant at that time, and "the fragrance was constant along the twenty-mile journey from Qingyang Palace to Huanhua Stream." "(Lu You's poem) The flowers are flying and the flowers are withering, and the fragrance is filling the pond. Therefore, the thatched cottage is located to the north of the pond. Instead of the current Baihuatan Park in Chengdu, the current Baihuatan is the result of what Huang Yunhu, a man of the Qing Dynasty, believed when he visited the site of the ancient Baihuatan. It is said that the tree monument was mistakenly determined.
Stepping into the main entrance, we saw the entire garden shaded by bamboo trees and lingering green water, a natural and quiet scene, which reflects Du Fu's poetic sentiment: " At the west end of Huanhua Stream, the owner is Bulintangyou."
大娨
"娨" is the official office, the place where officials worked in ancient times. Because Du Fu once worked as Zuo Shiyi The statue of Du Fu in the hall is a masterpiece of Mr. Qian Shaowu, a famous sculptor from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. . This bronze statue is in a kneeling posture and has a lean figure. It uses a more abstract and exaggerated artistic shape to express the poet's troubled life and his concern for the country and the people. When we stop and stare at it, we seem to have gone back in time. Back more than 1,200 years ago, the poet was drifting on the river. He knelt on the bow of the boat, stroking the poem scroll with his hands, his head slightly raised, his eyebrows furrowed, as if he was sending out to the sky, "The world is full of wounds, and I am worried about danger." "When will it be over?" is a heavy sigh.
Du Fu, whose courtesy name was Zimei and whose name was Shaoling, was born in Gong County, Henan Province in 712 AD. In 770 AD, he died on a boat on the Xiangjiang River in Hunan due to poverty and illness. Du Fu lived in the transitional period of the Tang Dynasty from prosperity to decline, and experienced the Xuanzong, Suzong, and Daizong dynasties. Because of his lofty political ambition to "serve the emperors Yao and Shun," he was never reused, and he was displaced throughout his life. Therefore, he could have a deeper understanding of the various contradictions and shortcomings that existed in the society at that time, experience the hardships and hardships of the lower class people's lives, and reflect all this in poetry.
Most of his more than 1,400 poems handed down to the world are immortal works that reflect reality and care about the country and the people. For example, "Three Officials and Three Farewells", "Military Chariots", "Beautiful People's Journey", "From Beijing to Fengxian County to Ode to Huai", etc. are all representative masterpieces. Because Du Fu had a deep and profound feeling of missing the emperor, caring for the country, and loving the people, and because his poems represented the highest achievement of Chinese classical poetry creation, later generations respected him as the "Sage of Poetry." Marshal Ye Jianying once wrote a couplet in a book and commented that Du Fu wrote poems that pointed directly at social ills and rebellious officials and traitors. His patriotism and concern for the people will shine with the sun and the moon and will last forever in the world. This is a very high evaluation of Du Fu's thoughts and poetry creation.
There is also a famous couplet of Qing Dynasty scholar Gu Fuchu hanging on the east and west walls of Daxie. The first line of the first couplet goes "In different dynasties, how many poets and poets are there in such a country?" It means: I (the author) and you (Du Fu) live in different dynasties. How can I ask how these great rivers and mountains in China, with their outstanding people and places, have been praised by many poets throughout the ages? Among the poets, how many are as talented and determined to serve the country as you and me? But they cannot be valued by the world. They can only be like a crouching dragon and a tiger, unable to stretch their ambitions! The second line "The gentleman also lives in exile, and he will stay forever. The sky and the earth are white and the moon is clear and the wind is clear. "A Thatched Cottage." It means: You, Mr. Du Shaoling, like me, are living in Sichuan as a guest, but you left behind this thatched cottage that will last forever with the bright moon and gentle breeze, coexisting with the world. The implication is that we were both exiles, but my fate was even more unfortunate. I left nothing to future generations and could only disappear without trace after my death. However, the author did not expect that precisely because he wrote this couplet, his name would be associated with the thatched cottage. This couplet is very subtle, graceful and thought-provoking. When Comrade Mao Zedong visited the thatched cottage in 1958, he watched it carefully and pondered for a long time. Guo Moruo praised it as "the sentences are beautiful and the words are clear, and the style is high-key and timeless". Can you taste its unique charm?" You can also see the panoramic view of Du Fu's Thatched Cottage in Daxie. Du Fu left Chengdu in the spring of 765 AD and wandered eastward along the Yangtze River. Not long after the poet left, the thatched cottage was damaged and decayed.
During the Five Dynasties, the poet Wei Zhuang was the prime minister of the former Shu regime in Chengdu. He found the ruins of a thatched cottage with "still existing pillars" and "rebuilt thatched cottage" to express his memory of Du Fu in the Northern Song Dynasty. During the Yuanfeng period (11th century), Lü Dafang, the prefect of Chengdu, rebuilt it again and painted a portrait of Du Fu on the wall, giving the thatched cottage the character of a memorial ancestral hall. In the following dynasties, the thatched cottage was rebuilt many times, the largest of which was in The thirteenth year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1500) and the sixteenth year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1811) basically established the scale and layout of today's thatched cottage. "The Caotang's former residence has become a memorial building complex for people to pay homage to the "Poet Saint" today. The area has also expanded to more than 240 acres (including the Meiyuan Garden and the original Caotang Temple that were expanded after the founding of the People's Republic of China). Because it is the former residence of the poet , and has the nature of a memorial ancestral hall, so the entire garden and building organically integrate the characteristics of the two: the architectural style is simple and elegant, not decorated with carved beams and painted buildings, nor very tall, but close to residential buildings; the architectural pattern is based on A central axis runs through the entire building. The main buildings from the main entrance, Daxi, Shishi Hall, Chaimen to the Gongbu Temple are all on this line. There are symmetrical ancillary buildings on both sides to match. There are streams running back, small bridges connected, and bamboo trees. It looks solemn and solemn, but also quiet and elegant. Walking in it, we can not only pay homage to the poet and express our respect, but also return to nature and reflect on the ancient feelings. Therefore, the thatched cottage is a combination of commemorative architecture and garden landscape. A successful example.
Poetry and History Hall
Poetry and History Hall is the central building of Du Fu’s Thatched Cottage, because Du Fu’s poems truly and profoundly reflect the rise and fall of the Tang Dynasty. There is a saying in history that "poetry is used to prove history and poetry is used to supplement history", so it is known as "poetic history". The building is named after this. In the center of the hall, there is a sculpture by Liu Kaiqu, a famous sculptor in my country. A bronze bust of Du Fu. On both sides of the statue are couplets written by Comrade Zhu De: "The thatched cottage will be left to future generations, and the poem will be remembered for thousands of years." "This couplet expresses the lofty and immortal status of Du Fu and his former residence, the Thatched Cottage, in people's minds.
There is also a hanging in the Poetry and History Hall written by Guo Moruo, a famous modern historian, litterateur, poet and calligrapher. Couplet: "The sages in the poems describe the devastation of the world, and the sufferings of the people are reflected in the poems." "This couplet highly summarizes the two aspects of Du Shi's concern for the country (first couplet) and concern for the people (second couplet). It has profound content, stable contrast work, and free and passionate calligraphy. It has always been praised by people.
Water Threshold and Chaimen
As we exited the Poetry and History Hall, we saw a stream running between the buildings, with a small stone bridge connecting the traffic. On the left side of the bridge, there was a "Water Threshold" across the bamboo bushes. Across the stream; after crossing the small bridge, the "Chai Gate" opens in front of you. Both the "Water Threshold" and the "Chai Gate" were the buildings that once existed in Du Fu's thatched cottage. In Du's poems, there are "newly added water sills for fishing" and "Chai Gate is not facing the river." "Open" description. The so-called "water threshold" is the wooden railing built on the water pavilion, and the "chaimen" is just the fence gate of the hut. It can be said that they are all very simple, far from what we see today. Now The "water threshold" and "firewood gate" are symbolic buildings built by later generations when they renovated the thatched cottage and expanded the garden. However, we can still see things and think about people, and imagine the scene when the poet greeted guests here or fished on the railing. Hanging on the pillars of Chaimen is a couplet written by He Yudu in the Ming Dynasty and supplemented by Chen Yungao in modern times: "The light is shining brightly, and the letters and articles are astonishing in the sea; I have been admiring for thousands of years, but I am still working hard on the riverbank." "The couplet is very cleverly conceived.
The first couplet "Wanting rays of light" comes from a poem by Han Yu, a famous writer in the Tang Dynasty, "Li Du's articles are as long as the flames are long." And the second couplet "The letter has articles that shock the sea" and the second couplet "Still working on the rivers and horses" are from Du Fu's " There are two sentences in the poem "Guests Arrive": "How can there be articles that startle the sea, and cars and horses stationed on the river stems?" The meaning of Du Fu's poem is: How can I have any famous works that shock the world? In this case, it is useless for the guests to come to the riverside in carriages and horses to visit! This is the poet's self-effacing words, but He Yudu One word was changed in each of the two lines of the poem: "Qi" was changed to "信" (信, which means sure, as expected), and "Man" (Man, which means self-indulgence, in vain) was changed to "Yu" (Yu, (meaning still, still), the meaning of the entire couplet becomes a word of praise: Your husband's masterpiece is indeed so radiant that it can shock the whole country. Therefore, thousands of years later, people still come here in cars and horses with admiration and admiration. Go to the bank of Huanhua River and pay homage to the former site of your thatched cottage. Isn’t it? Today we also joined the ranks and traveled thousands of miles to visit the thatched cottage. It can be seen that the author of the couplet is quite "prescient"!
Stele Pavilion
There is a small thatched pavilion to the east of Gongbu Temple, with a stone tablet inside and the inscription "Shao Shao" The four words "Lingcaotang" are also written by Prince Guo.
"Shaoling" is originally a place name, located in Chang'an County, south of Xi'an City. It was originally the old place of the ancient Du Bo Kingdom. Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty was buried there after his death. His tomb was therefore called "Du Ling". The tomb of Emperor Xuan and Empress Xu was nearby. Because it was smaller in size than the imperial mausoleum, it was called "Shaoling" ("Shao"). That means "small"). Du Fu's distant ancestor was a "Jingzhao Duling native". He himself lived here for a long time. In his poems, he once called himself "Du Ling Ye Lao" and "Shaoling Ye Ke". People also called him "Du Shaoling" . As mentioned before, Du Fu's hut has long been destroyed.
In the autumn of 761 AD, a strong wind blew apart the thatched hut he had worked so hard to build, which led the poet to write the immortal poem "Song of Thatched Cottage Broken by the Autumn Wind". The ideal expressed by the poet "to be able to live in tens of millions of mansions, to shelter all the poor people in the world with joy" and the selfless spirit of "it is enough for my house to be broken down alone and freeze to death" have been touching people for thousands of years! Of course, it is not difficult to see that this hut is very weak. After Du Fu left, the thatched cottage fell into disrepair. After being rebuilt many times by later generations, it has become a memorial temple. It is difficult to find traces of the "thatched cottage" anymore. The purpose of building this thatched cottage is to arouse people's respect for the simple and natural thatched cottage of the past. association. It seems that this purpose has been achieved. Many people who visit the thatched cottage take photos here, which is the best proof.
Thatched Cottage Scenic Area
It is a very special thing to visit the thatched cottage without witnessing with your own eyes the famous thatched cottage where Du Fu wrote the immortal masterpiece "The Song of Thatched Cottage Broken by the Autumn Wind". A regrettable thing. In order to make up for this regret and allow everyone to better understand Du Fu's living environment, the Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum has rebuilt a "Thatched Cottage Scenic Area" in recent years.
What is displayed in front of us is the "Thatched Cottage Scenic Spot" that was restored and rebuilt based on the description of Du Fu's poems and the layout of the thatched cottages in the Ming Dynasty. The scenic area is surrounded by streams, shaded by green trees, bamboo fences, and green grass, creating "spring water in the south and north of the house", "a stream of Qingjiang hugging the village", "Bu Ju Bi Lin Spring", "beside Chaimen Ancient Road", The countryside scenes described in Du Fu's poems such as "Returning to the Riverside by the Wild Old Fence" and "The Grass is Deep in the Marketplace". Pushing open the creaking firewood door, "four pines" were planted on the left, "five peaches" were planted on the right, ancient nan was connected to the thatched pavilion, Mian bamboos were in the sky, the vegetable garden was green, the medicine fence was lush, and the chessboard painted by the poet's old wife still remained On the rocks, the fishing lines of his children are still leaning against the fence... All of this makes people feel the strong pastoral interest of the poet when he lived here. The simple thatched cottages built in the style of rural houses in western Sichuan also confirmed Du Fu's description of "being familiar with the thatched cottages are extremely humble", which made people unconsciously recite Du Fu's poem "Jiangcun": "But there are old friends who offer rice, and the body is small." What else can you ask for!”
Visiting Du Fu’s Thatched Cottage, the places worth visiting include the red-walled paths, the flower paths shaded by bamboos, the broken porcelain inlays, the quaint and unique “thatched cottage” screen walls, and the beautiful scenery. The unique and charming Plum Garden. Everyone has their own experience of the wonderful scenery, so I don’t need to introduce them one by one.
Thank you everyone!