Du Fu Thatched Cottage

Du Fu Thatched Cottage is the former residence of Du Fu, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, during his stay in Chengdu. Du Fu lived here for nearly four years, writing more than 240 poems. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the poet Wei Zhuang found the site of the Thatched Cottage, rebuilt the thatched house, and preserved it. The Thatched Cottage has been repaired and expanded throughout the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Covering an area of nearly 300 acres, the Thatched Cottage still retains the architectural pattern from the renovations and expansions in the thirteenth year of the Hongzhi era of the Ming Dynasty (1500) and the sixteenth year of the Jiaqing era of the Qing Dynasty (1811), with the screen wall, main gate, Daixie, Shishi Hall, Chaimen, and Gongbu Shrine arranged along a central axis, flanked by symmetrical cloisters and other auxiliary buildings. The Thatched Cottage houses a collection of over 30,000 volumes of various materials. In 1955, the Du Fu Memorial Hall was established, and in 1985, it was renamed the Chengdu Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum. In the winter of the second year of Qianyuan of Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty (759), Du Fu, to avoid the 'An Lushan Rebellion,' brought his family from Longyou (now southern Gansu) to Sichuan and eventually arrived in Chengdu. In the spring of the third year of Qianyuan (760), with the help of friends, Du Fu built a thatched cottage on the picturesque banks of the Huanhua Creek in the western suburbs of Chengdu. In the spring of the second year of Shangyuan (761), the thatched cottage was completed and called 'Chengdu Thatched Cottage.' His poem 'A thatched cottage west of Wanli Bridge, where the waters of Baihua Pool become the Canglang waves' ('Madman') refers to the Chengdu Thatched Cottage. He lived here for nearly four years and was also known as Du Gongbu because he had been awarded the title of 'Supervisory Secretary of the Ministry of Works.' In the first year of Yongtai of Emperor Dezong (765), Yan Wu died, and Du Fu, having lost his only support, had to bid farewell to Chengdu, and two years later, he wandered through the Three Gorges to Jingzhou and Hunan. The 'Thatched Cottage' inscription on the main gate was written by Prince Yunli, the seventeenth son of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty. The Shaoling Stele Pavilion is one of the representative buildings of the Thatched Cottage, a pavilion topped with thatch, inside which stands a stone stele engraved with the four characters 'Shaoling Thatched Cottage,' also written by Prince Yunli. In the twelfth year of Yongzheng (1734), Prince Yunli passed through Chengdu on his way to send the Dalai Lama to Tibet and paid homage to the Thatched Cottage, leaving behind this handwriting. The Flower Path is a red-walled path connecting the Du Fu Thatched Cottage memorial buildings with the original Thatched Cottage Temple, and at the end of the Flower Path is the 'Thatched Cottage Shadow Wall.' The Plum Garden is located in the northwest corner of the Thatched Cottage, originally a private garden, which was later managed by the Thatched Cottage after the founding of the People's Republic. Passing the Shishi Hall and turning west, through the water threshold and the Moon Gate, one enters the Plum Garden. A four-story brick pagoda stands by the lake, and a curved bridge spans the lake, named 'Yilan Pavilion,' taking the meaning of Du Fu's poem 'Looking at the Mountain' ('From one glance, all the mountains seem small'). The Thatched Cottage houses a collection of over 30,000 volumes of various materials and more than 2,000 cultural relics. This includes fine engraved, photocopied, and handwritten editions of Du Fu's poems from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, as well as modern lead-printed editions, 15 different language translations, and more than 120 Korean and Japanese editions of Chinese engravings, making it the richest and best-preserved collection of Du Fu's lifelong creations.