In 761, the great Du Fu came from the thatched cottage in Chengdu and from this poem

Why Du Fu is called the "Sage of Poetry" by later generations is a novice question, but we still want to talk about it.

If I say, there are at least the following reasons: 1. His poems do not avoid ugliness. He uses the most sincere language to express the truest self and the truest era. He Sincerity; 2. His poems have reached the most complete state within the scope of contemporary poetry. He wrote the most wonderful and full poems under strict rhythm. He is talented; 3. In his heart He always pretends to be someone else. Even if he is extremely poor and has trouble eating, he still pretends to be someone else in his heart. He is altruistic and benefits others. With the above three points, among all the poets in Chinese history, he is certainly the first one, so he is said to be the "sage of poetry" and his poems are called "the history of poetry".

We will continue to talk about Du Fu’s poems, and also about Du Fu.

When he was a court official, he offended people and the emperor (he was too upright and had to measure things according to his own standards when he saw things that were not right, which was very similar to Su Dongpo later), so he was transferred. He went to work as a local official. Being a local official only did specific things. He felt that it was of little benefit to the country. What's more, the meager salary could not support his wife, children and a large family, so he resigned. Thinking of seeking relatives and settling down in Qinzhou but having no financial means, and later living in the same valley, being completely poor. As mentioned in the previous article, I was reluctant to spend the last penny, holding it in my hand as if I was risking my own life. He went up the mountain to dig wild vegetables to eat. He took a small shovel, but he couldn't dig anything from morning to night. He had to depend on the small shovel in the wind, snow and cold wind. That was in 759 AD. It was the most difficult year for him ( In fact, the ten years in Chang'an were also hard, and the subsequent wandering along the Yangtze River was also hard, but they were not as hard as this year). This year, he was forty-eight years old, his birth year.

The cold and hungry life in the north made it impossible for him to persist, so he wanted to go south. He had no food, so he thought about finding a place with rich grain production. Chengdu was suitable, but the north was too cold. If you are looking for a warm place in the south, Chengdu is the place for you. "If you don't have food, you'll ask about the happy land; if you don't have clothes, you will think of Nanzhou." There is a saying in the Tang Dynasty that "Yang Yi Yi Er". Yang means Yangzhou and Yi means Chengdu. In other words, in the Tang Dynasty, apart from the two capitals, the city was the most prosperous and peaceful place. The city apart from Yangzhou is Chengdu. By the end of 759, Du Fu moved to Chengdu.

When people in later generations mention the relationship between Du Fu and the city, the first thing they think of is the Du Fu Thatched Cottage in Chengdu. From that year on, that simple and humble thatched cottage became a sacred place in the history of Chinese literature. When we mention Du Fu again, we don’t need to mention the place where he was born and died, but we will never forget the thatched cottage in Chengdu. Today, the thatched cottage in Chengdu has long become an important tourist attraction and is not small in scale, but for Du Fu at that time , but it was hard-won.

Du Fu’s thatched cottage was built with the help of countless of his friends. After Du Fu arrived in Chengdu, he first lived in Huanhuaxi Temple in the western suburbs. He was penniless and could only live in this way. A few days later, Du Fu found a piece of wasteland by the Huanhua River, seven miles west of the city, and decided to open up the wasteland and settle down.

He first opened up an acre of wasteland and chose a nan tree that was said to be two hundred years old as the place to build his residence. His cousin Wang Fifteen Sima gave him the construction fee. He asked for a hundred peach seedlings from Xiao Shi, Mianzhu seedlings from Mianzhu County from Wei Xu, alder saplings from He Yong, plum and plum seedlings from Xu Qing, and plum seedlings from Wei Ban. There were pine saplings, and even Dayi porcelain bowls for eating and drinking... You see, how poor he is.

In the spring of 760, the thatched cottage was finally completed. Du Fu ended his ten years of wandering in Chang'an and four years of wandering, and finally had a relatively stable home. Under the spring light, he felt that the flowers, trees, rivers, insects and fish, the sunrise and moonset were all beautiful. He settled down, but he did not forget the suffering of the people and the disaster of the country. "Song of Thatched Cottage Broken by the Autumn Wind" is an eternal masterpiece written under such circumstances. The original poem is very long, so I won’t copy it here. I’ll just read the relevant sentences:

In the autumn of 761, one day in August, there was a strong wind and rain, and all the thatch on the roof of the thatched cottage was swept away. , some hung on the treetops, some sank into the pond, and what was even more annoying were the naughty children. They carried the thatch into the distant bamboo forest and refused to give it to him. The old Du Fu leaned on a cane and shouted. If he doesn't come back, of course, there will be no way to patch up the roof. The rain is still pouring down, and there is no dry floor in Du Fu's house. "There is no dry floor in the bedside room, and the rain has not stopped." Until night, the rain continued continuously. Continuously underground...

"Since I have been in chaos and have little sleep, how can I stay wet all night long!" In such a house, Du Fu, who lived the rest of his life in chaos, could not sleep at all, but in such a house Under this situation, Du Fu was not thinking about himself, but about "the poor people in the world". He shouted loudly the great poem "There are tens of thousands of vast buildings, and the great shelter of the poor people in the world will make them happy! Wind and rain are unshakable, as peaceful as a mountain." . This is of course an ideal. In this ideal, Du Fu had no plans for himself. He said: When will such a house appear in front of me, "It will be enough for my house to be broken down alone and freeze to death!"

This is a great personality, this is a personality that cares about the family and the country and promotes oneself and others. If this kind of person is not the saint in the poem, who else can he be? I was almost freezing to death and couldn't sleep, but I was thinking about the poor people in the world. What a magnificent mind this must have.

Of course, Du Fu also lived like a hermit in his later life in Shu. For example, he was "so drunk for a hundred years that he didn't comb his hair for a month" ("Screen Traces"). This was compared to Ji Kang's "head and face". "Always not washing on January 15th" is even more powerful. It may be an exaggeration, but it is really a portrayal of Du Fu's real life. This kind of appearance is certainly not beautiful, but it is very real and very "Du Fu". He is different from hermits such as Ji Kang and Tao Yuanming. Those famous men really lived in seclusion and had no worries in their hearts. Du Fu is not a recluse. He just cannot be an official and has a grand ambition. He could only worry about the people and the king in his heart, and temporarily blocked his traces in the world. This trace was just an extreme manifestation of his reconciliation with himself. There was no point in combing his hair, and there was no point in combing his hair again. At that time, Du Fu was a bit complaining.

Of course, he was helpless. Let me ask, in the eyes of the secular people at that time, where could he be, an old man who was lonely, poor, and full of the right things? But it was this life of extreme loneliness and extreme poverty that led Du Fu to write a large number of masterpieces such as "Spring Night Happy Rain", "The Prime Minister of Shu", "Hearing the Official Army Takes Henan and Hebei", "Climbing the High", "Climbing the Yueyang Tower" and so on. Starting from the Chengdu Thatched Cottage, one after another eternal masterpieces flowed out from Du Fu's writings, exuding eternal glory. The Chengdu Thatched Cottage can be regarded as a milestone in his life. The lonely life in the Chengdu Thatched Cottage made him successful, of course, based on his great personality.

(Leisure Reading of Tang Poems No. 138, pictures from the Internet)