When the Tang Dynasty poet Du Fuliu lived in Chengdu, he lived in a thatched cottage built with the help of a friend for nearly four years and wrote more than 200 poems. After Du Fu left Chengdu, the cottage collapsed. Later generations have repeatedly rebuilt the thatched cottage, and then built the ancestral hall, taking this place as a place to pay tribute to Du Fu and place for contemplation, and countless celebrities from ancient and modern times at home and abroad have come here to pay tribute to Du Fu. Nowadays, Du Fu Thatched Cottage is a collection of ancient books, a commemorative ancestral hall, a thatched house, a display of works, historic sites, and garden ornamentation, and is a national key cultural relics protection unit, a national first-class museum, a national key protection unit of ancient books, and a national AAAA-level tourist attraction.
The thatched cottage where Du Fu lived has been damaged many times and rebuilt and has long since ceased to be the same as it used to be, and the thatched cottage that visitors see in the park is also built in contemporary times. Although Du Fu's thatched cottage is not the former residence of Du Fu in the strict sense, it is undoubtedly the largest and most well-known Du Fu memorial site. The total area of Du Fu's thatched cottage is nearly 300 acres, which is roughly divided into the old site of the thatched cottage, the exhibition hall, the historic site area and the garden area. Du Fu Thatched Cottage has multiple entrances, and it is recommended that visitors enter from the main entrance and start their tour from the former site of the Thatched Cottage.
The site of the thatched cottage includes the memorial buildings built in the Ming and Qing dynasties and the former residence of thatched huts. The Da Dang, the Poetry and History Hall, and the Gongbu Ancestral Hall are the three main monumental buildings, which are located on a central axis with the wall photo, the main gate, and the Chaimen, and are lined with symmetrical corridors and other ancillary buildings. Da Dang refers to the place where local officials worked in ancient times, and when the Qing Dynasty rebuilt the thatched cottage, the officials took into account Du Fu's official experience and built it here. The Poetry and History Hall is the central building in the thatched cottage memorial shrine, displaying the statue of Du Fu. Du Fu's poems reflect the history of the Tang Dynasty from prosperity to decline, and are known as "poetry history", hence the name of the poetry history hall. The Gongbu Temple enshrines the stone carvings of Du Fu in the Ming and Qing dynasties, among which the bust of Du Fu in the Ming Dynasty is the earliest stone carving in the thatched hall. Du Fu once served as a staff member of the Ministry of Engineering of the Section, and the Ministry of Engineering Hall was named after it. In addition, the Qing Dynasty will respect Du Shi poet Huang Tingjian and Southern Song Dynasty poet Lu You on both sides of the statue of Du Fu, so the Ministry of Industry Temple is also known as the Sanxian Hall.
The major buildings in the cottage are not gorgeous and exquisite, and they are not outstanding in the historic buildings, but the works of celebrities gathered in them are shocking and have considerable appreciation value. The word "grass hall" on the plaque at the main entrance is the title of Prince Guo Yunli, and the inscription on the stone tablet in the north pavilion of Shaoling is written by Yunli himself. The door plaque of Dayatang is inscribed by Yan Zhenqing, a famous calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty, and the plaque of Chaimen is written by the famous painter Pan Tianshou. The bronze statue of Du Fu in the middle of the hall is the work of the famous sculptor Mr. Qian Shaowu, and a statue of Du Fu in the Poetry and History Hall is made by the famous sculptor Liu Kaiqu. There are also inscriptions of celebrities such as Zhu De, Chen Yi, Yu Youren, Xie Wuliang, and Guo Moruo.
Behind the memorial complex is the former residence of the thatched hut, which was built in 1997 by the staff according to the design and construction of the Qing Dynasty stone carving "Shaoling Thatched Cottage Map" and Du Fu's poems. Many visitors think that this thatched hut, as a modern product, can hardly be called the former residence of Du Fu, and they are quite disappointed. It is impossible to determine whether the thatched hut is similar to Du Fu's actual residence back then, but the thatched hut is more of a symbolic object, intuitively showing Du Fu's hard life and the spirit of worrying about the country and the people behind it with a simple design. According to legend, "Song of the Thatched House Broken by the Autumn Wind", which was selected as the Chinese textbook of the People's Education Edition, was created in the thatched hut in Chengdu.
The exhibition hall of Du Fu's thatched cottage exhibits the texts of Du Fu's poems, which are sorted by time of publication and by country. The text is quite comprehensive, including Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties Du Shi fine engravings, photocopies, manuscripts and various modern lead prints, as well as foreign translations of 15 languages and more than 120 Chinese engravings published in Korea and Japan.
In addition to the former site of the thatched cottage and the text exhibition hall, Du Fu's thatched cottage has Du Fu's calligraphy woodcut gallery, Daya Hall and other buildings to display Du Fu's life experience and literary works. There are also Tang Dynasty residential ruins, Ten Thousand Buddha Towers and other historic sites in the hall, which have little to do with Du Fu, and interested tourists can go to visit. It is worth mentioning that Du Fu Thatched Cottage has put a lot of effort into the construction of the garden, with small bridges and flowing water in the garden, white walls and gray tiles, which is suitable for visitors to stroll and visit.
On the whole, compared with the official propaganda of Du Fu's former residence, the old name of Du Fu's thatched cottage is the Du Fu Memorial Hall or Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum, which is closer to its essence.
Suggested visiting time: half a day
Indicative fare:
Full ticket: 60 yuan/person/time
Annual pass: 100 yuan/person, unlimited entry throughout the year
20% off: media workers with press cards
Half ticket: 7-18 years old teenagers and college students with a bachelor's degree or below
Free admission: Children under the age of 6 or under 1.3 meters in height, seniors aged 60 or above, active military personnel, people with disabilities, public security officers, etc
Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in summer (May-October) and 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in winter (November to April) (ticket sales close 20 minutes before closing)
Tips: 1. It is forbidden to bring pets, flammable, explosive and corrosive materials and controlled knives; 2. Some buildings are closed for maintenance from time to time, and you can pay attention to the notice of the official website and official public account; 3. Tickets must be purchased in cash on site.
