History of thatched Cottage of Du Fu

Du Fu, a very famous poet, lived in the Tang Dynasty(618-907). Just as its name implies, the Thatched Cottage of Du Fu was his home more than a thousand years ago.

Du Fu was born in Gongyi City, Henan Province in 712. In 746, he took the official examination in Chang'an (now known as Xian) and continued to live there for more than teyears after the failure. But, in order to get away from the An-Shi Rebellion breaking out in 758, he fled to Chengdu in 759. With the help of friends, the thatched cottage was built in 760 beside the Flower Bathing Brook on the western outskirts of Chengdu. During the four years stay there, he composed more than 240 poems that are considered to be precious national treasures.

After Du Fu's departure from Chengdu, the cottage was abandoned for a long time and became dilapidated. Hundreds of years later in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) a new temple was built on the original site to commemorate this outstanding person in Chinese literature. From then on, it was renovated and enlarged repeatedly. There were two very important reconstructions in 1500 and 1811 respectively, both of which set the scale and structure of the present thatched cottage. Today, it is a shrine to Chinese literature and a commemorative museum in the form of a traditional garden.