The Tang Dynasty is the highest peak of China's poetry creation, among countless Tang Dynasty poets, to say the most representative, Dahui believes that there are two people, one is Li Bai, who is known as "Poetry Immortal", and the other is Du Fu, who is known as "Poetry Sage", although the two are not inferior in their attainments and status in the field of poetry, but the creative style is completely different.
Li Bai is a typical Romantic poet with a free and unrestrained personality, while Du Fu is relatively introverted, and his works are full of realism, but in any case, the masterpieces of the two have experienced thousands of years of vicissitudes and have exuded unparalleled brilliance to this day.
Du Fu's poems are generally considered to be more "research value" than Li Bai's, mainly because his works are full of realistic pessimism, of course, this is inextricably related to Du Fu's life experience. So have you ever wondered how Du Fu, a generation of "poet saints", died?
Image: Du Fu cartoon
1. Du Fu's family
Many friends who are not familiar with Du Fu will always subjectively judge that his origin should not be too good, or that his social status is not too high when they learn that his life is depressed and his works are full of pessimism. In fact, through the existing historical data, Du Fu was born in Gong County, close to Luoyang, the metropolis of the Tang Dynasty at that time, and belonged to the core cultural circle of the hinterland of the Central Plains.
Du Fu's family is not only not a small family, but even one of the few large families at that time, his grandfather was called Du Zhenyan, was an important figure in the Literary Circle of the Tang Dynasty, thanks to the influence of family learning and family style, Du Fu received a systematic education when he was a child, and the overall cultural literacy was very high, which was absolutely incomparable to the vast majority of people at that time.
In addition to grandpa Du Zhenyan, the Du family also gave birth to many cultural celebrities, such as the Zhennan general Du Xian in the Three Kingdoms era, who was not only a general, but also the son-in-law of Sima Yi, but also a very famous cultural scholar in the Three Kingdoms and Two Jin Dynasties, who once annotated the book "Zuo Zhuan", leaving a strong mark on China's historiography, which can be said to be quite powerful.
Born in such a family, with the blessing of blood and good talent, Du Fu's achievements are naturally not accidental.
Image: Stills of receiving systematic education from an early age
II. The Study of Du Fu's Death
1. What kind of disease is it?
Du Fu has such a poem: "The wind is fast, the apes are roaring, and the white birds of Nagisa Qingsha fly back." Boundless falling wood, the Endless Yangtze River rolling in. Wanli Is often a guest in the autumn and has been sick for more than a hundred years. Hardship hated the frost sideburns, and poured out the newly stopped cloudy wine glass. Reading through, this poem as a whole is magnificent, giving people an immersive feeling, so it is respected by later generations of literati and inkers as "the first poetry of ancient and modern times".
Of course, we will not discuss whether this poem is truly deserved today, at least from it we can see du Fu's grasp of the literary genre of poetry, to the point of pure fire, even in the following thousands of years, few people can catch up with him in this regard.
It is worth noting that in this poem, Du Fu wrote that he was already in a state of illness, and it lasted for a long time. So what kind of disease is this? According to Du Fu's own words in the poem, it is "how much I am sick with Changqing", so who is this "Changqing"?
Image: Stills of writing poetry
Flipping through the historical materials can easily know that "Changqing" is the famous Minister Sima Xiangru of the Han Dynasty, in the historical data, Sima Xiangru has always been plagued by a kind of "thirst-quenching disease", in modern words, the ancient "thirst-quenching disease" is the diabetes in modern medicine, that is, Sima Xiangru is a diabetic patient who is like a fake replacement.
And Du Fu said that he "how long Qing disease", naturally can be understood as the same suffering from diabetes, see here, everyone may say: "Diabetes is more or less a rich disease, there are many people, Du Fu suffered from what is incredible?" ”
As we all know, although diabetes also appears in young and middle-aged people, from the perspective of big data, the main incidence group is still mainly the elderly, which is mainly due to the weakening of the function of organs such as islets in the elderly and the reduction of the ability to decompose sugar.
From Du Fu's birth and death years, he was actually very young when he suffered from diabetes, not more than 40 years old at most, so the question immediately came, why did he get this disease at a young age?
Image from the Internet: Diabetes
2. Du Fu's personal encounter
If we want to understand the truth of this problem, we have to say from Du Fu's life experience, in the fourteenth year of The Tang Dynasty Tianbao, the famous "Anshi Rebellion" in history broke out, at this time Du Fu was naturally involved in it, and unfortunately he was caught by the rebels and lived a life of upheaval and displacement.
The most fatal thing is that not only was he devastated in the war, but his own children were also starved to death because they could not eat, which made Du Fu's physical and mental companions suffer, and his will was depressed a lot, and later he went to Sichuan and lived a life under the fence with the help of friends.
Combined with Du Fu's works at that stage, not to mention what assets he has, basic life is difficult to guarantee, there is only a simple thatched house, and when it comes to the bad weather of wind and rain, the grass house will be ventilated on all sides, and the roof will leak rain, which is also the inspiration for his classic famous article "The Thatched House Is Broken by the Autumn Wind".
Image: A screenshot of a simple thatched hut
From here, it is not difficult to see that Du Fu's life is extremely difficult, it is not too much to say that he is no place under the tiles, and although he was recommended as a staff member, he was never very satisfactory in his career, and it belongs to a long-term depressed life.
He was plagued by rheumatism for a long time, and when he was severe, he could not hold a pen in his hand to write, followed by severe lung disease, and sometimes it was difficult to breathe. It can be seen that Du Fu's living environment and personal encounters have caused a great negative impact on his own physical health, such as rheumatism, lung disease, and diabetes are clearly recorded.
Du Fu has almost been entangled in illness for the rest of his life, although he has always relied on strong willpower to fight, in the end it is still difficult for one person to turn the tide, let alone change his fate.
Image: Stills of writing with a pen in hand
Through Du Fu's life experience, we can also get a lot of enlightenment, we live in the present, we must cherish the happy life in front of us, when encountering difficulties and troubles, do not blindly worry, so that not only can not solve the problem, but will make their own health into a dead cycle!
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!