Shortly after arriving in Chang 'an, his father died, and Du Fu lost his financial resources, and soon his life was in embarrassment. He used to collect herbs and sell them for a living. I used to buy low-priced food to help the victims. But these can't save the poor, and it's not uncommon to have no food for more than ten days. In hunger, he had to run between the giant and his relatives and friends and beg for a little help.
"Hunger" is still the lingering shadow of Du Fu during the Anshi Rebellion. During his wandering years, he picked up oak chestnuts and dug wild taro. When he struggled to Sichuan, he was already ill. In Du Fu's poems, he showed sincere sympathy and pity for the poor. Isn't it his own description of the cost of hunger?
Du Fu's death is also closely related to hunger and alcoholism, which is the first statement of his death, that is, he died of excessive drunkenness. According to Zheng Chuhui's Miscellaneous Notes on Ming Di in the Tang Dynasty, "Du Fu visited Leiyang and Yuemiao. When the water comes, you can't eat for ten days. " "Ling tasted the white wine roasted by cattle, drank too much, and died overnight." According to legend, Du Fu visited Nanyue Temple when he was in Leiyang, Hengzhou, after leaving Sichuan in the fifth year of Dali. He was surrounded by a sudden flood and was hungry for nine days in a row. Nie, the local county magistrate, heard the news, rescued Du Fu from the boat and entertained him with rich roast beef and white wine. Du Fu, a rare glutton, died that night because he was too drunk. The Book of the Tang Dynasty, both old and new, is a new book of the Tang Dynasty. Du Fu's biographies recorded such a sentence: "The moon is like a temple. When there is a flood, you can't eat for ten days. The county magistrate has a boat to pick you up, but you have to return it. I tasted the beef roast white wine, and I was drunk. I died in the past, when I was fifty-nine years old. "
The second argument is old illness. This is a new explanation and supplement to the first statement after studying all kinds of historical materials about Du Fu's death in detail. In April of five years, Hunan military forces made Zangjun send troops to make an insurrection and killed Cui Guan, the secretariat of Tanzhou. At this time, Du Fu is living in a boat on the Xiangjiang River in Tanzhou. When he heard about it in the middle of the night, he ran away with his family to go back to his uncle Cui Wei. But when I arrived in Leiyang, Tianyi Fang, I was blocked by the flood, so I couldn't eat for ten days. Later, when the magistrate heard the news, he sent wine and meat by boat, and Du Fu escaped. To this end, Du Fu wrote a poem to Nie Leiyang to express his gratitude to Nie County Magistrate. Du Fu had to return to Hengzhou because the water did not retreat. After the flood, Nie county magistrate sent someone to look for Du Fu, but he was nowhere to be seen. He thought Du Fu was buried by the flood, so he built a cenotaph in the north of Leiyang County. At this time, Du Fu had drifted on the Xiangjiang River. Due to long-term hunger and cold, Du Fu fell ill and his condition worsened. Finally, he died on the boat.
The third argument is drowning. According to Du Fu in the Tang Dynasty, "stormy waves, no place to live. Nie Ling accumulated empty soil by the river and said,' Zi Mei died of the expansion of beef and white wine and was buried here.' Smell it. "
This drowning story also originated from a poem entitled "Du Zimei's Tomb" written by someone in the name of Han Yu in the Tang Dynasty, which suggested that "all three sages belong to the same water". People think that Du Fu, like Qu Yuan and Li Bai, was drowned in the water. After Du Fu's death, when asked by the court, Nie county magistrate forged a fake grave and lied that Du Fu died of cow wine to deceive him. This view that Du Fu's death was attributed to drowning has been refuted by scholars of past dynasties since it was put forward.
The fourth way is to die of food poisoning. Guo Moruo, a modern scholar, pointed out in his book Li Bai and Du Fu that Du Fu died of food poisoning rather than "full stomach". It was a hot day when Du Fu was trapped by the flood. Nie county magistrate must have sent a lot of beef. Du Fu didn't finish it once, and the rest was not well preserved, so it was ruined. Rotting meat is toxic, especially within 24 to 28 hours after rotting. It will paralyze people's nerves and worsen the heart to death. Du Fu was already very weak. He ate bad beef and drank a lot of white wine. Alcohol accelerates the circulation of toxins in the blood, so it is very likely that he died of poisoning by eating carrion liquor.
The fifth way is to die of diabetes. In recent years, through research, scholars agree that the real cause of death of Du Fu is diabetes, which can be proved by Du Fu's poems.
Diabetes was also called "evergreen disease" in ancient China. This title originated from Sima Xiangru in Han Dynasty, because he was addicted to alcohol, had a poor diet and suffered from diabetes. Because Sima Xiangru has the word "evergreen", "evergreen disease" is often used to refer to diabetes in ancient poems. In reality, the thirst symptoms of diabetic patients are more prominent. Usually making tea with corn stigma can relieve symptoms. Saint Du Fu mentioned in at least two poems that he was suffering from diabetes, that is, evergreen disease. One is the guest room: "Living in Yun 'an County, eliminating internal poison. Second, Ambassador Chun: "I have been ill for a long time, and I have been thinking about the imperial court for a long time. The lungs are too thirsty, wandering in Gongsun City. "Du Fu never went on a diet, but he also took pleasure in overeating." Eating more food can help the elderly, and food is gratifying. "He also likes to use sugarcane juice as a drink." He drinks sugarcane pith for everything when he drinks tea, and there is no Xie Yu jar in the porcelain bowl. "When traveling, Du Fu actually brought a large bottle of sugarcane juice to quench his thirst. This habit shocked the doctor.
Du Fu was trapped in Leiyang for nearly ten days without food. After the county magistrate sent roast beef and white wine, he had another big meal. For diabetic patients, satiety can easily lead to ketoacidosis or acute attack of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and death. So Du Fu died of overeating that night. Therefore, the real cause of Du Fu's death is that he died of acute complications caused by diabetes after eating enough wine and meat.
Du Fu's life, through war and famine, has tasted the bitterness of the world. These experiences have cast a poetic heart, become immortal chapters, and won the admiration of future generations. Whatever the cause of Du Fu's death, although he died, 1300 years later, Du Fu's name, like his poems, is still alive.