Su Shi, apart from his unsatisfactory career and frequent plots, can be said to be a rare genius in the world.

Anyone who likes poetry knows Su Shi's "I don't know the true face of Mount Lu, I just live in this mountain." "He is a romantic figure through the ages";

Anyone who likes calligraphy knows that "Su Huang Mi Cai" is headed by Su; anyone who likes art knows the allusion of "having a well-established plan in mind";

Foodies all know Know the beauty of "Dongpo Meat";

Every romantic knows that Dongpo also has its romantic moments.

Even in something as serious as the imperial examination, Su Shi dared to play tricks. No wonder the political opponents who wanted to beat him to death had to admit that Su Shi was an unprecedented and unprecedented genius.

Su Shi, a genius, is said to have cheated on scientific examinations twice.

Let’s first talk about how the two brothers cheated in the Sichuan Provincial Examination.

During the provincial examination, Su Shi and Su Che were arranged in two seats in opposite corners. Su Shi was dumbfounded when he took a look at the questions. I can’t remember which book the test questions came from. In the scientific examinations at that time, if you didn't know the source of the test questions, you couldn't even think of writing half a word. It was not like today's multiple-choice questions and fill-in-the-blank questions. Su Zhe, who was diagonally opposite, saw his brother scratching his head and scratched his head, and wanted to help him, but the invigilator's eyes were bigger than bull's eyes. Cheating was not easy!

After all, they were brothers from the Su family. The younger brother frowned, thinking of his plan. I saw Su Che picking up the pen tube calmly, as if reading the pen, and blew it gently a few times. Su Shi was so smart. He was overjoyed at just one glance, so he wrote quickly, handed in the paper immediately, and got high marks. . Can you guess how this trick is done? It turned out that Su Che was blowing the pen pipe to tell his brother that the test questions came from the annotations of "Guanzi", and the pen pipe was not "Guanzi" (see Cai Sui's "Tiewei Shancong Tan" in the Northern Song Dynasty)!

Let’s talk about how the two brothers cheated in the examination room in Beijing.

In the sixth year of Jiayou's reign (1061 AD), brother Su Shi, who had already become a minor official, took the Zhike Examination (a special examination system in which the emperor personally set the questions). This time it was his elder brother's turn. Help your brother.

One of the questions in this exam is: "Etiquette, Righteousness, and Faith Are Sufficient to Become Virtuous." Su Zhe couldn't figure out the source. The elder brother quickly thought about it, only to see Su Shi pretending to be angry and asking for an inkstone from the invigilator. While banging the table, he cursed in a low voice: "What a villain! What a villain!" When Su Zhe heard this, he immediately understood that this question came from the Analects of Confucius. "Fan Chi Xuejia" note. This is what Confucius said when he scolded Fan Chi: "What a villain, Fan Xu!" As a result, the two brothers went to high school again.

How can we not make people jealous when we see the geniuses Su Shi and their brothers cheating so well?

The following is a few anecdotes about the Su Shi brothers:

First, Taoist Tongmeng:

When the brothers Su Shi and Su Che were young, they lived in their hometown in what is now Sichuan Province. Mei County Tian Qing Guan studied, and their first teacher was the Taoist Zhang Yijian.

At that time, Taoist priest Zhang Yijian had hundreds of students. Su Shi was one of the students who was favored by Taoist priest Zhang. The other was the famous Taoist priest Chen Taichu who was later recorded in "Xianjian".

According to Dongpo's "Zhilin" records, when Su Shi was demoted to Huangzhou, his old classmate Chen Taichu became an immortal in Hanzhong.

Because Su Shi received Taoist enlightenment education since childhood, he had a special liking for Taoism throughout his life. He often wore Taoist robes and visited Taoist priests. For example, "The Crane-Felting Pavilion" highly praises the Taoist Zhang Tianji, while "Hou Chibi Fu" ends with the Taoist falling into a dream.

When Su Shi was demoted, he still wrote articles for many Taoist temples and Taoist halls, so he wrote "Zhongmiaotang Ji", "Guanmiaotang Ji", "Zhuangzi Ancestral Hall Ji" and other beautiful articles. In the article "Zhongmiaotang Ji", he tells the story of dreaming about his teacher, Taoist Zhang Yijian, and being deeply taught by him. This shows the profound influence of Taoism on him.

Su Che mentioned in the opening chapter of "Longchuan Brief History" that he dreamed of studying at Tianqing Temple when he was a child. In the dream, Su Che revealed a little-known story of heavenly retribution through a conversation with the statue of Laozi. Phenomenon: Not killing can lead to longevity.

Second, gourmet master:

Su Shi himself was a gourmet, and there are many records of Su Shi's invention of gourmet food in Song Dynasty notebook novels.

When Su Shi learned about Hangzhou, in May and June of the fifth year of Yuanyou (AD 1090), there was heavy rain in western Zhejiang and Taihu Lake flooded. Su Shi directed the dredging of the West Lake and the construction of Su Di. The people of Hangzhou thanked him. During the Chinese New Year, everyone would carry pigs and wine to pay him New Year greetings. Su Shi instructed his family to cut the pork into cubes, cook it until crispy, and then distribute it to everyone. This is the origin of "Dongpo Pork".

"Old News of Quwei" also records: Su Dongpo discussed the food order with the guest, and took a piece of paper to show the guest: "Rolled steamed Tongzhou lamb, stuffed with apricot cheese fragrant stems, steamed goose is recommended When I was full, I cooked a cup of tea in the Jade Curtain Spring of Lushan Mountain. I lay down on my back and asked Dongpo to recite "Red Cliff Back and forth", which was enough to make me smile. p>

Third, Leizhou West Lake:

In the seventh year of Song Shaosheng (AD 1100), Su Shi was demoted from Huizhou (now Huizhou, Guangdong) to Danzhou (now Danzhou, Hainan), and traveled thousands of miles , passing through Leizhou (now Leizhou, Zhanjiang, Guangdong), I was fortunate enough to meet his brother Su Zhe, who was demoted to Leizhou, and it was a mixture of joy and sorrow.

The brothers chose a day to go boating in Luohu. Su Shi was attracted by the beautiful scenery of Luohu. Written here and now.

After writing this, Su Shi was still interested in traveling and regarded Leizhou Luohu as Hangzhou West Lake.

Since then, Leizhou Luohu has been called "Leizhou West Lake" by local people.