A brief introduction to Su Shi's life

Su Shi (1037-1101), courtesy name Zizhan, also known as Dongpo Jushi, was a native of Meishan, Meizhou (now part of Sichuan). His family is rich in literary tradition. His grandfather Su Xu was good at reading and writing poetry. His father, Su Xun, was a famous writer of ancient Chinese literature. He once carefully guided Su Shi and his younger brother Su Zhe. His mother, Cheng, was knowledgeable and understood righteousness. She once narrated the "Book of the Later Han·Biography of Fan Pang" to the young Su Shi, and encouraged her son to hone his reputation through the deeds of ancient patriots. When Su Shi left Shu and entered Beijing at the age of 21, his knowledge and accomplishments were already quite mature.

Su Shi was knowledgeable and thoughtful, and he was at home in the ideological atmosphere of the unity of the three religions in the Northern Song Dynasty. Su Che described Su Shi's reading process as follows: "I first read the books of Jia Yi and Lu Zhi, and discussed the ancient and modern methods of governing chaos, which is not empty talk. After reading "Zhuangzi", he sighed and said: "I have seen it in the past, but I can't express it. Now I read "Zhuangzi". "Zhuangzi", it won my heart! '... After reading Shi's book, I deeply understood the truth, consulted Confucius and Lao, and my eloquence was unimpeded. 》) Su Shi not only readily accepted Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, but also believed that they were inherently connected. He once said that "Zhuangzi helped Confucius", and Zhuangzi's attitude towards Confucius was "Yang squeezes and Yin helps it" ("Zhuangzi Ancestral Hall"). He also believed that "Confucianism and Buddhism do not coincide with each other" and "are opposite but serve each other" ("Inscriptions of the Elders of Nanhua"). This kind of thought based on the Confucian system and imbued with Buddhism and Taoism is the philosophical foundation of Su Shi's outlook on life.

Su Shi adhered to the Confucian political ideal of managing the world and benefiting the people. He was a Jinshi at the age of 22, and passed the third-class examination at the age of 26 (the highest level in the Song Dynasty). After becoming an official, he worked hard and had the ambition to be useful to the world. . He is an upright man, pays attention to integrity, is determined to reform government affairs and has the courage to speak out. Because he focused on the actual effects of policies, he opposed Wang Anshi when he implemented the new law, and held different opinions when Sima Guang repealed the new law. As a result, he was ostracized many times. When he was in office, he was diligent in political affairs and tried his best to do more practical things for the local area. He successively served as a local official in Hangzhou, Mizhou, Xuzhou and Huzhou, where he exterminated locusts, provided disaster relief, fought floods and built embankments, and had outstanding political achievements. Even after he was demoted to Huizhou, he donated money to build two bridges. As long as the environment allowed, Su Shi always tried his best to make a difference. However, Su Shi's official career was bumpy throughout his life, and he was repeatedly demoted and was unable to fully display his political talents. When he was 44 years old, he encountered the "Wutai Poetry Case" and narrowly escaped an accident. In his later years, he was demoted again and again, until he lived in the remote Hainan, eating taro and drinking water, living a hard life with the Li people. Su Shi was not indifferent to suffering, nor did he accept the persecution imposed on him. Instead, he treated the ensuing misfortunes with a new attitude towards life, combining the Confucian perseverance of poverty and Lao Zhuang's contempt for limited time, space and material environment. The transcendent attitude and the Zen concept of treating all changes with a normal heart are organically combined, thus despising ugliness and dispelling pain. This paradigm of life that is obsessed with life but detached from external things contains a firm, calm, optimistic and broad-minded spirit. Therefore, Su Shi can still maintain a strong interest in life and strong creative vitality in adversity.

Su Shi suffered two severe political persecutions in his life. The first time was when he was 45 years old and was demoted to Huangzhou for four years because of the "Wutai Poetry Case". The second time was when he was demoted to Huizhou at the age of 59, and to Danzhou at the age of 62. He was pardoned and returned to the north at the age of 65, spending six years in the demoted office. Before his death, Su Shi inscribed his own portrait and said: "Ask you about your life achievements in Huangzhou, Huizhou and Danzhou." ("Self-Inscribed Portrait of Jinshan") As far as his political career is concerned, these words are of course self-deprecating. But for Su Shi, a writer, his unparalleled achievements were indeed established in the adversity of being repeatedly demoted. Although Su Shi had long been famous in the literary world, and after being demoted to Huangzhou, he did not dare to write more poems for fear of disaster, but the Huangzhou period was still a peak in his creation. Prose such as "Chibi Ode" before and after, poems such as "Two Poems of Cold Food and Rain", lyrics such as "Niannujiao·Chibi Nostalgia" and other famous works were all written at this time. When Su Shi was demoted to Huizhou and Danzhou, he was already an aging man who had suffered a lot of sorrows, but his creative passion had not diminished, and he had entered a new realm of profoundness and splendor in art. His relegation career enabled Su Shi to understand society and life more deeply, and also enabled his creations to express his inner emotional waves more deeply. In the Song Dynasty, some people believed that being demoted to Hainan was not Su Shi's misfortune, but that adversity was the result of the times for this literary genius.

The artistic spirit of eclectic nature and boldness is good at renovating the perfect combination of the three functions of argumentative narrative, lyricism and reasoning, Ci Fu and Shiliu

Su Shi’s literary thoughts are Wen, Pay equal attention to Tao. He praised the contributions of Han Yu and Ouyang Xiu to ancient prose, and believed that Han Yu's "writing started in the eighth generation and then declined, and his teaching helped the world drown" ("Han Wengong Temple Monument in Chaozhou"), and he also believed that Ouyang Xiu "discussed the Dao like Han Yu" and "recorded events like Sima Qian" (Collected Narratives of Liuyi Laymen), all focus on both literary and Taoist aspects. However, Su Shi's view of literature and Taoism was very unique in the Northern Song Dynasty. First of all, Su Shi believes that the art of articles has independent value, such as "fine gold and beautiful jade, the market has a price." Articles are not just a tool to convey the truth, but their own expressive function is an advanced form of human spiritual activity: " Everything is inherently rational, and if you don't know it, you can't know it with your mouth and hands." ("Reply to Qian Yu Kuo") Secondly, the "Tao" in Su Shi's mind is not limited to Confucian Tao, but refers to things in general. For example, people who "live with the sun and water" "have the way to get water" ("Yu Yu").

Therefore, Su Shi advocated that articles should be like the objective world, with natural arts and sciences and full of gestures. He advocated the diversity and vividness of artistic styles and opposed the monotonous unified style of writing, believing that it would cause the literary world to be as desolate as "everywhere you look is yellow grass and white reeds".

It is under the guidance of this unique literary thought that Su Shi's prose presents a colorful artistic style. He extensively drew artistic nourishment from the works of previous generations, the most important of which were the majestic momentum of Mencius and the strategists of the Warring States Period, the rich associations of Zhuangzi, and the natural and unbridled writing style. Su Shi said to himself: "My writings are like thousands of dendrobium springs. They can come out in any place. They can gurgling on the plains, even if they travel thousands of miles in a day. They twist and turn with the mountains and rocks, and follow the shapes of things, so they cannot be known. What can be known is always walking on the ground. You should always stop at what you can't do." ("Self-evaluation") His self-evaluation is consistent with the readers' feelings. Su Shi does have extremely high expressive power, and there are almost no objective things or things that cannot be expressed in his writings. Inner thoughts. Su Wen's style changes freely with different objects of expression, as natural and smooth as flowing clouds and flowing water. Han Yu's ancient prose relied on eloquence, layout, momentum and other means to achieve the grandeur of momentum, while Su Wen achieved the same goal by relying on free expression and flowing thoughts. Su Wen's style is majestic and majestic, but his language is simple and natural. This is one of the characteristics that makes Song Wen different from Tang Wen.

Su Shi is good at writing argumentative essays. The historical treatises he wrote in his early years had a strong political style, and sometimes he made shocking remarks that were unreasonable. For example, "Lun on Jia Yi" accused Jia Yi of not knowing how to make friends with ministers in order to gain trust in the court, and "Lun on Fan Zeng" proposed that Fan Zeng should be a righteous person. The emperor executed Xiang Yu. But there are also many unique insights, such as "Lun on Liuhou", which states that the old man in the city was a hidden gentleman in the Qin Dynasty, and humiliated Zhang Liang in order to cultivate his perseverance; "Lun on Pingwang" criticized King Ping of Zhou for his poor strategy of avoiding the invaders and moving the capital, which has novel insights. And profound, illuminating. These historical treatises were good at random occurrences and unexpected interpretations in writing, showing a high degree of argumentation skills. They became the model essays for scholars at that time to take the imperial examinations, so they were widely circulated. Su Shi's early political essays also had similar style characteristics. However, as his experience deepened, the habit of being a politician gradually weakened. For example, some of the memorials written by Yuanyou later were targeted in content and sharp and calm in words, close to Jia Yi's. , Lu Zhi’s writing style.

Although historical treatises and political treatises demonstrate Su Shi's extraordinary talent, miscellany, letters, prefaces and postscripts and other argumentative essays better reflect Su Shi's literary achievements. These articles are also good at renovating and surprising, but the form is more lively, the discussion is more lively, and they are often a mixture of narrative and discussion, and are also lyrical. They use artistic appeal to enhance logical persuasion, so they are more beautiful than historical treatises and political treatises. For example, there are two metaphors in "Sun Yu":

Those who are born blind do not know the sun, but those who ask have eyes. Or tell him: "The sun is like a copper plate." You can get the sound by buckling the plate. Hearing the bell one day, he thought it was the sun. Or tell him: "The light of the sun is like a candle." You can get its shape by touching the candle. The other day is full of misfortune, just think of it as the sun. The sun is also far away from the bell and the shackles, but those who are interested don't know the difference, so they are like people who have never seen them before.

There are many people in the south, and the sun and water live together. One can wade at the age of seven, one can float at the age of ten, and one can float and submerge at the age of fifteen. If your husband is gone, how can you be content with it? Someone will find a way to the water. If the sun and water live together, then the path will be achieved at the age of fifteen. If you are born without knowing water, even though you are strong, you will be afraid of boats when you see them. Therefore, the brave men in the north asked no one and asked them why they were drowned. If they tried their luck in the river, there would be no one who would not drown. Therefore, those who do not learn but pursue the Tao are those in the north who have lost their learning.

This article demonstrates that the understanding of things cannot rely on one-sided knowledge, and must be practiced to grasp the laws of things. The reasoning is very thorough, but its reasoning is based on vivid examples, or through images. To display, the impression it gives to readers is not only profound, but also vivid and vivid, which can not only enable people to gain intellectual understanding, but also bring aesthetic pleasure.

Another example is "Wen Yuke's Painting of Yanzhu in Yundang Valley". On the one hand, it describes the situation of Wen Yuke's painting of bamboo, and on the other hand, it recalls the close relationship between himself and Wen Yuke in an emotional way. The relationship, as well as Wen Yuke's own sorrow after his death, have a strong lyrical meaning. From Wen Yuke's creative experience, he concluded that artistic creation should be well-thought-out, which is also an example of combining narrative and discussion.

Su Shi's narrative travel articles perfectly combine the three functions of narrative, lyricism and discussion. "The Story of Shizhong Mountain" is a travel note that mainly focuses on discussion. It focuses on the origin of the name of Shizhong Mountain, corrects the previous statements based on the observations of field trips, and points out that one cannot "assume" things that have not been "seen with the eyes and heard with the ears." The philosophy of whether it exists or not has clear thinking and thorough argumentation. What is particularly valuable is that the discussion in this article is gradually developed in the beautiful artistic conception of the blending of scenes, such as a paragraph about boating on a moonlit night to observe the shape of a mountain:

At dusk, when the moon was shining, I took a small boat to the foot of the cliff alone. , the boulder stands thousands of feet sideways, like wild beasts and strange ghosts, looking fierce and eager to kill people. The falcons on the mountain were frightened when they heard the sound of people, and they were buzzing in the sky. Also, if an old man coughs and laughs in the valley, he may be called a stork. Yu Fang was eager to return, so he made loud noises on the water. The noise was like bells and drums, and the people in the boat were frightened.

With just a few strokes, a beautiful yet gloomy realm is painted. Reading it makes one feel as if one is actually there, and the author's feelings of appreciating secluded adventure and being pragmatic and truth-seeking are also fully revealed. The description of the blend of scenes directly cooperates with the discussion, which can be called a model of the perfect combination of narrative, lyricism and reasoning.

Since Su Shi's compositions are based on the principle of "expressive words", he does what he does when he should do it, and he stops when he should stop. There are very few nonsense words and sentences, which is most prominent in his note-taking sketches. For example, "Record of Chengtian Night Tour":

On the night of October 12th, the sixth year of Yuanfeng, I undressed and was about to fall asleep. When the moonlight came into my house, I happily set off. Thinking of nothing and being happy, I went to Chengtian Temple to look for Zhang Huaimin. Huai Min also stayed up and walked with each other in the atrium. Under the courtyard, there is a clear sky like accumulated water. The water is crisscrossed with algae and covered with bamboo and cypress shadows. What night is there without a moon? Where are there no bamboos or cypresses? But there are few idle people like the two of us.

The full text only has more than 80 words, but its artistic conception is transcendent and its charm is timeless. It is a masterpiece among the sketches of the Song Dynasty.

Su Shi's Ci Fu and Si Liu also achieved high achievements. His poems and poems inherited the tradition of Ouyang Xiu, but incorporated more of the sparse and scattered atmosphere of ancient Chinese prose, and absorbed the lyrical meaning of poetry. As a result, he was better than his predecessors and created "Red Cliff Fu" and "Later Red Cliff Fu". Such a famous article. "Red Cliff Fu" follows the traditional pattern of question and answer between the subject and the guest, and suppresses the guest and reveals the subject. It expresses his own philosophy of life and also describes the beautiful scenery of the Yangtze River on a moonlit night. The whole text uses both parallel and prose, with both scenes and scenes, making it a beautiful prose poem. Such as a scene description:

The breeze blows slowly, but the water waves are calm. Lifting wine to the guests, reciting poems about the bright moon and singing graceful chapters. After a while, the moon rose above the east mountain, wandering among the bullfights. White dew flows across the river, and the water reaches the sky. Even though a reed is like this, thousands of hectares are at a loss. It's so vast that it's like riding on the wind without knowing where it's going. It's as fluttering as if it's left alone in the world, becoming immortal and ascending to immortality.

The beautiful and clear scenery and the relaxed and joyful mood constitute a broad and clear artistic realm, and the vague, vague and illusory feeling directly contributes to the transcendent philosophy of life in the following article. Foreshadowing reflects the author's superb expression ability and language skills.

Su Shi also embodied the flowing style even in No. 46 Middle School. The imperial poems he drafted when he was serving in the Hanlin Academy were rich and powerful, rarely seen in Taige texts. The confession he wrote after being demoted is even more heartfelt and touching. It is a rare work of character among the four or six bodies. For example, "Xie Liang Moves to Ruzhou Biao":

I only feel sorry for myself, my life is on the rivers and lakes; I am still in shock, and I am in prison. He is haggard and inhuman, and Zhang Kuang has lost his ambition. Wives and children snickered, relatives and friends broke off. I have been sick for many years, and everyone is said to be dead; when hunger and cold come together, I also feel disgusted with the rest of my life.

Su Shi's prose was as famous as Ouyang Xiu and Wang Anshi in the Song Dynasty, but from a literary perspective alone, Su Wen was undoubtedly the most accomplished among the Song writers. < /p>

Su Shi was upright and frank. He once claimed: "Speak from the heart and rush to the mouth. If you spit it out, you will rebel against others. If you let it go, you will rebel against others. I think it is better to rebel against others, so I spit it out." ("Si Tang Ji") Therefore, Su Shi's views on social reality and thoughts on life are unabashedly expressed in his literary works, among which poetry is the most vivid and heartfelt. Among more than 2,700 Su poems, the themes of intervening in social reality and thinking about life are very prominent.

Su Shi had an attitude of being "out of touch with the times" towards various unreasonable phenomena in social reality, and always regarded criticizing reality as an important theme of poetry. He served as a local official in many states and counties and understood the people's sentiments. He often wrote about the sufferings of the people he had heard and seen in his poems, such as writing about farmers in the north who suffered from locust drought: "Three years of drought in the east, and there are many people who have fled their homes. The old farmer "Shi Lei sighed, tears welling up in his stomach." ("The Heavy Snow Stayed in Weizhou on the New Year's Day and the Snow Returned Early on the New Year") also wrote about the people affected by the floods in the south: "It's a pity that the people of Wuyue have been swallowed up by the rivers and lakes for a long time." "I can't get as much as I can from Li Yuan." ("Sending Master Huang to the Two Zhejiang Provinces") At that time, taxes were heavy, the price of grain hurt farmers, and the burden of foreign currency also fell on the farmers. They worked hard to harvest the grain. , and it is difficult to deal with the government's expropriation: "Officials now want money but not rice, and Qiang people are recruited from thousands of miles northwest. People in the Gong and Huang Manchu Dynasties were even more miserable, so it is better to be a river uncle's wife!" ("Wuzhong Tianfu's Lament")

< p> What's more valuable is that Su Shi's criticism of society is not limited to the New Deal, nor is it limited to the present. He criticizes the long-standing bad policies and bad habits in feudal society, reflecting a deeper critical consciousness. For example, "Lizhi Sigh" written in his later years:

Every ten miles away there is flying dust and ashes, and every five miles away there is fire and fire. When we were leaning against each other in the pit and valley, we knew it was lychee and longan. The speeding car crosses the mountain falcon and crosses the sea, and the wind branches reveal their leaves as if they were newly picked. When the beauty in the palace loses her beauty, she will be shocked and bloodied for thousands of years. Yongyuan Lizhi came to Jiaozhou, and Tianbao paid tribute every year and took it to Fu. So far, no one wants to eat Lin Fu's meat, but no one has raised a glass of wine. I hope that God will take pity on the innocent child and not give birth to a beautiful creature with sores. When the rains are favorable and the winds are favorable, the crops are harvested, and it is a blessing that the people are not hungry or cold. Don't you see the millet sprouts beside the Wuyi River? Everyone has their own ideas for buying new pets. This year, the products will be the official tea. Is this what I, the king, lack? What a shame to nourish your mouth and body! The Prime Minister of Luoyang was loyal and filial to his family, but unfortunately he also entered Yao Huanghua!

From the tribute of lychees in the Tang Dynasty to the tribute of tea and flowers in the Song Dynasty, it sharply satirizes the flattery of officials and the extravagance of the court. Su Shi still dared to be angry and scolding in his later years when he was repeatedly demoted. This shows how persistent his critical spirit is!

Su Shi spent his entire life in officialdom, traveling around the world, and had extremely rich life experiences.

He is good at summarizing experiences from life encounters, and is also good at seeing patterns in objective things. In his eyes, extremely ordinary life content and natural scenery contain profound truths, such as the two poems "Inscribed on the West Forest Wall" and "He Zi Nostalgia from Mianchi":

Looking at it from the side, it looks like a ridge and the side looks like a peak. There are differences in distance, distance, and height. I don’t know the true face of Mount Lu, just because I am in this mountain.

What is it like to know everything in life? It should be like a flying dragon stepping on slush. Occasionally, there are fingers and claws left on the mud. What about Hongfei? The old monk has died and a new pagoda has been built, and the broken jade has no reason to see the old title. Do you remember the rough days of the past? The road is long, people are trapped, and the donkey brays.

In these poems, natural phenomena have been elevated to philosophy, and the feelings of life have been transformed into rational reflections. What is particularly commendable is that the philosophy in the poem is expressed naturally through vivid and distinctive artistic images, rather than through logical deduction or argumentative analysis. Such poems are both beautiful and interesting, and are truly rational and interesting poems. "I don't know the true face of Mount Lu" and "Hongzhao in the snow and mud" became popular as idioms as soon as they came out, which shows that Su Shi's rational and interesting poems are universally loved. There are many similar works in Su's poems, such as "Sizhou Sangha Pagoda", "Drinking Lake on the First Sunny and Later Rain", "Ci Lake Blocking the Wind", etc. Su Shi had a very spiritual and discerning eye, so he could discover wonderful new ideas everywhere.

Su Shi's profound thinking about life made him have a calm and broad-minded attitude towards the ups and downs of honor and disgrace, which is fully reflected in Su Shi's poems. Su Shi's poems in adversity certainly contain aspects of pain, anger, and depression, such as "Two Poems on Cold Food and Rain" written in Huangzhou, which describe the life dilemma of "cooking cold vegetables in an empty blister, burning wet reeds in a broken stove" and "Junmen". The mentality of "Nine deep, the grave is thousands of miles away" is extremely painful. But more of Su Shi's poems express his disdain for suffering and his transcendence of pain. Huangzhou, a deserted city surrounded by mountains and rivers, was described in his writings as "the Yangtze River surrounds Guo to know the beauty of fish, and the mountains with good bamboo trees smell the fragrance of bamboo shoots" ("First Arrival in Huangzhou"), while the rocky and rugged slopes were written as "Mo I dislike the roughness of Potou Road, but I love the sound of my stick." ("Dong Slope"). Lingnan is so remote that the ancients regarded it as a daunting road. Han Yu was demoted to Chaozhou, and Liu Zongyuan was demoted to Liuzhou. Most of his poems had a sad tone. However, when Su Shi was demoted to Huizhou, he wrote a poem and said: "If you eat three hundred lychees a day, you will live a long life as a Lingnan native." (Part 2 of "Two Poems on Eating Lychees") When he was demoted to Danzhou, he also said: " Who made the geographical records in his year? Hainan Wanli is my hometown." ("I was relegated to Hainan, and my son came from Leizhou. He left immediately after being ordered to leave, and I didn't know him. When I arrived at Wu, I heard that he was still in Tengye, and I should catch up with him day and night. I wrote this poem to express it. ") The core of this optimism and broad-mindedness is a firm belief in life and a fighting spirit that does not give in to misfortune. Therefore, Su Shi's poems in adversity are still full of soaring style and magnificent diction, without any signs of decadence. For example, in "Six "Crossing the sea on the night of the 20th day of the lunar month":

At the third watch of the fight, the wind clears up after the bitter rain. Who embellishes the scattered clouds and bright moon? The sky and the sea are naturally clear. When I was free, the old man Lu took advantage of his thoughts and had a rough idea of ??the music playing in Xuanyuan. I don’t hate the nine deaths in the Southern Wilderness. I am here to travel through the wonders of my life!

This was written by Su Shi when he returned from Danzhou to the north. It shows the pride of overcoming the darkness and the magnanimity of being unfazed by favors and humiliations, with a majestic momentum.

Su Shi was a man of great erudition and talent, and his mastery of the artistic techniques of poetry had reached a level of proficiency. He treated artistic standards with a spirit of innovation and innovation, and whatever he wished, he could achieve success at his fingertips. The metaphors in Su's poems are vivid and novel, and they emerge one after another, such as "The spring rain passes over Luo Wan Ni" ("South Garden"), "The competing heads are like turtles" ("Wang Wei and Wu Daozi's Painting"), "You will die if you want to know" "It's like a snake going to slay. Its scales are half gone. Who can cover it up?" ("Shou Sui"), which is very popular. Another example is "Hundred Steps of the Flood", which uses seven metaphors to describe rushing water: "Like a rabbit walking away and an eagle falling, a horse betting on a thousand-foot slope. A broken string and an arrow flying off a pillar, flying lightning passing through gaps and beads turning over loads." It is truly a continuous flow of wonderful metaphors. Su Shi had read tens of thousands of volumes, and he could easily pick up allusions when using them. Because he used too many allusions, he was sometimes criticized by later generations. However, in most cases, the allusions used in Su's poems were safe and precise, and natural, reaching the wonderful state of being like salt in water. For example, he wrote a poem to comfort the defeated Li Lao and said: "I have talked about the ancient battlefield all my life, but in the passing of my eyes I have been fascinated by the five colors of the sun." This is an example of exquisite use of allusions. The antithesis in Su's poems is both sophisticated and lively, and the ideas break the rules. For example: "Shan Yi likes the dream of laboring far away, and the name of the place makes me cry in fear" ("Enter Jiangxi for the first time on August 7th"), "I passed through the door three times and died of old age, sickness, and the present in a blink of an eye" ("Guo Yongle Wen") "The elder has died"), he has a new approach to the Dharma and does not fall into the trap of the conventional. It is precisely because Su Shi's mastery of metaphors, allusions, antitheses and other techniques has reached an advanced level that he is able to transcend the techniques and compose poems as he wishes without any trace of training. For example, "The day I first saw Huaishan Mountain after leaving Yingkou, I arrived in Shouzhou":

I walked toward the river and sea day and night, and the maple leaves and reed flowers grew in autumn. Changhuai is suddenly confused by the distance and distance of the sky, and the green mountains and boats are low and high for a long time. The white stone pagoda has been seen in Shouzhou, but the short pole has not yet turned to Huangmaogang. The waves are calm and the wind is soft and cannot be seen, and the old friend has been standing there for a long time in the mist.

What seems plain is actually strange, and what seems loose is actually concise. Specific techniques are almost invisible in the poem, because its artistic pursuit focuses on the whole.

Zhao Yi, a native of the Qing Dynasty, commented on Su's poems and said: "He is born with a strong pen, as refreshing as a mourning pear, as fast as pruning it together. There is a secret that must be reached, and no emotion that is difficult to reveal. This is why after Li and Du Later, he became a great master." ("Oubei Poetry Talk") Indeed, Su Shi's expressive ability is amazing, and there are no themes that cannot be included in Su Shi's poems. It is extremely common to take a photo in a stream and draw water to make tea, but Su Shi wrote, "Suddenly, scales grew on me, messing up my beard and eyebrows.

"Scattered into hundreds of east slopes, they are here again in an instant" ("Pan Ying"); "The big ladle stores the moon and returns to the spring urn, and the small ladle is divided into the river and into the night vase" ("Jijiang Sencha"), which is particularly lively and interesting. Another example is his He only used the sentence "Three feet long and thin body" to vividly depict the listless appearance of the sick crane. He wrote: "There is a pool in Huizhou, and there are lurking dragons in the pool... The tiger drinks from the water and feeds on the tail of the dragon. The legend of "Er floating bones on the water" can be described with only the cross "There is a hungry dragon hidden in the scales, and the thirsty tiger is caught by the tail." Even if it is a very difficult subject matter, Su Shi can often make it easy in his writing, and it is easy to lift it. For example "Continuing the Journey of a Beautiful Woman" depicts a painting by the Tang Dynasty painter Zhou Fang, in which "the woman behind the back is not visible". How does Su Shi describe the beauty from behind? , then imagine this beauty as a back figure that Du Fu saw from a distance at the head of Qujiang River, and finally use the folk story of couples to treat each other as guests, lamenting the misfortune of the beauty in the palace, but it is very relevant. Showing an extraordinary ability to control themes.

Just like his literary theory, Su Shi also advocated an eclectic approach to poetry. He once imitated the works of Tao Yuanming, Li Bai, Du Fu, Han Yu, Meng Jiao and even his fellow poet Huang Tingjian. The style of poetry is all vivid and lifelike. "Everyone has his own aspirations, whether he is short, long, fat or thin. Who dares to be a monk if the flying swallows in the jade ring are like a monk?" ("Sun Xin Lao Qiu Mo Miao Pavilion Poems"). His diversified aesthetic taste enables him to appreciate various stylistic tendencies. Su Shi paid special attention to the fusion of two opposing styles, so when commenting on other people's poems, he put forward the terms "Qingyuan majestic beauty" and "Qingyuan majestic beauty". Su Shi paid great attention to the mutual penetration of masculine beauty and feminine beauty in his creations. Adjusting each other. There is no doubt that the dominant style of Su's poetry is bold and bold, and some works even have the shortcomings of being bold and lacking in subtlety. However, many of Su's best poems have achieved a balance between hardness and softness, thus showing a "Qingxiong" style, such as "Visiting Jinshan Temple". 》:

The river in my hometown flows directly into the sea. I heard that the tide is ten feet high, and there are still traces of sand on the south bank of Zhongling. It has been there since ancient times. Looking at the country from the top, there are many green mountains in the south and north of the Yangtze River. I am afraid of the late night and I am looking for a mountain monk to watch the setting sun. It's dark. There seems to be a torch in the middle of the river, and the flying flames illuminate the mountains. The birds are shocked. I feel so sad that I don't know what it is, it's not a ghost, it's not a human being. How can I thank the river god for being so strange? At last, there is no return to the fields.

The description is detailed and layered, but the writing style is vigorous and the mood is wonderful. , which typically reflects the style characteristics of Su poetry.

The late Northern Song Dynasty, represented by the "Yuanyou" poetry circle, was the heyday of Song poetry. The creations of Wang Anshi, Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, Chen Shidao and others brought Song poetry to the forefront. Art has reached its peak. In terms of outstanding and distinct style and personality, the three poets of Wang, Huang and Chen may be more eye-catching than Su Shi. However, in terms of creative achievements, Su Shi is undoubtedly the first poet in the Northern Song Dynasty. Su's poetry is outstanding in the dimensions of breadth, variety of forms, and profound emotional connotation. More importantly, Su Shi has strong artistic compatibility. He does not push a certain style to the status of a single one in theory or creation. In this way, although Su Shi made a huge contribution in the process of creating a new look of Song poetry, he basically avoided the two main shortcomings of the new style of Song poetry and its boringness. Therefore, Su Shi surpassed the poets of his contemporaries in terms of overall achievements and became the most popular poet of the Song Dynasty among future generations of readers.

The ideological view of poetry as a whole opens up the realm of poetry. The technique of using poetry as the word to express the diversity of Su poetry styles

Su Shi has also made extraordinary achievements in the creation of poetry. , as far as the development of a literary style itself is concerned, the historical contribution of Su Ci exceeds that of Su prose and Su poetry. Following Liu Yong, Su Shi carried out a comprehensive reform of the style of Ci, finally breaking through the traditional pattern of Ci being "Yanke", improving the literary status of Ci, and transforming Ci from an accessory to music into an independent lyric poem. style, fundamentally changed the development direction of Ci history.

Su Shi’s transformation of Ci is based on his concept of Ci poetry integrating poetry and his creative idea of ??“being his own style”.

Since the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, Ci has been regarded as a "little way". The poets and writers only used their remaining energy in writing poems and their playful attitude to write lyrics. After writing, they "swiped away their traces and said they were just playing games" (Hu Yin's "Preface to the Jiubian Collection", see Xiang Ziqin's "Jiubian Ji") first volume). The status of poetry in the minds of literati in the early Song Dynasty was that "Fang's folk art is still incomplete" (ibid.), and it cannot be equated with poetry that "conveys the truth" and "expresses aspirations". Although Liu Yong dedicated his life to writing Ci and promoted the development of Ci style, he failed to improve the literary status of Ci. This task needs to be completed by Su Shi.

Su Shi first theoretically dispelled the concept that poetry is superior and Ci is inferior. He believed that poetry and poetry have the same origin and belong to one body, and words are "the descendants of poetry." Although poetry and words have differences in external form, their artistic essence and expressive functions should be consistent. Therefore, he often compares poetry with words, saying that the famous line in Liu Yong's "Ba Sheng Ganzhou": "This line is as high as the Tang Dynasty poetry" (see Zhao Lingqi's "Hou Zhenlu" Volume 7), and praised Cai Jingfan's "New words are the long and short sentence poems of the ancients" ("Books with Cai Jingfan").

Since he elevated Ci to the same status as poetry from a stylistic perspective, this provided a theoretical basis for Ci to move closer to the poetic style and realize the mutual communication and penetration between Ci and poetry.

In order to make the aesthetic taste of poetry truly keep pace with poetry, Su Shi also put forward the creative idea that poetry must "be of the same family". He said in "Yu Xian Yu Zijun": "It is close but it is quite small. Although it does not have the flavor of Liu Qilang, it is still the same family. ... It is quite spectacular." The saying "it is the same family" here is It is proposed for the "flavor" that is different from Liu Yong's poetry. Its connotations include: pursuing a magnificent style and broad artistic conception, the quality of poetry should be consistent with the character, and writing lyrics should express one's true feelings and emotions just like writing poetry. A unique experience of life. Because only in this way can "the writing be like the person he is" ("Reply to Zhang Wenqian County Prime Minister"), and be unique in the creation of lyrics. Su Shi always attached great importance to the integrity of his articles, but opposed following others' footsteps in literature. Therefore, he was dissatisfied with Qin Guan's lack of "character" for "learning from Liu Qi's lyrics".

Expanding the expressive function of words and opening up the context of words are the main directions of Su Shi's reform of word style. He expanded the traditional feminine tender words to masculine heroic words, and expanded the traditional love words to express temperament, so that the words can fully express the author's temperament, embrace and temperament like poetry. Personality personality. Yang Shi of the Song Dynasty said in "Ancient and Modern Ci" that Su Shi "must describe his thoughts whenever he composes a poem". Yuan Haowen of the Jin Dynasty even believed that Dongpo's Ci is "a word other than emotion" (quoted by Xinxuan Yuefu) 》). For example, he wrote "Qinyuanchun · Early Journey to Mizhou to Send Children Immediately" written in the 7th year of Xining (1074) by Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty:

The lights in the lonely house are green, the chickens in the wild shop are buzzing, and the travel pillow is full of dreams. The moonlight is gradually gathering, and the morning frost is lingering; the clouds are covered with brocade, and the morning dew is shining. The road in the world is endless, but the work and life are limited, just like the joy of the district chief. After chanting slightly, Ping Zhengan was speechless, filled with memories of the past. At that time, *** was visiting Chang'an. He is like a young man who first arrived from the two continents. I have thousands of words on my pen and thousands of volumes in my mind, and I am writing to you, Yao and Shun. How can this be so difficult? When I use renunciation, my conduct is hidden in me. Why don't you just sit around and watch. He is tall and strong, but he is still old and has a high reputation.

It not only expresses his life ideal of "dedicated to Jun Yao and Shun" and his high-spirited, heroic and confident spiritual outlook in his youth, but also reveals his complicated life emotions after experiencing career setbacks in middle age. "Jiang Shenzi·Hunting in Mizhou", written later in Mizhou, expresses his ambition to gallop on the battlefield and serve his country:

I am talking about being a teenager. The left lead is yellow. Right Qing Cang. Brocade hats and mink fur coats, thousands of cavalry rolling around Pinggang. In order to repay Qingcheng, he followed the prefect, shot tigers himself, and watched Sun Lang. Drunken and brave, the chest is still open. A slight frost on the temples. So why not. In the cloud of holding the knot, when will Feng Tang be dispatched? He can hold the eagle bow like the full moon, look northwest, and shoot at the wolf.

The image of the real governor who "shoots the tiger" and the ideal image of the strong man who "holds the eagle bow" and "shoots the wolf" has further changed after Fan Zhongyan's "Yu Jia Ao" poem "The Proud of the Fisherman". The structure of the Ci poetry circle in which Mr. Yan is the main lyrical protagonist. Su Shi allowed people with lofty ideals, full of enterprising spirit, lofty ideals, passion and vitality to enter the world of poetry, changing the original soft sentiment of poetry, and ushering in the Xin School of poetry in the Southern Song Dynasty.

Like Su's poems, Su's poems often express thoughts about life. When Su Shi was in Xuzhou, he realized that "the past and the present are like dreams, but there are old joys and new resentments." ("The bright moon is like frost" in "Yong Yu Le"). After the "Wutai Poetry Case", the sudden changes in his life's destiny made him realize the difficulties of life and the changes in destiny more truly and deeply. He lamented more than once that "life is like a dream" ("Niannujiao·Chibi Nostalgia"), "laughing and working gives birth to a dream" ("Drunk Penglai"), "everything is just a dream in the end" ("Nanxiangzi·Chongjiu Hanhui") "The building is in front of Xu Junyou"), "The world is a big dream" ("Xijiang Moon"). The so-called "life is like a dream" refers to the limited brevity of life and the illusion and changeability of fate, but also refers to the difficulty of self-control of fate like a dream, which is what the poem "Linjiang Xian" (Drinking at Dongpo Wakes Up Drunk at Night) says "I always regret that this body is not mine." This kind of rational thinking about the destiny of life enhances the philosophical meaning of the words.

Although Su Shi deeply felt that life was like a dream, he did not deny life because of this. Instead, he strived for self-detachment and always maintained a tenacious and optimistic belief and a detached and comfortable attitude towards life:

< p> Don't listen to the sound of beating leaves in the forest. Why not scream and walk slowly? The bamboo stick and mango shoes beat the horse easily. Who is afraid. A coop of mist and rain will last a lifetime. The cool spring breeze wakes me up. Slightly cold.

The top of the mountain is shining slantingly but welcoming