Su Dongpo, Su Shi, was a writer and painter in the Northern Song Dynasty. He was one of the eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties, and he was called "Three Soviets" with his father Su Xun and his brother Su Zhehe. Su Dongpo abided by the traditional etiquette in politics, but he also had the ambition to change the four evils, so his career was full of ups and downs. His personality is heroic, and his poems are unrestrained, fresh and vigorous, creating a bold school. He is open-minded, and although he learns from the ancients in calligraphy, he can create new ideas and is full of childlike interest. At the same time, he is good at painting and likes to make strange stones. Su Dongpo claimed that there were three things that were inferior to people in his life, namely, drinking, playing chess and singing songs, but his poems, books and paintings were famous for later generations.

First, a scholarly family

Su Shi, with a profound word, is both Yu and Zhong, and is named Dongpo layman. Meishan, Meizhou (now meishan county, Sichuan) was born in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, that is, December 19th, the third year of Renzong Jingyou. Mother Cheng's family is the daughter of Cheng Wenying (equivalent to the President of the Supreme Court) of Da Richimu. She comes from a scholarly family. Because she heard and heard from her childhood, her moral character and knowledge are quite good. Su Shi is lucky to have such a mother, so she can receive a good tutor. Grandfather Su Xun and others are delighted with his birth. Three years later, his brother Su Zhe was born. According to the "Su Family Tree" compiled by Su Xun, Su's ancestors can be traced back to Su Weidao, a famous scholar in the Tang Dynasty. However, the truth is difficult to determine, but it can be confirmed that Su Shi's ancestors can be traced back to Su Jian five dynasties ago.

Su Xun, Su Shi's father, aspired to the imperial examination. However, he started to learn too late, about the time after Su Shi was born. He had been standing for years, but he failed in many attempts, so he could only sigh that he was incompetent. Therefore, he had great expectations for Su Shi and Su Zhe. Soon after Su Shi was born, Su Xun went to Kyoto to study, so Su Shi was never taught by his father until he was eight years old. He was first enlightened by his mother. Later, because Cheng was convinced of Taoism, he ordered him to worship Zhang Yijian, a Taoist priest in Tianqing, as a teacher and study with more than 1 young children in the town. Su Shi and Chen Taichu, who later became local collectors, are often praised by Mr. Private Pad. At that time, the children of official families in China usually hired tutors to teach their studies at home, while Su Shi and the children in the town sat on the Taoist private mat to study, which was a very ordinary educational place for the common people. The children who study in private mats are all businessmen and farmers' children. Su Wan spent his childhood in private mats, which cultivated his common character and was of great benefit to his future career as an official.

Su Shi studied in the private cushion of Tianqingguan for three years. At the age of ten, his mother taught him to read The Book of the Later Han Dynasty. When he read Biography of Fan Bangguan, he was deeply moved. Unconsciously, she sighed and said to her mother, "If a son is also like a slanderer, will her mother be happy?" Cheng said, "If you can really be like Fan slander, can't I feel as honored as Fan slander's mother?" Because Su Shi was gifted since he was a child, he made rapid progress under the guidance of his mother.

Second, the famous capital

Su Shi had been studying hard in his hometown Meishan until he was twenty years old. In the first year of the reign of Emperor Renzong Jiaku (AD 156), he left Meishan for the first time with his brother Su Zhe, accompanied by his father, and rushed to Beijing to take the imperial examination. The two brothers who successfully passed the preparatory examination this year took part in the imperial examination in the spring of the following year, and Su Shi became a scholar in one fell swoop. The imperial examination's contribution (invigilator) was the famous literary leaders Ouyang Xiu and Mei Yaochen at that time. Ouyang Xiu wholeheartedly advocated ancient Chinese prose to save the flashy and false evils of the literary world at that time. When he read Su Shi's article "The Theory of Punishment and Loyalty", he was very surprised and thought it was the work of his student Ceng Gong. He wanted to take the first place, but after a long time of consideration, he finally took the second place (later, in order to avoid favoritism) ), Su Shi's Spring and Autumn Righteousness got the first place. When palace examination (the emperor personally took the oral exam), he presented twenty-five suggestions, which was very appreciated by Emperor Injong, so he rated Su Shi as a bachelor of Hanlin. Ouyang Xiu said to people at that time: "I should avoid this person and get out of the ground. "I want to avoid him so that he can get ahead", which shows Ouyang Xiu's love at that time. Later, Su Shi and Su Zhe both worshipped Ouyang Xiu as their teachers.

Dongpo got married in his hometown before going to Beijing for the exam. Su Shi's mother, Cheng Shi, fell ill and died in April of Jiayou's second year. Su Jia Jiayou lived for four years, and the mourning period has expired. The father and son once again sailed along the Minjiang River and the Yangtze River waterway to Beijing. In the sixth year of Jiayou, Su Shi and Su Zhe took part in the system examination under the recommendation of their mentor Ouyang Xiu. This year, they held the examination of being honest and modest. Su Shi got the third grade and Su Zhe got the fourth grade respectively. The results of the department are divided into five grades. In the Song Dynasty, there was no example of taking the first and second grades, and the third grade was usually the highest score. According to legend, at that time, Renzong once said to Empress Cao Shi with great joy: "Skin is the two prime ministers of future generations. "The two people mentioned by Injong refer to Su Shi and Su Zhe. Sue's two brothers are looking forward to one day being the prime minister, and their pro-Su Xun is also delighted.

On November 19th, 6th year of Jiayou, Su Shi was appointed as the judge of Fengxiang Prefecture, that is, the assistant magistrate, equivalent to the deputy magistrate. When he went to take office, Su Zhe sent all the way to Zheng Xinmen, the outer city of Kyoto leading to the west, and reluctantly broke up with his brother to say goodbye. Later, Su Shi collected a poem "Farewell Poem" made at that time at the head of the forty volumes of Dongpo Collection, indicating that this poem was his first work.

in the spring of his second year as a judge in Fengxiang prefecture, because it didn't rain for a long time, the severe drought made people's lives difficult. Later, I was ordered by my superiors to beg for rain on Taibai Mountain. Later, it rained, so a pavilion was built in the north of Fufeng official residence. quot; Xi Yu Ting ",he also made a" Xi Yu Ting Ji "for this matter, and expressed the joy of the long drought and rain with a light style.

III. Opposing political reform

After Yingzong succeeded to the throne, Han Qi became an envoy to Shanling. On the surface, he loved Su Shi, but in fact he was a little jealous of his talent, so Su Shi was very careful in his work. In order to meet the needs of Shanling, he compiled a lot of rafts and bamboo rafts, trying to go down the Weihe River, but the water was too shallow, and the rafts stopped. He was very anxious and spent five months trying to transport them out. Later, the Xixia people invaded, and the people on the border were very scared. He ran around day and night to supply rations and food for the people, which was very hard.

Besides being tired of work, Su Shi has to deal with various relationships in the officialdom. Because the teachings of sages he had learned before were far from the political reality, he felt extremely worried as a warm-blooded young man in a new official position. In the winter of the second year of Yingzong Zhiping (AD 165), after Fengxiang's term expired, Su Shi couldn't wait to rush back to Kaifeng, the capital where his father and younger brother lived. Unexpectedly, his beloved wife died the following year (his wife, Wang Fu, was the daughter of a local tribute scholar, who was knowledgeable in books and rites, and was able to write and write poetry. She married Dongpo at the age of sixteen, and later gave birth to her son Mai Su, but unfortunately, she died at the age of twenty-seven). Less than a year later, her father died with her, and with a heavy heart, Su Shi returned to his hometown of Meishan by boat.

in the first year of Xining, Shenzong ascended the throne, and Su Shi left his hometown after serving his mourning period. In the following year, he became the supervisor's court (the official in charge of the official language book). At this time, there was a new situation in politics. In order to save the national finance facing difficulties, Shenzong appointed Wang Anshi as the prime minister and promoted the new law advocated by him. Su Shi's political thought is conservative. Although he was dissatisfied with the social situation at that time, he did not fully support Wang Anshi's reform thought. He believed that the key to the problem was not the legal system, but the official management. He hoped that the reform could be carried out in a more moderate way, and if the reform was to be carried out, it should be carried out step by step, instead of being eager for profit like Wang Anshi's reform. Therefore, he kept writing to Shenzong, presenting "On Schools and Gongju Zazi" and "On Buying Zhejiang Lamps", and then on "The Book of the Emperor" and "Wan Yan Shu", but they were not accepted by Shenzong. Su Shi thus became a member of the old legalist school who opposed Wang Anshi and other new legalists at that time, and was politically excluded. There are even people who falsely accuse Su Shi of selling illicit salt.

In the fourth year of Xining (AD 171), Su Shi, who was thirty-six years old, saw that the overall situation of the political reform had been decided, and it was useless to oppose it. Moreover, he did not want to be caught in the vortex of sectarian struggle, so he asked to transfer to Hangzhou (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province), but he felt a little sad and frustrated.

Hangzhou is a place with beautiful scenery. After finishing his official business, Su Shi went around to relieve his worries. He not only made many intimate friends here, but also wrote many poems, such as the famous Rain after Drinking Chu Qing on the Lake, Drunk Book at Wanghu Building on June 27th, etc. On the contrary, political frustration prompted Dongpo to experience a richer life as a poet, and since then he has opened up a broader literary field.

In the seventh year of Xining (AD 174), Su Shi voluntarily transferred to Mizhou (now Zhucheng County, Shandong Province), which was close to Jinan where Su Zhe worked. He also made many famous literary works in Mizhou, such as The Tale of Transcendence, Shuidiao Tou Huai Zi You in Mid-Autumn Festival, Jiangchengzi Hunting in Mizhou and so on.

Fourth, wandering

Su Shi was later transferred to Xuzhou (now Tongshan County, Jiangsu Province) and Huzhou (now Xing Wu County, Zhejiang Province). In the second year of God's reign in Yuanfeng (AD 179), in the third month when he moved to Huzhou, one day, he suddenly broke into an imperial envoy of the imperial court and was arrested in Beijing. It turned out to be a group of imperial officials who had bad blood with Su Shi. In order to please Wang Anshi, he accused him of distorting the facts in his poems and slandering the imperial court, and asked the emperor to order judicial officials to convict him. Soon, Su Shi was sent to prison, which is the famous "Wutai Poetry Case".

Su Shi did write a lot of poems to satirize the new law when he passed the sentence in Hangzhou. For example, the fourth poem of "The Five Wonders of the Mountain Village" reads: "Zhang Li wrapped his rice in a hurry, and the money passed away. Winning children's pronunciation is good, and a year and a half is better in the city. " This poem satirizes the poor implementation of the Young Crop Law. Officials forced farmers to borrow money, and then opened casinos and brothels in the local area to get the money back. But this is a poem after all, which should not constitute a crime. However, the serious political struggle around the new law has evolved into a sectarian struggle for power and profit. Su Shi's poems have offended those upstarts who have risen to the top, and it is inevitable that they will be convicted.

The interrogation of Su Shi lasted for more than 1 days. Li Ding, Su Shi's political opponents, tried every means to charge Luo Zhi with an attempt to put Su Shi to death. Their despicable behavior aroused many people's dissatisfaction.

In addition to people in Huzhou, Hangzhou and other places, monks were asked to recite scriptures to pray for Su Shi, and former Prince Shao Shi (the prince's teacher) Zhang Fangping and former official assistant minister Fan Zhen pleaded for him, so the situation eased. In addition, Shenzong originally loved his literature, and the sick Empress Cao (Shenzong's grandmother) interceded for him. In the end, Su Shi was only convicted of "ridiculing political affairs". On December 28th of that year, Emperor Shenzong sentenced him to exile in Huangzhou (now Huanggang County, Hubei Province), and Su Shi was finally saved from death.

In the third year of Yuanfeng (AD 18), Su Shi was demoted as an assistant envoy of Huangzhou Youth League Training, and just arrived in Huangzhou, where he had a hard life, no salary, and even a place to live was a problem. Later, I had to stay in Dinghuiyuan for a while and eat with monks every day. The family lived frugally with the only money left. Ma Zhengqing, an old friend, really couldn't stand it. He got dozens of acres of wasteland in the east of the city for him to farm and build houses. He sweated and worked hard on Dongpo, while his wife, Wang, was helping, and the husband and wife shared joys and sorrows.

Because Su Shi personally cultivated land in Dongpo, he had a deep affection for this place that was once full of weeds. He praised Dongpo as a rocky and hard road, and he had to walk on the bumpy road of life optimistically without avoiding dangers. He regards Dongpo as a symbol of his personality. After a year of hard work, Su Shi built a study next to Dongpo and named it "Dongpo Xuetang", hence the name "Dongpo Jushi".

After the impact of this literary inquisition, Su Shi has a lot to say in his chest. Although he has been suppressing his passion and doesn't want to write poetry again, can he suppress his passion for creation? On the one hand, he poured out his grievances and injustices in his poems, and on the other hand, he looked for indifferent and complacent joy in his daily life to keep his psychological balance. Whenever he is free, he goes around looking for a quiet place to visit and live leisurely. This period is a peak of Su Shi's literary creation.

There are two reasons. First, during these years, he studied hard, thus making new progress in his knowledge. Second, because of the "Wutai Poetry Case", he deeply realized that he had some shortcomings in being a man, so he wrote many articles related to self-cultivation, such as "Former Red Cliff Fu", which was to explore the truth of life's change and unchanging. In addition to the above-mentioned "Qian Chibi Fu", he also made works such as "Niannujiao Chibi Nostalgia" and "Hou Chibi Fu" to illustrate his broad-minded attitude towards life. At this time, Su Shi not only reached the peak in literary and artistic attainments, but also reached a very high level in the principle of being a man. Su Shi's articles are unrestrained, clear and fluent, and his poems are fresh and vigorous, making good use of exaggerated metaphors and unique in artistic expression. Words are bold and unconstrained, which has a great influence on future generations. He is good at running script and regular script, and he can create new ideas by learning from Li Yi, Xu Hao, Yan Zhenqing and Yang Ningshi, which makes him naive.

In the seventh year of Yuanfeng, Shenzong ordered Su Shi to leave Huangzhou, and was appointed as the assistant of Yong ying in Ruzhou (now runan county, Henan). When passing by Jinling (now Nanjing), I met Wang Anshi, the political enemy of that year, and they had a very speculative talk. At this time, Dongpo was still rude to Wang Anshi, and kindly accused Wang Anshi of not fighting in the West for years and causing a big prison in the southeast, which violated the kind style of his ancestors. By this time, Wang Anshi had gone through many vicissitudes of life, and his mind was much broader. Instead of being surprised, he said to others, "I really don't know that it will be another hundred years before a figure like Dongpo will appear!"

Five, political affairs were difficult

In the seventh year of Yuanfeng, when Su Shi was forty-nine, Song Shenzong restored his reputation, and he was appointed as the governor of Dengzhou (now Penglai County, Shandong Province), only for more than ten days, and he was called by the court to be the doctor of the Ministry of Rites. In the twelfth month of this year, he was transferred back to Kaifeng, Kyoto, and served as a living person. In March of the eighth year of Yuanfeng (AD 185), Shenzong, who vigorously promoted the new law, died after 19 years in office. Zhezong, who was only ten years old, acceded to the throne, and the Empress Dowager lowered the curtain and vigorously promoted the old school figures. Dongpo was called back to the DPRK, and the Empress Dowager ordered him to sit and give tea, and then sprinkled a golden lotus candlestick to send him back to the hospital. As the queen mother abolished the new law, the political situation began to reverse, and the ministers of the new law school who were the center of political power were excluded. Sima Guang and other former dignitaries were able to regain power. Later historians called it "Yuan Ku Geng Hua", and the old legalists continued to be in power.

In the second year, Su Shi was promoted to the position of a Chinese calligrapher, a bachelor of Hanlin, a master of Mandarin, and a part-time assistant reader. Less than a year after Su Shi left Beijing, he was promoted to the rank of official three times, but now Su Shi has no interest in being an official. After he came to Beijing, Su Shi found that some of the New Deal, which had been implemented for more than ten years, had achieved considerable results. After Sima Guang came to power, it was completely abolished indiscriminately. He was a little dissatisfied. Dongpo was originally one of the masters who opposed the New Deal, but his words, deeds and opinions were not about people. Now he and Wang Anshi have a further friendship and a certain understanding of the New Deal, and his attitude has naturally changed. He thinks that the "exemption law" in the New Deal is particularly outstanding, which is beneficial to the present and the future. He urged Sima Guang to adopt it, but Sima Guang resolutely refused. In this way, conservatives will say that he is Wang Anshi's new school. However, the new school did not regard him as one of their own, so Dongpo became a figure in the cracks, and neither side was flattering. <