Su Shi should not be taken lightly. To understand a person, you must first understand what the person has experienced. Inferring Su Shi's character and quality through his life experiences is a good way to analyze historical figures.
Su Shi’s life was quite legendary, let’s talk about it step by step. When Su Shi was 20 years old, he took part in the imperial examination with his younger brother. He won the attention of the examiner Ouyang Xiu with his article "On the Perfection of Honesty in Punishments and Rewards" and passed the imperial examination with the second place (should have been the first). This proved that he The extraordinary young man and outstanding literary talent paved the way for his tortuous political career in the future.
Before what is known as "Wang Anshi's Reform" in history, Su Shi's life was smooth sailing and he was well-known in Kyoto. He was talented and upright, and he also liked to delve into food (the so-called "Dongpo Pork" was his Later, when he was demoted, he liked to drink tea and make friends with literati. If at this time he would talk less about political affairs and be an honest and responsible talented man and beautiful woman, then maybe his life would be better. It's relatively smooth, but maybe his life will be less legendary this way.
His character is straightforward and honest, and he will not hide his thoughts. Wang Anshigui was the prime minister at the time. Su Shi also dared to oppose the reform activities he proposed, which shows that he is a person who is not afraid of anything. A powerful person, a man of character who insists on his own independent opinions.
Wang Anshi's righteous request for reform was not only because he received Song Shenzong's permission, but also because there were already many supporters of the New Deal in the court at that time. Since Su Dongpo opposed the reform activities, he stood on the opposite side of these New Deal supporters, and his isolation became a fact. At this time, he had been forced to ask for a foreign post outside the capital, and Song Shenzong also Because of his love for talents, after several trade-offs, he was transferred to Hangzhou as a general judge. Later, he was also in charge of Xuzhou and Mizhou.
It is worth mentioning that while in Xuzhou, the Yellow River burst its banks and people were trapped. Su Shi hurriedly mobilized the imperial troops from the Wuwei camp and called on them to fight the flood together with the people. He also wrote to the court requesting that the bank protection be strengthened to prevent recurrence of floods. It can be seen from this that he is a wise man who cares about the country and the people, and a magnanimous person who can turn the tide from collapse.
These are not the important points. The biggest turning point in his life was the Wutai Poetry Case. At this time, he was forty-three years old. It can be said that he was in the darkest time of his life. He was almost beheaded. He was demoted again and again after escaping execution. Just as he ridiculed himself in the article "Portrait of Jinshan": "Ask you about your achievements in life, Huangzhou, Huizhou and Danzhou", he was demoted again and again, and the further he was demoted, the further he went. . As a person who has had great ambitions since he was a child and wants to contribute to the country, this is basically the end of his political career, and it is also the ruin of Su Shi's ideals in life.
But what is unexpected is that Su Shi is not as pessimistic as people think, and can even be said to be overly optimistic. Many of his famous lines were written while he was being demoted, such as "Who is afraid?" Let the misty rain fall into the sky for a lifetime, and the heroic and free feeling arises spontaneously.
When he was demoted to Huizhou, he did not forget to enjoy the lychees from Lingnan, and wrote "Huizhou's Unique", writing "If you eat 300 lychees a day, you might as well become a Lingnan person". , people were relegated from the north to the remote Lingnan area because they were not accustomed to the climate and could not eat. For example, after Bai Juyi arrived in Jiangxi, he said in the article "Pipa Xing": There is no music in Xunyang in a remote place, and the sound of silk and bamboo is not heard all year round. I live near the Huanjiang River, where the land is low and humid, and yellow reeds and bitter bamboos grow around my house. What did you hear during the day and night? The cuckoo cries and the blood ape moans. ?
It’s good that Su Shi still wanted to live in Lingnan and eat lychees. There are few literati in history who can compare with this kind of broad-mindedness and humor, but I’m afraid there are only a few. There is no doubt that Su Shi's spirit of romanticism and optimism were indispensable and important qualities that constituted his legendary life.