However, Su Dongpo has a cousin, who is his first lover, and she will never forget her. After grandpa Dongpo died, my father came back from a long journey, and so did my uncle's family. At this time, cousins have a good chance to meet and play together. According to Su Dongpo, Iraqis are "filial and gentle". Because of the same surname, natural marriage is hopeless. If they were my grandmother's cousin, there would be no such difficulty. Later, this cousin married a young man named Liu Zhongyuan. Later, Su Dongpo stayed in her home in Jingjiang for three months while traveling. Dongpo wrote two poems to my cousin when she was at her home. Those two poems are quite difficult to understand, but it is only meaningful to read them as love poems for my cousin. Other contemporary writers and people who have studied Su Dongpo's life have never mentioned their special relationship, because no one wants to mention it. However, when Su Dongpo was exiled in his later years, he heard the news of his cousin's death and wrote to his son that his heart ached. When he returned from exile and passed through Jingjiang, his cousin's grave was in Jingjiang. At this time, although he was seriously ill, he struggled to pay homage to his cousin and her husband. The next day, a friend went to see him and found him lying in bed, facing the inner wall, convulsing and crying.

-"Su Dongpo Biography" Chapter III "Childhood and Teenagers"

The above passage was written by Lin Yutang. His works are written in English and translated into Su Dongpo's biography in Chinese. In fact, his English name "The Gay Genius" can be pronounced as "Happy Genius" or "Gay Genius" by British and Americans. In the first half of the twentieth century, homosexuality was still a sensitive issue in the United States. Just this title, we have to admire Lin Yutang's business vision. This biography is widely circulated in Britain and America. Lin Yutang introduced Su Dongpo's life story, personality and thoughts to the western world with touching brushstrokes, which contributed greatly to the spread, but many historical materials and viewpoints in the book are wrong, and the list in the book is one example.

Lin Yutang said that Su Shi had a crush on his cousin all his life. The main reason is: "When Su Dongpo was exiled in his later years, he heard the news of his cousin's death and wrote to his son saying,' My heart aches.' "This passage, indeed from a letter written by Su Shi:

Recently, I received a letter from Liu Zhongyuan, reporting that my sister had something (funeral) in Dingzhou on April 19 of the second year, and Liu Jian (now) signed it (in Dingzhou). When I heard this from a distance, my feelings were separated and I reported it casually.

-"With Cheng Zhicai" Sixty-fifth Jane

Lin Yutang made a mistake from the beginning. Dongpo's news of Cheng Zhicai's cousin's death was not "writing to his son" at all. Cheng Zhicai is Dongpo's cousin, the nephew of his mother, Mrs. Cheng, and the husband of Su Shi's sister Ba Niang. Ba Niang died in the fourth year of Emperor Yangdi (1052) because she couldn't stand the abuse of her aunt (Cheng Zhicai's parents). To this end, Su Xun once wrote a poem "Self-love", which hurt the Cheng family and his son, and Su Cheng's two families were cut off from now on. It was not until forty-two years later that Dongpo was demoted to Lingnan and Cheng Zhicai was sentenced to Guangdong, and the two talents were restored as before. The so-called "heartache" is the translator's fault, and the original text is "emotional separation". Dongpo later wrote "Dehua County Sacrifice to the Dead Sister Wen Jun" (Dehua County Jun is the title of his dead sister, because her husband Liu Zhongyuan's official position is similar to that of the county magistrate), which said:

There are six people in ten, the grandson of a husband. Chekuo lives and dies, leaving only four people.

"Gongfu" is the abbreviation of Dongpo's grandfather Su Xu's title. In the sixth year of Yuan You, when Su Zhe was appointed as Shangshu Youcheng (that is, Deputy Prime Minister), Su Xu was posthumously named Prince Taifu, so he was honored as "Gongfu". When Su Shi heard the news of his cousin's death, he thought of sixteen cousins, twelve of whom had died, leaving only himself and his younger brother Su Zhe. It is natural to be "separated".

Dongpo's letter to Cheng Zhicai was written in July and August in the second year of Shao Sheng (1095), that is, three or four months after my cousin's death. He wants to talk to Cheng Zhicai about this matter because Cheng Zhicai should also know this fellow cousin. In order to understand my cousin Su Shi's situation, so as to avoid ambiguity, it is necessary to make a brief list of the three generations of Su family members according to Su Xun's Su Shi Genealogy and relevant articles by Su Shi and Su Zhe:

In A.D. 1, Su Shi's grandfather Su Xu, his great uncle Su Lian and his children's second uncle Su Xun, his children's father Su Xun and his wife's children's cousin Su Shi's general travel times.

973 su

994 22-year-old Su Liansheng

1 10 1 Su Huansheng, 29 years old

1109 Su Xunsheng, 37 years old

1 1 10 Mrs. Cheng

1 1 14 42-year-old Su Lian 2 1 year-old eldest son Su Suhuan 14-year-old Su Xun Su Wei is the first of sixteen brothers and sisters.

1024 52 years old, 3 1 year old, the second son Su Shudang was born before Su Xun was 24 years old, he 15 years old, and Su Wei is the second to sixteenth siblings.

Su Buqiang, the eldest son, was born before Su Buqiang and was the third of sixteen brothers and sisters.

1027 is 55 years old, 34 years old and 27 years old. The second son Su Bu was born here. 19 years old married Mrs. Cheng. Su Bu is undoubtedly the fourth of sixteen brothers and sisters.

1028, a 56-year-old girl aged 35, 28 and 20, died soon and was one of 16 brothers and sisters.

A girl was born here. This girl is six of sixteen brothers and sisters.

1030 58 years old, 37 years old, 30 years old, 22 years old, the second girl, died shortly. This girl is the seventh of sixteen brothers and sisters.

1032 60 years old, his wife Shi died at the age of 39 and 32 respectively, and his eldest daughter was 24 years old. This girl is eight of sixteen brothers and sisters.

1034 62 years old 4 1 34 years old 26 years old, Mr. Jing, the eldest son, and Su Jingxian died as the ninth of sixteen brothers and sisters.

The third son, Su Buwei, was born before Su Buwei became the tenth of sixteen brothers and sisters.

At the age of 27, when she was born, Ba Niang was the eleventh of sixteen brothers and sisters.

Secondly, before her death, this woman was twelve of sixteen brothers and sisters.

1037 65 years old, 43 years old, died at the age of 37 and 29 respectively, and the second son Su became the thirteenth of the sixteen brothers and sisters in that year.

The third daughter was born at this time. This woman is fourteen of sixteen brothers and sisters.

1039 67 years old 39 years old 3/kloc-0 years old, the third son Su Zhe was born, so Su Zhe became the fifteenth of sixteen brothers and sisters.

His youngest daughter, Party Army and Dehua County, was born at this time. This daughter is sixteen of sixteen brothers and sisters.

1048 75 years old, died at the age of 48 and 40.

1062 62 years old, died at the age of 54.

1066 58 years old, died.

As can be seen from the above table, Su Shi's cousin "Dehua County Jun" is the youngest of his cousins. Her death made Su Shi feel that life was impermanent, so her feelings were separated. It is really puzzling that Lin Yutang should assume that this cousin is Su Shi's so-called "first lover" from this sentence.

Then, why did Su Shi call this cousin "Xiao Ernian" in his letter to Cheng Zhicai? If sorted by Su's brother and sister, she should be called "Sixteen Niang"; According to the arrangement of women, it should be called "Ba Niang". But Su Shi's third sister ranks fifth among women, but she is called "Eight Mothers". Obviously, the name Sue home girl is to sort all the children born to Su Xun's cousins together. Since the younger sister next to Su Shi is called Ba Niang, and this cousin has her own younger sister on it, her ranking should be outside of "Du Shiniang".

It is worth noting that most of Su Shi's letters were not edited by himself. After the Southern Song Dynasty, people widely collected his letters, compiled them into Dongpo's Notes, and then included them in the anthology. Judging from the fact that Su Shi's sister's name is "Ba Niang", this cousin should be "Twelve Niangs", and the words "Ten" and "Xiao" are easily mistaken in the running script.

For the convenience of writing, we will call Su Shi's cousin "Twelve Niangs" for the time being.

Because "Twelve Niangs" and "Little Ernian" were confused, Lin Yutang confused Dongpo's cousin with another "Little Ernian". In another letter in his later years, Dongpo did mention a "little Ernian":

Xiao Ernian knows that it is not easy to hold clothes. She is safe. Bowen and his party are all in good health. De Weng Weng's February book and Xu Zhou's March acquaintance book all say that one house is safe. I also got a nine-lang book, and the number of words in the book has increased greatly. Today in Taiping, I have to go to Jinshan Temple in Runzhou, but there is no reason to go to Changzhou to see it for two years. Do something and come early in the morning. Self-love.

-The third of three songs with Hu Lang Renxiu

This letter was written in April of the year of Jian Zhong Jing (A.D.11kloc-0/). The "Weng Weng" in the letter refers to Su Zhe, and the "Bo Weng" is Dongpo's self-proclaimed. Song people called their grandfathers "Weng Weng", but for the younger generation, the word "filial piety" was often added before addressing them, for example. Su Shi was 66 years old at that time, and his grandchildren began to get married one after another. It can be seen that Hu Renxiu is Su Zhe's granddaughter or granddaughter. The "little Ernian" mentioned in Dongpo's letter is undoubtedly the second granddaughter or granddaughter of the third generation of Su family.

So we can understand why Lin Yutang repeatedly said "passing through Jingjiang" and "my cousin's grave is in Jingjiang". That's because Jingjiang belongs to one of the five counties under the jurisdiction of Changzhou. When Lin Yutang saw that this letter was about "Xiaoernian" in Changzhou, he confused the two "Xiaoernian" and used the heart of a scholar when there were no rules in the 20th century.

Some people say that "Jingjiang" here is a mistake of "Zhenjiang" and can't stand scrutiny. Because Zhenjiang was called Runzhou in the Northern Song Dynasty, even the seat of state administration was called Jingkou. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was indeed the post of Zhenjiang Our Commissioner, but the place where our Commissioner was stationed was Yangzhou. It was not until the third year of Song Huizong's reign (1 1 13) that Ding Chou was declared "our time in Zhenjiang" by the imperial court.

Lin Yutang said that Twelve Niangs was Su Shi's first lover. Apart from the attachment between the two "little Erniang", another basis is that Su Shi lived in Runzhou for three months. Lin Yutang said: Later, this cousin married a young man named Liu Zhongyuan. Later, Su Dongpo stayed in her home in Jingjiang for three months while traveling.

-"The Biography of Su Dongpo" Chapter 11 "Poets, Famous Prostitutes and Eminent Monks"

The so-called "Su Dongpo stayed in Jingjiang for three months while traveling" is another obvious mistake. In the seventh year of Xining (1074), 39-year-old Su Shi did stay in Runzhou for more than three months, but he was not traveling, but was ordered by the imperial court to transport grain in Suzhou, Changzhou, Runzhou and Xiuzhou, and Runzhou was one of the places where he transported grain. As an official of the imperial court, food relief has its own official post station to live in, so it is really meaningful to make this trip a tour and stay at the home of "Twelve Niangs".

"Twelve Niang" did marry, named, but Su Shi didn't know that he was the first, but his father, Liu. In the spring of the third year of Xining (1070), Liu only visited Su Shi and Su Zhe in Bianjing, and the three of them wrote poems. In Su Zhe's poems, he once said that "the New Year is like knowing the beginning of the monarch" ("See Liu Ziyu in Beijing"). That year, Su Shi was 35 years old and Su Zhe was 32 years old. In the fifth year of Xining (1070), Su Shi went to work in Hangzhou and went to see Su Zhe via Chen Zhou. It happened that Liu Ziyu was demoted to Shouchun official, claiming to abstain from drinking on board and went to see the Su Shi brothers. The three of them sang together again. Since then, Liu Ziyu once asked Su Zhe to go to Gongcheng, Hebei Province (now Huixian County, Henan Province) to buy land for seclusion. Su Zhe accepted his invitation with pleasure. In the summer and autumn of Xining six years, Liu Ziyu was ordered to promote the concept of immortals in Zhou Shu, that is, to give him a sinecure. He stayed in Hangzhou with Su Shi for half a year. In the tenth year of Xining (1077), Liu Ziyu died, and Su Shi wrote an article to pay homage, saying:

Yi, South China Show. Very sensitive and gentle, I have heard her voice since I was a child.

The yuan is pale and white, and the suburban island is thin. It's a relief, many works are very inconspicuous.

He was exiled to a poor mountain area and turned into a monkey. The night is not flocculent, and the morning is absolutely distilled.

I am grateful to go home and abandon my tassel. At the foot of the buried hill, the past is behind God.

I am in Qiantang, Ran Hui. I have been drinking every day since I was half a year old.

Swim to Nanping, the vulture in the dusk. Sitting in the snow window hungry, playing intermittently.

Well, I am the only friend of the robbers. If you have a son, you will be the eldest son.

When I was the second grandson, I called my uncle. Song this poem, a bottle of dying.

It can be seen that Su Shi and Liu Ziyu are both friends of poetry. They met many times before, especially in Hangzhou, and drank wine for half a year. When Su Shi went to Runzhou on business, Liu Ziyu made a special trip home to wait for him. When Su Shi arrived, he took him to visit Helin, Zhao Yin and Jinshan Temple in Runzhou and sang with another old man. There are poems such as "Family Banquet, See Postscript and Postscript, Reply" and "Two Letters from Liu Er's Nephew", which can prove that Su Shi visited "Twelve Niangs" and their nephews in the Liu family. From then on, Lin Yutang let go of his imagination and insisted that Su Shi had lived in Jingjiang for three months, which was obviously nonsense.

At this point, we must calculate the age of "Twelve Niangs". According to Lin Yutang's record: "After Dongpo's grandfather died, his father returned from a long trip, and his uncle and family also came back to offer condolences. At this time, cousins have a good chance to meet and play together. " When his grandfather died, Su Shi was only twelve years old and Su Zhe was only nine years old. Since we can become each other's "first lovers", let's just count "Twelve Niangs" as eight years old at that time (it can't be any younger, and if "Twelve Niangs" was less than seven years old at that time, Su Shi's so-called "love" with her is even more unfounded). Then, according to the example of a woman who got married at the age of sixteen in the Song Dynasty, when "Twelve Niangs" married Liu Ziwen, it should be eight years later, and Su Shi was twenty years old. In the seventh year of Xining, Su Shi was thirty-nine, and the "Twelve Niangs" should be around thirty-five. Both children should be teenagers and both are studying. If Su Shi and "Twelve Niangs" were "first lovers", why didn't Lin Yutang find a so-called "love poem" written by Su Shi to "Twelve Niangs" in the previous 19 years?

Let's look at Lin's third evidence, which is also the main basis for his speculation about "first love":

Dongpo wrote two poems to my cousin when she was at her home. Those two poems are quite difficult to understand, but it is only meaningful to read them as love poems for my cousin.

-"The Biography of Su Dongpo" Chapter 11 "Poets, Famous Prostitutes and Eminent Monks"

Lin Yutang's first "love poem" contains only two sentences:

Tired of chasing the new reward of youth, I know the old fragrance of palace flowers.

Lin Yutang made a big fuss about the "palace flower" and said, "He didn't sit in the right palace flower at that time because he was not in the palace. When he said he was tired of being young, he was obviously describing himself; As usual,' flower' is a symbol of women, and' old fragrance' may refer to an old love. " Well, the "Twelve Niangs" that has nothing to do with the palace turned out to be the embodiment of the "Palace Flower".

In fact, both of Su Shi's poems are from Diao Jingchun's Appreciation of Daphne odora. Remember the first ceremony and the second rhyme. Daphne odora in Phnom Penh, also known as "Purple Penglai", is a rare flower originating from Lushan Mountain. It was not discovered until the heyday of Song Renzong (1023- 1030). As an auspicious thing, it was transplanted into the palace, and the ministers of the DPRK and China wrote poems in praise, such as "the golden plate melts early and the spring melts, and the curtains are fresh." Li Gou, a poet of the same age as Su Xun, once wrote: "I heard that the fairy flowers and jade are dyed red, so don't leave spring scenery in the pot. If Yaotai sees Fei Qiong's face, it will not be the same as the dream on earth ("Flowers with Ching Tien Guanrui"). Diao Jingchun worked as a captain in Renzong Dynasty and had the opportunity to attend a banquet and see Daphne in the palace. That's why he showed Su Shi the poem "Appreciating Daphne Flowers and Remembering the Banquet in the Early Dynasty". In Su Shi's chorus, the meaning of "palace flowers" is self-evident. The first four sentences of Su Shi's poem are as follows:

I went to the garden to do my own thing, and Liu Lang returned to Fang several times.

Tired of chasing the new reward of youth, I know the old fragrance of palace flowers.

"Going to the Garden" is the forbidden garden, which is the birthplace of "Palace Flower". The word "Liulang" refers to that after Diao Jingchun left the imperial court, the old man was driven out, and the word "tired of pursuing new returns from the youth" not only describes that Diao's old man loves Daphne, but also praises him for not being in tune with the new reformists. In addition, it is Su Shi's original intention to be frustrated politically and express his loneliness. Lin Yutang's so-called "symbol of women" is purely speculation and then misinterpreted.

Look at Lin's second poem:

Shame should be a negative flowering period, which is already the result of cloudy days.

I am indifferent to things and pity my old age. I have no hatred for Lai Jun's poems.

There is no wine on the jade platform, and the golden thread is still ringing.

Since then, I have met every year, and I want to ask Fan Chi, my former nursery.

The title of this poem is "When the Hangzhou Peony blooms, the servant is still in Hengrun, Zhou Ling writes a poem to read it, follow its rhyme and send it away", which means that when the peony blooms last year, Su Shi went to enjoy it with the prefect Sean and Qiantang county magistrate Zhou Yi. This year, he was in the middle of Changzhou-Runzhou Road, and Zhou Fu sent poems. Therefore, he wrote two poems, one for Zhou Fu and the other for Sean, the magistrate.

In the previous "Chaoyun", we have explained in detail the poems in Su Shi's "There is Qiantang River on Changrun Road, Five Ancient Poems", such as "When the flowers bloom, the backyard is still empty, and the strange birds have not returned to the Huatang" and "Fish and birds meet each other in two years, and Yinger pays the public in March". In Su Shi's poem above, "shame should bear the flowering period, but it has become a cloudy fruit" is still ridiculed by Du Mu's "green leaves become cloudy branches". Lin Yutang probably has a crush on his cousin. Seeing this kind of poem, he said that the first sentence of the poet was regretting "missing his cousin's youth" and the second sentence was "clearly saying that her child had gone on a trip". As for the following "the fifth and sixth sentences clearly show that he is sorry for the late proposal", it is even more nonsense. Lin said in front that "because they share the same surname, there is no hope of getting married naturally", but here he said "I am sorry for the late proposal", which is obviously a slap in the face. And "Su Dongpo wrote a poem at this moment, expressing his willingness to settle in Changzhou, not far from his cousin's house. He did buy a house and a field in Changzhou as planned, and later he died in Changzhou. In this case, it is even less worth refuting. As we all know, Su Shi wants to buy land in Changzhou. First, when he was a scholar in his early years, he was tempted by Jiang, a native of Yixing, at the banquet in Qionglin. Second, he found during his trip that "the soil at the foot of Huiquan Mountain is like water, and the rice in the head of Yangxian County wins the pearl", that is, the land is fertile and the scenery is beautiful; Third, because Changzhou people are very friendly, Su Shi has many friends there ... Let's just continue to reason according to Lin Yutang's reasoning method. Since Su Shi's "first love" is in Runzhou, why doesn't Su Shi buy land in Runzhou? Even if he buys land in Changzhou, he should buy land in Danyang and Wujin, which are adjacent to Runzhou. Why did Dongpo put the land in Yixing, the southernmost tip of Changzhou? Isn't that far away?

Lin Yutang also has the so-called evidence that Su Shi often writes and travels with his cousin's father-in-law, Liu Jin, but he never mentioned his cousin's husband's name or wrote him a poem. This shows that he hasn't made any investigation on Liu Ziwen, the husband of Twelve Niangs. Liu Ziwen's poem "The Second Rhyme Appears in Tibet in the Same Year" shows that he is similar to Zhang as a scholar in Xining for six years. That is to say, when Su Shi went to Runzhou on business, Liu Ziwen had just been admitted to Jinshi and was waiting for an official position in North Korea, but he was not at home at that time. Fortunately, Lin didn't find this information, otherwise, according to his psychology and way of doing things, Su Shi would have to stay in the Liu family for three months while his brother-in-law was away!

In the biography of Su Dongpo, Lin Yutang exaggerated Su Shi's secret love for his cousin in three chapters. In addition to the above two paragraphs, in Chapter 28 "The End", he describes Dongpo's return from Hainan to Runzhou and Changzhou, and there is the following paragraph:

His cousin's grave is in Jingjiang (due to Zhenjiang's mistake), and her son Liu Hong is in the city now. On June 12, although he was weak, he took his three sons and a nephew to the graves of his cousin and her husband to offer sacrifices. He wrote a second eulogy for the dead. Maybe I wrote one for my cousin and one for my cousin's husband. I'm not sure about the content. The first ode to Liu Zhongyuan first mentioned his wife's cousin, and then said, "I am from the Central Plains, and my filial friends are respectful and enthusiastic." ……

Lin once again made something out of nothing, saying that Dongpo "took three sons and a nephew to the graves of his cousin and her husband, although he was weak and sick." First, Dongpo returned to Runzhou from Hainan, and only his youngest son, Su Guo, was with him. Mai Su, the eldest son, and Su Xun, the second son, were both officials, but neither of them returned to Dongpo. Secondly, these two eulogies show that it was Liu Hong who came to cry to his uncle and asked for some words of condolences. Dongpo is too ill to go to his cousin's grave.

Dongpo returned from Hainan to the east of Jiujiang. At the beginning of June, he was recuperating in Zhou Zhen (now Yizheng, Jiangsu) due to illness. When he met Mi Fei, he was "poisoned" and even in a coma (see Su Shi's Begging for an Official Table). He knew that an accident could happen at any time, so he wrote to his brother and entrusted the affairs. After crossing the river by boat, he was caught by Wang Yi, the secretariat of Runzhou. "I can't see him in Jingkou, go down from the governor." As he is weak, ordinary guests can't see him yet. How could he "die in front of the graves of his cousin and her husband?" At this time, my nephew Liu Hong came all the way to see him, complaining that after his mother died, his father and brother died one after another, and handed him a Shurangama Sutra for his uncle to write some inscriptions. When Dongpo was in Lingnan, he only knew that his cousin "Twelve Niangs" had passed away, and wrote Wen Jun in Dehua County for her. When I was sick, I was shocked to hear that my brother-in-law and a nephew had died one after another, and I couldn't help but feel great sadness. So I wrote two "Tributes" to pay homage to my brother-in-law and cousin respectively, in which "one sea is full of sorrow, destroying the chest and liver, and" if the day is successful, there will be news in politics ",which is my sincere admiration for my brother-in-law. In the face of Liu Hong's "painful complaint", Dongpo tried his best to comfort him: "The dead are gone, so what about the living? "Be careful not to be destroyed, so all your doors will be closed!" When Liu Hong talked about being an old uncle, Dongpo sighed, "I am poor and old. What are the benefits of being an uncle?" ? On the side of its tomb, it can be used for ten thousand rooms. "The' complaining about the pain in the distance' here clearly means that Liu Hong came to see Dongpo in a posthouse far away from the funeral, and' changing the grave side' means that his nephew can take back his two tributes and carve the stone again;" Ten thousand rooms can be set up "is to persuade Liu Hong to build a Buddhist shrine next to his parents' cemetery. There are four clouds in the wonderful lotus sutra: "Five thousand columns and rafters, countless buildings and rafters, which are thought to be strictly decorated". Lu Wengui, a poet in the Song Dynasty, said in his poem "Holding a Thousand Houses with Gold": "All the mourners are called filial piety, and ten thousand houses are buried every year."

It is worth noting that during the above-mentioned period of time, only on May 29th, he wrote a letter in Zhou Zhen, and on June14th, he wrote a letter to Bird, the son of Zhang Dun, in Runzhou. The statement about "June 12th" in Lin's biography is all a novelist's inference.

Lin Yutang ignored the key words in Su Shi's two eulogies and invented the plot of sacrificing his cousin when Dongpo was ill. Below, he also rendered with ulterior motives:

The next day, the guests went to see him and found him lying on his side, choking and convulsing, so that he could not get up to receive them. Among the visiting guests was the son of the late Prime Minister Su Song, who thought that Su Dongpo was crying for his dead father. Su Song died at the age of 82. Although Su Songjia and Su Dongpo share the same surname, they are not from the same province. Su Dongpo and Su Song have known each other for 30 or 40 years, but it is hard to believe that he would be so sad when he heard that his old friend died. Moreover, the day before, when Su Dongpo heard of his death, he didn't go to visit the grave in person, but only sent his eldest son, Mai Su. The reason for his sadness, I believe, must be seen from the above eulogy.

In order to illustrate Dongpo's deep affection for the so-called "first lover", Lin Yutang did not hesitate to belittle the friendship between Dongpo and Su Song. Lam only knew that "although the Su Song family shared the same surname as Su Dongpo, they were not from the same province", but they did not know that they were all descendants of Su Wu, a famous minister in the Han Dynasty, and were once friends in the same prison. In the second year of Yuanfeng (1079), Su Shi was imprisoned in imperial prison for Wutai Poetry, and Su Song was imprisoned next door to Chen Shiru for his wife's forced murder of their common mother. Su Song heard the harsh words of Taiwan Province officials when they tried Su Shi, and wrote this poem:

The flying language began to soar and touched the exquisite words.

The diplomatic structure between the Court and China has become more diversified.

The outline of autumn is very dense,

Why is the waste straight divided by the beam vector?

The jailer burned the elders,

Who knows the old general?

Remote pity is better than Hu Wu's longevity,

I can't stand smelling humiliation all night.

I am a descendant of the same origin, and I am ignorant of the public.

A fallacy called husband line should be attributed to an old secretary.

The article is high and sincere, but it is difficult to compete.

Don't sigh for the number of poems, the sacred dynasty will eventually praise Hua Xun!

-Su Song's Fourteen Poems of Yuan Feng's Unfinished East Pavilion in the Third Hospital, the fifth and thirteenth poems.

Translators of Su Dongpo's biography praised the book as "textual research, righteousness and lyricism, which Mr. Lin Yutang has achieved, and so must those who write biographical literature" (see the translator's preface), which can only fool those who have little knowledge of Su Dongpo. In Chapter 14 "Arrest and Trial" of Su Dongpo's Biography, Lin Yutang turned a deaf ear to the mutual appreciation and sincere friendship between Su Song and Dongpo. On the other hand, he questioned Dongpo that "it is hard to believe that it would be so sad to hear the death of an old friend", which shows that his understanding of Su Shi is only superficial.

It must be affirmed that Lin Yutang, as an important writer in modern literary world, has his own position in the history of modern literature in China. Later, he lived in the United States, and he also made great contributions to introducing China's traditional culture and cultural celebrities to the western world. The author has no intention of completely denying him here.

At the same time, it should be pointed out that Lin Yutang is not an expert on Soviet studies. We have no reason to ask his Biography of Su Dongpo to be as rigorous and informative as Kong's Chronicle of Su Shi and Chronicle of Su San. However, biographies are different from novels, and novelists can arbitrarily drive Su Shi to be their own body body double with the wings of imagination to realize their long-cherished wish. Biography must respect historical facts and cannot be based on no evidence.

A careful study of Lin Yutang's life reveals that he secretly loved a niece's daughter since childhood. Lai Boying is his autobiographical novel, in which the boy Silla is himself. The girl with the alias "Lai Boying" was pregnant for Silla. Although Lin Yutang's daughter, Lin Taiyi, strongly denied this disgraceful thing, Lin Yutang himself made it very clear in "Autobiography of Eighty": "Lai Boying is my first girlfriend!" After this relationship ended, he fell in love with his classmate's sister, Chen Xiang, and their relationship ended without results. Finally, I married Liao Cuifeng, the daughter of Liao Yuefa, a wealthy businessman in Xiamen and the boss of Yufeng Bank. Later, Chen married someone else and they often met. Until his later years, he was still muttering that he had come back from other places: "I have been living in a friend's house because I love my friend's sister." Even Lin Yutang's daughter Lin Taiyi has to admit that "my father's love for Chen has never been extinguished ... Jin Rui will always occupy a place where no one can touch his father's deepest heart".

It goes without saying that the so-called saying that Su Shi secretly loves his cousin all his life is that Lin Yutang tied his two knots together and tied them to Su Shi. His serious poetry analysis and Dongpo's so-called scene description in his later years have long been divorced from the realistic technique of biographical literature and entered the fictional state of the novel. He pinned his lonely feelings on the help of the Lord. This is not only a complete breakthrough, but also the biggest failure in Su Dongpo's biography.

The fallacy confuses the audience and must be clarified. If it is allowed to spread, not only will Mr. Dongpo continue to be misunderstood by the world, but I am afraid that Lin Yutang will still be restless in another world. I am also deeply worried that Mr. Dongpo will catch him and tease and criticize him.