苏东坡｜Su Dongpo

苏轼（字子瞻，号东坡居士）Why is life so unhappy, just because you've never read Su DongpoNine centuries have passed, yet Su Dongpo remains the soul ferryman for countless Chinese peopleWhen life presses down on you till you can't breathe, open this biography of Su Dongpo, you'll find there's no predicament you can't escape, only a heart that refuses to healIn the year 1037, Su Shi was born in Meishan, SichuanHis father Su Xun didn't start serious studying until the age of twenty sevenHis mother Cheng Shi taught him the Book of Later Han herselfAt ten years old, he read the story of Fan Pang's death for righteousnessHe looked up and asked his mother, if I became like Pang, would you consent to thatThe seed of serving the world was planted at age tenAt twenty one, he and his brother Su Che passed the imperial examination togetherThe chief examiner Ouyang Xiu read his paper and exclaimed, this old man must step aside, to give this person room to rise above othersThe idiom to rise above others originated from this very momentBut fate never follows a scriptWhen Su Shi first entered official service, he encountered Wang Anshi's reformHe cared deeply for the common people, he couldn't help speaking out directlyThis angered the new party, several times he barely survivedAt forty five, the Crow Terrace Poetry Case explodedHe was imprisoned for one hundred and three daysOnce friends covered the empire, yet with one fall, few came to inquireBarely surviving, what awaited him was an imperial edict, exiled to HuangzhouHuangzhou was an isolated small town, his post there was merely a title in name onlySu Shi's heart was at a loss, full of confusionUntil one rainy day, he heard distant temples playing peaceful zen soundsSuddenly he seemed to understand something, no contending, no grasping, self contentmentFrom then on, he shed his scholar's robe, wore coarse cloth clothes, and worked the fields like a farmerWith no side dishes, he slaughtered his sick ox, ate beef while drinking fine wineDrunk with joy, he even placed a large watermelon on his head, walking and singing along the furrowsImagine that scene, a once world famous literary giant, wobbling with a watermelon on his head, humming a tuneWhen the sun shone bright, he rowed at Red Cliff, in misty rain he smiled at wind and rain, and wrote: "No more rain, no more wind, no more blinding sun"It was here that Su Zizhan became Su DongpoThis Dongpo was not granted by the court, but grew from the earth by his own handsSpeaking of talent, before Su Shi, ci poetry was popular songs sung by banquet entertainers, scholars thought it beneath themYet Su Shi waved his brush and unleashed the great river flowing east, making ci grand like rivers and seasWhen will the moon arise, making ci philosophical as the bright moonTen years apart, the living barely know the dead, making ci profound as the oceanHe alone elevated ci poetry to equal standing with poetryHe could also turn the most ordinary days into verse, mugwort filling the fields, short reed shoots, it is the season for river pufferfishDaily I eat three hundred lychees, willingly forever a person of LingnanIn Su Shi's writing, life became poetry everywhereYet fate did not spare himAt fifty nine he was again exiled to Huizhou, at sixty two he was sent to distant Hainan Danzhou by a solitary boat, the farther the exile the more tragicHe himself sighed, worldly affairs are but a great dream, life has only several autumns of chillIf it were anyone else, they would likely have lost heart long ago, complaining against heaven and blaming fateBut Su Dongpo did notHis openness was not about seeing through things, but about never taking himself seriouslyIn Huizhou, plagued by tropical diseases, he admired the vast scenery, invented roast lamb spine, developed a love for lychees, even brewed his own wine, the jade colored Zhenyi wineIn Danzhou, scarce population, no meat for food, no room for shelter, he built houses himself, named them Betel Nut ResidenceIn boredom he told ghost stories with villagers under trees, laughing with sheer joyWhat the world called suffering, in his hands became seasoning for lifeHe chewed hardship, swallowed it, then dusted his hands saying, not bad, quite flavorfulAnd he was not merely a man of letters, but also a practical administratorWest Lake was more than half silted, he mobilized two hundred thousand laborers to build a long causeway, this is the origin of today's Su Causeway Spring Morning sceneWhen floods threatened the city, wealthy families fled, he said if the wealthy leave, the people will panic, who will stand with me to protect themHe led from the front and saved the cityIn Danzhou he established an academy, nurturing the first provincial graduate in Hainan's historyA thousand years later, as we struggle between rat race and lying flat, we can find a third way from Su ShiWork hard with diligence, lie flat with eleganceHis greatest achievement lay not in writing how many excellent poems and ci, but in the attitude he livedIn prosperity he accomplished things, in adversity he wrote poetry, in any circumstance he never lost love and creativity for lifeOpen this biography of Su Dongpo, you're not reading another's story, but finding that fire within youSu Shi has passed away, his name merely a memoryA thousand years have passed, yet Su Dongpo remains a light in the hearts of countless Chinese people前往小宇宙评论区与主播互动