Su Xun, Su Shi's father, is eager to take the imperial examination. However, he started learning too late, probably after Su Shi was born. He is over 40, but he has failed many times. He can only sigh that he is incompetent. Therefore, he has 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 originally inspired by his mother. Later, Cheng was deeply convinced of Taoism and ordered him to worship Zhang Weishi, a Taoist priest in Tianqing, and study with more than 100 young children in the town. Su Shi and Chen Taichu, who later became local collectors, are often praised by Mr. Private School. 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 together to study in a private Taoist school, which was a very common educational place for the common people. Children in private schools are the children of businessmen and farmers. Su Shi spent his childhood in a private school, which cultivated his subaltern character and was of great benefit to his future career. Su Shi studied in Tianqingguan private school for three years. At the age of ten, his mother taught him to read the Book of the Later Han Dynasty. When he read the biography of Fan Pang, he was deeply moved. I sighed unconsciously and said to my mother, "If I have a son like Fan Pang, will my mother be happy?" Cheng said, "If you can really be like me, can't I feel honored like my mother?" Because Su Shi was gifted at an early age, he made rapid progress under the guidance of his mother.
Su Shi had been studying in Meishan, his hometown, until he was twenty. In the first year of Injong (AD 1056), he left Meishan with his brother Su Zhe for the first time, and accompanied by his father, he rushed to Beijing to take the imperial examination. The two brothers who successfully passed the preliminary examination this year took part in the imperial examination the following spring, and Su Shi became a scholar in one fell swoop. The heroes (invigilators) of the imperial examination were the famous literary leaders Ouyang Xiu and Mei at that time. Ouyang Xiu advocated classical Chinese with all his heart, in order to save the flashy and illusory evil in the literary world at that time. He was very surprised when he read Su Shi's article "On Punishment Loyalty". He thinks this is the work of his student Ceng Gong. He wanted to win the first place, considered it for a long time, and finally, in order to avoid favoritism, he took the second place (later, he took the palace exam (the emperor personally took the oral exam), and he gave twenty-five lectures, which was very appreciated by Emperor Renzong, so he rated Su Shi as a bachelor of Hanlin. Ouyang Xiu said to the people at that time: "I want to avoid this person and go out." It means "I want to avoid him and let him 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, Shi Cheng, fell ill and died in April of the second year of Jiayou. Sue's family is four years old, and the mourning period has passed. Once again, the father and son came to Beijing by boat along the Minjiang River and the Yangtze River waterway. In the sixth year of Jiayou, Su Shi and Su Zhe took the system examination under the recommendation of their mentor Ouyang Xiu. This year, they held an eloquent moral examination. Su Shi was selected in the third grade, while Su Zhe was selected in the fourth grade. The results of this department are divided into five grades. There are no examples of taking the first and second grades in the Song Dynasty, and the third grade is usually the highest score. According to legend, at that time, Renzong was ecstatic and said to Empress Cao Zhi, "I am the two prime ministers of later generations." The two people mentioned by Injong refer to Su Shi and Su Zhe. Sue's two brothers are looking forward to becoming prime ministers one day, and their father Su Xun is also very happy.
On November 19th, the sixth year of Jiaqing, Su Shi was appointed as a judge of Fengxiang Prefecture, that is, an assistant magistrate, equivalent to a deputy magistrate. When he took office, Su Zhe sent him all the way to Zhengxinmen, the outer city of Kyoto leading to the west, and reluctantly parted from his brother. Later, Su Shi put a poem "Farewell Poetry" written 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, because it didn't rain for a long time, the severe drought made people's lives difficult. Later, he was ordered by his superiors to go to Taibai Mountain for rain. Later, it did rain, so a pavilion called "Xiyu Pavilion" was built in the north of Fufeng Mansion. He also made a "Spanish Pavilion" for this matter, expressing the joy of long drought and rain with a light style.
After Yingzong succeeded to the throne, Han Qi became an envoy to Shanling. On the surface, he took care of Su Shi, but in fact he was a little jealous of his talent, so Su Shi was very careful. In order to meet the needs of Shanling, he compiled many rafts and bamboo rafts and tried to go down the Weihe River, but the water was too shallow and the rafts stopped. He was so anxious that he spent five months trying to ship them out. Later, Xixia invaded, and the people on the border were very afraid. He ran around day and night, supplying rations and food to the people, and it was very hard.
Besides being tired from work, Su Shi has to deal with various relationships in officialdom. Because the sage teachings he learned before are far from the political reality, as a warm-blooded young man, he is extremely worried about his new official position. In the winter of the second year of Yingzong Zhiping (AD 1065), after Fengxiang's term expired, Su Shi couldn't wait to rush back to Kaifeng, the capital where his father and brother lived. Unexpectedly, his beloved wife died the next year (his wife Wang Fu is the daughter of a local tribute scholar, who knows books and can read and write. She/Kloc-married Dongpo at the age of 0/6, and later gave birth to her son Mai Su. It's a pity that she died at the age of 27. Less than a year later, her father died with her, and Su Shi returned to his hometown of Meishan by boat with a heavy heart.
In the first year of Xining, Zongshen ascended the throne, and Su Shi left his hometown after his mourning period. The following year, he became the official in charge of the patent court. At this time, a new situation appeared in politics. In order to save the national finance facing difficulties, Zong Shen appointed Wang Anshi as prime minister and promoted the new law he advocated. 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 believes that the key to the problem is not the legal system, but the official management. He hopes that the reform can be carried out in a more moderate way. If we want to reform, we must do it step by step, and we can't be as eager for quick success as Wang Anshi's reform. Therefore, he kept writing to Zongshen, presenting "On the Miscellaneous School and Palace Opera", "On Buying Zhejiang Lamps", and "Later Han Dynasty" and "Wan Yan Shu", but they were not accepted by Zongshen. Therefore, Su Shi became a member of the old legalists 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 (A.D. 107 1), 36-year-old Su Shi saw that the overall situation of political reform had been decided, and it was useless to oppose it. Moreover, he didn't want to fall into the vortex of sectarian struggle, so he asked to be transferred to Hangzhou (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province), but he was sad and frustrated.
Hangzhou is a place with beautiful scenery. After Su Shi finished his official business, he 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, Lake Chuqing, and Drunk Book of Wang Hulou on June 27th. On the contrary, political setbacks 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 1074), Su Shi voluntarily transferred to Mizhou (now Zhucheng County, Shandong Province), which was very close to Jinan where Su Zhe worked. He also created many well-known literary masterpieces in Mizhou, such as Transcendental Platform, Mid-Autumn Water Carving a Song with a Head, and Hunting in Jiangmi Prefecture.
Su Shi was later transferred to Xuzhou (now Lushan County, Jiangsu Province) and Huzhou (now Xing Wu County, Zhejiang Province). In the second year of Yuanfeng (AD 1079), in the third month of his transfer 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 court 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 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 satirizing the new law when he passed the sentence in Hangzhou. For example, the fourth poem of "Five Wonders in the Mountain Village" says: "The rice is wrapped in sticks and the money is empty. Winning children's voices is good, and I have been in the city for a year and a half. " This poem satirizes the poor implementation of the young crops law. Officials forced farmers to borrow money, and then opened local casinos and brothels to get the money back. But this is a poem after all, and it 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 offended the nouveau riche who had been promoted and made a fortune, and it was inevitable to be convicted.
Su Shi was interrogated for more than one hundred days. Li Ding, Su Shi's political opponent, and others tried their best to accuse Luo Zhi in an attempt to kill Su Shi. Their despicable behavior aroused many people's dissatisfaction.
In addition to people from Huzhou and Hangzhou, monks were invited to chant Buddhist scriptures to pray for Su Shi, and Zhang, the former prince's teacher, and Fan Zhen, the former assistant minister of the official department (equivalent to the deputy minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs), interceded for him, so the situation eased somewhat. In addition, Cao Huang (his grandmother), who loved literature and was ill, interceded for him. In the end, Su Shi was only convicted of "satirizing politics". On February 28th of that year, Emperor Zongshen 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 (A.D. 1080), Su Shi was demoted to be the permanent assistant ambassador of Huangzhou. Just arrived in Huangzhou, life is hard, there is no salary, and even the place to live is a problem. Later, I had to live in Dinghui Garden for a while and eat with monks every day. The family lived a frugal life with the only money left. My old friend Ma Zhengqing can't stand it anymore. He got dozens of acres of wasteland in the east of the city for him to farm and build houses. He sweated heavily on Dongpo, and his wife Wang helped him. The husband and wife shared joys and sorrows.
Because Su Shi cultivated land in Dongpo personally, he has deep feelings for this once overgrown place. He praised this Dongpo as a rocky and difficult road. He must walk optimistically on the bumpy road of life and not avoid difficulties and dangers. He regards Dongpo as a symbol of his personality. After a year of hard work, Su Shi built a study next to Dongpo, named Dongpo Tang Xue, hence the name Dongpo Jushi.
After the impact of the literary inquisition, Su Shi had a lot to say in his chest. Although he has been suppressing his passion and doesn't want to write any more poems, can he suppress his creative passion? On the one hand, he pours out his grievances and injustices in his poems, on the other hand, he looks for indifferent and complacent joy in his daily life to maintain his psychological balance. Whenever he is free, he looks around 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, in recent years, he has studied hard and made new progress in knowledge. Second, because of the Wutai Poetry Case, he deeply realized some shortcomings in his life, so he wrote many articles related to self-cultivation, such as "Former Red Cliff Fu", just to discuss the truth of life's change and invariance. In addition to the above-mentioned "Thousand Cliffs Fu", he also made works such as "Niannujiao Red Cliff Nostalgia" and "Post-Red Cliff 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 bold and unrestrained, beautiful and smooth, his poems are fresh and vigorous, he makes good use of exaggerated metaphors and has a unique artistic expression. The bold and unconstrained writing has a great influence on later generations. He is good at running script and regular script. He studied under Li Yong, Xu Hao, Yan Zhenqing and Yang Ningshi, and he can find a new way. His pen is ups and downs and innocent. In the seventh year of Yuanfeng, Zongshen ordered Su Shi to leave Huangzhou and changed Ruzhou (now runan county, Henan Province) to Ying Yongzhu. When passing by Jinling (now Nanjing), they met Wang Anshi, their political enemy, 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, resulting in the Southeast Prison, which violated the kind style of his ancestors. At this time, Wang Anshi has gone through many vicissitudes and his mind has been broadened. Not only was he not surprised, but he also said to others, "I really don't know that it will take hundreds of years for a figure like Dongpo to appear!" "
In the seventh year of Yuanfeng, when Su Shi was forty-nine, Song Shenzong rehabilitated him. He was appointed as the governor of Dengzhou (now Penglai County, Shandong Province), only for more than ten days, and was also appointed as a doctor by the court. In the twelfth month of this year, he was transferred back to Kaifeng, Kyoto, as a living person. In March of the eighth year of Yuanfeng (A.D. 1085), Zongshen, who vigorously promoted the new law, died 19 years later. Only 10-year-old Zhezong acceded to the throne, and the queen mother listened to politics and vigorously promoted the old people. Dongpo was recalled to the DPRK, and the queen mother ordered him to sit on the ground and give tea, and took out the golden lotus candlestick from the imperial palace to send him back to the hospital. With the abolition of the new law by the empress dowager, the political situation began to reverse, and the ministers of the new law school, as the center of political power, were excluded. Sima Guang and other former dignitaries were able to regain power. Later, historians called it "the change of Yuanhu", and the old legalists continued to take power.
In the second year, Su Shi was promoted to be a calligrapher, academician and scholar in China. Su Shi went to Beijing for less than a year and was promoted three times, but now Su Shi has no interest in being an official. After Su Shi came to Beijing, he found that some new policies that had been implemented for more than ten years had achieved considerable results. After Sima Guang came to power, the chaos was completely abolished. He is a little dissatisfied. Dongpo was originally one of the masters who opposed the New Deal, but his words, deeds and opinions were not aimed at people. Now he has a further friendship with Wang Anshi, a certain understanding of the New Deal, and his attitude has naturally changed. He believes that the "exemption law" in the New Deal is particularly prominent, which contributes to the present and benefits 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 faction did not regard him as one of their own, so Dongpo became a figure in the cracks, and neither side was pleased.
In September this year, Sima Guang, the leader of the old legalist school, died, which split the old legalist school and plunged it into an ugly factional struggle. Luo Party, headed by Cheng Yi, a master of Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty, is at loggerheads with Shu Party such as Su Shi, and Shuo Party is also entangled in it. Factional disputes are becoming more and more fierce, even involving defamation of private affairs.
In Yuan You for four years, Su Shi wanted to leave this troubled place and asked to be transferred to Hangzhou as governor. As soon as he took office, Hangzhou people burned incense and lined up to welcome him. Unexpectedly, Su Shi suffered serious natural disasters and diseases just after taking office. Later, he built the first public hospital in China here. During his tenure as governor, Su Shi built the West Lake Su Causeway, which is as famous as Bai Juyi's Bai Causeway. In the sixth year of Yuan Hu, he was called a bachelor of Hanlin and served as assistant minister. But it was rejected by the radical Shuo Party. Within a few months, he was transferred to Yingzhou (now Fuyang City, Anhui Province) and left the court. The following year, he was transferred to Yangzhou (Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province). In September of the seventh year of Yuan You (A.D. 1092), Su Shi was recalled to the imperial court and became the minister of war. 1 1 month, was promoted to the position of Shangshu, the highest position since Su Shi took office.
Su Shi's position rose higher and higher, and the attacks on him by the opposing sides intensified. Some people even made a big fuss about his previous literary inquisition (that is, Wutai Poetry Case). The unhappy Su Shi asked to be transferred to Jiangnan, but was not approved. In September of the eighth year of Yuanhu, Su Shi became the secretariat of Dingzhou (now Dingxian County, Hebei Province). In the same month, Empress Dowager Gao died, and "Yuanhu Genghua" came to an end.
In September 2008, 18-year-old Zhezong began to lead his own government and re-implemented the new law advocated by his father Zongshen. The regime was transferred to Lv Huiqing and other new legalists, and then the old legalists were severely impeached. Shao Shengyuan (AD 1094) In April, 59-year-old Su Shi was accused of slandering the imperial court and was demoted as the governor of Yingzhou (Yingde County, Guangdong Province). In June, on the way to Yingzhou, he was ordered to be exiled to Huizhou (now Huizhou City, Guangdong Province). During his two years in Huizhou, Su Shi lived in distress. Sometimes he doesn't even have rice for brewing, so he has to grow his own vegetables. However, Su Shi has long been used to the hardships in life, and he is comfortable with all this. He wrote in two poems: "Mr. Bao knocked for five minutes in order to get enough sleep in spring." Even if I am in a place beyond the mountain that is spurned by others, I will not be discouraged and still live a poor life leisurely.
Unexpectedly, the treacherous court official of the Beijing imperial court still refused to give up, and once again harmed him on trumped-up charges. This time, Su Shi was demoted to Danzhou, known as the ends of the earth. Danzhou is an inaccessible and overgrown place on Hainan Island, and Su Zhe was banished to Leizhou at that time, separated by a strait. When they were about to break up, Su Shi joked, "Don't think that Lei Qiong is separated by a sea of clouds, and Shengen still faces each other across the bank."
When Su Shi arrived in Danzhou, he was as poor as a church mouse. In order to make a living, he even sold his wine vessel, but he didn't forget to study. During this time, he loved reading the poems of Liu Zongyuan and Tao Yuanming. He often takes a big wine ladle and sings and walks in the field to amuse himself with poetry. He also made many civilian friends, dropped in when he was free, drank and chatted with wild old men, and often entertained his neighbors. Su Shi was exiled overseas in his later years, and his life was hard, but he was still free and easy, and he enjoyed it.
In the first month of Fu Yuan's third year (A.D. 1 100), Zhezong died, Hui Zong acceded to the throne, granted amnesty to the world, and the empress dowager was regent, trying to promote reconciliation between the old and new factions. In May, Su Shi was pardoned for the crime of exile overseas, and was promoted to the view of Chengdu Jade Bureau. During the seven-year exile from Huizhou, nine members of Su Shi's family died. Although life was so cruel to him, he was still optimistic, cheerful and full of vitality in his later years. Su Shi crossed Qiongzhou Strait in June and returned to the north. One moonlit night, when he was by the Jiang Xun River, he chanted, "My heart is like this, and the moon is full of rivers."
People have not forgotten this great poet. Su Shi returned to the north, passed through Runzhou and arrived in Changzhou. Thousands of people crowded on both sides of the canal, and they followed the boat, vying to see the long-lost great poet. However, at this time, Su Shi was terminally ill because of the tiring journey. In the first year of Guo Jing, Zhong Jian (A.D.11), Su Shi died of illness in Changzhou. On July 28th, Su Shi died, and a generation of writers fell, at the age of 66.