儿子的新作

Who Was Su Shi?

The Song dynasty was one of the best in Chinese history. Literature and art was at the highest, and at the highest of the highest was Su Shi.

Su Shi, courtesy name Zizhan, art name Dongpo, was a Chinese scholar-official, a poet, essayist, calligrapher and painter during the Song dynasty. He and his father, Su Xun, his brother Su Zhe along with five other scholar were called “Eight Masters of the Tang and Song”.

On January 8th 1037, Su was born in Meishan, Meizhou. His father was a scholarly man. He taught Su poetry, art and the things he need to do to be a good man.

In the year 1056, nineteen-year-old Su went out of Meishan with his father and brother. It was his first time to be outside of his hometown. They were heading to attend an exam. The main examiner was Ouyang Xiu, another of the eight masters (the eight master’s title was given to them after the all died). That was Su’s pure luck. Ouyang really liked the essay he wrote and declared him a scholar, which was the highest degree in ancient China.

The successful Su Shi was ready to become an official in the Chinese government. During the Song dynasty literature was really valued, so Su was praised everywhere he went. But he had some shortcomings that caused him lots trouble. He was too proud of himself, too eager to show his talent. He had bad relationships with his superiors during his early career because of these short comings. He later regretted his behaviors.

In 1071, he was sent to Hangzhou to be a governor there. The Song dynasty was enduring droughts and floods that made people poor and helpless. When he saw those people begging for help, he made the decision to devote himself to helping them. He built wells and killed locusts. Once when there was a big flood, all the people in his city ran away, but he remained, putting on his rain coat and going toward the direction of the flood to help fight it. The emperor praised him for his actions, however that just made some bad people really jealous. They accused him of things that he didn’t do, and soon he was locked up. After being jailed, many scholars wrote to the emperor to let Su out. The emperor finally agreed to let him out, nonetheless exiled him to Huangzhou, a remote place in the mountains.

Being exiled to Huangzhou was the lowest point in Su Shi’s political career, but in the exact opposite, his literature was at the top. He wrote to help his mind stay off the fact that he was being exiled for no reason. He was short of money, so his friend got him a piece of land to farm, which he called the “Dong Po”.