Calligraphers of all ages admired cold food stickers.
Huang Tingjian, a good friend of Su Shi, believes that this work has the brushwork of three calligraphers: Yan Zhenqing in the Tang Dynasty, Yang Ningshi in the Five Dynasties and Li Jianzhong in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Wang Xizhi's Preface to Lanting ranked first, Yan Zhenqing's Manuscript for Sacrificing Nephew ranked second, followed by Su Shi's Cold Food Post.
In the Ming Dynasty, Dong Qichang claimed to have seen more than 30 calligraphy works by Su Shi, among which Cold Food Post was the best.
If you are not familiar with these calligraphers and calligraphy theory, there is the most intuitive way to prove the Excellence of the cold food bar: Emperor Qianlong wrote four characters of "Tang Xue Yun Wei" in front of the cold food bar, and mounted his own inscription and postscript between the works of Su Shi and Huang Tingjian, and stamped many chapters on it. ...
However, if we look closely at Cold Food Post, we will find that from the content alone, Su Shi wrote only two poems about his life experience.
A poem
The first poem says:
I have had three cold meals since I came to Huangzhou.
Cherish spring, want to keep spring, and manage spring from self-management to no one regrets.
This year also suffered from continuous rain, for two months, the climate was bleak as autumn.
Sniff begonia flowers and swallow branches of snow.
Sneaking around, midnight is really powerful,
Begonia flower is like a sick teenager. When it is cured, its hair will grow old.
I have had three cold food festivals since I came to Huangzhou. I regret the departure of spring every year, but I can't keep it. This spring is even worse. The spring rain kept falling like autumn rain, and the begonia flowers were knocked down in the mud. What's the difference between this and a teenager who is sick in bed and finds his hair completely white after getting up?
The second poem
The second poem, revealing a heavier mood, almost arranged his own affairs:
The riverside is surging, as if to rush into the portal, and the fierce attack of heavy rain seems not bad.
The hut is like a fishing boat, in a misty water cloud.
The empty kitchen is cooking some cold dishes, and damp reeds are burning at the bottom of the stove.
I didn't know it was a cold food, but I saw crows burning the remaining paper money.
The emperor's palace gate has nine floors, which is far-reaching and difficult to return. The tombs of ancestors in the distance cannot be mourned.
I just want to imitate Ruan Ji and cry out in despair, but I am disheartened and unwilling to rekindle.
The spring rain made the river swell and it was almost home, but the rain still showed no signs of stopping. My cabin is like a boat in the river, drifting between water and clouds. Winter vegetables are still cooking in the pot, and wet reeds are burning in the stove. Seeing the old crow with paper money outside the window, I remembered that today is the Cold Food Festival. The door is locked, Wan Li. Stay away from me. I guess I can't go back to Beijing after my death, so I was buried in Huangzhou. I want to cry, but I feel like I'm dying. I can't cry.
Su Shi, who has always been optimistic and open-minded, why do these two poems reveal such sad feelings? This is about a major setback in Su Shi's life-"Wutai Poetry Case".
Things have to start from the second year of Song Shenzong Yuanfeng (AD 1079).
This year, Su Shi was transferred from Xuzhou to Huzhou. Traditionally, officials at that time needed to thank the emperor after the personnel transfer. As a stuttering actor, Su Shi not only thanked the emperor in Huzhou, but also complained about the transfer. However, Su Shi didn't care. After submitting the thank-you form, he went to Huzhou to be an official.
What he didn't expect was that he complained in Huzhou Xie Shangbiao, including two sentences: "Your Majesty knows his folly in time, and it is difficult to catch up with new progress; Check the old troublemaker, or mention the king "was seized by the suggestion.
At that time, Wang Anshi was in the stage of carrying out the New Deal, and the words "new progress" and "trouble" were exactly the words people used to belittle the new law. When he saw these two sentences, his heart suddenly tightened, and he began to accuse Su Shi of slandering the new law in front of Song Shenzong.
Later, Li Ding, Shu Qi and others found a published collection of Su Shi's poems and articles, and used microscope skills to find more evidence of the so-called "new libel law" in the collection of poems and articles, and analyzed it sentence by sentence for the emperor:
Your majesty wants to rectify the official management, but Su Shi's poem says that "you can't read thousands of books, you can't read the law, but you can't help it", which is definitely ironic; Your majesty wants to build water conservancy projects, and he also said that "if the East China Sea has a clear idea, it should teach brine (saline-alkali land) to become mulberry fields", which is even more ironic; When your majesty issued the salt ban, he said, "Don't you forget the taste? You can't eat salt in March?" This is not irony, but blatant opposition to your implementation of the new law!
Previously, Song Shenzong tried to implement the new law, but met with great resistance. He is in a bad mood. After listening to the censors' words, he thought that Su Shi was the main source of resistance to political reform, so he ordered that Su Shi be removed from his post as the governor of Huzhou and sent someone to Huzhou to take Su Shi back to Beijing!
It takes more than 20 days to walk from Huzhou to the capital of the capital city of Bianliang at that time. For Su Shi, who was dismissed from office, it was tantamount to showing off all the way. "In an instant, pulling a satrap is like driving a dog to drive a chicken." No matter how strong the mentality is, people can't stand this kind of "public punishment."
On August 18th, the second year of Yuanfeng, Su Shi was sent to Yushitai prison and formally arraigned on the 20th. Because this case was put forward and tried by Yu Shitai of Wutai, posthumous title, and was convicted according to Su Shi's poems, it is called "Wutai Poetry Case" in history.
Su Shi knew that he was frank and talkative and complained to the court for many years. In the face of the criticism of Yushitai, he admitted readily: I won't argue with you, everything is your right. I satirized the salt method, young crops, this and that. Are you satisfied?
However, Song Shenzong looked at the progress of the trial, but he was suspicious: Su Shi admitted so readily, was it to cover up some backstage and play a big game? Or did Yushitai lynch Su Shi? Zong Shen ordered: Continue the strict investigation and make sure to find out all the people involved in this case!
By September, Yushitai had found more than 100 poems suspected of "libel law", many of which were sent to relatives and friends. As a result, 39 relatives and friends of Su Shi, including Wang Shen, Sima Guang and Huang Tingjian, were all implicated.
When Su Shi was in Yushitai prison, he saw that he was involved with so many people, and he was desperate. He secretly hid some poison and decided to commit suicide by taking it as soon as he was sentenced to death. His son Mai Su is responsible for delivering meals to him in prison every day. He made a secret appointment with his father: he usually only sent vegetables and meat, and if he heard the bad news of the death penalty, he would send fish instead, so as to make early preparations.
Unexpectedly, a few days later, Mai Su needed to borrow money because he ran out of money, and entrusted the delivery of food to his relatives, but forgot to tell them that he could not easily deliver fish. Coincidentally, this relative chose a smoked fish for Su Shi. When Su Shi saw that the fish was frightened and thought it was dead, he wrote a farewell poem and gave it to his brother Su Zhe and his wife and children.
The Lord is like the sky, everything is spring, and the little minister dies secretly.
It's even more tiring to pay off debts after a hundred years.
Buried bones are green hills, and rain alone hurts the body.
It is more important to be brothers with you for life.
This is for my brother. "Because of my stupidity and outspoken, I have brought trouble to myself and many people. I can't spend the rest of my life with you, but our karma is not broken. If there is an afterlife, we are brothers. "
The frosty night in Baitai is bleak, and the wind is low.
The dream is like a deer around Yunshan, and the soul is like a chicken.
The rhinoceros horn on my forehead is really my son, and the cow behind is a shame to my wife.
Where is the centenarian wandering? Tongxiang should be in the west of Zhejiang.
This is for my wife and children. "The prison is dark and cold. The heart yearns for the distance, but the meat is like a chicken to be slaughtered. I have lived for so many years and have no savings. I'm really embarrassed about my wife and children. After I died, I was buried in Zhejiang. "
According to the usual practice, Su Shi's farewell poems are dedicated to the emperor. Things have also turned around.
Zong Shen ordered the arrest of Su Shi. He didn't want to put him to death at first, but he thought he was too skinny sometimes. He wanted to take this opportunity to attack him. Seeing this sincere poem, he was greatly moved. In addition, at that time, many people in the imperial court pleaded for Su Shi, even the empress dowager Cao Zhi came forward. Even Wang Anshi, the leader of the new law, advised Zongshen that the holy dynasty should not punish celebrities. Zong Shen then ordered that Su Shi be lenient.
Su Shi finally survived and was demoted as the envoy of Huangzhou Yingyong, thus ending the sensational Wutai poetry case. So, Su Shi went to Huangzhou and wrote this "Cold Food Poetry Post" which has been passed down through the ages.
Although these two poems are desolate and melancholy, they are pessimistic and negative, but Su Shi's feelings in the poems are true. It is in this sad mood that his calligraphy came out, and his brushwork and lines changed with the change of mood. Thanks to the emotional push of Pentium, the whole work gives people the feeling that it is done in one go and incisively and vividly.
This is not only the power of calligraphy, but also the power of emotion.
Huang Tingjian, Su Shi's close friend and a famous calligrapher, also noticed that the outstanding feature of this calligraphy is the unrepeatable emotion. He wrote in the inscription of "Cold Food Post":
Dongpo's poems are like Li Taibai's, but I'm afraid they are too white and everywhere ... Try to get Dongpo to write them again, which may not be as good as this one.
Comparing these two poems with Wang Yang's wanton poems, I think even Li Bai can't surpass them in some respects. Without that environment and mood, Su Shi could not have written such poetry and calligraphy again.
Modern people and ancient people, although separated by thousands of years, have the same feelings. This may be the reason why cold food posts have been praised by countless people.
-End-
Edit | Dongmen Cloud