Dongpo stood in a conservative position and wrote to explain the harm of the new law. The book says, "The reason why a country survives or dies is that its morality is shallow and it doesn't care about strength. The reason why it counts is that its customs are thin and thick, and it doesn't care about poverty. If the owner knows this, he knows its weight. " Ask the gods to weigh the weight, respect morality and vulgarity, and not be eager for success and insatiable. After reading the book, Zongshen summoned Dongpo alone to have a talk. Dongpo said to him, "I think your majesty is too eager to seek treatment, too wide-ranging in listening and too keen to join the people." His words implicitly refer to Anshi, so I want the gods to guard against it. "I should think it over carefully," said Shenzong in a terrible and intolerant tone. However, Su Shi's direct admonition offended An Shi and was invited out of the court. When he was in a foreign country, he was often satirized by poetry because of his grievances, which also caused the slander of the villains and was arrested and imprisoned. Anshi wants to commit suicide. God has always cherished his loyalty and pitied his talent, so he could not bear to commit a serious crime, so he was placed in Huangzhou (now Huanggang, Hubei) and became an assistant officer in charge of local military affairs forever. After Anshi's death, Sima Guang became prime minister, and Su Shi returned to the DPRK and was promoted to a bachelor's degree in Hanlin (counselor and secretary officer around the emperor). However, he is always outspoken and hated by powerful ministers. He was exiled to Huizhou (now Huiyang, Guangdong), Qiongzhou (now Hainan Island), Hangzhou and other places, and died in Changzhou in11year at the age of 66. The 338-volume Biography of the History of the Song Dynasty commented on his life and said: "From raising children to going in and out of attendants, we must be loyal to the monarch, which is quite a festival, and the ministers are unparalleled." But for the villain to avoid evil and crowd out, he must not be satisfied with the court. A few words summed up Su Shi's official career and noble personality.
Dongpo's family is a Buddhist. He told himself that his father, Su Xun, and his mother, Shicheng, "are kind and honest and believe in the Three Treasures. Influenced by his family, Dongpo came into contact with Buddhism from an early age. In the poem Ziyou Birthday, he said, "I studied in the imperial tomb with you, and we got help from Lao Dan Sakyamuni. ".It shows that I started reading Buddhist books with my disciples as early as childhood. After the death of his parents, Dongpo donated calligraphy and painting at home and his mother's jewelry for the purpose of Buddhism to cross over for his parents. He also wrote a eulogy saying: "The Buddha is full of river sand and has a great sense of roundness. I think upside down, in life and death ... may my parents and all living beings be in the west, and they will be blessed wherever they meet. Everyone has a long life, and they didn't go or come. " (Biography of the lay man) Biography 26)
During his official residence, Dongpo walked with the eminent monk * * wherever he went, and learned Buddhism from him. Dongpo met many Buddhist monks in his life, among which the most closely related ones were Lin Dong Changzong, Dajue Huailian, Yuquan Chenghao and Fo Yin Yuan Zen Master. Su Shi's famous Buddhist sentence "The stream sounds long and the mountain is not clean;" Speaking of 84 thousand at night, how can I look like a person in the future? "This is a poem written by him and Chang Zong's On Ruthless Ci (Volume 17, Five Lights Meeting Yuan and Su Shi's Lay Man in the Inner Han Dynasty) to show his views on Zen. Dajue Huailian was a Zen monk that Dongpo met during his stay in Hangzhou, and later they became friends abroad. When I was in Jingnan (now Jiangling, Hubei Province), I heard that Zen master Chenghao in Yuquan had an organic front, which was difficult for ordinary people to meet. Dongpo, who has never been conceited, wants to have a personal competition. On one occasion, he went out of the house incognito and visited the temple. Cheng Hao asked, "What's your official name? Dongpo replied: "The surname scale is the scale to measure the elders in the world." Master Hao shouted, "How heavy is this shout?" Dongpo was speechless, so he apologized and respected him and took it as a lesson. (ditto) During his relegation to Huangzhou, Dongpo established a close relationship with Fo Yin Liyuan and left many anecdotes. On one occasion, Dongpo was the first to bow and said, "On the first day in the sky, it was radiant; Eight winds can't blow, sit on the purple lotus. " Thinking that he embodied profound Zen kung fu, he sent his son to Fo Yin Zen Master who lived across the river. After reading it, the Zen master approved the word "fart" on it and asked people to take their son back. Dongpo was angry when he saw the criticism, so he crossed the river by boat and came to see the Zen master himself. He immediately asked the Zen master why he had added swearing words. The Zen master laughed and said, "The eight winds can't blow, and the fart has crossed the river. Dongpo suddenly realized that he was ashamed and amazed. (See Lai Yonghai's Buddhism, Taoism, Poetry and Zen, Chapter 6, Volume 16, Five Lights Meeting Yuan and Yunjuyuan Zen Master)
Dongpo has been a vegetarian since he arrived in Huangzhou, chanting scriptures and Buddha every day. There is ankokuji in the south of Huangzhou, and Dongpo will worship once every few days; Burn incense and sit still every time, and repent. After a long time, I feel empty and happy. In his later years, he was surrounded by nothing but an image of Amitabha, saying, "I'm going to die." "("Biography of the layman "26). Knowing that he was a monk in his last life, he asked his family to bury him as a monk after his death. (Classic of Buddhism in China, p. 649)
Dongpo was a great poet in Song Dynasty. His optimistic and heroic poems are closely related to his thorough meditation. He compared learning poetry to learning Zen, and the realm of poetry is equivalent to the realm of Zen. "Every good sentence has Zen meaning" (after Li Shuduan wrote a poem) is his writing experience. Many of his poems also go deep into the essence of Zen. For example, the poem "The sound of a stream is full of words and the mountains are not clean" mentioned earlier introduces Buddhist language into the poem and integrates Buddhism and Zen with "mountains" and "streams", which has a unique charm to read. Qian, a scholar in A Qing, said: "After the Northern Song Dynasty, scholars who were proficient in literature and taught others took the concept of children as the highest principle." (Collection of Junior Students in Muzhai, Volume 83) Sixty-nine of Qian Zhongshu's Records of Talking about Art also leads to a foolish saying: "The Song people are good at Zen, which one is Su Like Zi Zhan". Dongpo's Zen has a great influence on later scholars, and all the "four sons of Su School" studied in Zen.