Su Dongpo's Breakout (Excerpt)
Yu Qiuyu
Before coming to Huangzhou, Su Dongpo was trapped in a case called "Wutai Poetry Prison" by literary historians , after that, he walked from the prison, being escorted, far away from his family, and not qualified to choose any place other than Huangzhou, and walked towards this small town that was still desolate at the time. He didn't know that at this moment, he had completed a cultural breakthrough that would go down in history. The masterpieces he wrote in Huangzhou not only announced that Huangzhou had entered a new aesthetic level, but also announced that Su Dongpo had entered a new one. stage of life.
I really like reading Mr. Lin Yutang's "The Biography of Su Dongpo", but every time I always feel that Mr. Yutang's description of Su Dongpo's situation and mentality in Huangzhou is too ideal. Mr. Yutang loved Su Dongpo's Huangzhou poems and essays, so he exaggerated them with poems and essays, exaggerated them with love, and rendered them elegant and holy. In fact, as far as I know, Su Dongpo was still very miserable in Huangzhou. His beautiful poems are the struggle and transcendence of the misery.
Su Dongpo's living conditions in Huangzhou have been very clearly described in a letter he wrote to Uncle Li Duan. The letter said:
Since I was offended, I have been deeply isolated, wandering around in mountains and rivers, surrounded by woodcutters and fishermen. I am often criticized by drunk people, and I am often unrecognized by others. I haven't seen a single word of my relatives or friends in my life, and I haven't even answered any of them if I have written to them. I'm lucky to be a commoner.
I was very shocked when I first read this passage, because everyone knows that Su Dongpo, a cheerful celebrity, has many, many friends. Day after day socializing and endless singing have almost become the basic content of his life. Half of his life is for his friends. However, once something goes wrong, not only do friends stop writing, they also stop replying. They all know that Su Dongpo was wronged, and now that the matter is generally over, they are still unwilling to write a word or two of comfort, even to greet him. Su Dongpo's letters, written with wonderful pen and ink that illuminated the history of Chinese calligraphy, were brought out from Huangzhou with great pains, but they could not get back any message of friendship. I believe these friends are not bad people, but precisely because they are not bad people makes me sigh deeply. All in all, the original world has suddenly disappeared around us, so a generation of celebrities has become unknown among the woodcutters and fishermen. Originally, this was likely to bring him relaxation, but he felt that there were still countless pairs of eyes watching him from a distance. He could not yet feel that the world still had a very warm response to his poems, and could only feel terrified in loneliness. Even though this letter had no major purpose, he made it a point not to show it to others. In daily life, before my family comes to pick me up, I mostly sleep during the day, go out for a walk at night, and drink a glass of light local wine when I see it, but never drink too much, for fear of making a mistake when drunk.
Is he really scared? Yes and no. What he was afraid of was trouble, but he was never afraid of sacrificing his life for morality, for the people, or even for the court and the emperor. He has understood through the "Wutai Poetry Case" that if a person is framed, even if he dies, there will be no reason for his death. You can't find the purpose of your impassioned speech, and you can't grasp the reason to die calmly. You want to be a hero who has no hesitation, but somehow you are dressed up like a clown; you want to be a steadfast and unyielding martyr, but you end up being a prisoner of deep remorse. There is no way to clean it up, no way to defend it, and I don’t know how to raise my own protest and issue my own declaration. This is indeed very close to the "sauce jar culture" proposed by some scholars. Once you jump into it, you can't wipe it clean. This is what Su Dongpo was afraid of, and no high-grade cultural person would be afraid of it.
This is a true spiritual loneliness. For a cultural person, there is nothing more painful than this. Naque's famous "Businessman" describes this spiritual experience with a very beautiful artistic conception:
The missing moon hangs on the sparse tung trees, which breaks one's initial tranquility. Who sees a lonely person walking around alone? The dim and solitary shadow. Startled but looked back, no one can spare the regret. Picking out all the cold branches and refusing to live on them, the lonely sandbank is cold.
It was this unspeakable loneliness that made him completely wash away the hustle and bustle of life and search for the silent mountains and rivers and the ancients who passed away far away. Find dialogue where dialogue is impossible, and dialogue will inevitably become extraordinary.
If a soul like Su Dongpo is silent, then sooner or later, a magnificent miracle will suddenly appear and surprise the world.
However, even if he writes poems and compositions now, he will not pursue social sensation. He reflected on the past in loneliness and felt that his biggest fault in the past was his talent and lack of self-awareness. A section of tree pleases people by its gauntness, and a piece of stone pleases people by its halos. In fact, what can be used to please people is precisely their fault, and their legitimate use is not here. The things that I, Su Dongpo, have tried to win praise from others for more than thirty years are mostly my weaknesses.
Su Dongpo’s self-reflection is not a psychological adjustment to be good, but an extremely sincere self-analysis, with the purpose of finding his true self. In this process, Buddhism helped him a lot, making him accustomed to indifference and tranquility. The difficult material life forced him to cultivate wasteland himself and appreciate the original meaning of nature and life.
All of this enabled Su Dongpo to undergo an overall rebirth, and also enabled his artistic talent to be distilled and sublimated. He truly matured - like many people throughout the ages, he matured in After a disaster, mature in rebirth after death, mature in the backcountry, mature in moments when almost no one is around him. Fortunately, he is not old yet. During his stay in Huangzhou, he was between the ages of forty-four and forty-eight. For a man, these are the most important years, and he will still have a lot to do in the future. In Chinese history, many people woke up in their old age, in other words, they matured after the season. They were about to enjoy the benefits of maturity, but their steps were already staggering. Compared with them, Su Dongpo was really lucky.
Maturity is a kind of bright but not dazzling brilliance, a kind of mellow but not greasy sound, a kind of calmness that no longer needs to observe the appearance of others, a kind of finally stopping to complain to the surroundings. The atmosphere is a kind of thickness that does not need to be announced, a kind of height that is not steep. The strong passion has fermented, the sharp mountain wind has calmed down, and the rapid trickles have merged into a lake. The result -
The prelude to the eternal masterpiece has sounded, and a mysterious sky light Shooting towards Huangzhou, "Niannujiao·Chibi Nostalgic" and the "Chibi Fu" will be produced soon.
(Selected from the standard version of "Chinese Reader 4" published by People's Education Curriculum, with some deletions)
15. What is the role of Mr. Lin Yutang's "The Biography of Su Dongpo" mentioned in the second paragraph of the selected article? (4 points)
16. Why does the author say "Su Dongpo is really lucky"? (4 points)
17. Briefly analyze the artistic techniques and advantages of using wavy lines in sentences in the article. (6 points)
18. Talk about your understanding of the sentence "Beautiful poetry is the struggle and transcendence of misery" based on the context and the mature similar experiences of "many people throughout the ages." (8 points)
Reference answers
15. Content: Lin Yutang’s views contrast with the author’s views, highlighting and eliciting Su Dongpo’s “misery of life in Huangzhou”. Structurally: It leads to the following and explains the point of view of "beautiful poetry is the struggle and transcendence of misery".
16. This is in contrast to "many people wake up in their old age". (1 point) The author believes that Su Dongpo truly matured in Huangzhou and surpassed his own limitations, and "he is not old yet and will still have a lot to do in the future", that is, he still has enough life to write good poems and has enough energy. Time leaves a beautiful legacy, and the facts prove it. The author believes that compared with those who wake up too late and do nothing, "Su Dongpo is really lucky." (3 points, the meaning is similar)
17. Use metaphors (metaphors) and parallelism. (2 points) The metaphor of maturity as "brilliance", "sound", etc. vividly shows the connotation of Su Dongpo's maturity; the parallel sentence structure, majestic momentum, strong language and sonorous rhythm can better reflect Su Dongpo's transcendence in life. The atmosphere at the end prepares the ground for the following content to point out Su Dongpo's "cultural breakthrough".
(4 points)
18. ① Su Dongpo was demoted to Huangzhou and experienced a miserable life. This "enabled Su Dongpo to undergo an overall rebirth, and also enabled his artistic talent to be distilled and sublimated." ", he left literary masterpieces such as "Red Cliff Ode" in Huangzhou, "which not only announced that Huangzhou had entered a new aesthetic level, but also announced that Su Dongpo had entered a new stage of life." Suffering allowed him to finally be open-minded and free-spirited in his writing. (2 points, just contact the context and have similar meanings)
② Throughout the ages, many great people, like Su Dongpo, often achieved a lifetime of fame after experiencing hardships in life. For example, "Xibo (King Wen) was restrained and performed "The Book of Changes"; Zhongniee wrote "Spring and Autumn"; Qu Yuan was exiled and wrote "Li Sao"; Zuoqiu was blind, but he wrote "Guoyu"; Sun Tzu Binjiao edited "The Art of War" List; Bu Wei moved to Shu, "Lu Lan" in the biography; Han Fei imprisoned in Qin, "Shuo Nan" and "Lonely Anger"; three hundred poems in "Poetry" are the works of the great sages out of anger." (2 points, combined. Example)
③ "Beautiful poetry" often comes from deep thinking about "pain" and constant reflection on life. If the "breakout person" in the dilemma of life can finally transcend his own limitations and gain "maturity of personality" and write down his writing, he will eventually become a beautiful article. Of course, not all beautiful articles require poets to experience a "miserable life". It is just that the hardships of life will make people more mature, and only those who can break through the limitations of their own lives can become true masters. (4 points, just make sense)