1 Living in this mountainside residence far away from the bustling city, there is peace and quiet, but loneliness also comes, sometimes very fiercely, especially in the middle of the night. I could only walk around the room alone, drawing down the curtains to isolate myself from the cliffs and rolling waves outside the window, my eyes occasionally glancing at the milky white phone next to the bed. It rang unexpectedly, and I rushed over. It was a call from the "China Times" in Taipei. An unknown female reporter said that my book "Cultural Journey" was selling well in Taiwan, so I wanted to make an overseas trip. Telephone interview. He asked me many questions about my background, experience, and hobbies, all of which were omitted. The last question is: "In the history of Chinese culture, which writer is your favorite?" I answered: Su Dongpo. She asked again: "Which of his works do you like best?" I replied: The ones about Red Cliff written in Huangzhou. The reporter asked without a pause: "Are you talking about "Nian Nujiao·Chibi Nostalgia" and the "Red Cliff Ode" before and after it?" I said yes, and I was immediately happy for Su Dongpo. His works are the universal code of Chinese literati. Just stay there, even if it's late at night in the middle of the mountain, blocked by the strait, or a complete stranger. After putting down the phone, Huangzhou Red Cliff immediately appeared in my mind. I just visited last summer and was very impressed. I remember that before going there, some friends from Wuhan came to dissuade them. The reason was that the famous Battle of Chibi was not fought there. Su Dongpo was nostalgic for the past in the wrong place. Now we go to pay our respects seriously. To put it nicely, it is a mistake. To sound bad is to add insult to injury. The weather is so hot and the road is so long, so why bother? I know that most historians do not believe that the Battle of Chibi was actually fought there. Most of them say it was fought in Jiayu County. However, in recent years, several young and middle-aged historians in Hubei Province have held the opposite opinion, believing that Su Dongpo's nostalgia for the past was not wrong, and that Chibi in Huangzhou was the main battlefield of the war at that time. I have always been interested in this debate. Regardless of the prospects of the debate, I still want to visit Huangzhou, not to see the ruins of the ancient battlefield from a historical perspective, but to see Su Dongpo's feelings from an artistic perspective. Even if a great artist is wrong, he will still be wrong about charm. It seems Oscar Wilde said that in art there is only beauty and ugliness, not right or wrong. So I went anyway. This is Huangzhou Chibi. The ocher-red steep stone slope faces the mighty eastward river. There are dangerous paths on the slope that you can climb and overlook. There are small boats on the river for rowing and looking up. The place is not big, but it becomes imposing as you lean down. With the contrast between greatness and smallness, and the variation and perversion of visual space, there is also the value of sightseeing and meditation. Objective scenery only provides one aesthetic possibility, and different tourists realize this possibility to varying degrees. Su Dongpo used his spiritual power to inject meaning into Huangzhou's natural scenery, and it is this meaning that turns inanimate natural forms into beauty. Therefore, it can be said that Su Dongpo is not only the discoverer of Huangzhou's natural beauty, but also the determiner and constructor of Huangzhou's natural beauty. However, the complexity of the matter is that natural beauty can also define and construct people in reverse. Su Dongpo fulfilled Huangzhou, and Huangzhou also fulfilled Su Dongpo. This is really an interesting relationship that complements each other. The masterpieces written by Su Dongpo in Huangzhou not only announced that Huangzhou had entered a new aesthetic level, but also announced that Su Dongpo had entered a new stage of life. Both aspects improved together, and neither could do without the other. Su Dongpo traveled to many places, many of which were far more beautiful than Huangzhou. Why could a remote Huangzhou give him such a huge surprise and shock? Why could he invest such profound historical and life significance in Huangzhou? Why can Huangzhou become the most important life stop in his life? All this depends on his reason for coming to Huangzhou and his mentality. He came from prison with a very small official position, actually came as an exiled criminal, he came with the dirty water thrown at him by the officialdom and the literary world, he was full of luck and full of despair. Come. He was being escorted away from his family and was not qualified to choose any place other than Huangzhou, walking towards this small town that was still desolate at the time. He was very tired and embarrassed. He left Bianliang, crossed Henan, crossed the Huaihe River, entered Hubei, and arrived in Huangzhou. The depressed Huangzhou did not prepare any residence for him, so he had to stay in a temple. He wiped his face and took a breath. There was silence all around, not even a friend. He closed his eyes and shook his head. He didn't know that at this moment, he had completed a cultural breakthrough that would go down in history. Huangzhou is destined to have a magnificent dialogue with this scarred breakout that will continue the past and open up the future.