Comments on Lin Yutang's "The Biography of Su Dongpo"
Mr. Dongpo, also known as Dongpo Jushi, was a famous poet, politician, and writer in the Song Dynasty. About his biography and stories, later generations have Lots of descriptions. This article makes a review and analysis of "The Biography of Su Dongpo" written by Mr. Lin Yutang.
Introduction
Mr. Lin Yutang wrote many biographies during his lifetime, which are well known and talked about by Chinese people. This "Biography of Su Dongpo" describes the life of Su Dongpo in detail, which can be regarded as This is a classic book that is packed in boxes, and it has a profound meaning after reading it. Although this is a translation translated by later generations, the essence is still there. I hope everyone will have time to read it and become familiar with the feelings of the ancients.
Small comment: Su Dongpo is one of the eight most famous Tang and Song Dynasty writers. There are many biographies and commentaries on Su Dongpo. However, the biography of Su Dongpo by Mr. Lin Yutang is more complete and comprehensive. It objectively reproduces the demeanor of this literary giant and is worth reading.
About Su Dongpo
Mr. Su Dongpo is one of the eight famous writers of the Tang and Song Dynasties in Chinese history. Later generations love his famous sayings very much. Poetry has been admired by countless people. Just as Mr. Lin Yutang described in the book: Dongpo’s charming magic. Just like the magic in women, the beauty and fragrance in flowers are easy to feel but difficult to explain. Dongpo's main magic power is the magic power of a shining genius. People don't know whether to admire him for his fearless spirit or to protect him from others. He has a moral power. . Unable to be controlled by human beings, this force has been running on him powerfully since he was born, and it did not stop until death closed his mouth and interrupted his conversation and laughter. He waved the pen like a citron as if it were child's play. From his pen, we can hear the profound vibrations of human emotions, including joy, pleasure, dreamy awakening, and resigned endurance. He claimed to be irritable by nature, and when something bad happened, he would feel like a fly was eating him and would vomit quickly.
Su Dongpo was born in 1036 and died in 1101, the first year of Emperor Huizong’s founding of the Jingguo Dynasty. During Su Dongpo's youth, there were a number of virtuous ministers in the imperial court, such as the famous Sima Guang, Fu Bi, Ouyang Xiu, etc. During this period, there were also Wang Anshi and other famous events in history that led to the demise of the Song Dynasty. Looking back on this period of history, later generations will praise and criticize it, but objectively speaking. Mr. Dongpo lived in an era when civil servants were in power. Both the court and the people paid more attention to the spread of local culture. Therefore, the efforts and contributions made by Mr. Dongpo in that era were the inevitable product of the guest era. Although his life was bumpy, his influence on later generations was of special significance. As Mr. Lin Yutang described in the article: People like Su Dongpo had such encounters in life, and he became the subject of whispers and respect among literati. Especially after death, it is a natural thing. If compared with similar people in the West, Li Bai is a shooting star in the literary world. After a spectacular and astonishing flash of light, it burns and annihilates itself, which is similar to Shelley and Byron. Du Fu is very similar to Milton. He is both a pious philosopher and a kind elder. He is learned and skilled in literature. He writes rich emotions with simple pen and ink. Su Dongpo was always full of youthful vitality. In terms of character, he is quite like the French Victor Hugo; he has moving characteristics and a vast life that is like that of England. The era Su Dongpo lived in was doomed to be full of sorrows, and his human nature became more gentle and kind, instead of becoming acrimonious. The reason why we look back on him and admire him today is precisely because he suffered so much in the world.
Chapter comments: The literary giants in the Chinese literary world are destined to have a rough life. The charm of Dongpo lay in his lifelong efforts and painstaking efforts, and he composed many famous works. And famous sentences, its literary style is very different from that of Westerners. When later generations study Dongpo's works, they can try to infer the poet's feelings at that time, but the result is often that they are similar in form but not in spirit. As a modern literary work, it pays attention to the combination of reality and fantasy. However, it is difficult to reproduce the charm and immortal style of the ancients. This is one of the reasons why later generations highly respect Su, and it is also the literary work of Mr. Dongpo. The essence of the work has been passed down for thousands of years.
Su Dongpo’s childhood and youth
Su Dongpo was born in Meizhou (today’s Meishan, Sichuan). I remember when I was studying in Sichuan, one of my classmates was from Meishan. Maybe he didn’t Because he loved reading so much, he was asked about any famous ancient people in Meishan. He only mentioned that he only knew Su Dongpo, but was not very familiar with his life. I only know a few of Mr. Dongpo's famous quotes from the classics. Looking back now, as time goes by, there may be many young people who only know his name, but their life experience is not known. It should be well said that Mr. Yutang's "The Biography of Su Dongpo" is a very good book, which explains Mr. Dongpo's life in detail. However, there are some places where I do not completely agree with Mr. Yutang's evaluation of individual characters, but Generally speaking, Mr. Dongpo's writing is very practical and objective. After reading it now, I still have an aftertaste.
Returning to the main story, Su Dongpo had an older brother who died at birth. After he was born, he became the eldest son in the family. He had a younger brother, Su Zi, Su Che, whose father was Su Xun, and later generations. To commemorate it, it is called "三苏".
The Su family is finally a well-off family. They own their own land and may be wealthier than the middle class. When Su Dongpo was born, his grandfather was still alive at the age of sixty-three. When the old man was young, he was tall, handsome, strong, forthright and generous. It is said in the book: The old man was illiterate, but his character was extraordinary. His grandfather did not store grain like other families, but he exchanged rice for grain and stored as much as thirty or forty thousand dan in his own warehouse. Later, during a famine year when the harvest failed, his grandfather opened a warehouse to distribute grain, first to his own close relatives, then to his natal family, then to his family's tenant farmers, and finally to the poor in the same village. Only then did the neighboring farmers know the reason for his grain harvesting and admired him very much. His grandfather did not have a great influence on Su Dongpo, but Mr. Dongpo's drinking taste was influenced by him.
Talking about Mr. Dongpo’s father, Su Xun, he was taciturn by nature and never revealed his political ambitions. The fame and literary fame he pursued appeared in his two sons. My father worked hard to study until he was 27 years old, and eventually achieved success. When Su Dongpo was eight to ten years old, his father went to Beijing to take the exam. However, he failed again due to unfavorable conditions. He traveled to the Jianghuai area and was educated by his mother at home. The book I currently teach my son to read is "The Biography of Fan Pang". Xiao Dongpo asked his mother: "Mom, if I grow up to be someone like Fan Pang, would you like it?" The mother replied: "If you can be Fan Pang, why can't I be Fan Pang's mother?" ?According to written records, Su Dongpo entered school at the age of six and was able to write amazing poems by the age of ten. For example, "Ode to the Rat" describes a cunning mouse who fell into a man, pretended to be dead, and then ran away after the man fell to the ground. In the Song Dynasty, during Su Dongpo's childhood, because the emperor's wise rule strongly rewarded literature and art, school teachers also attached great importance to the cultivation and guidance of students. When Su Dongpo was eleven years old, he entered a secondary school and prepared seriously for the imperial examination. In order to prepare for the exam, students must read classics and epics, and must read classics and ancient books so well that they can recite them. It was in such an environment that Su Dongpo and his younger brother Su Che. An ancient saying goes: "If you are familiar with 300 Tang poems, you can recite them even if you don't know how to compose them. This kind of learning really had a great influence on Dongpo." In addition, my father always insisted on the simple style of his articles and warned against the gorgeous and extravagant habits that were popular at that time. Later, when the young students came to Beijing to take the exams, Ouyang Xiu, when he served as the Minister of Rites and the chief examiner of the Ministry of Rites, decided to launch a reform movement in writing style to punish those who showed off. Students who are eloquent will not be admitted.
Is it in such an environment that is suitable for the development of young people with literary genius?
Chapter summary: However, Mr. Lin Yutang’s evaluation of Dongpo’s father, although I am evaluating the previous paragraph from my own standpoint, which can be considered relatively objective. I believe that in order for a person to grow up, he must have an environment and atmosphere for learning. Without the tradition of the Su family’s studiousness and his father’s pursuit and influence on literature, Dongpo would not have grown into a famous poet. Including his younger brother's studiousness, it also has a positive effect on him. Therefore, Mr. Dongpo's childhood can be objectively evaluated based on the family atmosphere, the influence of social status and his own efforts, especially the indirect influence of his father on him, which played a very key role in his subsequent growth. .
Su Dongpo in his prime
Even though Su Dongpo was brilliant, he still had to rise from the lower ranks in his official career. In the sixth year of Jiayou's reign (1061), the imperial court appointed him as a judge of Dali affairs. He signed a letter to the judge of Fengxiang Mansion and had the right to co-sign official memorials.
Mr. Dongpo wrote a famous article in a letter to his younger brother at this time:
"Everywhere in life we ??know what to plan for, it should be like a flying dragon stepping on slush."
Occasionally, there are toe melons left on the mud, but Hongfei doesn’t care about them.
This Qijue poem has become a masterpiece of Dongpo's poetry. This period of time in Fengxiang was the most relaxing period for Mr. Dongpo. Since there were not many official duties, he was proud of having time to travel around. Although he also offended some so-called officials, at this time, because his official career was on the road, apart from work matters, he could also enjoy himself leisurely.
But a few years later, Wang Anshi's reform in 1069 forced the court to undergo a major change. The reason is that Wang Anshi is stubborn and self-willed, although the original intention of the reform is good. Regarding the content of Wang Anshi’s reform, I will not repeat it here because I have published a blog post about Wang Anshi’s reform before. Regarding Wang Anshi's reform, Su Dongpo once told the emperor that he must not overwhelm the people into obedience. He mentioned that there were rumors about the restoration of corporal punishment.
What I have recorded since I was a child, and what I have heard from the elders, are all what the Taiwan Admonition said, and they are always discussed by the world. What was agreed upon by the public discussion was followed by Taiwan's admonishment. What was attacked by the public discussion, was also attacked by Taiwan's remonstrance? Today, the material discussion is boiling, and the complaints are handed in. We can also know where the public discussion is.
Comment: In his prime, Su Dongpo not only began to show his prominence in the political arena, but also reached the level of proficiency in poetry and literature. Objectively speaking, Su Dongpo's political career has just begun. Due to the retaliation of Wang Anshi and the Tongbian faction in the court against the wise scholars in the court and Song Yingzong's high regard for Wang Anshi, Su Dongpo's political career has not yet begun despite his literary attainments. He can show his ambition, and he has different political views from Wang Anshi.
Su Dongpo’s sophistication
As Mr. Lin Yutang described: The most endearing thing about Su Dongpo was when he was an independent and free farmer making a living on his own.
In 1081 AD, Su Dongpo really started farming.
He started working in a field in Dongpo and called himself "Dongpo layman". In his short preface to "Eight Poems of Dongpo", he said: In the second year of Yu Zhihuang, I was very sleepy. My old friend Ma Zhengqing mourned my lack of food and asked for dozens of acres of his old camp for the county, so that he could work on it.
Su Dongpo once said: There is no one who can achieve enlightenment without being strict. ?Liberation or the Buddha's path begins with the self-discipline of this mind. During his stay in Huangzhou, Mr. Dongpo began to study Buddhism and Taoism, and his later works were colored by Buddhist and Taoist thoughts. He devoted himself to the study of the mysteries of the soul. He asked himself, how can one obtain peace of mind? There are Indian yoga techniques and Taoist spiritual cultivation methods, which provide people with precise mind control methods to ensure emotional stability and promote physical health. Even, of course in the distant future, an elixir of immortality was discovered. What about spiritual immortality? He was fascinated by the search for immortality. The immortality of human life and the immortality of spirit should be clearly distinguished, because no matter how you view the body, the body is just a piece of shit. If the spirit is properly cultivated, sooner or later it will leave behind this stinky bag and fly high to the spiritual world. The immortality of the body, to say the least, includes at least one goal that can be achieved through cultivation, which is to delay aging and increase life span.
In 1084 AD, Su Dongpo became an official again. At the banquet held by his neighbors and friends to see him off, he wrote a very famous poem:
Return Come and go, where will I go? Things in life come and go like a shuttle, wait and see the autumn wind, the clear waves of Luoshui, and the thin willows in front of the hall. You should remember me and don't cut the soft branches. It was passed down to the elders in the south of the Yangtze River that the weather was declining due to the sun and rain.
In 1086 AD (the first year of Yuanyou, Emperor Zhezong of the Song Dynasty), Mr. Dongpo received the favor of the Queen Mother Regent (the emperor was only 9 years old, and his grandmother acted as the agent for government affairs). When he arrived, Within eight months after Beijing, the imperial court promoted him three times. According to the ancient system, official positions are divided into nine levels. During this short period of time, he rose from the seventh level, passed through the sixth level, jumped to the fourth level, and finally stopped at the third level of Imperial Academy, drafting edicts for the emperor. At that time, he was forty-nine years old. During Su Dongpo's tenure as a Hanlin scholar, Zhi Zhihao, he drafted about 800 imperial edicts, all of which were sonorous, appropriate, respectful, concise and clear. The texts of ancient imperial edicts often quoted scriptures and were rich in illustrations and metaphors. This kind of text is easy for Mr. Dongpo to write. For example, in the edict that demoted Lu Huiqing, the content was not decided by Mr. Dongpo, but the wording of the edict turned out to be his handwriting. Su Dongpo wrote about this treacherous villain: It starts with a close friend. If they are Mo, they will be happy with each other; if they are angry, they will turn their eyes against each other and devour each other. ?
After Sima Guang’s death in September of the same year, it happened to be the fasting day when Shenzong’s spiritual tablet was delivered to the Ancestral Temple. According to the ancient calendar, all the court officials had to go to the Ancestral Temple to fast, but there was no time to express condolences to the recently deceased. Prime Minister. But it happened that Cheng Yi, a Neo-Confucian master who accepted death and adhered to ancient etiquette, was in charge of this matter. Cheng Yi said to Su Dongpo and other officials who came to express condolences: "Have you never read the Analects of Confucius?" ? The son then cried every day, but did not sing. ?Su Dongpo immediately replied: ?The Analects of Confucius does not say that if the son sings songs every day, he will not cry. ?Su Dongpo was very angry and led everyone through the door regardless of Cheng Yi's objections. Everyone stood in front of the coffin and saluted, and before leaving, they all followed the custom of looking at the coffin. When Su Dongpo saw that Sima Guang's son did not come out to receive the guests, he asked others and found out that Cheng Yi had forbidden it, saying that it had not been done since ancient times. So Su Dongpo said in front of all the officials: "Yichuan can be said to be a poor and humble person." ?Everyone burst into laughter, and Cheng Yi's face turned red. This comment can be said to hit the nail on the head.
At this time, Mr. Dongpo’s fame reached its peak. He was revered by all literati and friends, and held a high official position in the court. He suffered a lot for insisting on his opinion, which made him more admired than any of his friends. After Sima Guang's death, no one could compare with him among the scholars at that time, even though he was not suitable for the position of prime minister. But it is generally recognized that in terms of character, in the entire officialdom, he is towering above everyone else.
Comments: In his middle and old age, Mr. Dongpo reached a very high status both in official positions and in literary attainments, which can only be expressed by his superb skills and proficiency. Although he did not make great achievements in the political arena, he achieved a literary leap during this period, that is, the emergence of Su Ci. Objectively speaking, Mr. Dongpo's poetry is a milestone in the development of Song Ci. ?The Ci is Yanke?, it can be said to be a solid tradition at that time, and Su Shi successfully transformed this trend. He broke through the old frame of writing about love affairs and separation between men and women since the late Tang and Five Dynasties, expanded the subject matter of Ci, and improved the artistic conception of Ci. He can use words to express themes that have always been used by poets, such as nostalgia, nostalgia, travel notes, and reasoning. This makes words get rid of the status of existing only as lyrics of music and become a new poetry style that can develop independently. In addition, when he was an official and in politics, he successfully solved the project of six small reservoirs supplying water to Hangzhou, which was also a milestone in Mr. Dongpo's political career.
Su Dongpo’s years in exile
In AD 10***, Zhang Chun was the prime minister, and he first attacked Su Dongpo. Mr. Dongpo was the first person to be demoted to the south of Dayuling in the high mountains of Guangdong. He was deposed, deprived of his official rank, and transferred to the position of governor of Yingzhou. It was not that he was unaware of this situation, but he did not know that the second persecution would reach this level.
Shortly after the death of the Empress Dowager, he was framed twice and was exiled to Lingnan (near today's Huizhou, Guangdong). In ancient times, Lingnan was a remote mountainous place with a small population. Here he spent his time. Several years. Although life is very hard, I have fun amidst the hardship. He wrote in a letter to his friend: After being here for half a year, he has become accustomed to the soil and has no worries, because he is already happy with his fate. During this period, Mr. Dongpo also wrote at least five or six wine poems, such as: The most interesting one is "Dong Gao" "Postscript to Zi Zhuan". A certain governor in the east offered him wine as a gift. He had just finished reading "The Biography of Dong Gaozi" who was famous for his heavy drinking in the Han Dynasty. In his letter to thank the prefect for the gift of wine, he wrote and started again, describing his drinking habits, and occasionally added two items about the joys of life. An unskilled writer would inevitably increase the number to four or five, or write endlessly.
Su Dongpo has lost his position of power and is disliked by those in power. His ambitions in his prime such as serving as kings to Yao and Shun and changing the fate of the empire, are no longer the same as before. Now he is just a citizen of Huizhou, and his affairs are the affairs of his neighbors Zhai Xiucai and Mrs. Lin. Mrs. Lin is a winemaker and always gives him wine on credit. His friends were Taoist priests Wu Fuxu, Lu Weiqian, and monks from Luofu. He also had many friends among scholars, prefects, and county magistrates.
Comment: It is precisely because of the ups and downs of officialdom that this literary genius was created. Just like a poem he wrote when he settled in Changzhou in his later years: "I feel that nothing has happened in this life, but this year is still a prosperous year. I return from the mountain temple and hear the good words, and the wild flowers and birds sing with joy."
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Comprehensive comments: Mr. Lin Yutang praised Su Dongpo as "there can be no two in the world", shining like a shining star in the starry sky of China's history for thousands of years. His life was full of sorrows, but his humanity became gentler and kinder, and did not become harsh. The reason why we love Su Dongpo is because he suffered a lot in life. There is a proverb in China, that is, how a person is is judged by the coffin. Life is like a dream. How well a play is performed can only be judged when the curtain comes to an end. Dongpo's life was full of hope and awe. Human life is the life of the soul. This power forms a person's career and character. It is innate and its shape is revealed by the encounters in life. Just as he said in an inscription: "The awe-inspiring spirit does not depend on the shape." , act without relying on strength, survive without waiting for life, and die without dying. Therefore, they are stars in the sky, rivers and hells on the earth, ghosts and gods in the dark, and humans in the bright. This is commonplace and there is nothing strange about it.
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