Su Shi said: The hobby of calligraphy and painting is the healthiest of all entertainments. However, if you pay too much attention to calligraphy and painting and become too addicted, it can also harm your health.
Taking history as a guide, Su Shi cited several examples: During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhong Yao, who loved calligraphy, saw the original calligraphy of Cai Jueyong at Wei Dan's place. After his death, Zhong Yao sent people to dig up the grave in order to retrieve Cai Yong's calligraphy.
Emperor Xiaowu of the Southern Song Dynasty also loved calligraphy. Therefore, the minister Wang Sengqian clearly wrote better, but he did not dare to show it. He deliberately wrote with a bald pen and made the words ugly for fear of offending Xiaowu. Emperor Wu was suspicious.
Huan Xuan, a powerful minister of the Jin Dynasty, arranged a light boat to carry calligraphy and painting, fearing that if something happened, the calligraphy and painting would not be preserved. As a result, something happened, and he saved the calligraphy and painting but could not save himself.
Wang Ya, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, spent an unknown amount of money to collect calligraphy and paintings. He also built partition walls to hide the precious calligraphy and paintings to prevent others from discovering them. As a result, a coup occurred and not only his life was lost. The partition wall was also smashed by others. The robbers did not know the value of the paintings and calligraphy, so they only took away the gold and jade that decorated the paintings and calligraphy, and threw away the paintings and calligraphy as garbage.
The above mentioned ancient people were all obsessed with calligraphy and painting, and as a result they harmed both the country and themselves. It can be seen that "paying attention" to things is the root of disaster.
Next, Su Shi learned from history and said that when he was young, he was also obsessed with calligraphy and painting. Later, he figured out that even if he collected some treasures, if someone took them away, it would not matter to him.
No matter how good calligraphy and painting are, they are just like smoke and clouds flying away from the eyes. This sentence is the origin of the idiom "a fleeting smoke".
So, when I see good calligraphy and painting, I am very happy and appreciate it; when I lose good calligraphy and painting, it doesn’t matter and I don’t feel bad. From then on, calligraphy and painting will only bring happiness to myself, not troubles.
Su Shi used personal experience to persuade Wang Shen: You are so obsessed with calligraphy and painting now, just like I was when I was young, so I hope you can make changes like me, adjust your mentality, and become happy with calligraphy and painting. source, rather than becoming a burden in life.
Ordinarily, when writing this kind of article, one should praise the master's taste and say more auspicious words, but Su Shi was ingenious. The example he gave was digging graves and ruining his reputation. In short, it was not a good thing.
Of course Wang Shen is not very happy, but we can understand the truth in the article.
The simplest understanding of this principle is to warn people not to lose their ambition by playing with things. If we understand it at a deeper level, it is that we should consciously cultivate a sense of alienation from life.
When we put enough distance from life, we will not only find that the good aspects of life will become more beautiful, but even the bad aspects will become easier to bear.
If you understand further, you will find that you can also distance yourself from yourself. That is to say, you are both a person participating in life and at the same time watching from a distance. Own.
Beauty is always accompanied by a sense of distance. When you have this kind of remote state of life, it will be easier for you to see the beauty in many seemingly ordinary things. So to outsiders, you seem to be a person who loves life very much.
Su Shi was like this. He studied cooking and created Dongpo Pork; he studied winemaking and created Zhenyijiu; even in a desperate situation like Hainan, he would work with professionals to study new methods of making ink. Although the development failed and the house almost burned down, there was actually Dongpo Mo who used his name to sell it.
Live, but not live with a life attitude, but live with an aesthetic attitude.
The truth is not difficult to understand, but what is difficult is grasping the sense of distance.
If you can’t do it well, don’t be too demanding, because even Su Shi himself can’t always grasp the sense of distance properly, otherwise there wouldn’t be something like “Niannujiao·Chibi Nostalgic” Pathetic tone.
The key point of the sense of proportion is "nearness". It is not a good thing to be too far apart. It will be like the Europeans in the Middle Ages - they really treat real life as a temporary stay in a hotel. Entering heaven and obtaining eternal life is the only pursuit. Therefore, they are very indifferent to real affairs and feel that no matter whether they do good or bad things, it doesn't mean much.
This is understandable. If you stay in a hotel, you will not go to great lengths to repair a small piece of damaged wallpaper.
To understand "Baohuatang Ji", we can refer to Su Shi's famous seven-note poem, "Hezi Nostalgia from Mianchi":
Knowing what is the same everywhere in life should be like a flying dragon stepping on the ground. Slush.
Occasionally, there are fingers and claws left on the mud, and Hongfei is counting the things.
The old monk has died and a new pagoda has been built, and there is no reason to see the old inscriptions on the broken walls.
Do you still remember the rugged past? The road was long, people were trapped and the donkeys neighed.
This poem looks very much like the tone of an old man who has gone through many vicissitudes of life. In fact, Su Shi had just embarked on his official career at that time and was about to go to Fengxiang, Shaanxi to become an official.
That was the sixth year of Jiayou reign of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty (1061), when "Sansu" had just become famous in the capital.
Su Xun was weaving and writing ritual books in the capital. Su Che had a big conflict with Wang Anshi, so he simply resigned from his appointment and served his father at home. When Su Shi took office, Su Che sent him all the way to Zhengzhou.
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