Midsummer evening.
The river surface is sparkling and gulls are chattering. The south wind sweeps away the residual heat and gives time for the setting sun and clouds to shine brightly. There is a mountain island in the river, where Jialan dominates. The mountain gate overlooks the vast river, with the light of clouds and sparse fallen leaves giving it a lonely coolness.
This was not the case an hour ago. The incense was everywhere, and the monks gathered in front of the Mahavira Hall. They sat cross-legged on futons and listened to the great monk's sermons. The red candle wax drips from my Zen soil, and the land and water will talk about the compassion of the Buddha. After chanting the Buddha's name, the monks dispersed. Among them was an old man with white hair and a quinoa stick, who stood up slowly. When the abbot saw this, he clasped his hands and walked forward to whisper. Seeing the old man smile faintly, he shook his hand, said a few words, and then went to the tower alone.
The holding of this Dharma conference is related to the old man. Before that, he had walked a long way, but this was not the end. He just walked around when he rested. He did not expect such a grand ceremony to be held. Along the way, he wanted to call his friends over to listen to the Master's speech. What is sent is a letter and what comes back is a poem. The poem says that this friend had sores on his feet and was living in the mountains. He could not come to ask for forgiveness. The old man saw the letter as if he had met him before, and nodded at the handwriting. Yuan Zhang's handwriting had reached a new level.
Yuanzhang is Mifu, and the mountain is Beigu Mountain. The old man is Su Shi. The temple was named Longyou, located in Jinshan, which is now Jinshan Temple.
Su Shi is sixty-four years old. Although the reception in the temple was grand, he preferred to be quieter so he could walk around the temple. The abbot wanted to accompany him, but he declined.
I was in good spirits until I saw the portrait of myself in the temple.
A portrait of yourself? That's right. This is a painting by my friend Li Gonglin. Li Gonglin's horse paintings are unique in the history of painting. He is from Tongcheng, Anhui. Before that, I had visited many places with Su Shi, and Su Shi had written poems praising his painting skills.
An old friend I haven’t seen for a long time, a handwriting I haven’t seen for a long time, and myself I haven’t seen for a long time.
I was at a loss for words, so I turned around to find pen and ink, and wrote a few poems that were neither cloudy nor sunny:
After I finished writing, I put my pen down and faced the window. The red sun is about to fall, half of the river is rustling and half of the river is red; the evening wind blows slowly, and the mountains are cool and the sky is clear.
Some people say that this is Su Shi's self-deprecating broad-mindedness. I said, this is Su Shi's dying indifference.
The history of his rare relegation is widely known, and those places are scattered throughout the territory of the Northern Song Dynasty. Self-deprecation is a wise person's humorous response to mistakes and a humorous reflection on the spiritual aftermath, but these are no longer suitable for Su Shi now. It changes slowly. When I return from the far south, after wandering around for a long time, it becomes clear and bright. The paper on the question of fate has been wiped away by Su Shi. What we see now is the boundless realm of life. He examined his dream life and stared at the complicated vines.
Su Shi thought of his youth.
In his first try, "The Theory of Honesty and Honesty in Punishment and Reward" won a good reputation and was immediately praised by literary leader Ouyang Xiu. The spring breeze is proud of the horse's hoofs, which are like those of Sun Quan of the Eastern Wu Dynasty. The dust rises from the mountains of Mizhou. At that time, Su Shi was indeed angular, vigorous and vigorous. He was eager to serve the country, but his passion was still unfulfilled. He is very conceited, loves to write and compete with others.
Mizhou? Su Shi looked north, and there were a few lights on the riverside, and the sky was dim. Looking further north, we can see Miszhou under the vast sky. In the old days, he led Huang Qingcang and galloped his horse, but in the blink of an eye, he was like Huang Rucang, running away in embarrassment. Words like "Shui Tiao Ge Tou" indeed convey the eternal wishes of old age, but was my heart and heart then as mellow as it is now? Later, he and Foyin sang drunkenly on the high platform in Jinshan, and there was also this song. At the end of the day, Foyin has been dead for three years. "Eight winds cannot blow", and there is no one who can cross the river to argue.
There is a moon tonight, where is Ziyou thousands of miles away? The elder brother and the younger brother are both old.
Speaking of which, "He Zi Nostalgia from Mianchi" is the poem that foretells his life in the past forty years:
Later, he became the victim of the Wutai poetry case, and his friends suddenly changed. There were countless enemies and flies, and he was finally demoted to Huangzhou.
A sinner who deceives the emperor and ignores his superiors, Huangzhou's deputy envoy of regiment training. The eagle bow was stretched into a full moon, but he himself became a wolf, shooting into a desperate situation full of reeds.
The experiences of several months made him panic, and the poverty situation made him bitter. A major change that had not happened in the past forty years. From struggling on death row to being freed with just one sentence, the change from the blue sky to the underworld made him doubt himself and the emptiness and reality of life. The dual depression of spirit and reality made him particularly lonely while living in Dinghui Yuan:
He carefully looked at the past and examined his own unbearability. In the past, he sought external perfection and longed for the attention and enthusiasm of others. It was from here that he began to re-understand the changes in the world and the ups and downs of personnel. He gradually became his own Su Shi, listening to his more mature voice.
He was once a blazing fire, flying domineeringly, trying to burn out all the heat energy, so that his family, monarch and country would have the best of everything. Now, he wants to become an endless stream of clear water, following the waves for thousands of miles, and integrating everything.
The misery of Huangzhou forged Su Shi, but his works showed a different mentality:
Su Shi squinted his eyes, and the western sky was completely dark, just like at that time. Looking up at the sky in the Buddhist temple. From here, you can go upstream for more than a thousand miles to reach Huangzhou.
Because he escaped, he was free, and Su Shi's steps were free. On the reed boat, I entrust the rest of my life; under the red cliff, the stormy waves crash on the shore; in the Yangtze River, I buckle the side and sing. Although it is not the Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms, Dongpo's work has made his mind wander to its place.
In addition to his dissolute behavior, Su Shi's grasp of the spirit was difficult for people at the time to match.
The hand that changes clouds and rain, life and death in a moment. Su Shi was picked up like a chess piece and thrown to Huizhou, and then to Danzhou further away. Of these two places, the former is in Guangdong and the latter is in Hainan.
Su Shi no longer panicked and smiled at the helplessness of fate. In the name of loyalty to the emperor and the righteousness of the country, politicians perform self-interested actions, but politicians always know the fundamentals of the people in the wild. Su Shi is invisible in the Central Plains. He has been a practical man in Lingnan for nearly 20 years.
When he first arrived in Huizhou, he found that the garrison lacked barracks and the sergeants were scattered in the city, often disturbing the residents. If soldiers are not honest, how can they benefit the people and protect their families? If soldiers have too much time to take care of themselves, how can they care about others? He wrote to Cheng Zhengfu and got a good solution: hundreds of barracks were built, which ended the troubles of the people in Huizhou City.
He also recreated the West Lake project in Hangzhou. Fenghu, Huizhou, is disconnected from east to west, posing great transportation obstacles to local people. Led by Su Shi, sponsored by his brother-in-law Shi, and directed by Xigu of Chanqi Temple, the project to benefit the people began. Su Shi also inspected the progress and supervised the expenditure. In the end, it ran through from east to west, and people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait applauded. Later, people called this body of water the West Lake.
One year, Huizhou had a bumper crop of grain, but the government only needed money to collect taxes. People sold the grain at twice the price of previous years, but still couldn't pay enough. It was him, Su Shi reported the situation to Cheng Zhengfu, Cheng Zhengfu discussed with some court officials, and obtained approval to allow the people to pay all their money and food, and then the matter was settled.
Who is Cheng Zhengfu? This man was Su Shi's cousin, but due to family reasons, the Su and Cheng families broke up, and Su Shi and Cheng Zhengfu had no contact for many years. As soon as Su Shi was demoted to Huizhou, the imperial court sent Cheng to manage the judicial work in the area and manage the mulberry crops. The purpose is very clear, to use old grudges to make new grudges and bring down Su Shi. However, they misunderstood Cheng Zhengfu, which also made them look funny.
Their good intentions made Su Shi feel out of place. It was on this land that Chaoyun, who had accompanied Su Shi for many years, passed away. "Untimely" is what Chaoyun said.
Chaoyun was a lovely woman who had a close friendship with Su Shi and later became his concubine, worshiping Buddha and chanting sutras with him. Su Shi was grateful to this woman for accompanying him on the most difficult journey in decades. The flowers withered, and Su Shi was buried in the lush pine forest of Qichan Temple in accordance with his last wish. Every time it rains at dusk, I always think of morning clouds.
Huizhou Huizhou, benefiting the people, is everything safe? Su Shi smiled bitterly. There was no basis for gain or loss, and the coming and going was unpredictable.
Su Shi’s next stop will be arriving soon.
Four
Hainan.
The ends of the earth have always been a place I wanted to visit. In my imagination, the sea water there smells like the sky, and the sky has the laughter of sea water. Sure enough, when I saw Hainan from the WeChat of Hainan writer Mr. Mei Guoyun, I understood the meaning of the words "sky" and "sky".
The beautiful word "Tianya Haijiao" is closely related to Su Shi. The cultural history of Hainan cannot avoid Su Shi.
When Su Shi came to Danzhou, his hair was already gray. Here his career was broader.
When the Central Plains Wuxie Getai was established, Danzhou was still a slash-and-burn farming country, and the living conditions of the local aborigines were extremely poor. Su Shi was demoted to the south, but he brought advanced farming technology to the local people and improved people's food supply problems. ——This is the agriculturist Su Shi;
Survival is guaranteed, but the local climate often causes people to contract diseases. In an environment where crop harvests cannot be guaranteed, how can there be any medical and health conditions? Su Shi relied on his research on the functions of medicine in Huangzhou and other places to guide people to improve their medical standards, including improving water sources and introducing clean water. Huangzhou's experience once made Su Shi painful, but Huangzhou helped Su Shi become self-reliant. If it hadn’t been for all the thinking during that period, I might have been too much to bear when we arrived in Danzhou. ——This is Su Shi, a medical scientist;
Before Su Shi’s arrival, Hainan’s educational history results were almost zero. Illiteracy abounded, which gave Su Shi a headache. Then an academy was established and classes were opened to recruit apprentices. The academy was buzzing with people. This was the first clear sound of reading in Hainan. The sound spread further and further, and even a student from Qiongzhou, a hundred miles away, rushed to the academy. It was this student who came from afar and became the first person to be elected in the history of Hainan. His name was Jiang Tangzuo. ——This is the educator Su Shi.
Before Jiang Tangzuo took the imperial examination, Su Shi gave him a poem: "The sea has never broken the earth's veins, and the white robe has broken and joined for the first time." The remaining half was left to be added to the list. However, he never waited until he completed the second half of the poem.
If he completed his spiritual growth in Huangzhou, then it was the initial practice in Huizhou, and he was a pioneer in Danzhou. He is like a helmsman, opening up a sea of ??civilization for Hainan and entering a new historical period. Hainan showcases marine civilization with pure force and has Su Shi's great achievements.
In his heart, "the ends of the earth and the ends of the earth" have another hidden meaning.
I always feel uneasy when facing Su Shi. He is the only omnipotent person in the history of ancient culture, and he is also the most dazzling and least dazzling person. From a distance, we see him as a friend of the old farmers in the fields, who loves to tease and talk, but when we get closer, he becomes as towering as a mountain, as bright as the moon, and as clear as the wind. He is such a multi-faceted character, and it is strange that people do not comment on his character.
It is precisely with such multi-faceted characters that we can better understand the solemnity and humor of life, the elegance and popularity of the spirit, the monotony and complexity of life, the depth and simplicity of the soul, the magnificence and the alienation of the world.
Carrying the name of a criminal, he was relegated to all directions. He fully understands the stakes of politics and does not focus on the condemnation of others. In Huangzhou, he analyzed himself and put a lot of effort into clearing away all the mental contamination. He realized that those sins were spiritual impurities. Rather than being judged by others, it is better to say that he is looking for the root cause of his illness. Regarding those judges, we see that Su Shi did not invest energy, but looked at himself and always focused on the growth of his own nature. His achievements in Huizhou and Danzhou just showed his profound concentration, which originated from a perfect and mature mind. The scholar-bureaucrats' sense of social responsibility and their own character and ethics were fully demonstrated during this period. Su Shi's body was filled with the harmonious and peaceful "awe-inspiring spirit", so the ups and downs of the wind could not increase or decrease a single bit of it.
For politics, the people and the heaven will be nourished; for literature, it will transform the heart and nourish the mind. There is no need to go into details about Su Shi's artistic works. The literature, calligraphy and painting during the Huangzhou period have reached a new level, which is closely related to the ups and downs he experienced, which led to the repeated elevation of his life horizons. Suffering does not necessarily make people grow, sometimes growth is also a kind of regression. But in Su Shi's case, he was keenly aware of the old habits, broke the boundaries of the spirit, plucked up the weeds in his character, and walked towards the ends of the world, where the clouds were steaming and the clouds were shining.
I don’t think that the gray wood and the untied boat are dark and negative. It overturns the existing universal concept of life, seizes the essence of life under alarmism, and provides a cosmic perspective on life experience and life. The mood was ruthlessly destroyed and a more mellow personality was reshaped. This kind of personality can be calm in the rough waves crashing on the shore, or scream and walk slowly on the lonely sandbank; it can remain unmoving in the miasma of people, and it can be at ease in the desolation and ignorance. Chibi in Huangzhou heard his chanting, West Lake in Huizhou lengthened his figure, and the sea in Danzhou cultivated his tolerance. In the end, for oneself and the people, one achieves great success.
Piaomiao Guhong, flying in the snow, and later the independent Duanya, the loneliness of no one in the light, wind and moon. This sense of loneliness and wandering makes people think deeply and be fascinated by it, and it makes people sigh after reading the book.
I always felt that he had a special purpose when he stayed at Jinshan Temple. He was born in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and drifted into Huangzhou by stumbling all the way. As an old man, he chose the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, wanting to be on par with the East China Sea? In this place, you can see Xumi in the north and Suzhou and Hangzhou in the south. He once said that he was a monk in his previous life, and we also saw his compassion and tolerance for others. The sound of Buddha's Dharma and Sanskrit eliminated his attachment and dependence.
Now that the original intention of wandering has been found and ended in the end of the world, this flying giant will finally stop.
You can hear the waves of the river at night and the waves of the pines at dawn. The bright moon is thousands of miles away and penetrates the river. The clearness returns to silence, and the darkness has its own shadow. On the pavilion, I felt the fleeting moment of heaven and earth, and a handful of water from the falling moon fell into my heart. He is a human being who has passed through all the stations of life and lives by the Yangtze River.
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