Su Shi's life was ups and downs, and he traveled everywhere, and his life experience was extremely rich. He is good at summing up experience from life experience and seeing laws from objective things. In his eyes, ordinary life content and natural scenery contain profound truth. For example, in two poems, "Topic of Xilin Wall" and "Looking Back on the Past from Mianchi", natural phenomena rose to philosophy, and the perception of life turned into rational reflection. The philosophy in poetry is naturally expressed through vivid artistic images, not through logical deduction or discussion and analysis.
Deep thinking about life makes Su Shi take a calm and broad-minded attitude towards ups and downs. Su Shi's poems in adversity certainly contain pain, resentment and depression, but more are the arrogance and transcendence of suffering shown by Su Shi's poems. Su Shi has profound knowledge, mastered the artistic skills of poetry to the point of perfection, and has an amazing spirit of innovation in treating artistic norms. Moreover, the expressive force of Su Shi's poems is amazing, and there is almost no theme that Su Shi's poems can't contain.
Generally speaking, Su Shi has high attainments in writing and poetry, which can be regarded as the representative of the highest literary achievement in the Song Dynasty. Moreover, Su Shi's creative activities are not limited to literature. He has made outstanding achievements in calligraphy, painting and other fields, and also made contributions in medicine, cooking, water conservancy and other skills. Su Shi is a typical representative of the cultural spirit in Song Dynasty.
Judging from the scope of literary history, Su Shi's significance mainly has two points: First, Su Shi's attitude towards life has become a paradigm respected by later scholars: advancing and retreating freely, not being shocked by humiliation. Because Su Shi integrated the two attitudes of feudal scholars on the same value scale, he was able to keep calm and go all out. Of course, this paradigm is more suitable for scholars who have suffered from ups and downs, and it can lead to a life of integrity and abundance, which is exactly what scholars in the past dynasties after the Song Dynasty hoped to do.
Secondly, Su Shi's aesthetic attitude provides an enlightening aesthetic paradigm for later generations. He embraces the world with a broad aesthetic vision, so everything is considerable and beauty is everywhere. This paradigm has opened up a new world for future generations in subject matter, content and expression. Therefore, it is a historical necessity that Su Shi is universally loved by later literati.