With Zhang Zihou
Su Shi's "The Complete Works of Su Dongpo"
Original text
A certain Qi: A servant lives in Dongpo and grows rice in Pei.
I have fifty acres of farmland, and I cultivate silkworms for my wife.
Yesterday, a cow was sick and almost died. The cow doctor did not recognize its condition, but the old wife did, and said: "This cow has pimples. The best way to eat it is with mugwort porridge."
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Put your words into action.
Don’t say that after the servant was relegated, he has always been a cottager, and the old wife still has to pick up the black peony.
Speaking of this, I will smile from a thousand miles away.
——"The Complete Works of Su Dongpo"
Modern Translation
(Zhang Dun, courtesy name Zihou, was a friend of Su Shi and was an official in Beijing at the time.)
(In the second year of Yuanfeng, Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty (1079), Su Shi was accused by some dignitaries of the imperial court, impeached and demoted to the deputy envoy of Huangzhou Tuanlian.
I wrote to you with ease and pride. Zhang Zihou informed that he has personally cultivated terraced fields and sown rice. The 50 acres of land are a free place for him and his wife who are in trouble and suffering to work independently.)
Su Shi greets you.
I live on the east slope of the west side of Red Cliff. Here I open terraced fields to plant rice. There are fifty acres of paddy fields. I plow the fields and my wife raises silkworms. This is how I pass the time.
Yesterday, a cow was seriously ill and almost died. The cow doctor didn’t know what the disease was, but my wife knew. She said: "This cow is suffering from psoriasis. Let it eat Just order Artemisia annua and make porridge and you’ll be fine.”
It really works after you try this.
Don’t say that after I was demoted, I would just be an old farmer. My beloved wife still knows how to treat illnesses.
I say this to make you smile thousands of miles away.
(Black Peony: a nickname for cow)