A Brief Comment on Su Dongpo in History of Song Dynasty

Su Shi was born in Meishan, Sichuan in the middle of Northern Song Dynasty 1037, and died in Changzhou, Jiangsu in101year, at the age of 65. Su Shi's family is well-off, and his father Su Xun is a famous essayist. * * * There are three men and three women, Su Shi and his younger brother Su Zhe rank fifth and sixth, and both brothers and sisters died young. It is precisely the only two brothers left in the Su family who will become the most famous figures in the Su family in the future. So, what kind of family education did Su Shi receive when he was a child? How did this kind of education affect his fame as a teenager? What is the significance of his and his brother Su Zhe's names?

As the ancients said, learning to be excellent is an official. After more than ten years' experience, the talented Su Shi finally began to move towards official career. In 1057, Su Shi, 2 1 year-old, and Su Zhe, 81year-old brother, led by their father Su Xun, rushed to Kaifeng, then the capital, to take the imperial examination. So, did the Su Shi Brotherhood become the first in this crucial exam? Will this exam change Su Shi's fate?

Su Shi, who could have won the first place, unexpectedly won the second place in the second level of the three-level exam, which is the most critical one. For Su Shi, although this is somewhat wronged, it has left a story for later generations. We can't help asking, what did Su Shi write in this legendary article? Why is examiner Ouyang Xiu so fond of it? What special story will happen between Ouyang Xiu and Su Shi because of this article?

Su Shi is famous all over the world for his talented literary thoughts and excellent writing style. However, due to the unfortunate death of his mother, Mrs. Cheng, Su Shi had to go back to his hometown to express his condolences. Three years later, when the Su Shi brothers accompanied their father to Beijing again, the highest-level imperial examination in the Northern Song Dynasty was about to be held. Su Shi's brothers, who did their best in the exam three years ago and became famous in one fell swoop, will naturally not miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. They are ready to launch another impact on this systematic exam. So, what kind of examination system is the institutional examination? And how will the Su Shi brothers perform in this exam? Will Su Shi, who became famous as a teenager, bring more surprises to people?

From the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, through Hankou, the world-famous Three Gorges, enters Sichuan, the southwestern province of China, and then goes up along the Yangtze River, crosses Chongqing, and reaches the water source, where you can see a huge stone Buddha carved from a cliff on the riverside. The western border of Sichuan Province, at the foot of the majestic and towering Emei Mountain, is called the historical Leshan in Su Dongpo's works, where the Minjiang River joins the Yangtze River. On the mountain where the primitive tribes live in the northwest, the Minjiang River rushes, joins another river from Emei, and goes straight to Leshan Giant Stone Buddha. The torrent gradually turns to the southeast, then flows eastward, and then flows into the Sea of China. Under the shadow of Mount Emei, which is shrouded by the Millennium cloud, Meishan City in Meizhou is about 40 miles north of Leshan. In the history of China literature, this small town is famous as an outstanding local literature family. This family is the Su family, that is, the family. Father Su Xun, born with two sons, the eldest son Su Shi, the word Zi Zhan, named Dongpo; The second sons, Su Zhe, Zi You and his son, occupied three seats in the Tang and Song Dynasties.

On December 19th, the third year of Song Renzong Jingyou (1036), a baby was kicking and crying in this house. Since the death of the first son, the newborn baby has become the eldest son of this family. There is nothing special about riding this baby here now, it can be said that it is the same as other babies. Let's use this time to get to know the family in general. But let's talk about the child's birthday first, otherwise it will confuse overseas readers of China's biography. In China, a child is one year old at birth, because China people have always been willing to reach a respectable old age as soon as possible. As soon as the first new year comes, everyone is one year older, and the baby will be two years old. According to China's calculation method, a person is always two years older than his actual age before his birth and one year older after his birthday. In this book, the age is calculated according to the west, and the birthday is no longer accurately estimated. However, when it comes to Su Dongpo, we should be precise. Because he was one year old when he was born, that was1February 19, and when the new year came, he was two years old-in fact, it was less than half a month. Because his birthday is at the end of the year, according to China's age, he is always two years younger than his actual age.

The second thing about his birthday is that he was born under Scorpio Palace. According to his own words, this is the reason why he has suffered a lot in his life. Whether it is a good rumor or a bad rumor, he will always be the arrow stack of language. If it is a well-meaning rumor, he is guilty. Too bad rumors, he was humiliated for no reason. This fate is similar to that of Han Yu. Han Yu was born in the same constellation, and Han Yu was exiled by the court because of his stubbornness.

In that house, in the middle of the room wall, there is a portrait of a fairy, which depicts the picture in the middle. The baby's father, Su Xun, is now 27 years old, which is a period of mental distress in his life. He saw this portrait in the market and bought it with a jade pot. For the past seven years, he has prayed to this statue every morning. A few years ago, his wife gave birth to a girl, and the dead child was born again. He used to look forward to having a son, but now he has got it. He must be very happy; And we also know that he is suffering humiliation and pain.

Su family is finally a well-off family, with its own land, perhaps richer than the average middle-class family. There are at least two maids at home, and the family can also hire a wet nurse for Su Dongpo and his former sister. When the younger brother is born, the family can hire another wet nurse. According to the custom in China, the two wet nurses of the two brothers will always live with them and take care of their adult children for the rest of their lives.

When Su Dongpo was born, his grandfather was still alive at the age of sixty-three. When I was young, I was tall and handsome, strong, heavy drinker and generous. Then one day, Su Dongpo has become a recognized contemporary literary leader. His official position is a bachelor of Hanlin, and he knows how to make laws. His family has moved to Kaifeng City near the Palace. One day, several close friends and admirers visited him. It happened to be his grandfather's birthday, and he began to tell visitors some interesting things about this strange old man. The old man can't read, but his character is extraordinary. At that time, they lived in the country, and they had many fields. His grandfather didn't store rice like other families, but he exchanged rice for food and stored as many as 30 to 40 thousand stones in his barn. People don't know why he is like this. Then there was a poor harvest in the famine year, and his grandfather opened a warehouse to distribute food, first to his close relatives, then to his in-laws, then to his tenant farmers, and finally to the poor in the same village. Only then did others know why he had widely stored rice in the first place-because rice can be stored for several years, but it is easy to rot when the tide comes. His grandfather has no worries about food, clothing and leisure. He often takes a bottle of wine, sits on the grass with friends and relatives, and drinks and laughs to kill time. Everyone sang loudly while drinking, which surprised the serious farmers.

One day, the old man was drinking for fun when important news came. His second son, Su Dongpo's uncle, has already taken the senior high school entrance examination. There is another one nearby, and my son is also taking the exam. That's Su Dongpo's grandmother Cheng Jia. Because Su Cheng is married, it can be said that it is a double happiness. Cheng Jia is rich and powerful. It has long been interested in extravagant celebrations, but the old people in Su's family have no such intention. Knowing that your father is like a son, Uncle Su Dongpo personally sent someone from Beijing to bring the old man good news of the government, official uniforms and official hats, and plaques used by the court. At the same time, there are two things, a plush chair and a beautiful teapot. When the letter arrived, the old man was awake and drunk, with a large piece of beef in his hand. When he saw the red button on the official hat in the duffel bag, he understood at once. But when the wine was still strong, he picked up the good news and read it aloud to his friends. In a happy mood, he threw the beef in the duffel bag and put it with the official hat of the good news. He found a young man in the village to help him carry his luggage. He rode a donkey and walked to the city. This is the happiest day of his life. People in the street have heard the news of the entrance examination. When they saw the old man with cheese and a drunk riding on the donkey's back, followed by a boy carrying strange luggage, they couldn't help laughing. The Cheng family thought it was a shameful thing. Su Dongpo, on the other hand, said that only elegant people would appreciate the simple and natural beauty of the elderly. The old man is also an open-minded person. One day, as drunk as a fiddler, he walked into a temple and smashed an idol to pieces. He has a bad feeling about this statue, and the whole village is afraid of it. The more likely reason is that he is hostile to temples, because he often extorts money from believers.

Su Dongpo's drinking capacity is not inherited from his grandfather, but his drinking interest comes from his grandfather, which is not difficult to see in the future. The illiterate old man's wisdom and talent were originally hidden in him, but they blossomed in his son's son. The profundity of physical and mental energy, the openness and tolerance of mind, and the purity and integrity of intention are all hidden in the old man. The rise of the Su family in the local area, like the rise of other aristocratic families, is also in line with the natural law of infinite differences and natural selection. We have no clear evidence about the intelligence of Su Dongpo's grandmother's family, but under what circumstances, Su Cheng's accidental mixing of two lineages produced a literary genius.

Besides, his grandfather didn't have much influence on his grandson's literary life, except that his grandfather's name was Preface. This was indeed the most difficult thing for a writer in those days, because Su Dongpo was a famous writer and had to write many prefaces. If Su Dongpo uses the word "preface", he loses respect for his ancestors. So he had to rename all the prefaces in his works "quotations". It is an ancient custom in China not to say the names of parents and grandparents, which is sometimes troublesome. Especially when the father's name is a common word. In China's greatest historian Sima Qian's imperial masterpiece, we can't find a word "Tan" because "Tan" is his father's name. There was a man named "Zhao Tan", and Sima Qian changed it to "Zhao Tong" without authorization. Similarly, Ye Fan, the author of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, had to avoid his father's name "Tai", so today we can't find a word "Tai" in his 120 volume masterpiece. The poet Li Ao's father's name is "today", so the poet must use an old word to replace the modern common word "today". This taboo is caused by the taboo of writing the name of the current emperor. In the imperial examination, if one of the candidates has the same name as the emperor who died in the current dynasty, he is expelled from the examination room. But the emperor is usually called the year number or the overflow method instead of the name, so many candidates forgot the name of the emperor and were really expelled from the examination room. Sometimes an emperor will make this taboo, because it is not easy for anyone to remember the names of the ten generations of ancestors at any time. Once, an emperor didn't think clearly for a moment. He used the wrong word when naming a pavilion, and suddenly remembered that he had made a taboo and used his ancestors' names by mistake. So, I gave the name to the pavilion and changed it immediately. Su Dongpo's father, Su Xun, was taciturn by nature. As far as his political ambitions are concerned, he has been unhappy all his life. However, before his death, the fame and fame he wanted to pursue appeared on his two sons. Su Xun was endowed with unique talent, precise temperament, independent thinking and eccentric personality. Naturally, he is not an easy-going person. Until today, it is known that he didn't study until he was 27. Adults often quote this to encourage young people and tell them that as long as they work hard, they will eventually succeed. Of course, smart children may push the opposite conclusion that children don't have to concentrate on their studies. In fact, Su Xun didn't have no chance to learn writing in his childhood, but it seems that Su Xun has a strong personality and is out of control, and he is definitely disgusted with the formal education methods of that era. We all know that many talented children are really here. It is not true that he didn't read, write or write at all when he was a child. He must have left a good impression on the Cheng family when he was young, otherwise the Cheng family would not want to marry his daughter. In addition, it is equally amazing that he was only studying at the age of 27, but he was able to make a name for himself, and his name was not concealed by the name of his talented son, which is extremely unusual.

He didn't get serious until he got his eldest son, and regretted wasting his time. He felt ashamed when he saw that his brother, his brother-in-law and two elder sisters had all succeeded in scientific research and were about to become officials. Such a situation, even mediocre talents, will be inspired. For a person with such high talent and intelligence, the situation at that time must be unbearable for him. Today, it is not difficult to understand this from the wisdom shown in his collection. In his eulogy to his wife (Su Dongpo's mother), Su Xun said that his wife had inspired him to study hard because Miss Cheng had received a comprehensive and good education. Grandpa said nothing to his son and did nothing. In his eyes, his son is just a stubborn and eccentric child in every way. Although he is talented, he is idle and refuses to use it. A friend asked him why his son didn't study hard, but he refused to discipline him. He calmly replied, "I'm not worried about it." His words imply that his talented and unwilling son will realize that he made a mistake one day and will regret it. He firmly believes in this.

Sichuan residents, even as far back as the Song Dynasty, were hardworking, alert, eloquent and self-reliant. Like residents in remote areas, they still maintain some ancient customs and cultures. Since printing was invented in this province a hundred years ago, the wind of learning is on the rise. During Su Dongpo's time, there were many officials and scholars in this province. His academic attainments were higher than those in the Yellow River valley at that time, because in the imperial examination, all the candidates in the Yellow River valley failed in writing poems. Chengdu is a cultural center, famous for its exquisite stationery, Sichuan brocade and beautiful temples. There are also famous prostitutes and talented women. One hundred years before Su Dongpo was born, there were two famous female poets in Sichuan. Those literati, in their works, are different from the flashy and elegant style of articles in other regions at that time, and still retain the simple and fast tradition of the Western Han Dynasty. At that time, as now, Sichuan residents were addicted to arguments and loved eloquent articles. Even in the middle-class society, when you speak, you are always quoting classics, which is full of fun. From the perspective of mainlanders, everyone feels full of quaint and exquisite taste. Su Dongpo is naturally eloquent and will never admit defeat in the war of words. His political essays are clear and powerful, and they are very popular. It is natural to argue with evil spirits several times. Dongpo and his father, when attacked by the enemy, were compared to sophistry lobbyists in the Warring States period, while friends praised them for their eloquence in Meng literature, good at quoting classics and metaphors. Sichuan people must be outstanding as lawyers.

Because of this, Meizhou people are called "refractory". Su Dongpo once argued that the residents here are different from backward places and are not easy to be bullied by state officials. There are law books in the gentry's family, and it is not wrong to be proficient in legal provisions. Confucian scholars strive to abide by the law, and also require state officials not to break the law. If a state official is virtuous and fair, when his term of office expires, the county people will find out his image, hang it at home and bow down to it, and keep it in mind for 50 years. Locals are like modern students. The new teacher is not familiar with this position, and they will test him. If a state official is expert and capable, he will never find an excuse to make trouble. If the new state official is arrogant, there will be many things embarrassing him in the future. As Su Dongpo said, Meizhou people are difficult to treat, and state officials don't know how to treat their ears. In addition to the ancient customs in Meizhou, people have developed a social gate valve system. Noble families are divided into first-class and second-class, and they are called "Jiang Qing". Jiang Qing's family doesn't marry ordinary people. As long as the other person is not Jiang Qing's first class, it is not easy to be rich and powerful. In addition, there is a perfect custom among farmers. Every February, farmers begin to work in the fields. Pull up weeds before April. Hundreds of farmers, together. Choose two people to take care of it, one for the leaking clock and the other for the drum. A day's work starts and ends completely according to the drums. Anyone who is late and does not work well will be punished and fined. Those who work less because more people donate money to the public. When the harvest is over, farmers get together to celebrate, break the clock leak made of clay, and buy mutton wine with fines and designated donations to celebrate the harvest. At the beginning of this ceremony, the farmers were sacrificed first, then they ate and drank until they were exhausted, and then they went home separately.

Su Dongpo was eight to ten years old, and his father went to Beijing to take the exam. After falling behind, I traveled to Jianghuai area, and my mother disciplined her children at home. During this period, something happened at home, which was recorded in Su Dongpo's Biography, Song History and Su Zhe's long article for his mother. Mother is teaching her children to read the Book of the Later Han Dynasty. It is recorded in the book that the regime fell into the hands of eunuchs before the Han Dynasty was repaired. Scholars and Confucian scholars at that time rebelled against the rule of shady villains. Greed, bribery, extortion and indiscriminate arrest of innocent people are commonplace. Because local officials are lackeys raised by eunuchs, honest people, students and even risk their lives to impeach traitors. The voices of reform and protest are one after another, and investigations and trials are endless. At that time, scholars and students were either tortured or murdered under the imperial edict.

Among these upright scholars, there is a brave young man named Fan Pang, and Su Xun's wife is teaching her son to read Fan Pang's biography.

Jianning two years, sent a letter to punish party member, emergency arrest. Wudao and Du You, when they arrived in the county, held the imperial edict and cried when they heard that they had given up their beds. As soon as I heard it, I said, "It must be for me." Which means from prison. Guo Yi, the county magistrate, was frightened. When it was printed, all the bows were dead. He said: "The world is big, what is the son here?" Sun: "If you die, it will be a disaster. How dare you make your husband bear the guilt and make your mother homeless! " Its mother is with it. On Mother's Day: "Zhong Bo's filial piety is enough to support him. He will return to the grave from Long Shujun, and his life and death will be where he belongs. Only adults can break the unbearable grace, don't increase feelings! " Mother's Day: "You are as famous as Li and Du today, so why bother to hate when you are dead! With your name, can you have it both ways? " Kneel down to be taught and say goodbye. Gu said his son's day: "I want to make you evil, then evil can't do it;" If you are good, then I am not evil. " You will cry when you smell it on the road. At the age of 33.

Xiao Dongpo looked up at his mother and asked, "Mom, do you want to be like Fan Pang when you grow up?" Mother replied, "If you can be Fan Pang, can't I be Fan Pang's mother?"

Dongpo entered school at the age of six. This private school is not small, 100 students, only one teacher, a Taoist. Su Dongpo's extremely clever young mind was soon revealed. Among so many pupils, Su Dongpo and another student are the most praised by the teacher. That student is Chen Taichu. Later, he passed the imperial examination, but he became a monk and wanted to become an immortal. In his later years, Chen Dachu was always ready to fly high. One day, he visited a friend. Friends give him food and money. After he went out, he distributed all the food and money to the poor, sat cross-legged outside the door, prepared not to eat fireworks, and got rid of the world of mortals. A few days later, he swallowed his last breath and did not move. The friend asked the servant to remove his body. But it was New Year's Day, and on such an auspicious day of the year, the servants didn't want to carry the body. But the dead man said, "Never mind, I can carry it myself." He stood up, went out into the wild and died in a more comfortable place. This is what Taoist practitioners call "rising in the daytime".

When he was young, Su Dongpo had many interests besides reading. After school, he went home to spy in the bird's nest. His mother has severely warned Dongpo and his maid not to catch birds. So, a few years later, birds know that they won't be hurt in the garden, and some nest on the branches of the garden, so low that children can see them. A bird with extremely beautiful and bright feathers went to his garden for several days. Su Dongpo remembers this bird very clearly.

Sometimes officials pass by meishan town to visit the Su family, because Dongpo's uncle has become an official. The family was in a hurry, and the maid ran around barefoot, picking vegetables in the garden to kill chickens and giving a banquet. This situation left a deep impression on the children.

Dongpo and his cousins often play around their mother. He and his younger brother Zhe often go to the village market or dig in the vegetable garden. One day, the children dug up a beautiful slate, crystal clear, with exquisite green stripes on it. Under their tapping, there was a crisp metallic sound. They want to use it as an inkstone, which is very useful. The inkstone must be made of a special kind of porous stone, which is good at absorbing water and preserving it. This kind of good inkstone is very important for calligraphy. One side of the top-grade inkstone is often regarded as a treasure by literati. Good inkstone is an important thing for literati's desk, because most of their lives are closely related to it. The father gave the child an inkstone to keep until he grew up. He also has to carve special words on the inkstone to wish him fame in the future.

According to some written records, Su Dongpo could write amazing poems when he was ten years old. In his article "On Rats", we found two sentences. This essay describes a sly little mouse, which fell into an earthen urn and pretended to be dead. When the urn fell to the ground, he ran away quickly, which was a lie. At about the same time, his teacher was reading a long poem describing a group of famous scholars in the imperial court at that time. Su Dongpo, a young pupil, peeped forward behind the teacher's shoulder and began to ask questions about them. They are all celebrities in the history of China, because in Su Dongpo's childhood, China was under the rule of the most wise monarch in the Song Dynasty, and he strongly rewarded literature and art, and there was no peace in China. Nomadic peoples in the north and northwest of China, such as Jin, Liao and Xixia, once suffered greatly from China, but they were also at peace with the Song Dynasty. Under such a court, the virtuous minister was in power, and a group of talented people were favored, serving the emperor and decorating Taiping. It was at this time that Su Dongpo, a child, first heard the names of Ouyang Xiu and Fan Zhongyan, and was deeply encouraged at present. Fortunately, in the childhood of this great poet, we still have these predictions about his future appearance. Although Su Dongpo recorded many dreams and unfinished poems in his adult life, modern biographers combined explanation, intuition and fantasy to fabricate the structural form of Dongpo's subconscious neuropathy, and nothing was inadvertently revealed. Su Dongpo never mentioned diapers and constipation.

When Su Dongpo was eleven years old, he entered a middle school and carefully prepared for the imperial examination. In order to cope with the exam, students must read classics, history and poems, and classic ancient books must be familiar enough to recite. When reciting in class, students must stand with their backs to the teacher to avoid peeking at the articles open on the teacher's desk. Students who are willing to work hard recite all the texts in history books. When you endorse, you should not only pay attention to the content and knowledge of the article, but also pay attention to the words, because all the words used for writing are learned from this. People who read widely will have elegant and extraordinary happiness if they use famous quotes and allusions without knowing the source. This is a language used by people who like each other. Readers admire the author for writing such an article, and they can understand it themselves, so they are complacent. The happiness that authors and readers get comes from the suggestion and association of ideas. This kind of hint is more powerful and moving than knowing the truth, because the charm of hint is elusive when it comes to the point.

This kind of rote learning is really a difficult and laborious thing. The traditional old method is to let students recite a whole book without punctuation, and let students add punctuation to test whether they understand it thoroughly. Students who study hardest will copy classics and official history. Su Dongpo used this method when he was studying. If we think about the simple classics of China's poems and the unexpected metaphors of names in official history, this reading method has its own advantages. Because I have copied a book word by word, I have not only read it many times. This diligent method is of great benefit to Su Dongpo's future, because whenever he remonstrates with the emperor or drafts the imperial edict for the emperor, or quotes historical examples, he will never be confused, just like modern lawyers quote precedents. And when copying books, he can practice writing.

Before the invention of printing, this copying work was inevitable, but when Su Dongpo was here, the book had been printed for about one hundred years. Clay movable type printing was invented by an ordinary businessman, Bi Sheng. The method is to make a special cement into a single word, and after the word is engraved, the cement becomes hard; Then put these words on a metal plate coated with glue. After the word board is arranged, heat the glue and press it on the arranged word board with a metal plate to make the words completely flat. After the book is printed, heat the adhesive, and each type plate will easily fall off the metal plate, and then clean it for use next time.

Just as Su Dongpo and his younger brother Su Zhe were reading a lot of literary classics, his father fell behind. At that time, the imperial examination had its fixed rules. Just like the doctoral thesis of modern philosophy. In those days, to reach a certain standard, you must work hard, have a good memory for remembering facts, and of course have normal intelligence. When intelligence and creativity are too high, it is an obstacle to the exam, not beneficial. Many talented writers, such as the poet Qin Shaoyou, failed the exam. Nine times out of ten, the weakness of Su Xun's failure lies in poetry. To test poetry, one should have considerable artistic taste and exquisite wording, while Su Xun mainly pays attention to conception. Because a scholar's official career is the only way to glory and success except teaching, his father will inevitably feel uneasy and depressed when he leaves Sun Shan.

The younger generation reads the classics aloud, while the older generation leans on the bed to listen. The cadence is crisp and sweet, which the older generation thinks is a great pleasure in life. In this way, the father can correct his son's pronunciation mistakes, because beginners naturally have many difficulties in reading classics. Just as Ouyang Xiu and later Su Dongpo listened to their sons' reading by the bedside, now Su Xun also listened to the sweet reading sounds of his two sons by the bedside. His eyes were fixed on the ceiling, and his mood was probably like a hunter shooting the last arrow and missing the deer, as if to catch a new arrow and let his son shoot it again. The child's eyes and bright voice convinced his father that they would succeed in pursuing fame, so his father regained hope, and the wounded honor heart was incurable. At this time, the sons of two young people may have surpassed their father in reciting classics and excellent calligraphy, but the young style is clearer than the old one. Later, a student of Su Dongpo once said that Su Xun was gifted, but Su Dongpo, as a son, was more learned in academic thought than his father. Su Xun didn't completely give up fame. Although he failed in the exam, if he can't believe his son's high school, he is the biggest dementia in the world. I don't mean to be disrespectful to this father, because he taught his son in a pure and elegant style, and taught him to study history books as a way to govern the country and even the rise and fall of the country.

Fortunately for Su Dongpo, his father always insisted on the simple style of the article and urged him to restrain the gorgeous habits that were popular at that time. Because later, when young students rushed to Beijing to catch the exam, Ouyang Xiu, the minister of rites and the examiner of rites, was determined to launch a movement to reform the style of writing, so he took the opportunity to exclude all students who were only addicted to carving sentences and showing off gorgeous rhetoric. The so-called gorgeous style of writing can be said to be to pile up difficult words and difficult allusions in order to achieve the beauty of the article. In such an article, it is difficult to find a simple and natural sentence or two. The most taboo thing is to substitute things for names, and the most fearful thing is that sentences are plain and unpretentious. Su Dongpo said that this beautifully dressed article is fragmented in words, regardless of the effect of the whole article, just like Lao Ji with gorgeous jewels in her arms on the day of the play.

The atmosphere of this family is just suitable for the development of young people with literary talent. All kinds of books are put on the shelves. Grandfather is very different now, because the second son has been the judge of the official government, and the father has the title of "Judge of Dali". These official titles are entirely honorary, and the main advantage is that they are easy to address other officials. Sometimes it seems that getting such an official title engraved on the epitaph is not a waste of life-it means that if a person is not born a gentry, at least he wants to die like a gentry. If you happen to die too early and haven't had time to get this honor, there is a convenient way to get the title after you die. In fact, in the Song Dynasty, even the official officials of the imperial court, their titles had little to do with their actual duties. When reading Su Jia's epitaph, it is easy for readers to mistakenly think that Su Dongpo's grandfather was a judge or even a teacher in Dali, and his father was also a teacher of the prince-in fact, these honorary titles were awarded by the court when Su Zhe was an assistant minister. Su Dongpo has an uncle who is an official at this time, and two aunts are also married to be an official. So his grandfather and grandfather both have official titles, one is honorary and the other is practical, as I said just now.

In Su's home, Dongpo grew up together and studied together. The person closest to him in the future is his younger brother Zheziyou. The love between their brothers and the deep brotherhood in the process of their future rise and fall are the themes sung by Su Dongpo all his life. The two brothers comforted each other when they were sad, helped each other when they were in trouble, met in their dreams and wrote poems and messages to each other. Even in China's ethical state, the beauty of brotherhood between brothers is unusual. The natural temperament of perilla is quiet, cold, steady and practical. In officialdom, she is more proud than her brother and has a higher position. Although they have the same views on politics, the ups and downs of their official careers are the same, and their sons are calm and alert. Every time he gives advice to his brother, he benefits a lot. Maybe he is not as stubborn and headstrong as his brother; Perhaps because he is not as brilliant and famous as his brother, he is not so dangerous and terrible in the eyes of his political opponents. Now they are studying at home. Dongpo is not only a classmate, but also a mentor to his younger brother. In a poem he wrote, he said, "I know little about my son's reasons, and my talent is harmonious and clear." Is my brother alone? If you are a good friend, you will be born. " Ziyou also said on his brother's epitaph: "I take public servants as my profession and learn from them." You caress me, you are my brother, and you teach me, you are my teacher. "

So far, I just explained Susan's name. According to ancient customs, a China scholar has several names. Besides surnames, official names, signatures in letters and official documents should all use this name. In addition, there is another word that is spoken and spoken by friends. When ordinary people are polite to a person, they praise his first name without mentioning his surname, and then add the word "Mr.". In addition, some scholars and literati have another nickname, which is used as the name of the study.