32 Facts About Su Shi

1.

Su Shi, courtesy name Zizhan, art name Dongpo, was a Chinese calligrapher, essayist, gastronomer, pharmacologist, poet, politician, and travel writer during the Song dynasty.

2.

Su Shi is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished figures in classical Chinese literature, having produced some of the most well-known poems, lyrics, prose, and essays.

3.

Su Shi was famed as an essayist, and his prose writings lucidly contribute to the understanding of topics such as 11th-century Chinese travel literature or detailed information on the contemporary Chinese iron industry.

4.

Su Shi's poetry has a long history of popularity and influence in China, Japan, and other areas in the near vicinity and is well known in the English-speaking parts of the world through the translations by Arthur Waley, among others.

5.

Su Shi was born in Meishan, near Mount Emei today the Sichuan province.

6.

Su Shi's given name, Shi, refers to the crossbar railing at the front of a chariot; Su Xun felt that the railing was a humble, but indispensable, part of a carriage.

7.

Su Shi had served as a magistrate in Mi Prefecture, which is located in modern-day Zhucheng County of Shandong province.

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8.

Su Shi was often at odds with the political faction headed by Wang Anshi.

9.

Su Shi once wrote a poem criticizing Wang Anshi's reforms, especially the government monopoly imposed on the salt industry.

10.

The dominance of the reformist faction at court allowed the New Policy Group greater ability to have Su Shi exiled for political crimes.

11.

The claim was that Su Shi was criticizing the emperor, when in fact Su Shi's poetry was aimed at criticizing Wang's reforms.

12.

Su Shi lived at a farm called Dongpo, from which he took his literary pseudonym.

13.

However, Su Shi was banished a second time to Huizhou and Danzhou, Hainan.

14.

Su Shi was aware that it was Shen Kuo who, as regional inspector of Zhejiang, presented Su Shi's poetry to the court sometime between 1073 and 1075 with concern that it expressed abusive and hateful sentiments against the Song court.

15.

Su Shi was depicted in artwork made posthumously, such as in Li Song's painting of Su traveling in a boat, known as Su Dongpo at Red Cliff, after Su Song's poem written about a 3rd-century Chinese battle.

16.

Su Shi died 13 years later in 1065, on the second day of the fifth Chinese lunar month, after bearing him a son, Su Mai.

17.

Heartbroken, Su Shi wrote a memorial for her, stating that Wang Fu was not just a virtuous wife but advised him frequently on the integrity of his acquaintances when he was an official.

18.

Ten years after the death of his first wife, Su Shi composed a poem after dreaming of the deceased Wang Fu in the night at Mi Prefecture.

19.

In 1068, two years after Wang Fu's death, Su Shi married Wang Runzhi, cousin of his first wife, and 11 years his junior.

20.

Su Shi praised Runzhi for being an understanding wife who treated his three sons equally.

21.

Once, Su Shi was angry with his young son for not understanding his unhappiness during his political exile.

22.

On his second wife's second birthday after her death, Su Shi wrote another ci poem, "To the tune of 'Butterflies going after Flowers'", for her.

23.

Su Shi taught herself to read, having formerly been illiterate.

24.

Su Shi's beloved younger brother was able to join him for the mid-autumn festival, which inspired the poem "Mid-Autumn Moon" reflecting on the preciousness of time with family.

25.

Su Shi had three sons who survived to adulthood: the eldest, Su Mai, who would become a government official by 1084.

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26.

When Su Shi died in 1101, his younger brother Su Zhe buried him alongside second wife Wang Runzhi according to his wishes.

27.

Around 2,700 of Su Shi's poems have survived, along with 800 written letters.

28.

Su Shi excelled in the shi, ci and fu forms of poetry, as well as prose, calligraphy and painting.

29.

Su Shi founded the haofang school, which cultivated an attitude of heroic abandon.

30.

Su Shi wrote essays as well, many of which are on politics and governance, including his Liuhoulun.

31.

Su Shi wrote poems on Buddhist topics, including a poem later extensively commented on by Eihei Dogen, the founder of the Japanese Soto school of Zen, in a chapter of his work Shobogenzo entitled The Sounds of Valley Streams, the Forms of Mountains.

32.

Su Shi had totally forgotten the stew, which in the meantime had now become extremely thick-cooked, until its very fragrant smell reminded him of it.