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0苏轼（字子瞻，号东坡居士）
Why is life so unhappy, just because you've never read Su Dongpo
Nine centuries have passed, yet Su Dongpo remains the soul ferryman for countless Chinese people
When life presses down on you till you can't breathe, open this biography of Su Dongpo, you'll find there's no predicament you can't escape, only a heart that refuses to heal
In the year 1037, Su Shi was born in Meishan, Sichuan
His father Su Xun didn't start serious studying until the age of twenty seven
His mother Cheng Shi taught him the Book of Later Han herself
At ten years old, he read the story of Fan Pang's death for righteousness
He looked up and asked his mother, if I became like Pang, would you consent to that
The seed of serving the world was planted at age ten
At twenty one, he and his brother Su Che passed the imperial examination together
The chief examiner Ouyang Xiu read his paper and exclaimed, this old man must step aside, to give this person room to rise above others
The idiom to rise above others originated from this very moment
But fate never follows a script
When Su Shi first entered official service, he encountered Wang Anshi's reform
He cared deeply for the common people, he couldn't help speaking out directly
This angered the new party, several times he barely survived
At forty five, the Crow Terrace Poetry Case exploded
He was imprisoned for one hundred and three days
Once friends covered the empire, yet with one fall, few came to inquire
Barely surviving, what awaited him was an imperial edict, exiled to Huangzhou
Huangzhou was an isolated small town, his post there was merely a title in name only
Su Shi's heart was at a loss, full of confusion
Until one rainy day, he heard distant temples playing peaceful zen sounds
Suddenly he seemed to understand something, no contending, no grasping, self contentment
From then on, he shed his scholar's robe, wore coarse cloth clothes, and worked the fields like a farmer
With no side dishes, he slaughtered his sick ox, ate beef while drinking fine wine
Drunk with joy, he even placed a large watermelon on his head, walking and singing along the furrows
Imagine that scene, a once world famous literary giant, wobbling with a watermelon on his head, humming a tune
When the sun shone bright, he rowed at Red Cliff, in misty rain he smiled at wind and rain, and wrote: "No more rain, no more wind, no more blinding sun"
It was here that Su Zizhan became Su Dongpo
This Dongpo was not granted by the court, but grew from the earth by his own hands
Speaking of talent, before Su Shi, ci poetry was popular songs sung by banquet entertainers, scholars thought it beneath them
Yet Su Shi waved his brush and unleashed the great river flowing east, making ci grand like rivers and seas
When will the moon arise, making ci philosophical as the bright moon
Ten years apart, the living barely know the dead, making ci profound as the ocean
He alone elevated ci poetry to equal standing with poetry
He could also turn the most ordinary days into verse, mugwort filling the fields, short reed shoots, it is the season for river pufferfish
Daily I eat three hundred lychees, willingly forever a person of Lingnan
In Su Shi's writing, life became poetry everywhere
Yet fate did not spare him
At fifty nine he was again exiled to Huizhou, at sixty two he was sent to distant Hainan Danzhou by a solitary boat, the farther the exile the more tragic
He himself sighed, worldly affairs are but a great dream, life has only several autumns of chill
If it were anyone else, they would likely have lost heart long ago, complaining against heaven and blaming fate
But Su Dongpo did not
His openness was not about seeing through things, but about never taking himself seriously
In Huizhou, plagued by tropical diseases, he admired the vast scenery, invented roast lamb spine, developed a love for lychees, even brewed his own wine, the jade colored Zhenyi wine
In Danzhou, scarce population, no meat for food, no room for shelter, he built houses himself, named them Betel Nut Residence
In boredom he told ghost stories with villagers under trees, laughing with sheer joy
What the world called suffering, in his hands became seasoning for life
He chewed hardship, swallowed it, then dusted his hands saying, not bad, quite flavorful
And he was not merely a man of letters, but also a practical administrator
West Lake was more than half silted, he mobilized two hundred thousand laborers to build a long causeway, this is the origin of today's Su Causeway Spring Morning scene
When floods threatened the city, wealthy families fled, he said if the wealthy leave, the people will panic, who will stand with me to protect them
He led from the front and saved the city
In Danzhou he established an academy, nurturing the first provincial graduate in Hainan's history
A thousand years later, as we struggle between rat race and lying flat, we can find a third way from Su Shi
Work hard with diligence, lie flat with elegance
His greatest achievement lay not in writing how many excellent poems and ci, but in the attitude he lived
In prosperity he accomplished things, in adversity he wrote poetry, in any circumstance he never lost love and creativity for life
Open this biography of Su Dongpo, you're not reading another's story, but finding that fire within you
Su Shi has passed away, his name merely a memory
A thousand years have passed, yet Su Dongpo remains a light in the hearts of countless Chinese people
