Su Shi

Life

Su Shi was the son of Su Xun; his birth order is given variously as eldest or second son. With his father and younger brother Su Zhe, he was known as one of the Three Sus and was counted among the Eight Great Writers of the Tang and Song.

His grandfather was Su Xu (973–1047), his father Su Xun (1009–1066), and his mother Cheng (1010–1057). His first wife was Wang Fu (1039–1065), his second wife Wang Runzhi (1048–1093), and his concubine Wang Chaoyun (1063–1096); his three sons were Su Mai, Su Dai, and Su Guo.

He passed the jinshi examination in the second year of the Jiayou era (1057), later passed the special examination for the Worthy and Upright, Able to Speak Out and Remonstrate Frankly, ranking third, and was appointed signing clerk and judge in the Fengxiang prefecture. After a summoned examination he entered the Historiography Institute and acted as a judge in Kaifeng; in 1065 he was appointed to the Dengwen Drum Office, soon took an institutional post, and entered the Historiography Institute directly.

When his father died in 1066, Su Shi returned to Shu to observe mourning; after completing mourning in 1069, he served in the Office of Official Certificates and the Ministry of Rites and acted as a Kaifeng prefectural judge. During the Xining era, he opposed Wang Anshi’s new policies and memorialized their disadvantages, after which he was sent out to Hangzhou; the date of his appointment as Hangzhou’s assistant prefect is given as 1071 in one chronology and 1072 in another.

He subsequently served as prefect of Mizhou, Xuzhou, and Huzhou. In 1079, after being transferred to Huzhou, he was imprisoned in the Crow Terrace Poetry Case for poetry understood as satirical, in an affair associated with Li Ding, and was later assigned as a vice military commissioner in Huangzhou; in the fourth year of Yuanfeng he was transferred to the same post in Ruzhou.

In the spring of the eighth year of Yuanfeng he obtained permission to reside in Changzhou, became prefect of Dengzhou in the tenth month, and was soon recalled as a junior palace reader. After Emperor Zhezong’s accession, he became a Secretariat Drafter and then a Hanlin Academician in 1086; in 1089 he was made prefect of Hangzhou as a Longtuge Academician.

While in Hangzhou he faced a severe drought accompanied by hunger and illness. He requested exemption from the delivery of tribute rice and ordered ever-normal-grain rice sold at reduced prices, saving many lives; because coastal residents suffered from saline and bitter well water, he also promoted the dredging of waterways for transport and built a thirty-li embankment along the eastern and western sides of West Lake, earning the people’s gratitude.

In 1091 he was summoned as Hanlin Academician-in-Chief, soon sent out as prefect of Yingzhou, and later served as prefect of Yangzhou and Dingzhou; he also held such offices as Minister of Rites. Subsequently caught up in the Yuanyou factional struggle, he was banished to Huizhou in 1094 and to Danzhou in 1097, serving as a vice prefectural officer and residing at Changhua; his final movements also took him through Lianzhou and Yongzhou.

After Emperor Huizong’s accession, he was pardoned in the third year of Yuanfu, appointed to supervise the Jade Bureau Abbey, and restored to the rank of Chaofeng Lang. He died in Changzhou in the first year of the Jianzhong Jingguo era (1101), aged sixty-six, and was buried at Jiacheng; during the reign of Xiaozong he received the posthumous name Wenzhong.

Associations and thought

Su Shi was appreciated by Ouyang Xiu early in his career and was a friend of Li Chang, Li Qingchen, Liu Ban, Wang Anguo, Huang Tingjian, and Zeng Gong. During his banishments he associated with Foyin of Guizong Temple and advocated a combined Chan and Pure Land practice.

Literary and artistic achievement

His poetry and prose were fresh and fluent, while his ci lyrics were bold, expanding the genre’s subject matter and breaking through its ornate conventions; his prose was also described as expansive and unrestrained. He was accomplished in calligraphy, painting, and historiography, was learned and interested in epigraphy, and was counted with Cai Xiang, Huang Tingjian, and Mi Fu among the Four Masters of Song calligraphy.

Later generations regarded him as a leading figure of the Northern Song literary world. Together with Su Xun and Su Zhe he formed the Three Sus, and he was counted among the Eight Great Writers of the Tang and Song.

Works

His principal surviving works include Dongpo ji (《東坡集》, forty juan), Dongpo houji (《東坡後集》, twenty juan), He Tao shi (《和陶詩》, four juan), memorials (《奏議》, fifteen juan), Inner Institutional Drafts (《內制》, ten juan), Outer Institutional Drafts (《外制》, three juan), Dongpo yizhuan (《東坡易傳》), Dongpo shuzhuan (《東坡書傳》), Dongpo yuefu (《東坡樂府》), Dongpo zhilin (《東坡志林》), Qiuchi biji (《仇池筆記》), and Dongpo tiba (《東坡題跋》).

The catalogue also lists Dongpo xiansheng zhilin (《東坡先生志林》), Gewu cutan (《格物麤談》), Zazu (《雜纂》), Lieguo Dongpo tushuo (《列國東坡圖說》), Dongpo Lunyu jie (《東坡論語解》), Dongpo xiansheng zanyi (《東坡先生奏議》), Su-Shen liangfang (《蘇沈良方》), Sheng sanzi fang (《聖散子方》), He Tao ji (《和陶集》), Neizhi ji (《內制集》), Waizhi ji (《外制集》), Dongpo xiansheng yizhuan jiuyan (《東坡先生易傳九卷》), Dongpo xiansheng shuzhuan ershi juan (《東坡先生書傳二十卷》), Guangchengzi jie yi juan (《廣成子解一卷》), Guangchengzi yi juan (《廣成子一卷》), Jiujing yi juan (《酒經一卷》), and Dongpo jiujing (《東坡酒經》).

Other listed works include Su-Shen liangfang, eight juan with supplements and a collation record (《蘇沈良方八卷拾遺二卷附校勘記一卷》), Zashu qinshi yi juan (《雜書琴事 一卷》), Wulei xianggan zhi (《物類相感志 一卷》 and 《物類相感志》), Dongpo shouze (《東坡手澤》), Wenda lu yi juan (《問答錄 一卷》), Yuqiao xianhua lu yi juan (《漁樵閑話錄 一卷》), Tianzhuan ji (《天篆記》), Zigushen ji (《子姑神記》), Zazu erxu yi juan (《雜纂二續一卷》), Tiaoxie bian yi juan (《調謔編一卷》), and Aizi zashuo yi juan (《艾子雜說一卷》); he is also listed as compiler of Han-Tang zhengshi (《漢唐正史》). A collected Su Shi全集 was compiled by later generations.