Reading Su Dongpo's Huangzhou: Another day of life and coolness
/Huangzhou: Another day of cool life
Broken forests, bright bamboos, hidden walls, cicadas and decaying grass, small ponds? I can see birds from time to time when I turn over the blank page, and the red sprouts in the water are fragrant and fragrant.
Outside the village, next to the ancient city, the staff slowly turns to the setting sun. It rained at three o'clock last night, and it was cool all day long.
——"Partridge Sky"
This song "Partridge Sky" was composed probably in June of the sixth year of Yuanfeng Shenzong (1083), when Su Shi was relegated to Huangzhou. After experiencing the spiritual crisis and economic crisis when he first arrived in Huangzhou, Su Shi was able to adapt to the circumstances, integrate himself with Huangzhou optimistically, and live a leisurely and secluded life.
Huangzhou is a desolate and remote town. Su Shi came to Huangzhou as a prisoner. When he first arrived in Huangzhou, he had no place to live and temporarily stayed in the temple in Dinghuiyuan. He lived a lonely life in Dinghuiyuan, thanking guests behind closed doors all day long and drinking to soothe his sorrows. There is a famous crabapple flower in Dinghuiyuan, but the locals don't know how valuable it is. Begonia is a famous flower in Sichuan, but now it has been relegated to remote valleys. Obviously, the fate of this crabapple is a reflection of Su Shi. On a sleepless night, Su Shi wandered alone under the moonlight, feeling sentimental, so he wrote a poem "Bu Suanzi·Residence at Dinghuiyuan in Huangzhou":
The missing moon and the sparse tung trees make people's first tranquility disappear. Who can see lonely people coming and going alone, misty and solitary shadows.
Startled but looked back, no one can forgive him for his hatred. Picking out all the cold branches and refusing to live on them, the lonely sandbank is cold.
——"Bu Suanzi·Residence in Dinghuiyuan, Huangzhou"
This poem reflects Su Shi's lonely mood when he first arrived in Huangzhou, living under the shelter of others and having no sense of home. Su Shi faced not only a spiritual crisis, but also an economic crisis. Later, he reclaimed the land on the east slope and built a snow hall, and his life gradually became stable. In his poem, he compared himself with Tao Yuanming, feeling that his current life was very similar to that of Tao Yuanming after he retired.
I woke up drunk from a dream. It is only clear that it is the previous life. Traveling all over the world, I still work hard. There was enough spring rain on the east slope last night, and the black magpies were happy, reporting a new sunny day.
The sound of a hidden spring on the west bank of the Snow Hall. The mountain in the north is sloping and the stream is flowing across it. Looking south to the Pavilion Hill, Zeng City stands tall and lonely. They are all the scenery of Xiechuan that day. I am old and I will leave my remaining years behind.
——"Jiang Chengzi"
At this time, Su Shi and Tao Yuanming had similarities and differences. Tao Yuanming finally saw through the darkness of the Jin Dynasty and was no longer willing to give in for five buckets of rice. Although Su Shi was banished, he still cared about the court. After Su Shi opened up wasteland and farmed, he gradually adapted to folk life. He no longer stayed at home, but made friends. It was just that he used to make friends with his colleagues in the officialdom, but now he made friends with the local mountain villagers.
There is an Anguo Temple in the south of Huangzhou City. The abbot, Zen Master Jilian, is a Taoist monk. After Su Shi interacted with him, his mood changed greatly. He became a frequent visitor to Anguo Temple and often went to reflect on himself. Return at dusk. It was precisely because Su Shi devoted himself to practicing Zen that he had spiritual sustenance. From then on, the mountains, rivers, flowers and plants were full of spirituality in his paintings.
What this song "Partridge Sky" expresses is Su Shi's cheerful and leisurely mood when he was traveling after the rain.
There is a mountain peak hidden behind the woods, and a cluster of green bamboos vaguely hides the wall of my house. Beside the pond outside the door, the grass was luxuriant, and cicadas were chirping on the weeping willows beside the pond. The noise was very annoying. A group of egrets appear on the pond from time to time, flying up and down playfully, sometimes east, sometimes west, sometimes rising, sometimes falling. I don't know if they are tired from being busy. On the contrary, the delicate lotus blossoms bloom quietly, as if listening to the cicadas' chirping, or watching the birds flying playfully. Its beautiful shadow is reflected in the water, standing gracefully and emitting a little fragrance.
The sunset is just right, why not go out for a walk. So I held my quinoa staff and wandered leisurely outside the village house, aimlessly strolling beside the ancient city. I saw the setting sun covering the western sky, like a colorful feather coat draped over the green hills. Summer's face becomes so fast like this. The drizzle in the middle of the night last night seems to understand people's thoughts, and it timely douses the steaming heat and brings waves of coolness to people.
"The mountains are broken by forests, the bamboos are hidden behind the wall, and the cicadas and grass are scattered in the small pond." This sentence describes the scenery around the cottage in late summer and early autumn. There are towering mountains and lush trees in the distance, and green bamboos and small courtyards nearby, as well as singing cicadas, decaying grasses and small ponds. These objects form a fresh and vivid rural painting. The woods, green mountains, and green bamboos are all still life. With the sound of cicadas, these scenery suddenly become lively. The word "chaos" makes people seem to hear the continuous sound of cicadas, which is so noisy that it makes people a little upset.
"You can often see birds turning over the blank pages, and the red pods in the water are fragrant." The chirping of cicadas is a bit annoying, but the scene in front of you makes people happy. The white bird "flips" in the air, revealing a child's naughtiness; the lotus "looks" at the water, looking like a self-pitying woman. The movement and silence complement each other interestingly. Originally, the fragrance is invisible and intangible, but the word "Xixi" makes the fragrance of lotus waft faintly through the words, fresh and elegant, like a wisp. The blue sky, white birds, green water, and red sweet potatoes are all bright and harmonious colors, full of lively vitality. The initial upset was driven away by the naughty birds and the fragrance of the lotus, and was replaced by a heartfelt joy for nature.
"Outside the village, next to the ancient city, the staff and quinoa slowly turned to the setting sun." After the shower, the weather was cool, the poet held the staff and quinoa in his hand, walking beside the ancient city at the entrance of the village, enjoying the scenery after the rain. The air after the rain is fresh and refreshing, and even the sunset has a human touch, seeming to follow the poet slowly.
I think that Su Shi is not really leisurely at this moment. The reason why he left the village and walked around the ancient city under the setting sun must have something to think about. After all, Dongpo can only make a living by reclaiming wasteland, and sometimes there is not enough to fill the belly. What should you do if you want to improve the quality of life of your family? After all, he is a demoted criminal officer. When will he be freed from the charge of being a "criminal officer"? When will I have the opportunity to realize my ideal of serving the country? After all, years are fleeting, and my temples have been stained with frost, but I have made no achievements! It can be said that these troubles torture Su Dongpo every day, but what can be done?
Since the future is unpredictable and you cannot control it, it is better to live in the present. Thinking of such a hot summer day, thanks to "the diligent rain last night", the heat has dropped a lot, and today we have "one day of coolness again." The reality is that the current situation cannot be changed by oneself. It's better to just muddle along, and it's something to be thankful for if you can have one more "good" day.
Nine times out of ten things in life will be unsatisfactory, so it is better to think more about the one or two things that are going as you wish. The ideal is very full, but the reality is very skinny. Let’s base ourselves on reality and gradually move closer to the ideal. Things in the world are so helpless, and there are many things that you can't achieve without just working hard. All we can do is to work hard to change ourselves, not forgetting our original intentions, and working actively in the direction of our ideals. We only care about the process but not the results. In this way, we will live up to our years and our lives.
After Su Shi experienced fierce ideological struggle and the baptism of Zen, he was finally able to calm down and face life calmly.
He was finally able to put aside the dissatisfaction of life and know how to cherish the joy of "having to live a life that is cool again"!