Wang Anshi's Three Difficulties Su Dongpo's Third Difficulties
Among the cautionary stories compiled by Feng Menglong, there is an article called "Three Difficulties of Wang Anshi Su Shixue", in which Wang Anshi taught Su Dongpo several short stories. There is such a story:
One day, Su Dongpo went to visit Prime Minister Wang Anshi, who happened to be not at home. Su Dongpo saw a draft of a chrysanthemum-chanting poem on Wang Anshi's desk and wrote the first two sentences:
Last night, the west wind swept through the garden, blowing off yellow flowers and gold everywhere.
Su Dongpo believes that "west wind" is autumn wind and "yellow flower" is chrysanthemum. Chrysanthemum is the most cold-resistant and durable. How can you be blown down by the autumn wind if you dare to fight with the autumn frost? It would be a big mistake to say that the west wind "blows yellow flowers everywhere". The arrogant academician, regardless of Wang Anshi's predecessor and superiors, picked up a pen and continued his poem:
Flowers in autumn are not better than those in spring, so talk to poets carefully.
After Wang Anshi came back, he read these two poems and was very dissatisfied. In order to teach Su Dongpo a lesson with facts, he demoted Su Dongpo to Yingyong, Huangzhou. Su Dongpo lived in Huangzhou for nearly a year. In September, as soon as the gale stopped, Su Dongpo invited his friend Chen Jichang to enjoy chrysanthemums in the backyard. I saw chrysanthemums falling in succession and gold scattered all over the floor. At this time, he remembered the past that continued Wang Anshi's poems and realized that he was wrong.
Please explain what is wrong with Su Dongpo's continuation poems from the angle of inductive reasoning. (See below for the answer)
Second, Wang Anshi stumped Su Dongpo.
Wang Anshi and Su Dongpo, both "eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties", have different political views. Wang Anshi advocated political reform, but Su Dongpo disagreed, so the relationship between them was not good. During the reign of Song Shenzong, Wang Anshi was the prime minister, Su Dongpo was unhappy and even exiled to Hainan Island.
It is said that Wang Anshi once made a problem for Su Dongpo. He made a couplet and asked Su Dongpo to make a couplet. Couplets are:
One year, two spring months, two August, two spring and autumn.
It turned out that that year was leap August, and there was a solar term in beginning of spring in December of the first lunar month, which was really spring and autumn. In addition, the fourth word and the twelfth word of the couplet are "spring", which greatly increases the difficulty.
Although Su Dongpo was a genius, he couldn't answer this strange question after thinking for a long time, so he had to hand in a blank sheet of paper and was laughed at by Wang Anshi. But Wang Anshi himself did not show his bottom line at that time. Su Dongpo got "all", just like a mute eating coptis, with unspeakable suffering.
Hundreds of years later, it was not until the middle of the Qing Dynasty that Liang Zhangju, a couplets expert, gave a satisfactory bottom couplet:
Sixty-year-olds will meet again on Sunday, and the world will meet again.
Third, it is no longer difficult for Wang Anshi to unite with Su Shilian.
It is said that Wang Anshi, a politician and writer in the Northern Song Dynasty, made it difficult for Su Dongpo to learn the soil (that is, Su Shi). The third difficulty is to find the correct sentence. There are three sentences.
The first sentence is:
One year, two spring months, two August months, two spring and autumn months on earth;
Although Su Dongpo, a bachelor, is a wizard, he can't find a suitable one at the moment. But later generations, has always represented Dongpo bachelor:
Sixty-year-olds will meet again on Sunday, and the world will meet again.
The second sentence of Wang Anshi's examination of Su Dongpo is:
Qilishantang, go to half soup for three and a half miles;
Su Dongpo was stumped again, and later generations came out under the guise of language:
Jiuximan Cave passes through the middle cave Yuxi Middle.
The third sentence of Wang Anshi's examination of Su Dongpo is:
Tieweng city west, Jinyu Yinshan Sanbao land;
Zhenjiang ancient name iron urn, there are Jinshan, Yinshan, Yushan. Su Dongpo has just been there. But it still doesn't match. No one has matched it yet. You might as well try.
Who is smart in Sue (answer)
From the perspective of inductive reasoning, there is a mistake of "hasty generalization" in Su Dongpo's continuation poems. "Reckless generalization" is a logical error that is easy to occur in inductive reasoning. "Reckless generalization", also known as "generalization from part to whole", refers to drawing a general conclusion based on only a few individual facts, and taking this conclusion as an inevitable and unquestionable conclusion.
Su Dongpo usually sees chrysanthemums that will only wither and not fall off, so he draws a general conclusion that "chrysanthemums in the world will not be blown off by autumn wind". He measured Wang Anshi's poems about chrysanthemums with this full-name affirmative judgment, and thought that Wang Anshi's poems were not written correctly. After living in Huangzhou for nearly a year, he realized that his conclusion was wrong. Because the chrysanthemums in Huangzhou will be blown off by the autumn wind. With this counterexample, the general conclusion drawn by Su Dongpo through simple enumeration cannot be established.