novelonline Chapter 1230 Dongpo
Chapter 1230 Dongpo
Chapter 1230 Dongpo
The north wind blows hard and the snow falls to the ground.
It has been more than a year since Su Shi was exiled to Huangzhou.
He now lives and works here in peace and contentment.
At that time, Su Shi was demoted to the position of Jianxiu Shuibu Yuanwailang, Huangzhou Tuanlian Deputy Envoy, and was placed in his own state, and was not allowed to sign official documents. In the Song Dynasty, there were generally four types of punishments for officials who made mistakes: detention, regulation, placement, and residence.
Custody and co-management mean removal from the list and suspension of office. Resettlement is better than custody and co-management. The deputy envoy of the militia is an eighth-rank official and the court will give him a certain salary. However, he does not receive the full salary because he is not allowed to sign official documents.
However, Su Shi still had some savings. Zhang Yue gave him some money when he left Beijing, and Su Zhe also helped Su Shi from his salary. However, Su Shi still lived a hard life, after all, he was accompanied by a large family in Huangzhou. He took 4,500 coins (four and a half strings) every month, divided it into 30 parts, hung it on the beam of the house, and took one part every day.
Su Shi used all the money that was not spent every day to entertain guests.
However, it was impossible to survive just by relying on handouts and a meager salary, so Su Shi asked the prefect for a way to make a living, which was farming.
This is how officials in the Song Dynasty lived in exile. You lived in Huangzhou and could not go anywhere, but your freedom was not restricted in local activities. In general, officials like Su Shi were treated well by the officialdom. Who knows if he will make a comeback?
Besides, everyone knew that Su Shi was a good friend of the then Prime Minister Zhang Yue. Therefore, the local officials had to neither offend Su Shi nor keep him under close watch.
Therefore, the prefect of Huangzhou also fulfilled Su Shi’s request.
Su Shi first asked the prefect for a piece of vacant land for himself to live and farm as a long-term plan.
The governor said that after the military strategy was implemented in Huangzhou, a battalion of soldiers in the east of the city was transferred away, so the camp was still empty, and the 40 to 50 mu of land here was allocated to Su Shi. Therefore, Su Shi stayed here and called this place "Dongpo", which came from a poem by his idol Bai Juyi.
"Dongpo" was originally a place of thorns and rubble, but under Su Shi's personal transformation, he not only opened up more than ten acres of farmland, but also built a house for living.
Su Shi painted the walls of this house himself, and painted snow scenes on the four walls. It happened that it snowed heavily when it was built, so Su Shi named it Xuetang. So Su Shi entertained guests in Xuetang, and when there were no guests, Su Shi would clean up the house.
There is a small bridge outside Xuetang, and nearby there are willow trees and tea trees transplanted by Su Shi. There is also a well dug by Su Shi himself. Not far away there are rice fields, wheat fields, mulberry forests and vegetable gardens.
A little further away is the neighborhood bamboo garden. For Su Shi, he would rather eat without meat than live without bamboo, so he would escape the heat here in the summer.
Later, Cai Chengxi came to visit Su Shi specially. Seeing that his residence was too small, he built three new houses for him.
The three rooms on the top of Dongpo Mountain are named Nantang. They face the river and are perfect for summer vacation.
The South Hall was completed in May. Su Shi mocked himself as a poor man who suddenly became rich by saying, "I made a bright window to write small characters, and opened a secluded room to raise cinnabar."
Su Shi used the South Hall as his study, alchemy room, guest room and bedroom, and used the Snow Hall at the foot of the mountain as a place to entertain guests. The two halls were more than a mile apart. Su Shi traveled back and forth between the two halls every day. In between was Dongpo, where he worked in the fields. He was very busy.
Over the past year, Su Shi not only repaired his house, farmed, and dug wells, but he also cooked.
Although he lived an extremely poor life, Su Shi made his days very fulfilling.
It was snowing heavily in Xuetang on this day. There was snow inside and outside the walls. Su Shi called his friends to drink in Xuetang. Among them were his neighbors, his good friend Ma Mengde who had followed him for more than 20 years, and a young friend who came to visit Su Shi from Jiangning. His name was Mi Fu.
This person was extremely good at calligraphy and admired Su Shi's calligraphy very much. He also had a good relationship with Wang Anshi.
There is a calligraphy piece written by Su Shi in Xuetang.
When getting out of the carriage or into the chariot, there is a chance of stumbling and paralysis;
The bridal chamber is clean and honest, and it is the matchmaker between cold and heat;
White teeth and beautiful eyebrows are the axe that cuts down one's nature;
Sweet, crispy and fatty, a medicine for rotten intestines.
Mi Fu smiled and said to Su Shi: "Fishing, woodcutting, farming and reading are the four great pleasures of scholars, and now scholars have them all. I wonder if scholars want to be free people or restrained people? Being a free person will inevitably lead to shallow wisdom, while being a restrained person will inevitably lead to deep desires. Now scholars seem to be tied to a limit, do they gain or lose anything?"
Su Shi thought about it carefully, and it seemed that Mi Fu's words hit the nail on the head, but he was unable to put it into words for a moment.
Su Shi put down his chopsticks and said, "The most painful thing in the world is to hesitate between entering the world and leaving it."
"I am the same. I want to be a wanderer but I cannot reach the level of a wanderer. However, I can tell you the way of a wanderer. It is like Dayu controlling the water and Cook Ding wielding the knife. They are all avoiding obstacles and dispersing their wisdom."
"It's just like the butcher Ding couldn't see the whole cow. If I have a relaxed state of mind, there is nothing in the world that can restrain me. It is precisely because there is nothing that I can't let go of it in my heart for a long time."
At this point, Su Shi said: "Not long ago, I wrote a poem with the line 'The little boat has gone from here, and the rivers and seas will be my home for the rest of my life'. Because the Yangtze River is not far from Xuetang, the local officials thought that I, Su Shi, had escaped overnight and fled into the rivers and seas, so they quickly brought people to chase Su Shi. In the end, they saw me sleeping soundly at home."
When they heard what Su Shi said, everyone laughed.
Su Shi said: "I want to live away from the world, but I can't. This Huangzhou, the world is like a fence. However, the biggest fence in the world is not somewhere else, but our wisdom."
"I want to disperse my wisdom and act accordingly, but wisdom is your greed. Laozi advised me to abandon wisdom and act accordingly, so it is better to act according to one's will and let nature take its course."
Mi Fu and others laughed and said: "The scholar worked hard in Dongpo, but he made a lot of sense and lived like Tao Yuanming."
Su Shi laughed at himself and said, "Perhaps I was Tao Yuanming in my previous life. I was an official in the past just to work for a few grains of rice. But I learned the fragrance of grains by farming in Dongpo. Now I don't even mention any ambitions."
Mi Fu said solemnly: "With your talent and learning, the court will never forget you. I came here to hear from Wang Jinggong that someone in the court has spoken for you in front of His Majesty."
Su Shi said, "Your Majesty."
Su Shi thought to himself, if the emperor hated him so much, why would he use him? It was all in vain.
Su Shi said: "How can I bear to leave this beautiful place? Besides, I am already a frightened bird, afraid that I will say something wrong and be caught by others."
At this time, the sound of footsteps in the snow was heard outside the house.
Su Shi saw from the window more than ten people wearing straw raincoats walking towards him in the snow.
Su Shi was surprised and said, "It turns out that it is the local county magistrate who came here in the snow!"
Everyone was startled and rushed out to greet him, but they saw that the other party had already arrived.
The prefect of Huangzhou was Xu Dashou, who was very caring towards Su Shi. In history, his descendants included Xu Xiake and Xu Beihong.
"I didn't know the county governor was coming. I'm sorry for not welcoming you! Come in and have a glass of warm wine."
Xu Dashou said with a delighted look on his face: "What wine are you drinking? Zizhan, your hard days are over."
"Your Majesty has allowed you to resume your post. You no longer need to be under the supervision of Huangzhou."
Su Shi was at a loss for a moment when he heard this. Several friends were happy for Su Shi. Xu Dashou looked at Su Shi and said, "I heard that it was Prime Minister Zhang who spoke well of you in front of His Majesty to ensure your return to the throne!"