Su Shi was born in Meishan in the Sichuan (Szechwan)
Province of China.He was educated at home
by his Buddhist parents and then later at a private
school by a Taoist priest. In 1056, he went to the
capital, Kaifeng, with his older brother to take the
civil service examination. Both brothers passed
with distinction. In 1060, after observing the customary
three-year mourning period following his
mother’s death, Su Shi returned to the capital with
his father and brother, and all were assigned government
posts.
During his first years in the government, Su Shi
became an outspoken critic of the reform program,
the “New Laws,” of the ruling party in Kaifeng.
In 1079, he fell out of favor with the leader of
the ruling party,Wan Anshi (Wang An-shih), and
was tried for slander. The “New Laws” party used
Su Shi’s own poems as evidence against him, and
the poet was banished to Huangzhou (Huangchou),
an insignificant town on the banks of the
Yangtze River. Su Shi was able to return to the capital
the following year, after the “New Laws” party
lost power. He was banished a second time, however,
when the party returned to favor in 1094. He
remained in southern China for the rest of his life
and never returned to the capital. Because of Su
Shi’s political situation, most of his poems were
banned during his lifetime, and it was not until
after his death that his works were widely distributed
and read.
Despite his political failings, Su Shi was one of
the great poets of the Sung dynasty, and more than
2,400 of his poems have survived. His poetry was
heavily influenced by the Buddhist and Taoist education
he received in his youth. During his political
career, he spent a great deal of time visiting Buddhist
temples, and many of his poems reflect his ongoing
association with the Zen Buddhist school of
thought, as can be seen in these lines from “Water
Music Prelude” (addressed to his younger brother):
The moon should have no regrets.
Why is she always at the full when men are
separated?
Men have their woe and joy, parting and
meeting;
The moon has her dimness and brightness,
waxing and waning.
Never from of old has been lasting
perfection.
I only wish that you and I may be ever well
and hale,
That both of us may watch the fair moon,
even a thousand miles apart.
Su Shi experimented with all styles of poetry:
five- or seven-character shi (shih) poems; ci (tz’u),
or songs; and rhapsodic prose poems called fu.
Most of his works deal with his personal life and
his deep Taoist connection to nature. Perhaps the
best example of Su Shi’s ability to connect nature
with emotion can be found in his poem “Tune:
The Charms of Nien-nu,” which he wrote 10 years
after his wife passed away:
Last night in a dream I returned home
And at the chamber window
Saw you at your toilet;
We looked at each other in silence and
melted into tears.
I cherish in my memory year by year the
place of heartbreaking,
In the moonlit night
The knoll of short pines.
Su Shi’s brilliance is evident not only in the
sheer volume of his poems, but also in his poignant
expression of emotion. As translator Burton Watson
remarks,“A great [poet] had to have such complete
mastery of the [poetic] tradition that he could
at the same time express his own thoughts freely
and naturally, and could advance and enrich the
tradition in some way, adding new depth and nuance.
This [Su Shi] did.”
English Versions of Works by Su Shi
Su Tung-p’o: Selections from a Sung Dynasty Poet.
Translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1965.
The Prose-Poetry of Su Tung-p’o. Translated by Cyril
Drummond Le Gros Clark. New York: Paragon,
1964.
A Work about Su Shi
Egan, Ronald C.Word, Image, and Deed in the Life of
Su Shi. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1994.