Su Shi

At 64 years old, Su Shi physical status not available right now. We will update Su Shi's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Su Shi (1101–1138), a Chinese calligraph, painter, painter, poet, politician, and scholar of the Song dynasty, was born in Tengpo, the tenth of China's dynasty.

Su was a key figure in Song Dynasty politics, collaborating with Sima Guang and others against Wang Anshi's New Policy Party. Su Shi is widely known for her literary accomplishments, having written some of the most well-known poems, lyrics, prose, and essays.

Su Shi was known as an essayist and his prose books contributed to the discovery of topics such as 11th-century Chinese travel literature or detailed information on the contemporary Chinese iron industry.

His poetry has a long history of fame and success in China, Japan, and other areas in the immediate vicinity, and is especially well-known in the English-speaking areas of the world, including Arthur Waley's translations.

Su Shi is described as "the pre-eminent personality of the eleventh century" in terms of the arts. In his honor, dongpo pork, a common dish in Hangzhou cuisine, has been named in his honour.

Life

Su Shi was born in Meishan, near Mount Emei today, the Sichuan province. Su Zhe and his father Su Xun were both well-known scholar-bureaucrats. Su Xun's given name, Shi (), refers to the crossbar railing at the front of a chariot; Su Xun believes that the railing was a small but useful piece of a carriage.

Su Shi's early education began under the care of a local village school under a Daoist priest. His educated mother took over later. Su Shi was born in 1799 and died at the age of 17. Su Shi and his younger brother Su Zhe had a close friendship and acquaintance in 1057, when Su Shi was 19 years old, he and his brother passed the (highest) civil service examinations to achieve the degree of jinshi, a prerequisite for high government office. His exploits at such a young age attracted the attention of Emperor Renzong, as well as Ouyang Xiu, who became Su's patron thereafter. Ouyang had already been known as an admirer of Su Xun, securing his literary style in court and claiming that no one complemented him more. When the 1057 jinshi examinations were administered, Ouyang Xiu requested — without prior notice—that candidates be prepared in the Confucian style when answering questions about the Confucian classics. The Su brothers received acclaim for their unquestionable answers and assumed celebrity, particularly in the case of Su Shi's spectacular results in the subsequent 1061 decree examinations.

Su Shi served in tensions throughout China, most prominent in Hangzhou, where he was responsible for constructing a pedestrian causeway across the West Lake that still bears his name: sudi (, Su Causeway). He served as a magistrate in Mi Prefecture, which is located in Shandong province's modern-day Zhucheng County. Later, when he was governor of Xuzhou, he wrote a memorial to the throne in 1078, blaming the troubling economic conditions and potential for violent revolt in Liguori, China's largest iron industry.

Su Shi was often at odds with Wang Anshi's political faction. Su Shi once wrote a poem condemning Wang Anshi's changes, particularly the government monopoly placed on the salt industry. The reformist faction's hegemony at court gave the New Policy Group a greater chance to have Su Shi exiled for political offences. Su Shi was accused of criticizing Wang's changes, but Su Shi's poetry was aimed at attacking Wang's changes. Wang Anshi was not involved in this incident against Su, since he resigned from public life in 1076 and maintained a cordial relationship with Su Shi, it should be said. Su Shi's first remote journey of exile (1080–1086) was to Huangzhou, Hubei. This story had a nominal title but no stipend, leaving Su Su in poverty. He began practicing Buddhist meditation during this period. Su Shi built a small dwelling on a piece of property in ten81 with support from a friend. Su Shi lived on a farm named Dongpo ('Eastern Slope'), where he acquired his literary pseudonym. Although he was kicked out of Hubei province, he became fond of the area he lived in; many of the poems were considered his best were written in this period. Han Shi Tie, his most popular piece of calligraphy, was also published here. Su Shi and all other banned statesmen were recalled to the capital in 10486 as a result of the ascension of a new government. However, Su Shi was banned for a second time (1094–1100) to Huizhou (now in Guangdong province) and Danzhou, Hainan. The Dongpo Academy in Hainan was built in 1098 on the site of the house where he lived when he was exile.

Although political bickering and opposition often divided ministers of court into competing parties, both sides of the conflict experienced moments of non-partisanship and cooperation. For example, Shen Kuo, Wang Anshi's most respected colleagues and political allies, although shen still befriended Su Shi. Su Shi was aware that it was Shen Kuo, the country's regional inspector, who sparked Su Shi's poetry from the court sometime between 1073 and 10575, fearing that it displayed racist and racial sentiments against the Song court. Li Ding and Shu Dan would later use poetry to inspire a court suit against Su Shi, but Su Shi did not know much of Shen Kuo's activities in bringing the poetry to light.

Su Shi received a pardon in 1100 and was posted to Chengdu after a long period of political exile. However, he died in Changzhou, Jiangsu, after his time in exile, when he was en route to his new post in the year 1101. Su Shi, 64, was 64 years old. As people continued to seek his calligraphy, paintings depicting him, stone inscriptions commemorating his visit to various places, and even built shrines in his honor after his death. After Su Song's poem about a 3rd-century Chinese war, he was also depicted in works created posthumously, such as in Li Song's (1190–1225) painting of Su traveling in a boat named Su Dongpo at Red Cliff.

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