Chapter 26 Chapter 25 Lingnan Exile

In April of the first year of Shaosheng (1094), Zhang Dun paid homage to Prime Minister, and his giant ax fell on Su Dongpo first.Su Dongpo was first demoted to the southern part of the high mountains in Guangdong, commonly known as "outside the Dayu Mountains".He was stripped of his official title and transferred to the prefect of Yingzhou (now Nanxiong).He noticed the changes in front of him, but he didn't know how serious the second persecution was.Before the Queen Mother passed away, he was about to go to Dingzhou to serve, and the emperor did not allow him to go to the palace to say goodbye, so he felt that the situation was serious.For eight years, he had taught the little emperor on and off, and knew him very well.A year ago, he wrote to the emperor directly that if the emperor did not listen to the advice of his ministers, Su Dongpo's position as a servant in the court would not be as good as "an official who writes books and writes books".

But he did not understand the future fate.It was not particularly hard to be demoted to Nanxiong as the prefect.Zhang Dun is his old friend.When they were young and traveled together in the mountains of Shaanxi, Su Dongpo once joked that Zhang Dun would kill people; but they were still friends, and he was not surprised that he was demoted.The charge is the same old tune repeated over and over again, nothing more than "slandering the late emperor".The evidence is the dismissal order of Wang Anshi's party that he drafted during the Yuanyou period. "Slandering the late emperor" has now become a common phrase used against Minister Yuanyou.Su Dongpo wrote the imperial edict according to the Queen Mother's password, which the other party did not consider.His removal order reads as follows:

Now Su Dongpo set out from North China and had to walk 1,500 miles to Lingnan. He drifted east and west all his life. In the journey arranged by the gods, this was just another step, destined by nature, and it was only now revealed in front of him.At the age of fifty-seven, he has seen too many ups and downs, and will not be easily intimidated by new changes.Fate asked him to leave politics in his later years and be an ordinary person, which he had always longed for.He moved forward step by step, without any fear, and his state of mind was very peaceful.In the past, he has bravely faced every problem and situation with truth and sincerity; he is willing to listen to God's arrangements.

Su Dongpo was the first to be relegated to the high mountains in the south of the Lingnan Mountains. He felt a strange sense of excellence and set off with his family.His younger brother is already working in Ruzhou, which is very close to the capital. He first went to seek financial support from his younger brother.Su Dongpo is not good at managing money.During the nine years of the Empress Dowager's regency, his official fortune was good, but he kept being transferred, and his salary was always spent.On the other hand, his younger brother was constantly promoted and finally became the "Prime Minister".Su Dongpo went to see him, and Ziyou gave him seven thousand coins for his family to settle in Yixing.When he returned from Ziyou's residence, he found that his official rank had been lowered again, but Nanxiong's dispatch order had not changed.He wrote a petition, hoping that the emperor would allow him to go by boat, which was a favor to the old teacher.He was afraid that if he walked fifteen hundred miles on land, he would die of illness by the side of the road.The petition was granted, and he sent his whole family — including his three daughters-in-law — to Su’s residence in the lake district of Yixing.Everyone was teary-eyed, but Su Dongpo decided to take only Chaoyun and his two young sons with him.

They rested in Yizhen on the other side of Nanjing, and it was already June.The persecution of Yuanyou scholars reached its climax, and now more than thirty high officials have been exiled.Su Dongpo was demoted for the third time.He no longer served as the prefect, but was reassigned to Huizhou, 70 miles east of Guangzhou, as Sima of the Jianchang Army.The situation changed completely, and he decided to send his second son back to Yixing Farm, taking only 22-year-old Su Guo, Chao Yun and two old maids with him.His disciple Zhang Lei was the prefect of Jingjiang at that time, and sent two veterans to serve him all the way.

It was a pleasant trip, and he feasted his eyes on the beautiful countryside, hills, valleys, clear streams, and lofty mountains.A wonderful and exciting thing happened on the way.He set off in an official ship.He was resting at Poyang Lake in the south of Jiujiang, and accidentally heard the order to demote officials for the fourth time.When the transport envoy heard this order, he sent a group of soldiers to collect the ship.It was midnight when the soldiers came.Su Dongpo agreed to deliver the ship at noon the next day, and the officer agreed.There are still twelve miles to the lake port of Nanchang.If he was lucky enough to reach Nanchang, he would be safe, but if the wind was not favorable, his family would be driven off the ship with their cargo.He went to the Dragon King Temple to pray, and the Dragon King was in charge of the safety of the boatmen.He explained his situation to the gods. If he could not reach his destination by noon tomorrow, he would have to spend the night in the open air.As soon as the words were finished, the strong wind filled the small sails, the official ship moved forward at full speed, and arrived at the destination at dawn.When Su Dongpo came back in the future, he once thanked the Dragon King.

In September, he crossed the Dayuling Mountains, a road that the ancient Chinese must take when they went to Guangdong.There are three or four hundred yards of stone steps on the edge of this mountain pass, with trees on both sides for tourists to rest.Many tourists carve poems on the stone to express their feelings.Su Dongpo stood on the mountain peak, with the sky close above his head, as if in a dream, and suddenly forgot the existence of his physical body.He looked down on the despicable deeds of human beings from a height, and the clear mountain wind swept away all the worldly thoughts in his heart.Crossing Dayuling, he took the opportunity to visit what is now Nanxiong and Nanhua Temple, a holy place of Zen Buddhism.

Somewhere between Nanxiong and Canton he met Wu Gugu, an old Taoist priest, with whom he became very close during his exile.Wu Gugu is a weirdo.Over the years, he had met Su Dongpo unexpectedly in different places.Su Dongpo first met him in Jinan, and later met him again in the capital.What is this man doing?Does he not have a job?What does he do for a living?Did he intentionally associate with Su Dongpo and ask for something from Dongpo, especially when Su Dongpo was in power in the court?But Wu Gugu never asked Su Dongpo, nor did he ask other ministers he knew.He disappeared suddenly, and now I meet him here.Wu Gugu is a true Taoist priest.Taoism cares most about physical and mental freedom and a carefree state of mind. As long as the body is strong and desires are simple, many people live an enviable life of freedom. The price of freedom is to be willing to give up fame and fortune, and to be able to endure simple food, clothing, and shelter , walk thousands of miles.Sleep in the wild if necessary.Wu Fugu asked for nothing.He came and went, and Su Dongpo thought that if he hadn't devoted himself to politics, he might have lived that kind of life.

In the first year of Shaosheng (1094)—two years before the first European Crusade—on October 2, Dongpo arrived in Huizhou.Many things are both strange and kind.This is a subtropical area, and he saw oranges, sugar cane, lychees, banana orchards and betel nut trees.It's a pretty good place to live.Two rivers flow from the north and meet in the east of the city.For the first two weeks, the prefect entertained him and lived in the official residence.Standing on the "Hejiang Tower" at the intersection of the two rivers, he saw the river flowing through the city, and the mountain city of Guishan County on the opposite bank stood on a steep slope.There are many large and small stones on the shore, and the leisurely people are fishing.To the north are Luofu and Xiangtou Mountain, and he knew he would definitely go exploring.

This is southern China, which is different from what he imagined, full of dark green vegetables and subtropical fruits everywhere. "All households in Lingnan are in spring", everyone accidentally saw this poet, and they didn't know what crime he had committed and was demoted to this district.Dongpo thought of Su Wu's exile in Mobei, and didn't know that he could return to China in his later years. He also thought of Guan Ning's exile in Liaodong, and decided to live there for the rest of his life.Huizhou has beautiful scenery and people treat him very well.Later, he moved to the Jiayou Monastery on the other side, and he said that soon even the dogs and chickens knew him.

The short notes he wrote for Songfeng Pavilion on the opposite bank can best express his outlook on life.After he moved to Jiayou Temple, he often stayed in the small pavilion on the top of the mountain.One day he was going home when he saw his house high up in the treetops, and his legs felt very tired after a long journey.He changed his mind and thought: "There is no place to rest here. Because the heart is like a fish on a hook, it is suddenly released. If people realize this, they might as well rest at any time." He has returned to his natural nature.He once bought some sandalwood in Guangzhou, and now he often closes the door and sits quietly, enjoying the strange fragrance and reflecting on his past mistakes.Sometimes when he takes a nap in the afternoon, the cool river breeze blows into the window, and the crows on the roof interrupt his dreams, he suddenly feels that he has let go of all responsibilities.He saw the light and shadow of Dajiang entering his room.So beautiful, he said to himself, as beautiful as an empty moon.He doesn't understand why some people like Yiyue in the clouds.He felt that the clear sky was a symbol of integrity. He wrote to his friends that he had been here for half a year, had adapted to the climate of the place, and had no worries in his heart, because he had compromised with fate and accepted it without any doubts.Chen Zhen, an old friend from Huangzhou, wrote to say that he would come to see him.There is a thousand miles from Hankou to Huizhou. Su Dongpo replied as follows: His outer life is not lonely.Unsurprisingly, officials in neighboring regions seized the opportunity to befriend the famous poet.The prefects of the five districts in the east, west and north of Huizhou kept bringing him wine and food.Zhan Fan, the prefect of Huizhou, and Lin Bian, the magistrate of Boluo County, became his closest friends.Other good friends, such as Canliao, a monk from Hangzhou, and Qian Shixiong from Changzhou, often send messengers to bring gifts, medicines and letters to him.In Suzhou, a Buddhist believer named Zhuo walked seven hundred miles to bring news of the Su family's children, relatives and friends from the lake area.Su Dongpo's two sons lived in Yixing. They didn't hear from their father, and they were very concerned. Zhuoqi heard it and said, "Well, it's easy! Huizhou is not in the sky. If you keep going, you will always arrive." Zhuoqi made a long distance After trekking and crossing mountains and ridges, when I arrived in Huizhou, my face was tanned and my feet were callused. In this way, Su Dongpo kept in touch with his family in the north.The strange Taoist priest Wu Gugu stayed with him for a month, and for the next two years he kept coming and going between Huizhou and Ziyou's residence, Gao'an.Lu Weizhong, another Taoist priest from Su Dongpo's hometown, traveled two thousand miles to see him.Su Dongpo discovered a new wine "gui wine", which he said was the nectar of the gods.He jokingly wrote to Lu Weizhong saying that the cinnamon wine alone was worth the hard work of traveling thousands of miles, and Lu Weizhong came. Sometimes the prefect Zhan Fan would send a cook to Su Dongpo's house for a meal with food and wine.Sometimes Su Dongpo invited friends to have a drink at the Great Lake in the west of the city. The Great Lake was at the foot of the mountain, with a large pavilion and two temples beside it.Occasionally he went fishing and sat on a boulder by the river.One day he caught an eel and brought wine and fish to the prefect's house for dinner.Su Dongpo often went to Baishui Mountain to play, sometimes with his son, sometimes with the prefect or new local guests. Some of his letters to his brother were pleasant.There is a letter about the roasted lamb loin he invented on the spur of the moment: As soon as Su Dongpo arrived in this area, he found that there was no monopoly on liquor here, and every family brewed their own good liquor.From the first sip of the sorbet, he felt as if he had found a true companion in a faraway borderland.In his letters to his friends, he repeatedly praised the local wine for its extraordinary aroma, slightly sweet but not greasy, making people energetic and radiant.He once wrote a poem exaggerating about this kind of wine, saying that people who drink too much feel ecstatic and can fly into the sky and wade through water.He learned the secret recipe of wine making, carved a stone as a record, and hid it under the Luofu Iron Bridge, only those who seek immortals can find it. Su Dongpo wrote at least five or six Fu on wine.The most interesting one is "Postscript of the Biography of Donggaozi".The prefect of the east neighbor gave him some wine, and he was reading the biography of Dong Gaozi, the wine fairy of the Han Dynasty.In the letter of thanks, Su Dongpo added a note explaining his drinking habit, and wrote down two "supreme joys" carelessly. Unskilled writers would add at least four or five or more: Su Dongpo wrote an ode to wine.Even those who do not understand the pleasures of the cup will be fascinated by his description of the state of half-drunk bliss: Su Dongpo is not only a fine wine connoisseur and experimenter, but also makes his own wine.He worked in Dingzhou for several months, and tried to make citrus wine and pine wine, which were sweet and slightly bitter.In "Songmao Fu", he mentioned the steaming method of pine resin, but the process of making wine is not clear.When he arrived in Huizhou, he specially made cinnamon wine and tasted the southern specialty "jiuzi" for the first time.The rice wine is taken out before it's fully fermented and doesn't have a lot of alcohol; the result is a bit like a slightly sour pale beer.He once said in the preface to a poem that he drank while filtering wine, and finally got drunk.In his letter to his friends, he introduced the prescription of "Zhenyi Wine".This holy wine is made of white flour, rice balls and pure spring water, and its color is like jade.The best flour is added with yeast, kneaded into noodle koji, and hung up to dry for two months.Then cook a bucket of rice, remove and rinse with water.Allow to dry slowly.Grind three liangmiankoji into fine powder and mix well with cooked rice.Put it into the altar and press it tightly, leaving a small conical pit in the middle.Leave some flour koji powder, wait for the wine to flow out of the hole in the middle, and then sprinkle it on the noodles.When there is enough wine, dig out the cooked rice in the jar and add some freshly cooked rice. The ratio is one bucket of old rice plus three liters of new rice, plus two bowls of boiling water.After about three to five days, six liters of good wine will be brewed, but the time depends on the weather.Summer yeast should be halved by two. We say that Su Dongpo's wine making is just for fun, not a real expert, and it is not wronged.Wine making was only his hobby. After his death, people often begged Su Guo and Su Mai for their father's wine making recipes, especially the tangerine wine that was often mentioned in Su Dongpo's letters and poems.The sons laughed, and Su Guo said, "My father likes to experiment. He only tried it once or twice. The citrus wine tastes like earthy crisp wine." Su Dongpo may not be very patient, and he is unwilling to try it wholeheartedly.It is said that everyone often suffers from diarrhea after drinking the "honey wine" he brewed in Huangzhou. On April 19, the second year of Shaosheng (1095), his cousin passed away.Unfortunately, her name is not recorded in the historical records; Dongpo always called her "cousin" or (the Su family's) "little second mother".It was three months before he got the news from her husband's letter.A few years ago, he wrote to a relative, saying that he was sorry that he could not go to Changzhou to see his cousin during his trip, which shows his unswerving love for his cousin.Last year, she and her husband seemed to have moved north to Dingzhou, where Su Dongpo worked.Her husband Liu Zhongyuan was an upright poor scholar who failed the imperial examination and liked to collect famous paintings and calligraphy.Su Dongpo was in the capital, and he once visited him. Su Dongpo wrote some calligraphy and paintings for him.Later, Su Dongpo wrote to Cheng Zhicai, mentioning the news of his cousin's death, telling his brother-in-law (who was also a cousin) that his "feelings were broken", and writing to his cousin's son that he was "heartbroken".This mourning adjective is very common in Chinese, but it still expresses a deep sadness. His tribute to her was apparently written after hearing of the death and was deeply personal.The article says that there are only four grandchildren left in his grandfather's generation, namely Dongpo, Ziyou, Zi'an (the son of his uncle who stayed in his hometown to take care of the ancestral graves for his brothers) and his cousin.She is "kind, filial and gentle, an accidental aunt, and respects her husband as a guest".Then talk about the personal feeling.He hoped that her two sons would grow up to shine in the family. "A show is not true, why is it wrong to the gods, tune it for a hundred years, watch this rise and vibrate. The cloud is pitched, and it groans again and again. The rescue is exhausted, and it is dying. Thousands of miles of seas, a hundred days are counted. Squeeze the coffin Where is it? Dream tears wet the grass. The trombone Beifeng lives in this bottle." A year later her husband passed away, and their coffins were both transported to their hometown near Jingjiang. Not long after Su Dongpo arrived in Huizhou, he received a worrying news.Since his sister died, his father broke off with his brother-in-law's family. The brothers haven't said a word or written a letter to their brother-in-law Cheng Zhicai for forty-two years, but they have correspondence with other sons of the Cheng family.When Zhang Dun learned of this grievance, he sent Cheng Zhicai to the south to serve as a prisoner to handle major lawsuits and appeals.Cheng Zhicai arrived in Guangzhou in January of the second year of Shaosheng (1095), when Su Dongpo had just been there for three or four months.Su Dongpo didn't know whether Cheng Zhicai wanted to forget the past, and what the future would be like.He sent him a formal letter of thanks through a friend, and learned that Cheng Zhicai was going to Huizhou in March.In order not to make mistakes, he sent Su Guo to pick him up with a welcome letter, saying that he "shields himself from the door and saves himself the blame".At this time, Cheng Zhicai was sixty years old.As a result, Cheng Zhicai himself really wanted to make up for the past disputes and reconnect with this famous relative.Cheng Zhicai once asked him to write a short biography for his ancestor, who was Su Dongpo's great-grandfather.Maybe blood is thicker than water, maybe the whole Meizhou is proud of great poets, and Cheng Zhicai also shared this state of mind.From then on, their relationship became more and more sincere, and they sent many letters and poems to each other. Later, Su Dongpo turned to him for help.Cheng Zhicai lived in Huizhou for ten days, and he went out to investigate cases, but he was probably near Guangzhou that year. Now Cheng Zhicai's friendship has become a means for Su Dongpo to seek welfare for the people in the area.Although he had no right to sign official documents, he made full use of his influence on Cheng Zhicai.He had already bid farewell to high-level politics, but he couldn't ignore the welfare of his neighbors and the people in the city.If something is wrong, Su Dongpo has the power to correct it, so he can't just sit idly by.In the third year of Shaosheng (1096), a fire broke out in Boluo on the first day of the Lunar New Year, which made him very excited.The whole city burned down.It is necessary to release food to relieve fire households, build temporary residences, and prevent looting.The yamen was completely destroyed and needed to be rebuilt.Su Dongpo was afraid that the old habits would reappear.The government took the opportunity to exploit the people for reconstruction, and the local government expropriated material resources and people's power.He asked Cheng Zhicai to issue an order to the local government to maintain the supply of goods in the market and not to forcefully confiscate civilian goods.Otherwise, he said, "the harm to the people would be worse than fire." Standing on the streets of Huizhou, he saw the embarrassing scene.He saw farmers carrying cartloads of rice to the city to pay taxes.Because the harvest was good and the price of rice fell, the government refused to accept it.This was Su Dongpo's greatest concern.He went up to inquire and knew that the grain price was too low and the government wanted cash, so the farmers had to sell the grain at a loss in exchange for money, but the taxes they paid were calculated according to when the grain price was high.As a result, they owed one bucket of grain tax, but had to sell two buckets to pay it.He wrote a long letter to Cheng Zhicai, just like the long letter he wrote to the Queen Mother back then, stating that this was 100% exploitation of farmers.He asked Cheng Zhicai to negotiate with the tax collectors and suggested that the government collect taxes according to the low grain price.A few months later, he was very happy to hear that the three tax collectors were determined to jointly petition. Now he is concerned with the improvement of the town.He loves architecture, and once discussed with Cheng Zhicai, the prefect, and the county magistrate, he built two bridges, one across the river and the other across the lake in Huizhou.When the bridge was being built, Ziyou's wife donated a lot of gold coins that the court had given her.During this work, he also did something that the people are grateful for, which is to build a large tomb and rebury the lonely bone without an owner.After the bones were placed, he wrote a memorial service to the unknown dead.He believed the bodies were either civilians or soldiers.He regretted that some of the bones were incomplete, so he had to put them all in the big mound, but he hoped that the heroic spirits could live together peacefully like a family.He also built a release pool near the lake in the west of the city.This is a facility of Buddhism, based on the concept of reincarnation, it is believed that many fish were also human beings in their previous lives.Once the fish enter the release pond, they are safe for life.This lake became the famous "Su Dongpo Freeing Life Pond". Until the 10th century, literati and common people in the area often bought a few fish and put them in the pool during festivals. He always pays attention to small things.There was a new gadget that fascinated him deeply during his relocation to Huangzhou. It was a farmer's facility called "Yangma", which was specially used when transplanting rice seedlings in the rice fields.Rice farming has always been a pain in the back, and farmers have to walk back and forth in the paddy fields, bending over all day long to work.The seedling horse is like a small pontoon. The farmer can sit and plant rice, paddling around with his feet as short oars, and the horse's head is like a utensil for holding rice seedlings.It saves time and effort.He wanted to be introduced to the South.He was very enthusiastic and mentioned it in many letters.He saw off a prefect, told him to promote Yangma, and persuaded him that the secret of being an official is to "make the people not fear officials". Su Dongpo lost his power and was a thorn in the side of those in power. He no longer had the ambition to "responsible to the emperor for the best" or to change the fate of the empire when he was young.He is just a commoner in Huizhou, and his problems are those of his neighbors Zhai Xiucai and Mrs. Lin, who is an old house brewer who let him buy wine on credit.His friends included Taoist priests Wu Gugu, Lu Weizhong and monks from Luofu.There are also many close friends among literati and officials. He cannot be a public servant, but he can be a citizen who cares about public affairs.The provincial capital Guangzhou is not far from there, and the prefect Wang Gu is his friend.He knew that plagues often occurred in Guangzhou, so he wrote to ask Wang Gu to set up a fund to build a public hospital and learn from his method in Hangzhou.People in Guangzhou, like people in Hangzhou, have unclean drinking water, which is one of the main causes of disease in the city.A Taoist acquaintance he knew had a perfect plan for bringing the mountain springs into Canton.There is a good well in the city, which is only used by officials.But there is a good spring seven miles away, and the water level is much higher than the city.Su Dongpo recommended to Wang Gu Taoist Deng's plan to set up main pipes to bring spring water into Guangzhou.These stems can be made of large bamboo joints, which are abundant in eastern Guangdong.First build a large stone trough in the mountain spring, and use five bamboo pipes to transport water from the mountain to another large stone trough in the city.Su Dongpo elaborated on the pipeline method, which he was very familiar with in his hometown.First bind the bamboo joints with twine, and then apply a thick layer of paint to prevent leakage.Drill a small hole in each section and plug it firmly with bamboo nails. If any part is blocked, you can check it in sections at any time.He estimated that 10,000 large bamboos would be enough.But these slubs must be inspected and replaced periodically, much like modern railroad ties.The authorities should appoint officials to regularly inspect the water pipes, and apply for the East District to supply new giant bamboos every year.He was afraid of causing trouble to his friends, so he specially told Wang Gu not to let others know that it was his idea, because he had lost power.However, Wang Gu lost his official position in order to "gift the hungry people in vain".