Wen Shi | Su Dongpo and his women

In classical Chinese literature, mourning is a major moving theme. Even in an era when women were basically vassals of men, many sentient literati genuinely wrote countless lingering and mournful words, lamenting the death of their wives. As a relative of Su Dongpo, who has never come before or since, he has won people's sincere praise before his death, although he does not pretend to live in heaven, but he has gained eternal life in the text.

Don't think about it, it's unforgettable

In classical Chinese literature, mourning is a major moving theme. Even in an era when women were basically vassals of men, many sentient literati genuinely wrote countless lingering and mournful words, lamenting the death of their wives. This kind of poetry, on influence, on talent, on the twists and turns of feelings, rarely surpass su Dongpo's "Jiang Chengzi Yi Di ZhengYue Twenty Night Dream" (ten years of life and death are two vast).

This was written by Su Shi for his first wife, Wang Fu (1039-1065). Wang Fu was the daughter of Wang Fang, a township gongjinshi in Qingshen County, and had been married to Su Shi for eleven years, and died of illness at the age of twenty-six. "Jiang Chengzi" was written in the eighth year (1075) of the Northern Song Dynasty When Su Shi was in Mizhou, ten years after Wang Fu's death.

"Jiang Chengzi" makes people see the love of this young couple. Written in the "Epitaph of the Deceased Wife Wang Clan" written in the year after Wang Fu's death, you can see the intelligence and respectability of his wife in Su Shi's mind: after marriage, Wang Fu did not claim to be cultured at first, and when her husband studied, she accompanied him all day. Later, Su Shi occasionally forgot something, but Wang Fu remembered it. Ask her about other books, and I know it. Only then did he realize that his wife was intelligent and quiet.

The old-fashioned women are most likely to be praised for how they abide by their duties, honor their in-laws, be diligent and thrifty, and work hard to maintain their families. The epitaphs of Wang Fu and Lady Su Mucheng also followed the custom of praising their deference and filial piety to their elders. But it goes far beyond that. Su Shi inked more, or Wang Fu was extraordinary in terms of intelligence and insight. To make him so convinced, Wang Fu was obviously not a mediocre woman. It is precisely because of her agility, wisdom and insight that Su Shi and his wife have become confidants who have a tacit understanding and smooth communication with each other.

Mrs. Yings mother image

Su Shi's memories in "The First Lady Is Not Allowed to Hide" also made people relish it. Once upon a time, the Su family had rented a house in Meishan Yarn, and one day, when the two men were ironing silk fabrics, their feet suddenly sank into the ground, and underneath, there was a hole a few feet deep, and there was a large urn covered with ebony planks. Mother Mrs. Cheng hurriedly ordered someone to stuff it with mud. The object in the urn made a coughing sound like a person and stopped after a year. Others speculated that there must have been someone who had buried valuables earlier and wanted to dig them out. Later, the Su family moved, and Mrs. Cheng's nephew rented the house and dug the ground one inch deeper, but did not find the urn. When Su Shi was serving in Fengxiang, Shaanxi, under the big willow tree in the house, there was a small piece of ground that was one foot square and strangely did not have snow, and the ground was still uplifted a few inches after the sky was clear. Su Shi suspected that this was the place where the ancients hid the Elixir and wanted to dig into the ground to find out. Wang Fu gently dissuaded: If my mother-in-law was still there, she would never do this. When Su Shi heard this, he was embarrassed to dispel his thoughts.

The wife said it reasonably, and Su Shi changed it when he heard it. He was always not afraid to tell the world that Wang Fu had some advice on himself. This short article can also see what Wang Fu and Mrs. Cheng have in common: there is no greed, and there is no atmosphere.

At that time, a strange girl was born on the river

Su Shi's successor Wang Yanzhi (1048-1093) was Wang Fu's cousin. From the first year of Shenzong Xining (1068) to the eighth year of Emperor Zhezong (1093), she lived with Su Shi for twenty-five years, which was the biggest ups and downs in his life.

Su Shi's writings about Wang Yanzhi are not as widely known as those written to Wang Fu and Chaoyun, but they are full of details of daily life. "Butterfly Love Flower : Pan Pan East Wind First Breaking Five" was written on Leap's birthday: "Pan Pan East Wind First Break Five, River Willow Yellow, Thousands of Strands." Jia Qi lush to embroider the household, that year on the river gave birth to a strange girl. Who is a shou yao with? Three pearls, lap Wang Wendu. Let go of all the scales to see the yuan, and the heavens are raining mando. ”

In comparison, such praise as "when the river was born with a strange girl" seems a bit unusual in Su Shi's poetry. However, it is still this kind of light harmony and beauty, and the fireworks of the world are more comfortable. Leap was born on the fifth day of the first leap month, and the leap month is rare, so she is called "Strange Girl". The whole family gave birth to her in the New Year's celebration, the spring breeze was rippling, and the thousands of strands of willows were yellowish. Surrounded by her beloved sons, the three raised a glass to celebrate their mother's birthday. Su Shi bought a lot of fish to release, prayed for his wife's blessing, and hoped that the rain would come to the sky, and the fish would gain more vitality and the release would be more complete.

Su Shi's "Little Children" poem is also very happy and harmonious with living at home:

The child did not know sorrow, and sat up and led me to my clothes.

I want to hate the child, and the old wife advises the child to be stupid.

The child is even more foolish, and he is not happy about what to worry about.

Still ashamed of this, wash the cup in front of me.

Great victory over Liu Ling's wife, just for the wine money.

The younger son clings to his father back and forth, who is so annoyed that he wants to blame the child. Leap one coaxed his son while scolding his husband: Can you not understand things better than children, good manners, "What is unhappy?" Su Shi had always listened to advice very well, but at this time he was gently tapped by his wife, and he felt ashamed and sat down obediently and silently. Leap then washed the wine glass and placed it in front of him. He drank satisfactorily: Liu Ling, a famous scholar of the Jin Dynasty, was addicted to alcohol, and his wife tried to persuade him to quit drinking. Leap Zhi did not forbid Su Shi to drink alcohol, which obviously made him very useful. Of course, he is not greedy. Or that although he is a good wine, the amount of wine is too shallow.

The case of Wang Yanzhi serving wine to Su Shi is more famous. This is what in "Later Chibi Fu", Su Shi and two friends want to swim by the moon, regretting that there is no wine, he "returns to seek women". As a result, the wife said, "I have a bucket of wine, and I have hidden it for a long time, so that my son will need it from time to time." ”

On the white and breezy night of that month, there were peers and fresh fish, and if there was a lack of fine wine that was carefully collected by the leap in case of emergency, I don't know how much it would lose color. On the eastern slope of their Trip to Chibi, the interest will definitely be greatly reduced. Even, whether it can produce that famous article that will be full of excitement and shine for eternity, it must also be a question mark.

Perhaps, Wang Yanzhi is not as rich in wisdom as Wang Fu, but the warmth and support she gives to her husband cannot be ignored. Many times, Leap Zhi also shows her full of life ability. In Huangzhou, Su Shi wrote a letter to Zhang Wei (zi zi hou) saying that the family lived in Dongpo, made a living by growing rice in dozens of acres of land, participated in farming themselves, and raised silkworms by his wife. He told Zhang Wei that yesterday a cow almost died of illness, and the cow doctor did not know what the disease was, but the old wife knew that the cow had bean spot sores and should be fed artemisia porridge. This method really worked: "Don't say that after the servant who dwells, he has always been a cottage man, and the old wife has also taken the black peony (the nickname for the cow). He smiled. His wife's knowledge and ability made Dongpo admire him very much, and he couldn't help but relish his old friends thousands of miles away in the letter.

Wang Yan's temperament is soft and submissive, and Su Dongpo is very pleased that he is not as unfortunate as Jingtong and encounters a humble woman. His "Six Songs of Ciyun and Wang Gong" wrote: "The son can still blame Tong Yuanliang, but the wife is sent to the xiansheng to respect the tong." The poem also specifically states: "Although the servant article does not arrest Feng Yan, the generous festival is worthy of this man." The ancestors of the world are wise and good, but they are not alone, exiled, similar to servants. And the wife is very jealous, and the servant is less like this, so there is a sentence of 'victory and respect'. ”

Yuanliang is the character of Tao Yuanming, who once wrote the poem "Blame". Jingtong was the Eastern Han Dynasty scholar Feng Yan, who read a lot of books, but his wife Ren was particularly jealous and stubborn. Dongpo felt that he was similar to Jingtong - he met Mingjun, but he himself was displaced. But far more fortunate than Jingtong, it is his wife who is virtuous and generous.

In fact, does Wang Yanzhi's virtuousness stop at not being "jealous"? She accompanied her husband from Mizhou to Huzhou, from Huangzhou to Beijing, with the ups and downs of Su Shi's career, sometimes enjoying admiration and glory, sometimes experiencing ups and downs, but always "the women's office is both cultivated, and the mother's ceremony is very good." The three sons are one, and love comes from heaven." Leap Zhi treated his cousin Wang Fu's son Su Mai equally with his own su and su guo, and Su Shi was particularly grateful for her deep love.

Works by Su Shi

In the Book of Yang Pushi, volume 2 of Dongpo Zhilin, Su Shi recalls the story that Li Gongjian told when he passed through Luoyang: After Emperor Zhenzong traveled east to Mount Taishan to seal Zen, he visited the world's hermits. Someone recommended Yang Pu, saying that he was good at writing poetry. When the emperor summoned him, Yang Pu said that he could not write poetry. The emperor asked, so did anyone write a poem for you when you were leaving? Yang Pu said that only my concubine wrote a poem: "More hughes and drinks, and Mo is crazy to love poetry." Today the general went to the official, and this time he broke the old man's skin. Zhenzong laughed and let Yang Pu go home. Next, Su Shi talked about his own experience, he was in trouble because of writing poetry, when he was arrested in Huzhou, Wang Yanzhi and his son sent him to the door, they couldn't help but cry, he turned his head to look at Yan Zhi and said, Can't you write poems like Yang's wife to send me? When the wife and children heard this, they did not feel that they were laughing. Su Shi was relieved to go out with the servants. It was July 28, 1079, the second year of Emperor Genfeng's reign.

The aftermath and the scene at the time of the arrest were written by Su Shi with no lack of humor. The truth is much more terrifying. At the beginning of the third year of Yuanfeng, Su Shi, who had escaped from the "Wutai Poetry Prison", was demoted by Emperor Shenzong to Huangzhou and assumed the lowly post of deputy envoy of the regimental training, and could not leave without authorization, nor did he have the right to sign official documents. In a letter he wrote to his predecessor Wen Yanbo ("Huangzhou Shangwen Lu Gongshu"), he said that when he was just arrested and taken to the capital, his eldest son (Su Mai) followed him on foot, and the rest of the people who stayed at home were women and children. With the help of Su Shi's colleagues and friends, Wang Yanzhi led more than twenty members of his family, old and young, to pack their bags, boarded the boat in misery and trepidation, and temporarily defected to Su Rui's family in Nandu (present-day Shangqiu, Henan).

During the reign of Emperor Zhezong, Su Shi sought to leave the land of Jingshi and apply to become a magistrate. Shang shu still has lingering feelings when he recalls the past: Li Ding, Shu Qi, and others said that he slandered the monarch with words. "When a subject is offended and imprisoned, (Li) Ding and other officials are selected to send the official Emperor Fu to follow the thief, that is, to say goodbye to his wife, to leave a letter with his brother, and to deal with the aftermath." When he crossed the Yangtze River, he wanted to throw himself into the river, but the guards guarded it, but it was fruitless. "We also have to thank the officials for their close supervision, otherwise, we may not be able to read Su Shi's splendid words after the Wutai poetry case."

When he arrived in Suzhou, he was ordered by Yushi to fetch his documents and manuscripts, and the people of the prefecture and county sent officials and soldiers to search around Wang Yanzhi's ship, and the old and young were almost scared to death. After they left, the wife angrily scolded: This is all the result of the book you like to write, what is the benefit of writing it? Scare us like this! Then she burned the manuscript letters and the like. When things calmed down a little, they rearranged their search, and seven out of ten were lost.

Many descendants blamed Wang Yanzhi for burning manuscripts, books, etc., because he failed to put himself in her shoes and consider her situation. The Song Dynasty Kong Pingzhong's "Tan Yuan" tells that when the emperor of the Imperial History Terrace came to the Huzhou Guanya with a wat board and an official boots and official robes, the two white-clad and green-scarfed jailers who followed him were also "Gu Pan vicious". Su Shi was once too nervous to come out. Immediately, they escorted Su Shi out of the city in a menacing manner, "in an instant, pulling a taishou, like driving a dog and a chicken."

The husband suddenly changed from Zhizhou to a prisoner, the whole family was surrounded by soldiers, and books, manuscripts, letters, etc. were searched in a mess. How could Wang Yanzhi not panic? Moreover, her husband was arrested for maliciously interpreting the poems, and her life and death were uncertain, and her knee-jerk reaction, of course, was to immediately burn any words that might cause sin. Su Shi did not complain about Yan Zhi in this memory, and he reproduced the horrific scene of "the old and the young were scared to death" at that time, and he was full of pity for his wife and children. Su Shi wrote a desperate poem in prison ("Give the matter to the Yushitai Prison, the prison official is slightly invaded, self-respecting, in prison, can not be separated by a son, pretending to be a second poem to the jailer Liang Cheng, with the widow of the son" also expressed the guilt of Leap Zhi: "The rhinoceros horn in the eyes is true, and the old wife behind the cow is ashamed." The "old wife" was actually in her early thirties. Su Shi was extremely worried: if he died, it would add infinite burdens to his already poor brother, and his wife would have to pull the family in poverty, which was even more difficult.

On August 1, 1093, in the eighth year of Emperor Zhezong's reign, Wang Yanzhi died at the age of forty-six while serving as a rebbe Shangshu in Dongpo. If we don't want her to go through too much suffering, for example, soon after that, she needs to go to Huizhou with her husband who has been degraded again, and a few years later she will be relegated to a more barbaric Danzhou, lack of medical treatment, full of trouble... We may, then, see her death as some degree of relief.

In 1098, in Shangyuan, Dongpo dreamed in Danzhou that he had been dead for five years, "The lights and flowers are exhausted, and the incense seal is gone." "The scene in the dream is still in the season of the Kyoshi." Two years later, he recited "Chasing and Peng Yin Years shangyuan", in the text, not only grateful to his young son Su for accompanying him to the southern wilderness for several years, taking care of him in many ways, but also guilty for the separation of his son and daughter-in-law for many years. At the same time, I mourn again, remember her for suffering with myself, and grieve for her death.

Dongpo's "Sacrifice of the Dead Wife Tong'an Junwen" is difficult to hide the sadness, "tears are dry". "From my southbound, Shushui was pleased. Tang Mu two counties, happy not to see the face." Whether he degraded Huangzhou, lived in embarrassment, or later returned to the court and held an important position, the leap capital was calm. He lamented that his wife had abandoned the world before himself, so that the wish to return to his hometown together could not be realized: "I know that I will return to the hill garden." There were many whiskers, forsaking me first. Who greets me? Who gives me the field? After Leap Zhi's death, Dongpo was soon ordered to know Dingzhou, and in desperation, he temporarily buried his wife's coffin in the West Huiji Temple of Jingshi City, and solemnly stated that he would be buried with her in the future. Nine years later, Su Shi and his wife were buried together in Yu County, Ruzhou, Henan.

When Dongpo left Beijing that year, he asked his brother to pay tribute to his sister-in-law on time. Su Rui wrote two sacrifice texts for Wang Yanzhi in October of the eighth year of Emperor Zhezong's reign (1093) and April of the first year of Emperor Huizong's reign (1102), "Sacrifice to the Dead Sister-in-law Wang Clan Wen" and "Re-Sacrifice the Dead Sister-in-Law Wang Clan Wen", the latter of which was particularly distressing, because the previous year (1101) his brother died in Changzhou when he was pardoned and returned to the north. When Su Ru wrote the sacrifice, the coffin of Dongpo was on its way to the burial of Wu County.

What impressed Su Rui most deeply on her sister-in-law was that she could not change her degree when she was poor and difficult and smooth. When the family was poor and embarrassed in Huangzhou, she had amazing calmness; When the elder brother also became a Hanlin scholar, the sister-in-law's food and clothing were the same as ever. Su Rui believes that her insult is not shocked by nature, "sex is inherent, not learned". The clans have always admired Wang Yanzhi's virtues, believing that she will have a blessing and a long life. Who knew that she actually died in middle age, it was really unpredictable. Fortunately, the three sons are very good and can comfort their sister-in-law.

Dancing shirt song fan old karma

In Su Dongpo's time, words were sung by hele, and many literati filled in the words with great interest. However, most of them regard this as entertainment, because "words are yanke", usually limited to the interlaced wine feast, the song stage of the warbling swallow language to help entertain, more beautiful moods or lovesickness, unlike poetry with a large artistic conception and a broad subject matter. Of course, Su Dongpo is the first figure to open up the atmosphere. He "washed away the state of Qiluo Xiangze, got rid of the degree of silk and elegance, made people ascend to the heights and look far away, held up a high song, and yi huai hao".

At that time, the music of the sound trick was an indispensable part of the daily life of the doctor. The main singer of those songs, also known as kabuki, was mostly lost.

Wang Chaoyun (1062-1096) went to the Su family to work as a servant, and it was Su Shi who was in charge of the Hangzhou Tongjue. Chaoyun is a Qiantang person, if it were not for the death of his parents or the poverty of his family, he might not have become a singer at a young age. Chaoyun only began to study after she arrived at Su's house, and among the songs she had previously known and singed, there might be Su Shi's lyrics. To be a maid in such a person's house, is it more of a fear or a secret joy?

Morning Saying Image

One thing is clear that the gentleman is not a mean and picky person, as can be seen from his many actions. Once, Pu Zongmeng, a fellow villager in Meishan, wrote to Su Shi to introduce the bathing method that he felt was very beneficial: wash his face twice a day, wash his feet twice, and take a formal bath every other day. Among them, small baths were served with twenty-four buckets of water, and five or six servants served; Twenty-four buckets of water were also used for the great bath, but ointment was used, clothes were placed on metal nets, fumigated with precious and rare spices, and served by eight or nine people. To Pu Zongmeng's recommendation, Su Shi replied euphemistically and resolutely: "The smell is very high, and it is comforting." However, there are two shang who want to be advised, one is frugality, and the other is kindness. Fortunately, Su Shi worshipped frugality and benevolence, fortunately he did not have so much cumbersome and exquisite when he bathed, otherwise, Chaoyun would be tired and people would turn over on their horses.

During Su Shi's stay in Huangzhou, Chaoyun, who was about twenty years old, became his concubine. At first, she was probably a little comfort for the poet in his sleepy sorrows. Later, she became his confidant for the rest of his life. In his turbulent and depressed exile career, Chaoyun always accompanied and cared for Dongpo.

In the first year of Emperor Zhezong's reign (1094), Dongpo was demoted to Huizhou. Chaoyun yi accompanied the "sinner" without hesitation. In the year of Huizhou, Chaoyun was only in his early thirties.

Dongpo once wrote the text "To move to Huizhou for one year, food and clothing are getting embarrassed". In fact, why did the days of embarrassment and coercion in his life stop at this period? Their residence in Huizhou has been relocated many times and cannot be slightly safe. Finally, Dongpo built a house on the white crane peak of the small mountain by the river, named White Crane Residence. Perhaps, Chaoyun has shared the honor of being a famous poet's family; But more often than not, she shared his troubles. In the years when Dongpo was embarrassed and unstable, Chaoyun was safe. Dongpo originally had several concubines, but they had resigned one after another in four or five years. When he was once again in trouble, only old age and few were left, only Chaoyun moved south with him. In November of the first year of the song dynasty (1094), Dongpo wrote the "Chaoyun Poem" and gave it to her: "It is not like Yang Zhi Bei Lotte, just like Tongde accompanies Lingxuan." Bai Juyi's concubine Fan Su left when the former was old and sick, and "Spring returned with Fan Zi for a while." Dongpo, on the other hand, was much luckier, and Chaoyun, like Fan Tongde accompanied the elderly Liu Lingxuan, did not abandon him. "New work in the medicine furnace, dancing shirts and singing old karma." Now Chaoyun is accompanied by the sutra medicine furnace every day, and the dance shirt song fan has long been far away from her.

Chaoyun's appearance has received many praises, and Qin Guan's "Nan Gezi" praises her as "mist condensed in the spring state, dissolving and dissolving the beautiful Xiaoguang". In the spring of the third year in Huizhou, Dongpo celebrated her birthday and composed the "Wang's Birthday Greeting Slogan", with affection and enthusiasm: "Ten thousand spring winds are the birthday of the children, sitting and watching the sea rise and dust." He also said of her bright and fresh beauty: "Three years at sea, the flowers and branches are not old", "hair and skin light self-appreciation." "Of course, Chaoyun is angry beauty, but her extraordinary qualifications are more evident from the aspects of intelligence and atmosphere. Therefore, Dongpo called her "sensitive and righteous" in her epitaph. This story from "Liangxi Manzhi" has always been famous, and Chaoyun obviously knows Dongpo very well:

Dongpo retreated to the dynasty one day, ate and ate, and walked on his stomach, Gu said to the waiter: "What is the middle of the Ru generation and the Tao?" "It's all articles." Poe disagreed. Another said, "The belly is full of machines." Poe didn't take it for granted. As for Chaoyun, nai said: "The bachelor's belly is not in time." Poe laughed.

The "Chronicle of the Cilin" quotes the "Discussion of Words Under the Forest" to record that when Dongpo was living in Huizhou, he once asked Chaoyun to sing his "Butterfly Love Flower , Flower Fading Red", which was titled "Spring Scenery" in the "Song Sixty Family Words and Dongpo Words", which is a famous passage for hurting spring and hurting feelings. And he didn't hear —"

Zi Zhan was in Huizhou, sitting idly with Chaoyun, when the young girl first arrived (that is, the autumn frost first fell), the fallen wood XiaoXiao, sadly with the meaning of autumn, ordered Chaoyun to put the big white, singing "flowers fade red". Asagiri's throat will be hoarse, and tears will fill his clothes. Zi Zhan questioned him. Answered: "Slaves cannot sing, 'the willows on the branches blow less, and there is no grass at the end of the world'." Zi Zhan burst out laughing: "It is I who is sad about autumn, and Ru is hurting spring." That's it. Chaoyun soon fell ill and died. Zi Zhan never listened to this word again.

Chaoyun is worthy of being a confidant, she can be insightful, sensitive to performance, understand Dongpo's value orientation, deeply worried about Dongpo's bumpy situation, understand his willfulness, and is good at responding to him in the same ridiculous way. Such a confidant is not something that anyone is fortunate enough to get.

Ice poses its own fairy wind

On September 27, the sixth year of Yuanfeng (1083), the youngest son Su Sui (nicknamed Gan'er) was born in Huangzhou. Dongpo wrote a poem "Washing": "Everyone adopts a son who wants to be smart, and I have been mistaken for a lifetime by cleverness." May the child be foolish and reckless, and have no disasters and no difficulties to the secretary of state. ”

The newborn was ridiculed by his father, who was also mocked by the stupid but well-connected nobles, who were the sons of Chaoyun. If there is no accident, the father is the clever Su Dongpo, how can he be "stupid and reckless"?

Heaven gave Chaoyun the happiness of being a mother, but he arbitrarily deprived it. She was only twenty-one years old, healthy and bright, holding a fresh and splendid baby in her arms, but She died in only ten months. In those days, Dongpo couldn't help himself, took the order of the imperial court, moved from Huangzhou to Ruzhou, and he and his family went down the Yangtze River. In the hot Jinling, Gan'er fell ill and died. Dongpo's poems about the early death of his son are extremely sad:

I was forty-nine years old, and I lost my young son.

The youngest son, Zhen Wu'er, is born with a similar eyebrow.

Unexpectedly, look at the good, and hesitate to go through the history of the book.

Shaking his head, he seemed to be ashamed.

I am always happy, and I am happy with this smile.

Suddenly taken away, the evil karma I tired.

The salary is free from vulgarity, and the ear is destroyed.

Returning to the empty embrace, the old tears are like water.

I can wipe my tears and forget them the day after day.

The mother wept inaudibly, and wanted to die with her.

The old clothes are still suspended, and the swollen breasts have flowed out of bed.

Feeling this, I want to forget my life, and I lie down all day long.

The middle-aged man heard that the dream had been explained in detail.

Storing medicines such as hills and mountains, more prescriptions for diseases.

Still will love the blade, cut this aging intestine.

Confused and self-reflexive, a mourning sends the rest of the injury.

Su Sui was the fourth son of Dongpo, but the only child of Chaoyun. In ancient times, it was difficult for women of the Liang family to obtain any sustenance from their husbands and children, whether they were wives or concubines. If Chaoyun had no children, if she had another spiritual attachment, perhaps her trauma would have been slightly lessened. However, none of these assumptions hold true. She is just a helpless woman, and she can only wash her face with tears every day. Dongpo has verses such as "I can still wipe my tears" and "The mother's crying cannot be heard, and she wants to die with Ru". Everyone who has ever been a parent can deeply feel their sorrow and the despair of falling into the darkness of the clouds. She was in a trance, lying in bed weak all day, unable to digest this catastrophe.

Dongpo had already begun to study Buddhism intensively when he was in Huangzhou, and when he arrived in Huizhou, his religious feelings became stronger. Chaoyun converted to Buddhism under the guidance of the nun Yi Chong, single-mindedly worshipped the Buddha, did good deeds, and built a release pond with Dongpo, "Heavenly Daughter Vimal Total Interpretation Zen", which he was pleased with. Chaoyun was also immersed in calligraphy in Huizhou, and Dongpo later wrote to a friend that her characters were "quite scripted".

On July 5, 1096, the third year of Shaosheng (1096), Chaoyun died of plague at the age of thirty-four. She was twenty-six years younger than Dongpo, who said that she had "been a gentleman for twenty years and was loyal and respectful."

Su Dongpo wrote many mournful and mournful texts for Chaoyun, and "Xijiang Yue Plum Blossom" was written shortly after her death: "The jade bone is melancholy and foggy, and the ice posture has its own fairy wind." When the sea nymphs are dispatched to explore the fang bushes, hanging upside down the green hairy phoenix. Plain noodles are often powdery, and makeup does not fade lip red. Gao Qing has gradually dawned the clouds and the sky, and does not dream with pear blossoms. ”

The beautiful plum blossom is a symbol of the high purity and unworldly style of the morning clouds. Dongpo placed his thoughts and admiration for Chaoyun in plum blossoms. The Ming Dynasty scholar Yang Sheng'an once praised this word, believing that "ancient and modern plum words, with the Poxian green hair and phoenix as the first".

Chaoyun's death was a fatal blow to the poet. Poems such as "Mourning Chaoyun" are equally melancholy and sad. In the "Huizhou Recommendation ChaoyunShu" that was sacrificed to her, Dongpo lamented that the latter died of illness in the hot wasteland in order to accompany him. He prayed for the light of the Buddha to illuminate the "Lake Mountain Anji" so that her tomb could be strengthened for a long time.

With a few exceptions, women in the old days lacked sufficient social and economic status, and if they could not hope for the kindness of their husbands and the success of their sons, life was really boring. And most of the concubines' low status between the master and the servant makes them even more helpless and desolate. Chaoyun may be a little lucky not to be "unladylike in the face of people". Moreover, as a relative of Su Dongpo, who has never come before or since, he has won sincere praise from people before his death, although he does not pretend to live in heaven, but he has gained eternal life in the text.

Source: Magazine of All Walks of Life, Issue 2, 2022

Author: Wang He