Su Shi's two rooms

2022020

The land of the spirit

After a short stay in DinghuiYuan in Huangzhou, Su Shi moved to the Lingao (gāo) Pavilion.

The old house is not spacious, but is even more cramped with the arrival of the family. On weekdays, when people came to visit, The Lingao Pavilion could not be overwhelmed, so Su Shi had to take pity and place them in a temple or boat a little farther away. Fortunately, the old house is close to the river, the scenery is very good, can temporarily relieve the living troubles, as he said in the letter: the outdoors are a few steps is the river, the smoke waves are small, and the weather is sparse and open.

The big river in front of the Lingao Pavilion | After Chibi Futu Qiao Zhongchang

The river is windy and turbulent, day and night.

When the Southern Song Dynasty poet Lu You visited Su Shi's former residence, due to the rapids of the river, the ship could not dock, so he temporarily changed the landing place. Later, he recorded in the "Record of Entering Shu": Gai Lingao has many winds and waves, and it is not allowed to be at night.

Su Shi likes the grand scenery. He often took advantage of his wife and children to sleep, pacing alone by the river, looking up at the stars in the sky and listening to the sound of the waves in the water. Such a situation and experience made him sigh that the world is fickle and everyone is so small.

River

Degraded Huangzhou, there is no money to speak of, and the livelihood is difficult. With the help of friends, Su Shi accidentally acquired a wasteland outside the city and was able to cultivate himself. This unmanaged wasteland has no place name, because it is just outside the east gate of Huangzhou City, and because it is located on a slope, Su Shi called it Dongpo, and he called himself "Dongpo Resident".

For him, farming was not a chore, but a part of life. Su Shi thought to himself, the happiness of autumn harvest and winter hiding has disappeared for a long time, and now that he has the opportunity to pick it up, it should be considered a fortunate thing.

Xuetang guest drawing Song Dynasty Xia Gui

This winter, not far from the eastern slope, he found a high ground that was originally a deer farm, which had a wide view and was an ideal place to build a house. Zhang Luo building materials, dove construction, its upper building hall, a total of five rooms. Because when the hall was completed, it coincided with heavy snowfall, so it was named "Snow Hall".

The four walls of the snow hall are painted with snow scenes in exchange for a cool heart and spirit. In the history of art, there are not many paintings with the title of Xuetang, and the "Xuetang Guest Talk Map" written by Xia Gui of the Southern Song Dynasty should be an imaginary Snow Hall that combines the scenery of Jiangnan - in the hall, the two people are either playing against each other or tasting tea, and there seems to be pictures on the wall on their sides, perhaps, it is the snow scene that Su Shi left in the Snow Hall.

Snow Hall

Since the completion of the Xuetang, in addition to irrigating and cultivating the farming, Su Shi would most of the time stay in the hall to read and meet his friends. This simple residence has become the spiritual place of Su Shi and the exchange and residence of visitors.

In that year, Mi Fu was just out of the woods and came to visit through Huangzhou by being introduced. He regarded Su Shi as an elder, but he "did not adhere to the disciple ritual" and carried his own noble and pure atmosphere. Su Shi read the talent of the young man and invited him to the Xuetang to admire Wu Daozi's paintings and instructed him to learn Jin calligraphy. Mi Fu listened attentively to the teachings, and later took the Jin people's calligraphy as a guide, and the calligraphy was greatly improved.

Interior view of the Snow Hall

It's winter again. When his friend Cai Chengxi arrived, he saw that the Lingao Pavilion was really crowded, and helped him build three rooms on the south side, named Nantang.

Although it is only a simple tile house, it solves Su Shi's problem, which can be used by friends and is also his independent bookstore. During the day, Su Shi, farming or meeting friends, is too busy, every time the crescent moon hangs, from the snow hall back to The Lingao Pavilion, it is his own reading time.

Side view of Lingao Pavilion

Su Shi has had the habit of reading since he was a child, and he needs to turn to books and fall asleep almost every night. But he never urged the children to read. However, Su Shi always took their poetry extremely seriously, and for those complicated or abusive words, he would definitely check out and inform them of the reasons and appropriate uses.

The main view of Lingao Pavilion

In the Lingao Pavilion and the Snow Hall, farming, reading, meeting friends, godsons... This life lasted for four years. He laughed at himself: The wind and moon in the country are impermanent lords, and the idlers are the masters.

Of course, Su Shi is not an active idle person, he is full of love for life and life, and patiently runs two residences. In 1084, he received instructions to leave Huangzhou. Before leaving, he handed over Xuetang and Dongpo to his junior Pan Dalin, hoping that he could still return to Huangzhou, talk with his old friends, and read at night in two rooms.

However, Su Shi walked farther and farther, all the way to the south, and never returned here. The snow hall full of snowflakes slowly disappeared in the process of demolition and reconstruction again and again, and even the DinghuiYuan where he first settled was worn away by time and disappeared.

Some references to the book "Su Dongpo New Biography" are available in micro-stores

Author: Mo Yi'ao, a writer, has long been engaged in the writing of pan-cultural content such as Chinese and Western art history and humanistic history, and all articles are currently published on the WeChat public accounts "LCA" and "Mo Yi'ao's".

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