In a few days, Su Xun will have his 27th birthday. Before the age of 27, although he was not "idle", he was definitely the kind of person who was content with the "comfort zone".
Over the years, Su Xun has traveled in the mountains and rivers, widely knotted literati and inkers, "The youth likes miracles, and falls across the Kurama." Look at the world and love this universe wide. "I have never been bothered by chai rice oil and salt, nor have I been tortured by the intrigues of the "workplace", which seems to have realized most people's dream of "traveling the world".
But on this threshold equivalent to the modern age of 40, Su Xun suddenly felt a little depressed.
At this time, in addition to writing some small poems and small words to win everyone's applause after tea and dinner, there is no little fame and fortune, which is not "hardcore" enough.
At the age of 27, Su Xun suddenly woke up and began a "counterattack journey", from "elderly stubborn lord" to "super accompaniment", and then cultivated two extremely outstanding sons and successfully sat on the throne of "the most cattle father".
What really happened at the age of 27 that made Su Xun completely change his personality, from indulging in landscape and water to investing in the ocean of knowledge, and ranking among the eight masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties after a thousand years?
One of them was the death of his mother. Su Xun's parents gave him enough spiritual and material protection, if Su Xun was still a son under the protection of his parents and eldest brother before, then the death of his mother made Su Xun grow up in the true sense and begin to think about the future and "rice bowl".
The second thing is the encouragement and support of the wife. At that time, Su Xun had been in the family for nearly ten years, and several children had been born, and "off-the-job learning" seemed to be a bit unprofessional on a middle-aged man with old and young.
However, Su Xun's wife, Cheng Shi, said to him very firmly, in fact, I have long wanted you to study hard, but if you read because of the requirements of others, it is not interesting. "Zi Gou has ambitions, and I can be tired of life!" If you really have this ambition, then the affairs of the family are entrusted to me, and you can study with peace of mind.
With introspection and the support of his wife, Su Xun began to safely and boldly turn his ears away from the window and read only the sages. Starting to read at this age, unlike the "cramming" reading style of being disciplined by his parents and teachers when he was a teenager, Su Xun picked up his learning again and had a strong sense of planning and purpose.
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He three provinces themselves: why study? What books should I read? How to read?
"Knowing what it is is knowing is what it is". The clear goal gave Su Xun the determination and perseverance to overcome all difficulties.
But it is also strange to say that although Su Xun studied hard and could understand it, he took the exam several times in succession, and he was famous for Sun Shan. In ten years, he tried both the imperial examination and the subject examination, and all of them were confident and failed.
Why is the article well written, but repeatedly discouraged? Su Xun did not want to understand the problem, and the scholars a thousand years later helped him summarize it. His articles are cleverly structured, thick and accessible, not obscure, and clear and fulfilling. However, the examination of the Song Dynasty was the "Book of Sound Rhythm", to test the poetry and song endowment, to write a rhyme, it needed to be memorized by rote, these Su Xun were not good at it, and he did not like to read this kind of book.
In the years when he took the exam, the main popular style in the literary world was this style of writing, and the direction of his efforts was wrong, and naturally he could not reach the end.
After many failures, he angrily burned all the articles he had written, no longer reading and writing for the exam, but freely soaring in the sea of books, reading for himself, reading for solving problems, not for exams.
He drew the essence from the Classics of Confucius and Mencius and gradually accumulated his own knowledge, such as the Book of Quan, the Theory of Balance, and Several Strategies. After a thousand years, those literati who were contemporaries with him may not be well-known, and they may not have his achievements and deep influence in the history of literature.
In the second year of Su Xun's vigorous study (1037 AD), Su Shi was born, and two years later (1039 AD), Su Rui was born.
After twenty years of stodgy imperial examinations, Su Xun turned to free thinking and reading, and he knew too well what a person should read, how to read, and what the direction of reading was.
Therefore, when he educates his two children, his goal is already very clear, not to read for exam education, but to read for free thinking, broadening his horizons, and enriching his experience.
When Su Shi was exiled in Hainan, he had a "nightmare" one day, dreaming that his father would give him an exam the next day and recite "Spring and Autumn". Su Shi suddenly remembered that he hadn't even finished reciting half of it, and suddenly woke up, and felt like a fish hanging on a hook, "Night dream frolicking boy ru, father and teacher inspection shock away the book." Ji Gong dang Yu, now is the beginning and the beginning of Huanzhuang. Shivering and uncomfortable, sitting up is like a hook fish. ”
It can be seen that Su Xun's discipline of the Su Shi brothers is very strict, but unlike other parents who always pin their hopes on educating their children on external factors such as teachers and extracurricular classes, Su Xun has become a "super companion", more to study with his two sons, discuss national events together, and discuss the motives for success or failure. In terms of articles, it has long since moved away from narrative essays such as "a small thing" and turned to higher-level argumentative essays.
Once, they read an article by the minister of the dynasty, Fu Bi, "Quotations from the North", which was written by Fu Bi to the liao monarch in the context of the invasion of the Northern Song Dynasty by the Liao state. The text explains that war is a time-consuming and costly act, and anyone who encourages you to fight a war must be because war is good for him personally, but it is harmful to the country.
Speaking of this, Su Xun suddenly asked Su Shi, did the ancients have a similar point of view? Su Shi's mind turned quickly, and he immediately replied that when Emperor Wu of Han was a minister named Yan An, he advised Emperor Wu of Han not to send envoys to the Xiongnu, which was not conducive to the long-term peace and stability of the country. Su Shi believes that although Yan An also said this truth, he was not as thorough as Fu Bi said.
At that time, Su Shi was only a teenager, and he had such an opinion, which was inseparable from the educational method that Su Xun discussed national strategic issues with them in his daily life, and even more inseparable from the reading of the Book of The Hundred Families of History.
Understanding and respecting children is the reason why Su Xun can guide them step by step.
Children naturally love to play, and Su Xun does not stop the two brothers from playing greedily.
When Su Shi was twelve years old, he and his younger brother Su Rui dug out a "strange stone" in the courtyard, "like a fish, warm skin, light blue." The surface is full of thin silver stars, and the buckle is sonorous. Su Shi wanted to make it into a brick platform and went to his father with the stone. Su Xun did not blame them for playing chiseled and not learning, nor did he deny that it was just a broken stone, but praised them for digging up a piece of Tianyan, but the shape did not grow well, "It is Tianyan also, there is the virtue of Yan, and it is not enough to shape the ear." He also told Su Shi that this is heaven's affirmation of your good reading, "it is the auspiciousness of words."
Not only that, Su Xun also carved a small wooden box by hand according to the shape of the Yantai, and Su Shi has been collecting it with him and refusing to discard it, "Although the box is not worked, it is the place where the ancestor carved it by hand, and the worker who becomes it is not easy." ”
In the first year of Jiayou (1056 AD), under the recommendation of Zhang Fangping of Yizhou Zhizhou, Su Xun took Su Shi and Su Rui on the road to Beijing to catch the examination. With the introduction of nobles, Su Xun had to seize the opportunity, not to promote himself to get rich, but also to pave the way for his son, so in the capital he almost did not idle, busy to the imperial court ministers and the mainstream of the literary circles to write articles, first talk about their admiration for each other, and then talk about the understanding of the current situation and politics, that is called a transparent, plus the two sons of the double lift, the father and son three in the capital can be described as famous, beautiful for a while.
Ten years of trees, a hundred years of tree people. The Father and Son of the Su Family were able to rank among the eight masters of Tang and Song prose, and Su Shi became a "symbol" representing the culture of the Song Dynasty with versatility, becoming a giant that almost no one in the Chinese literary world surpassed, reflecting the Su family's emphasis on the cultivation of comprehensive talents.
Su Xun not only teaches children to think independently, but also pays more attention to the cultivation of moral character. He is well aware of the temperament of his two sons, Su Shi is enthusiastic and unrestrained, and Su Rui is calm and idyllic. So the two sons were named "Shi" and "Ru", "Shi" refers to the horizontal wood used as a handrail in front of the ancient carriage, "Rut" is the rut left by the carriage and horses, hoping that they will do important things, for low-key people, pinning hopes and admonitions on their sons.
Reading thousands of books is not as good as walking thousands of miles, and Su Xun also likes to take his two sons around the mountains and rivers. In the third year of Jiayou (1059 AD), Su Xun took Su Shi, Su Rui and his family members from Meishan to Jialing, and the father and son recorded what they saw and heard along the way and compiled them into the "Southbound Collection".
Rongzhou (present-day Yibin), Sichuan, in particular, left a deep impression on the father and son. The local scenery is beautiful, the landform is diverse, and it is also rich in a kind of multi-grain brewed wine "Yao Zi Xuequ", and the father and son three see the beautiful scenery and drink all the wine, which is not comfortable. Su Shi also wrote poems such as "Rongzhou" and "Crossing Yibin to See the Mountains of Chaos", expressing his love for Rongzhou with verses such as "hazy with peaks, swinging and shooting cliffs". The "Yao Zi Xuequ" that accompanied Sansu, its luscious and mellow taste is unforgettable, and has been passed down to this day, and is named Wuliangye because of "the essence of wuliang to form jade liquid", just like Su Xun's far-reaching and remarkable educational concept, which has set a model for future generations.
Nowadays, we pay more and more attention to the education of our children, and we do not hesitate to spend a lot of money to buy school district houses, just to let children go to a good school and have a good educational environment. As everyone knows, family education is the first lesson for children. The words and deeds of family members are sometimes more acceptable to children than teachers banging on the blackboard and stressing knowledge points in a hoarse voice.
Su Xun's exemplary role of self-discipline had a profound impact on the personality and knowledge of Su Shi and Su Rui. Later generations commented on their father and son three, "a father and son three word guests, the ancient article four everyone." ”
Although Su Xunke never won the exam, and his ideal of becoming an official was abandoned for various reasons such as age, he occupied an indispensable position in the history of literature. At the same time, firmly at the top of the list of "the strongest father in history", the eldest son of the two sons, Su Shi, was talented and became synonymous with classical Chinese literature, and the second son, Su Rui, had a smooth career, and the official was equivalent to the position of "vice premier" Shang Shuling.
Ouyang Xiu once commented on Su Xun's article, "The discussion is proficient in physics and good at understanding change, and the article is not intended to be useful for empty words." Later generations compiled Su Xun's story into the traditional Chinese enlightenment textbook "Three Character Classic", with "Su Laoquan, twenty-seven, starting to work hard, reading books" to encourage future generations.
As the "strongest father" in history, Su Xun's story has been passed down from generation to generation, and has become a model for late adulthood, family education, and article writing.
Author: Hu Changhong
Coordinator: Li Yaowei Yan Mei
Editor: Xie Yue
Producer: Tian Xinxin