The whole world knows that Su Shi was a generation of literary heroes, but few people know that he was a "master of easy learning", who once wrote a "Dongpo YiChuan", which later generations also called "Biling Yichuan".
When Su Shi was young, he studied "Yi" with zhang Yijian, a Taoist priest in Meishan, and when he was a teenager, he wanted to enter the mountains and forests to become a Taoist priest, and he had frequent interactions with Daoist masters throughout his life, deeply understood the divination of "Zhou Yi" and the art of "fetal breath" health maintenance, and called himself "Iron Crown Daoist". His father Su Xun was proficient in "Tai Xuan", and in his later years, he wanted to write "Yi Chuan" but did not succeed, and he ordered Su Shi to continue to write this book. Su Shi began writing yichuan when he was demoted to Huangzhou around the age of 45, and continued to revise it until his death was in danger. His cognitive methods and ruling ideas were deeply influenced by the I Ching, and his poetry and writing became more profound and mysterious. However, after Su Shi's death, why did his I Ching be named after Biling (Changzhou alias), and also known as "Biling Yichuan"?
The I Ching is a book of divination that originated at the time of the Yin Zhou Dynasty, and its contents contain certain philosophies. The "Yi Chuan" is the author's interpretation and insight of the "I Ching".
In Song Su's "Last Words of Luan Cheng", it is said that "Su Xun made it easy to pass on, but did not succeed and died, and instructed his second son to write his zhi, and the book was completed first, and the letter was sent to Shi ,...... Then this book is the three brothers of the Su family, father and son, who worked together to do it, and the title was written day by day, and it was asked to become an ear" Shows that Su Shi's study of the I Ching was initially influenced by his father, although this book was written by Su Shi, but initially from Su Xun, which also has some of Su Rui's research results. However, Su Shi had a lot of research on the Zhou Yi in his youth, and his "Imperial Examination of Heavy Sundaism" written when he was twenty-one years old discussed his views on some of the contents of the I Ching, and he also often used it to observe, explain, and discuss various phenomena in society in Su Shi's poems (especially some philosophical poems).
His monograph "Yi Chuan" was mainly completed in the life of two derogatory exiles. The first time he was in Huangzhou during the five-year period, according to his "Shangwen Lu Gongshu", "Duanju thought deeply, and if he had gained something, he wrote the nine volumes of Yi Chuan because of the study of his ancestors." In his letter, he also said that he was afraid that the book would be "lost and not passed on" and wanted to "copy a few copies to leave in the world," but he also thought that he had just offended with "literature" and that others thought that it was "a book of ominous decay and ominousness, and refused to collect it." It can be seen that he has completed the writing of "Yi Chuan" in Huangzhou. During his second exile in Danzhou, Huizhou, he made changes and additions to the Yi Chuan, and made great efforts, according to Su Shi in the poem "Night Dream"; Confucius looked at the "I Ching" but "Wei compiled the three absolutes", and "as I should have compiled it with rhinoceros".
Su Shi died of illness in Changzhou in the second year of Emperor Huizong's reign (1101), and two years later, the "Yuanyou Dang Case" occurred, and his writings were banned. Lu You's "Notes on the Old Scholar's Nunnery" said: "Although the book was banned by the YuanYou Party, he did not dare to show his name, so he was called Mr. Biling, and finally He was in Changzhou."
The book was first inscribed during the reign of Emperor Xuanhe of the Song Dynasty, when Mao Jin of the Ming Dynasty imitated the Song Ben "Biling YiChuan" in his "Jigu GeJin Arrest Secretary" (which has been renamed "Su Shi Yi Zhuan"), he said in the writing: "Xuanhe Zhong, Fang forbidden Su Shixue, Tozhi Biling Mr. Biling, was able to not lose this book, but also dangerous. ”
It can be seen that in order to avoid the prohibition, posterity can only change the author to "Mr. Biling" in the name of Changzhou's nickname Of Biling, and preserve this work under the name of "Biling Yichuan".
As for why he entrusted the name Mr. Biling instead of "Mr. Meishan" and "Mr. Huangzhou", whether this was a Changzhou native, or was it the work of his descendants and relatives and friends who remained in Changzhou, these questions are left to future generations to imagine.
Since then, the "Yi Chuan", which was banned by Cai Jing and others, has been transformed and quietly printed in the world under the "Biling Yi Zhuan" ("Biling" is the alias of Changzhou, the place where Su Shi died), so it is rarely known.