The north wind blows hard and white snow falls to the ground.
It has been more than a year since Su Shi was demoted to Huangzhou.
He now lives and works contentedly here.
At that time, Su Shi was demoted to the position of Wai Lang, a member of the Water Department of the School, Deputy Envoy of Huangzhou Tuanlian, resettled in the state, and was not allowed to sign official documents. The Song Dynasty generally punished officials who made mistakes in four ways: supervision, supervision, placement, and residence.
Supervision and supervision are to be removed and terminated, and the placement is better than supervision and supervision. The deputy envoy of Tuanlian is an official from the eighth rank, and the court will give him a certain salary. Since he is not allowed to sign official documents, he does not have a full salary.
However, Su Shi still had some savings. Zhang Yue gave him some money when he left the capital. Su Zhe also used his salary to help Su Shi. However, Su Shi still had a very difficult life. After all, a large family followed him to Huangzhou.
. He took 4,500 yuan (four and a half) every month and divided it into thirty parts, hung them on the beams, and took one part for use every day.
Su Shi used all the money he could not use up every day to entertain guests.
However, Su Shi could not live on just relying on aid and a meager salary. Su Shi also asked the prefect for a way to make a living, which was farming.
The life of an official who was demoted in the Song Dynasty was like this. You lived in Huangzhou and couldn't go anywhere, but your freedom to move around in the local area was not restricted. Generally speaking, officials like Su Shi were provided with a good life. Who knows whether he would have any
The day of comeback.
Besides, Su Shi was a good friend of the then Prime Minister Zhang Yue, who didn't know this. Therefore, local officials should not offend Su Shi, but also keep an eye on him.
Therefore, Huangzhou Zhizhou's request for Su Shi was also true.
Su Shi first asked the prefect for a piece of free land for him to live and cultivate as a long-term plan.
After the eunuch told Huangzhou about the art of war, a battalion in the east of the city was transferred away, so the camp was still empty. Forty or fifty acres of land here was allocated to Su Shi. So Su Shi lived here, and he called this place "Dongpo"
, is a poem from his idol Bai Juyi.
"Dongpo" was originally a place of thorns and rubble, but under Su Shi's personal transformation, he not only opened up more than ten acres of farmland, but also built residential buildings with his own hands.
The walls of this house were painted by Su Shi himself, and the four walls were painted with snow scenes. It happened that when it was built, it suddenly snowed heavily, so Su Shi named it Xuetang. So Su Shi entertained guests and had banquets in Xuetang.
When there were guests, Su Shi would tidy up his residence.
There is a small bridge outside the Xuetang. There are willow trees and tea trees transplanted by Su Shi nearby. There is also a well dug by Su Shi himself. Not far away, there are rice fields, wheat fields and mulberry vegetable gardens.
A little further away is the neighborhood Bamboo Garden. Su Shi would rather eat without meat than live without bamboo, so he spent summers here to escape the heat.
Later, Cai Chengxi came to visit Su Shi and saw that he lived in a cramped place, so he built three new houses for him.
It was named Nantang on the top of the mountain on the east slope. These three rooms face the river, which is the best place to spend the summer.
The south hall was built in May. Su Shi mocked himself and said that he was a poor man who suddenly became rich, saying: "I pretended to write small characters on the open window, and even opened a secluded room to raise cinnabar."
Su Shi used the south hall as a study, alchemy room, guest room and bedroom, and used the snow hall at the foot of the mountain as a place to entertain guests. The two halls were separated by more than a mile. Su Shi went back and forth between the two halls every day, with his farm in the middle.
Dongpo is very busy.
For more than a year, Su Shi not only built his own house, farmed, dug wells, and even cooked rice.
Although he lived a life of extreme poverty, Su Shi made his life very fulfilling.
On this day, there was another heavy snowfall in the snow hall. There was snow inside and outside the wall. Su Shi gathered his friends and drank heartily in the snow hall. There were his neighbors and Ma Mengde, his friend who had followed him for more than 20 years.
, there was also a young friend from Jiangning who came to visit Su Shi. This person’s name was Mi Fu.
This person is very good at calligraphy and admires Su Shi's calligraphy very much. He also has a good relationship with Wang Anshi.
There is a calligraphy written by Su Shi in the snow hall.
Leaving the carriage and entering the chariot is an opportunity for collapse;
The honest official in the bridal chamber is the mediator of cold and heat;
The white-toothed moth's brow is the ax that cuts down one's nature;
Sweet, crispy and fat, a medicine for intestinal rot.
Mi Fu smiled and said to Su Shi: "Fishing, woodworking, farming and reading are the four great pleasures of scholars, and now they are all occupied by bachelors. I wonder if a bachelor should be a casual person? Or should he be a detained person? Being a casual person will inevitably lead to shallow knowledge, while being a restricted person will inevitably lead to deep desires.
. Nowadays, the bachelor's degree seems to be limited. Is there any gain or loss?"
Su Shi thought about it carefully, as if Mi Fu's words hit the bottom of his heart, but he couldn't speak for a moment.
Su Shi stopped his chopsticks and said: "The most painful thing in this world is to wander between the world and the world."
"I am the same. I want to be a Sanren but I cannot reach the realm of a Sanren. However, I can tell you the way of a Sanren. It is like Dayu walking on the water and Cook Ding operating a sword. They avoid the obstacles of others and scatter their wisdom."
"It's just like a cook who can't see a complete cow. If I have the state of mind, nothing in the world will restrain me. Even if there is none, I can't let it go for a long time in my heart."
Speaking of this, Su Shi said: "Not long ago, I wrote a poem that ended with the sentence 'The boat passed away from now on, and the river and sea sent the rest of my life'. Because the Yangtze River happened to be not far from Xuetang, the local officials read the poem and thought that I, Su Shi, ran away overnight.
He had escaped into the rivers and seas, so he quickly brought people to chase Su Shi. They found me fast asleep at home."
Everyone laughed when they heard Su Shi's words.
Su Shi said: "I want to live away from the world, but I can't. This Huangzhou and the world are like a fence. But the biggest fence in the world is not elsewhere, but our wisdom."
"I want to act with wisdom, but wisdom is your desire for profit. I advise me to abandon the sage and give up wisdom. It is better to do what I like and let nature take its course."
Mi Fu and others laughed and said: "The bachelor worked hard on Dongpo, but he practiced a lot of principles and lived like Tao Yuanming."
Su Shi laughed self-deprecatingly and said: "Perhaps I was Tao Yuanming in my last life. I used to be an official only for five buckets of rice, but I only know the fragrance of grain by working on the east slope. Now I don't have any ambitions."
Mi Fu said sternly: "You are such a talented scholar, the court will never forget you. I am here to hear from Wang Jinggong that someone in the court has already spoken for you in front of His Majesty."
Su Shi said: "Your Majesty."
Su Shi thought to himself, the emperor hated him so much, how could he use him? It was all in vain.
Su Shi said: "How can I give up this good place? Besides, I am already frightened. I am afraid that I will say something wrong again and others will catch me wrong."
At this time, I heard the sound of stepping on the snow outside the house.
Su Shi saw from the window more than ten people wearing raincoats and walking in the snow.
Su Shi was surprised and said: "It turns out it's the local county governor who came in the snow!"
Everyone was startled and rushed out to greet him, but saw that the other party had already arrived.
The magistrate of Huangzhou was Xu Damou, who took great care of Su Shi. Historically, his descendants were Xu Xiake and Xu Beihong.
"I didn't know that the county guard was coming, but he was not welcomed from afar! Come in and have a glass of warm wine."
Xu Dashou's face was full of joy and he said: "What are you drinking? Zizhan, your hard days are over."
"Your Majesty has allowed you to resume your post, and you will no longer have to work in Huangzhou."
Su Shi was at a loss when he heard this. Several of his friends were happy for Su Shi. Xu Dashou looked at Su Shi and said, "I heard that it was Prime Minister Zhang's repeated kind words in front of His Majesty that allowed you to come out of the army again!"
