Sū Shì 蘇軾
Style name Zǐzhān 子瞻; hào (sobriquet) Dōngpō Jūshì 東坡居士 (“Layman of Dōngpō”), conventionally Dōngpō — derived from the eastern slope (dōng pō 東坡) where he farmed during his Huángzhōu 黃州 exile (1080–1084). Posthumously also called Master Pílíng 毘陵先生 from Chángzhōu (= Pílíng), where he died. Native of Méishān 眉山 in Méizhōu 眉州 (modern Sìchuān). Lifedates 1036–1101 (Northern Sòng).
The most consequential literary-political figure of the mid-Northern Sòng. Eldest son of Sū Xún 蘇洵 (1009–1066) and elder brother of Sū Zhé 蘇轍 (1039–1112); together the Sān Sū 三蘇 (“Three Su”), conventionally counted among the TángSòng bā dà jiā 唐宋八大家 (“Eight Great Masters of the TángSòng” classical-prose canon).
Jìnshì of 1057 (Jiāyòu 2) under Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修 as chief examiner; zhìzhì kē 制舉科 of 1061. Held court and provincial appointments under five reigns (Rénzōng, Yīngzōng, Shénzōng, Zhézōng, Huīzōng), but was repeatedly sent into exile and recall as the Northern-Sòng factional tides shifted: opposed Wáng Ānshí’s 王安石 New Policies and was exiled to Huángzhōu (Húběi) after the Wūtái shī àn 烏臺詩案 (“Crow-Terrace Poetry Case,” 1079); recalled to high office under the Yuányòu reaction (1086–1093); exiled again to Huìzhōu 惠州 (Guǎngdōng) in 1094 and to Hǎinán 海南 in 1097 under Zhézōng’s anti-Yuán-yòu reversal; recalled in 1100 on Huīzōng’s accession; died at Chángzhōu (Pílíng, modern Jiāngsū) in 1101 on the way back to court. The Sòngshǐ (juan 338) gives him a long canonical biography.
Master of every major literary genre: shī poetry, cí lyrics (he is the founder of the “háofàng pài” 豪放派 (“bold-and-free school”) of cí), fù rhyme-prose, occasional prose, bǐjì anecdotal essays, biǎo / zhuàng memorials. In the visual arts a major calligrapher (one of the four canonical Sòng masters: Sū, Huáng Tíngjiān 黃庭堅, Mǐ Fú 米芾, Cài Xiāng 蔡襄) and an originator of wénrén 文人 (“literati”) ink-bamboo painting.
Substantial scholarly works on the canon:
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[[KR1a0015|Dōngpō Yìzhuàn]] 東坡易傳 (also called Pílíng Yìzhuàn 毘陵易傳) — the Yì commentary in nine juan, a SānSū family collaboration credited to Shì as principal author, building on his father Sū Xún’s incomplete draft and incorporating Sū Zhé’s contribution at Méng hexagram. The locus classicus of the Northern-Sòng “Sū xué” reading of the Yì; principal target of Zhū Xī’s Záxué biàn attack.
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Dōngpō Shū zhuàn 東坡書傳 — Shàngshū commentary in twenty juan, building (like the Yìzhuàn) on his father’s draft. The standard Sū-school Shū reading of the Sòng.
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Lùnyǔ shuō 論語說 — partially preserved Lúnyǔ essays.
The collected works Sū Shì wénjí 蘇軾文集 (modern Zhōnghuá shūjú edition: 73 juan) and the canonical Sū Shì shī jí 蘇軾詩集 are the primary witnesses for his prose and poetry; the canonical cí corpus is Dōngpō yuèfǔ 東坡樂府 / Dōngpō cí 東坡詞.
His Buddhist-Daoist interests are explicit and substantive: lifelong association with chánsì abbots (especially Cānliáo zǐ 參寥子, Wéilín 維琳, Fóyìn 佛印 / Liǎoyuán 了元); committed if syncretic Buddhist practice; sustained interest in Daoist inner-alchemical (nèi dān 內丹) theory. The Buddhist tincture of his Dōngpō Yìzhuàn xìngmìng readings was the principal complaint of his Zhū-Xī-line critics.