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 Táng-Sòng bā dà jiā 唐宋八大家 (“Eight Great Masters of the Táng-Sòng” 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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Dōngpō Yìzhuàn 東坡易傳 (also called Pílíng Yìzhuàn 毘陵易傳) — the Yì commentary in nine juan, a Sān-Sū 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.