Interpretation of Su Dongpo: Women. Emotion

Author: Dongfang Longyin / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: Su Shi, known for saying "Life is like a dream," was a man who loved dreams. According to incomplete statistics, the word "dream" appears 738 times in his poetry. Besides Jiangchengzi, Su Shi’s Collected Poems also includes two palindromic poems titled Record of a Dream, describing "a person brewing small tea with snow water," and Record of a Dream with Preface, which notes the time of Zhang Fangping’s dream. Other works like Dharma of Wang Jinqing’s Past Life, Record of a Dream and Tea Poetry, Record of a Dream in Dongpo’s Notes, Record of a Dream about Ziyou, Record of a Dream about Ziyou’s Pagoda, In a Dream, Composing an Inscription on Snow, and Record of a Dream short essays are all unrelated to love and mostly do not specify the time. If the dreams in poetry are not usually marked with time, why should the even less time-sensitive ci poems be explicitly labeled with phrases like "Recorded in the night of the 20th day of the first month in the year Yi Mao"? Why did Wang Fu specifically dream on that night? Six years later, in the fourth year of Yuanfeng, Su Shi, who was under house arrest in Huangzhou, revealed more details in a poem:
"，。
，。
，。
，。"
— Recorded on the 20th Day of the First Month with Pan and Guo on an Outing to Seek Spring, Suddenly Remembering Last Year’s Visit to Queen’s City and Composing in the Same Rhyme
Here, Pan and Guo refer to Pan Bing and Guo Guo, who had bid farewell to Su Shi upon his arrival in Huangzhou the previous year. Several pieces of information from this poem are worth noting:
First, Su Shi enjoyed outings on the 20th day of the first month, and he had done so on the same day for two consecutive years to the Zen temple. Last year, he went despite the cold wind, as evidenced by the line "Ten days of spring cold kept me from going out." Visiting the Zen temple was undoubtedly to burn incense and commemorate his loved ones. Su Shi used the imagery of "summoning the soul" in the poem, which would be considered inauspicious in a gathering of friends. Yet he deliberately wrote it, revealing his secret motive for visiting the temple.
Second, the place he visited, Qitian, was originally called Chuwangcheng (where the Spring and Autumn Period’s Chunshen Jun of Chu was enfeoffed). Yet the author insisted on calling it "Queen’s City." Upon closer examination, it became clear that the knight Chen Jichang accompanied him, and Su Shi even wrote a poem for Chen on the way, beginning with "The orchid and chrysanthemum have withered, and the soul-reviving fragrance enters the plum blossoms at the mountain’s peak" (Seeing Plum Blossoms on the Way to Qitian and Composing a Joke for Chen Jichang). This was another instance of mourning the deceased. At the time, Su Shi’s second wife, Wang Runhe, and his concubine Chao Yun were both healthy and alive. The "soul" he sought to summon could only be that of Wang Fu. Moreover, Chen Jichang was a close friend Su Shi had met in Fengxiang, who was very familiar with Wang Fu. Chen Jichang was also infamous for being afraid of his wife, as the story of "the Lioness Roaring from the East River" was a prank Su Shi played on him. Perhaps not only was Chen’s wife the "queen" at home, but Wang Fu was also regarded as a "queen" by Su Shi and Chen Jichang when they were in Fengxiang?
Third, the line "People come like autumn swallows with a promise, but things fade like spring dreams without a trace" again refers to the "spring dream" as "events." The people involved are Pan, Guo, and others, while the "spring dream" has nothing to do with them.
Fourth, "We have already promised to meet here every year, so old friends need not compose a dirge." On the surface, it seems Su Shi is resolved to visit the place every year to meet his friends. However, the word "every year" here is connected to the "every year" in "I expect that every year my heart will break" (I Expect That Every Year My Heart Will Break), revealing that deep within the poet’s soul, there was another dream.
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