Interpretation of Su Dongpo: Women, Emotion

Author: Dongfang Longyin / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: Su Shi, often quoted as 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 boiling small tea balls with snow water in a dream," and Record of a Dream with Preface, which notes the time of Zhang Fangping’s dream. Other works such as Dharma for Wang Jinqing’s Past Life, Record of a Dream and Tea Poetry, Record of a Dream in Dongpo’s Forest of Records, Record of a Dream and Poetry, Record of Ziyou’s Dream, Record of Ziyou’s Dream Tower, 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. Since the dreams in his poems are rarely marked with a time, why would he explicitly add phrases like "Recorded in the night of the 20th day of the first lunar month in the year Yi Mao" to the even less time-sensitive ci poems? Why did Wang Fu specifically dream on this 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 Lunar Month with Pan and Guo on an Outing to Seek Spring, Suddenly Remembering That Last Year on the Same Day We Went to Wang’s City and Wrote a Poem, Thus Following the Previous Rhyme
Here, Pan and Guo refer to Pan Bing and Guo Guo, who had bid farewell to Su Shi shortly after his arrival in Huangzhou the previous year. Several pieces of information in this poem warrant attention:
First, Su Shi enjoyed outings on the 20th day of the first lunar month, and he did so on the same day for two consecutive years. Last year, he went out despite the cold, as evidenced by the line "Ten days of spring cold kept me from going out." Visiting the temple was undoubtedly to burn incense and pay respects to 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, Qiteng, was originally called Chuwangcheng (where the Chu statesman Chunshenjun was enfeoffed during the Warring States period), but the author referred to it as "Wang’s City." Upon closer examination, he was accompanied by the knight Chen Jichang, to whom he wrote a poem on the way titled "Seeing Plum Blossoms on the Way to Qiteng, Jokingly Dedicated to Chen Jichang" (first two lines: "Orchids and lilies have withered, chrysanthemums too; the fragrance of returning souls enters the plum blossoms at the mountain’s peak"). Again, the imagery reflects remembrance of the deceased. At this time, Su Shi’s second wife, Wang Runhe, and his concubine Chao Yun were both healthy and alive. The "soul of orchids and lilies" he sought could only be that of Wang Fu. Chen Jichang was a close friend Su Shi had met in Fengxiang, who was very familiar with Wang Fu. Moreover, Chen Jichang was notorious for being afraid of his wife, as the story of "the Lioness Roaring from the River Dong" was a jest 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 are like autumn swallows, coming with a promise; things are like spring dreams, leaving no trace" again refers to the "spring dream" as "events." The people mentioned are Pan, Guo, and others, while the "events" of the "spring dream" have nothing to do with them.
Fourth, "We have already promised to meet here every year, so old friends need not chant a dirge." On the surface, it seems Su Shi is resolved to visit the place every year, but in reality, the word "every year" here resonates with the "every year" in "I expect that every year my heart will break at the same place." Deep down, the poet’s heart still harbors another dream.
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