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Older and Younger Brothers: Su Shi and Su Zhe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2021

Ronald Egan Open the ORCID record for Ronald Egan [Opens in a new window]
Ronald Egan*
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Stanford University, USA
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*Corresponding author. Email: ronald.c.egan@gmail.com
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Abstract

Here we have a pair of brothers whose relationship is known to us primarily through the hundreds of poems they exchanged with each other through their lives, during which they spent more time apart than together. To have a relationship rooted in literary work this way was not unusual in Chinese life. What was unusual was the fame these particular brothers attained, even while still alive. This article explores the nature of the brothers’ relationship as best we can discern it through their actions and what they wrote to each other, including their mutual affection, disagreements, and competition. Their lives were played out against a backdrop of high office, empire-wide renown, and political persecution. We see that their relationship to each other was in some ways the most enduring and sustaining aspect of their lives, even when their ultimate ideal of spending their final days together went unrealized.

Keywords

Su ShiSu Zhebrothersfraternal affectionhierarchycompetition
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Chinese History 中國歷史學刊 , Volume 6 , Special Issue 2: Family Relations in Chinese History , July 2022 , pp. 295 - 313
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 For a recent study of Su Shi and Su Zhe, which concentrates on textual studies of their writings, see Zhu Gang 朱剛, Su Shi Su Zhe yanjiu 蘇軾蘇轍研究 (Shanghai: Fudan University Press, 2019). For a more general and topical study of Su Shi, see the same author's Su Shi shijiang 蘇軾十講 (Shanghai: Sanlian, 2020). For a general English-language study of Su Shi's life and writings, see my Word, Image, and Deed in the Life of Su Shi (Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1994).

2 On friendship in Tang poetry, see the full-length study by Shields, Anna, One Who Knows Me: Friendship and Literary Culture in Mid-Tang China (Cambridge, MA: Asia Center, Harvard University, 2015)Google Scholar.

3 For a study of the social functions of poetry exchanges among these and other mid-Northern Song literati, see Hawes, Colin, The Social Circulation of Poetry in the Mid-Northern Song: Emotional Energy and Literati Cultivation (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005)Google Scholar.

4 Su Shi, “Shuidiao getou: mingyue jishi you” 水調歌頭：明月幾時有, Su Shi ciji jiaozhu 蘇軾詞集校注, in vol. 9 of Su Shi quanji jiaozhu 蘇軾全集校注, ed. Zhang Zhilie 張志烈 et al., 20 vols. (Shijiazhuang: Hebei renmin, 2010), 1.161.

5 Su Shi, “He Tao lianyu duyin ershou” 和陶連日獨飲二首, no. 1, Su Shi shiji jiaozhu 蘇軾詩集校注, in vols. 1–8 of Su Shi quanji jiaozhu, 41.4858.

6 Su Shi, “Song Chao Meishu fayun yousi nianxiong fuque” 送晁美叔發運右司年兄赴闕, Su Shi shiji jiaozhu 35.4029.

7 On travel in Song dynasty China, including travel into exile, see Cong Zhang, Ellen's Transformative Journeys; Travel and Culture in Song China (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2011)Google Scholar. On the complex ways that exile informed the painting and poetry of Su Shi and his friends, see Murck, Alfreda, Poetry and Painting in Song China: The Subtle Art of Dissent (Cambridge, MA: Asia Center, Harvard University, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 The figures given in this section are based on searches conducted in the database Quan Songshi fenxi xitong 全宋詩分析系統 (Beijing: Peking University Press, 2000).

9 Su Shi, Su Shi wenji jiaozhu 蘇軾文集校注, in vols. 10–20 of Su Shi quanji jiaozhu, 49.5322.

10 Su Zhe, “Huanglou fu” 黃樓賦, Luancheng ji 欒城集, ed. Zeng Zaozhuang 曾棗莊, 3 vols. (Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 1987), 17.417–19.

11 Su Shi, Su Shi shiji jiaozhu, 15.1563.

12 This comment is quoted in the jiping 集評 section appended to the poem in Su Shi shiji 15.1567.

13 These lines are not found in Su Zhe's Luancheng ji. They are quoted in a twelfth-century commentary on Su Shi's poetry, where they are identified as coming from an inscription Su Zhe wrote on a portrait of his brother, “Ziyou ti xiansheng xiangzan” 子由題先生像贊, see Shi Yuanzhi 施元之, Shizhu Sushi 施註蘇詩 (Siku quanshu 四庫全書 ed.), 13.2a.

14 Su Zhe, “Ciyun Zizhan qiuxue jianji ershou” 次韵子瞻秋雪見寄二首, no. 2, Luancheng ji, 1.19.

15 Su Zhe, “Zizhan jishi Qiyang shiwu bei” 子瞻寄示岐陽十五碑, Luancheng ji, 1.22.

16 Su Shi, “Yu Cheng Zhengfu,” no. 16, Su Shi wenji jiaozhu, 54.5968.

17 Su Shi, “Shancun wujue” 山村五絕, Su Shi shiji jiaozhu, 9.867–871.

18 The Analects 7/14.

19 Su Zhe, “Ciyun Zizhan shancun wujue” 次韻子瞻山村五絕, Luancheng ji 5.103.

20 Su Zhe, “Wei xiong Shi xiayu shangshu” 為兄軾下獄上書, Luancheng ji, 35.777–78.

21 Su Zhe, “Shuidiao getou: libie yi hejiu” 水調歌頭：離別一何久, “Shiyi” 拾遺, in vol. 3 of Luancheng ji, 1736.

22 Su Shi, “Shuidiao getou: Anshi zai donghai” 水調歌頭：案石在東海, Su Shi ciji jiaozhu, 1.194–95.

23 Su Shi, “Xi Ziyou” 戲子由, Su Shi shiji jiaozhu, 7.642. Written in 1071, when Su Shi was in Hangzhou and Su Zhe was serving as a prefectural schoolteacher in Chenzhou.

24 Su Shi, “Chao Ziyou” 嘲子由, Su Shi shiji jiaozhu, 7.648.

25 Su Shi, “Meibei yu” 渼陂魚, Su Shi shiji jiaozhu, 5.439.

26 Su Zhe, “Ciyun Zizhan Meibei yu”次韻子瞻渼陂魚, Luancheng ji, 2.44.

27 Cong Ellen Zhang's study of travel contains a whole chapter devoted to the legacy of Su Shi's exile to Huangzhou in that place, that is, remembrances of him there after he left, see Transformative Journeys, 180–206.

28 Su Zhe, “Dongxuan ji” 東軒記, Luancheng ji, 24.507.

29 Su Shi, “Ziyou zai jun zuo Dongxuan ji huo xizhi wei Dongxuan changlao…” 子由在筠作東軒記或戲之為東軒長老, Su Shi shiji jiaozhu, 23.2547. This is the beginning of a long explanatory title of Su Shi's poem.

30 Su Zhe, “Dongxuan changlao ershou” 東軒長老二首, no. 1, Luancheng ji,12.277. There was a fourth person involved, whom the son-in-law stopped off to see along the way, a Chan monk of Lu Mountain, Yuantong Zhishen 圓通知慎, who also contributed a poem. That helps to explain Su Zhe's use of Buddhist terminology in his response.

31 Qin Guan, “Da Fu Binlao jian” 答傅彬老簡, Quan Songwen 全宋文, 360 vols. (Shanghai: Shanghai cishu, 2006), 119:2575.337.

32 Su Zhe, Luancheng ji, 1.15.

33 Su Shi, Su Shi shiji jiaozhu, 3.186.

34 Su Shi, “Ziyou xinxiu Ruzhou Longxing si Wuhua bi” 子由新修汝州龍興寺吳畫壁, Su Shi shiji jiaozhu, 37.4329.

35 It was Su She who first used this image, in a poem written when parting from Su Zhe in 1061, “Xinchou shiyi yue shijiu ri…” 辛丑十一月十九日…, Su Shi shiji jiaozhu, 3.181; cf. the discussion of the image in Su Shi shiji jiaozhu, 15.1565n11.

36 Mai, Dai, and Guo were Su Shi's three sons, named here in order of age.

37 Balang's wife is identified as the woman who had been married to Su Zhe's third son, Su Yuan 蘇遠. She had died two years earlier, Su Shi wenji jiaozhu 60.6641n10.

38 Su Shi, “Yu Ziyou di” 與子由弟, no. 8, Su Shi wenji jiaozhu 60.6639.

39 Su Shi, “Yu Zhang Junyu” 與張君予, no. 5, Su Shi wenji jiaozhu, 55.6126–27. See the discussion of this letter by Kong Fanli 孔凡禮, Su Zhe nianpu 蘇轍年譜 (Beijing: Xueyuan, 2001), 15.427.

40 Su Shi, “Manjiang hong: qing Ying dongliu” 滿江紅：清潁東流, Su Shi ciji jiaozhu, 2.659.

41 Su Shi, “Da Fan Chunfu” 答范純夫, no. 3, Su Shi wenji jiaozhu, 50.5428.

42 See Wang Wen'gao's interpretation of Su Shi's phrase and additional commentary on this letter in Su Shi, Su Shi ciji jiaozhu, 2.659–60n1.

43 Su Shi, “Chuqiu ji Ziyou” 初秋寄子由, Su Shi shiji jiaozhu, 22.2451.