After Su Shi arrived in Huangzhou, in the face of the oppression of life, he hoped to have a piece of land by himself, and he worked tirelessly, so he could be a self-sufficient farmer in Huangzhou. Fortunately, this plan was realized by his friend who he knew in the capital twenty years ago, Qi Renma Mengde, when he came to Huangzhou to see him.
Dream turned out to be an official of "Taixuezheng" in Taixue, just because Su Shi inscribed a poem of Du Fu's "Sigh of Autumn Rain" on the wall of his study, he was deeply shocked, and decided to resign, and followed Su Shi to Fengxiang to do a staff member for a period of time.
This time I came to Huangzhou to visit my frustrated old friend, but I did a great thing for him, and asked the local ** to get an abandoned camp that could be used as a farm. Su Shi always felt ashamed of this friend, because he had followed Su Shi for 20 years, and hoped day and night that Shi would be noble, so he could share some money for him to "buy a mountain for the rest of his life".
This piece of land is outside the east gate of Huanggang, and it is a flat land of 50 acres in the middle of the undulating hills and mountains. It was originally a field of rubble, not to mention that the mountains were originally barren and had little agricultural value, except for Su Shi, who thought that he had nothing to escape from the punishment of heaven, who would be willing to spend so much time on reclamation and do stupid things that were very hard and harvested.
Su Shi first drew a blueprint in his heart according to the terrain. lower wetlands, where japonica rice is planted; On the eastern flat land, jujube and chestnut trees are planted. Originally, I wanted to plant a bamboo forest, but I was afraid that the bamboo whip would grow in the ground for a long time, which would hinder other crops, so I had to give up.
He wants to reserve a corner of the vacant land with the best vision, and when he has the spare energy, he will build a house to settle down.
This wasteland is located, there is no place name, because outside the east gate of Huangzhou City, when Bai Juyi did the history of Zhongzhou Thorn, there are "two songs of planting flowers on the east slope", and there is a poem "Step on the east slope": "Step up the east slope, go up the east slope at night." Dongpo what to love, love this new tree. Su Shi has always loved Bai Juyi, Zhongzhou, Huangzhou, are all in the east of the city, therefore, Su Shi named this rural place "Dongpo", calling himself "Dongpo Resident", and since then.
In the winter of the same year, Su Shi found a piece of highland that was used as a deer farm near the east slope, 430 steps south of the state gate, with a very wide field of vision, which was very suitable for his ideal of building a house. Su Shi painted snow scenes on the four walls of the hall house, named "Snow Hall", and thought that "living and leaning up, quite a place". Later, when friends from afar came to visit, they were invited to live here. Li Yuanzhi (Uncle Tong) made a plaque with two seals of "Xuetang", and Su Shi wrote the four words of "Dongpo Xuetang", which was listed on the door.
The snow hall has a panoramic view, the rivers and mountains are picturesque, and you can see it all. Su Shi believes that the beauty of the scenery is no less than the "sloping river" praised by Tao Yuanming.
After the completion of the Snow Hall, Su Shi stayed there for more time. During the day, he was busy irrigating and cultivating those farm tasks, and at night, he often stayed in the snow hall to study. When friends from afar came, he took Xuetang as a guest house, and he took pleasure in drinking and talking with friends, and he would not go back with his cane until the dead of night.
Xuetang is constantly visiting, Mianzhu Taoist Yang Shichang came in May of the fifth year, and lived until May of the sixth year before leaving; At the end of the fifth year, fellow townsman Chaogu came again and also lived in Xuetang; In February of the sixth year, the pianist Cui Xian came from Lushan, fortunately, there are five rooms in the snow hall, and the three guests may wish to live together; In March of the sixth year, the poet and monk who had the deepest friendship with Su Shi in Qiantianmu Mountain participated in the sparse and traveled thousands of miles from Hangzhou to Huangzhou to see him, and lived in Xuetang for a whole year, until April of the following year (the seventh year of Yuanfeng, 1084), before leaving Huangzhou with Su Shi.
Experience has shown that what kind of friends a person has can understand what kind of person he is. The guests entertained by the Huangzhou Snow Hall are all Taoist priests (Yang Shichang), monks (Shen Liao), painters (Mi Fu), pianists (Cui Xian) and outlaws (Chaogu), etc., although because they are criminal officials, the scholars and doctors do not dare to come, but it is enough to see that Su Shi has heroic blood in his veins, and he originally liked those friends who wandered the rivers and lakes, and they all gathered in Huangzhou for a while.
The two of them hugged their noses in the Dongpo Snow Hall and groaned, forgetting the world, but it made their friends in the red dust of the Beijing Division salivate. Someone wrote to Su Shi and asked: "Wen Gong and the poet and monk follow each other, isn't it the one who 'smells the machine across the forest'?" True Dongshan Shengyu also. ”
Cai Chengxi, a Jinshi who was on the same list as Su Shi, specially went to Lingao Pavilion to visit Su Shi, and saw that his residence was narrow, so he initiated to build three new houses for him on the high slope of the water post near Lingao Pavilion, which was built in May of the following year (six) and named "Nantang". These three rooms, facing the river, the most suitable summer, Su Shi has this, it is like a poor child getting rich, although it is only a tile house with three wings, but it has been used for many purposes, such as: "Pretend to be a small character in the open window, and open the secluded room to raise dansha." "There is also a South Hall that can be used as a guest, and you don't have to worry about the old people and cars outside the door. "Where do you dream of knowing where you are, hang up the west window and connect the waves to the sky. "This south hall is a study, a room, a guest room, and a bedroom.
What Lu You saw in "Entering Shu" is like a cloud:
Early tour of the east slope, from the state gate to the east, the ridge is high, to the east slope is flat and open, a ridge from the east is quite high, there are three houses, a ** said to be a pavilion. The south hall under the pavilion is quite majestic, and the four walls are painted with snow, which is the snow hall. ......There are four pavilions again, are straight with the snow hall, on the high fu, look at the rivers and mountains, for the most of a county.