Ch: Su Dongpo (1036-1101). Lit. "retired scholar of the eastern slope." A Northern Song Chinese literatus who was a noted poet, essayist, calligrapher, painter, and statesman. Su Dongpo's real name was Su Shi (Jp: So Shoku 蘇軾), and he also used the pseudonym Zizhan (Jp: Shisen 子瞻). Born to a wealthy family in Meishan 眉山, Sichuan 四川 Province, his father was the scholar Su Xun (Jp: So Jun 蘇洵, 1009-66) and his younger brother the essayist Su Zhe/Che (Jp: So Tetsu 蘇轍, d.1112). Su studied with Ouyang Xiu (Jp: Ōyō Shū 欧陽脩, 1007- 72) and received the jinshi (Jp: shinshi 進士) degree at age 21. He occupied a variety of administrative posts around China, including that of Governor of Hangzhou 抗州 where he is associated with a set of dikes at the West Lake *Seiko 西湖 (Ch: Xihu). After criticizing the reformist policies of prime minister Wang Anshi (Jp: Ō Anseki 王安石, 1021- 86), he was banished from the capital. Later he was pardoned, and by imperial decree reinstated to the Hanlin 翰林 Academy, a theme elegantly visualized by several Chinese painters.
Similarly, Su often is depicted practicing calligraphy in paintings of the *Seiengashū 西園雅集 (Ch: Xiyuanyaji, Elegant Gathering in the Western Garden). His most famous prose-poem, the two-part Red Cliff Ode (Ch: Chibifu, Jp: Sekihekifu 赤壁賦, see *Sekiheki 赤壁), was also illustrated by both Chinese and Japanese artists. Su is generally shown riding a mule and wearing a large hat. Su was an influential theorist, stressing the importance of artistic personality in both poetry and painting. For Su, a successful painting had neither formal likeness nor technical skill, but conveyed the artist's spirit of mind. His ideas and paintings, usually of an old tree, bamboo, and rock, were a major influence on later literati painting *bunjinga 文人画 (Ch: wenrenhua) in China and Japan.