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Wang Anshi and Su Shi were writers of the same period. As writers of the same era, they had certain intersections in their work, and naturally they also had many anecdotes. Things happen. But these two people have very different personalities and cognitions.

Wang Anshi and Su Shi once served as officials in the same dynasty. Once, Wang Anshi and Su Shi discussed the interpretation of words in Wang Anshi's "Zi Shuo". When it came to the word "Po", they each had their own opinions. According to Wang Anshi's explanation, slope is the surface of soil. Su Shi retorted: According to your explanation, wouldn't the word "Slippery" be the "bone of water"?

Another time, Wang Anshi and Su Shi were discussing academics. When it came to the word "salamander", Wang Anshi explained that the word "salamander" comes from "fish" and "er", which together means the son of fish. mean. Su Shi's imagination was wide open and he said jokingly: According to your explanation, doesn't the word "dove" mean nine birds? It is not difficult to see from the anecdotes about these two essays on Chinese characters how different the understandings of Wang Anshi and Su Shi are.

Later, Su Shi went to Huzhou to serve as magistrate. When he returned to Beijing after his term, he remembered that he had offended Wang Anshi due to a verbal dispute. He should take the initiative to shake hands and make peace this time when he returned. So, after returning to the capital, Su Shi came to Wang Anshi's home. While Wang Anshi was taking a nap, Su Shi was waiting in the study.

Su Shi was sitting in Wang Anshi's study with nothing to do, so he got up and looked at the furnishings in the study. Suddenly he saw a piece of plain paper under the inkstone on Wang Anshi's desk. The poem on the plain paper was unfinished and the title had been drafted. But he only wrote the first two sentences: "The west wind passed through the garden last night, blowing down the yellow flowers and covering the ground with gold." Su Shi saw that this was a poem about chrysanthemums. Then, Su Shi read these two lines of poetry and felt that there were some poetic errors in these two lines of poetry.

In Su Shi’s view, the west wind prevails in autumn, while chrysanthemums bloom in late autumn. They have a long flowering period and are the most durable. No matter how they are scorched, dried up, blown by wind and rain, they will not wither and fall. As soon as he thought of this, Su Shi couldn't help himself, and added the last two sentences on the plain paper according to the rhyme: Autumn flowers do not fall as much as spring flowers, and the poet chanted them carefully.

After Su Shi completed the poem, he then thought about whether this would embarrass Wang Anshi or cause unnecessary trouble; it would be inappropriate to tear up the poem manuscript. After thinking about it, he felt that it was inappropriate, so Su Shi put the poem manuscript back to its original place, said goodbye and went back. Unexpectedly, the meeting ended in this way.

Not long after this incident, Su Shi came to work in Huangzhou. One year in late autumn, a strong wind suddenly blew. Su Shi had nothing to do and was studying in the house. Suddenly he thought of the dean of Huangzhou Dinghui. I once gave him some yellow chrysanthemums and planted them in the back garden. Why not go and enjoy them?

So after the wind stopped, he came to the chrysanthemum shed in the back garden and saw that the ground was covered with gold, chrysanthemum petals fell to the ground, and there was not a single chrysanthemum on the branches. Su Shi was stunned for a moment and was speechless for a long time. Then he realized that the chrysanthemums in Huangzhou would indeed fall off in late autumn.

Su Shi was very worried about this incident. He had always wanted to find an opportunity to apologize to Wang Anshi. It happened that it was time to go to Beijing to report work, so Su Shi wanted to take this opportunity to apologize to Wang Anshi in person. He also remembered that before leaving Beijing, Wang Anshi had asked him to get water from the middle gorge of the Three Gorges to make Yangxian tea. , but because I was never convinced, I had long forgotten about getting water. So Su Shi thought of taking advantage of the opportunity of sending a congratulatory note to Beijing during the Winter Solstice, and took Zhongxia Shui to visit Wang Anshi to eliminate the misunderstanding between the two.

Unexpectedly, Su Shi fell asleep while passing through the Zhongxia Gorge due to the fatigue of traveling and traveling for days. When he woke up, he had already arrived at the Lower Gorge. He thought that if he turned around to draw water from the Middle Gorge at this time, it would delay his return to Beijing. He believed that the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River were connected by mountains and rivers without any barriers, so the water from the Middle Gorge and the water from the Lower Gorge should have the same taste. So he put a porcelain jar into the water, sealed it with oil paper, and took it back to Beijing.

After returning to the capital, Su Shi brought water from the Yangtze River to visit Wang Anshi. Wang Anshi asked someone to take Su Shi to the study. Su Shi thought of revising his poems here last year, and felt ashamed when he saw the people in the room. There was a poem about chrysanthemums attached to the pillar, and the last two sentences he wrote back then were clearly visible. Su Shi felt ashamed and asked Wang Anshi for forgiveness. Su Shi also said that he had seen falling petals of chrysanthemums in Huangzhou. So the two looked at each other and smiled, and Wang Anshi forgave Su Shi for his previous offense.

Wang Anshi asked Su Shi again if he had brought Zhongxia water. Su Shi said he had brought it and put it outside the hall.

Wang Anshi asked people to carry the porcelain altar into the study, wiped it with his sleeves, opened the seal on the porcelain altar, and asked his servants to light a fire to make tea and use a silver hammer to draw water to cook it. Wang Anshi first took a white bowl and poured a pinch of Yangxian tea into the boiling water. It took a long time for the tea to turn brown.

Wang Anshi asked where the water came from. Su Shi said it was the water from the Wu Gorge. Wang Anshi laughed and said: This is obviously the water from the lower gorge, how could it be passed off as the water from the middle gorge? Su Shi was shocked and hurriedly explained that he had misunderstood the locals and said that the Three Gorges are connected and the river water is the same, but I don't know how you can tell the difference.

Wang Anshi said earnestly and sincerely that scholars should not just hear what they hear, but must examine it carefully. If I had not been to Huangzhou and seen the chrysanthemums falling petals with my own eyes, how could I dare to write random words in my poems? The theory of the water nature of the Three Gorges comes from "Supplementary Notes on the Water Classic". The water in the upper gorge is too fast, while the water in the lower gorge is too slow. Only the water in the middle gorge is half as slow as the quick. If the water from the Three Gorges is used to make Yangxian tea, the upper gorge has a strong flavor, the lower gorge has a light flavor, and the middle gorge has a moderately thick flavor. When the tea was brewed just now, it took a long time for the tea color to appear, so it was concluded that this was water from the lower gorge. Su Shi admired Wang Anshi's life experience and knowledge, and was deeply impressed by Wang Anshi's profound knowledge.

During the Yuanfeng period, Su Shi returned to the capital from Huangzhou, where he was demoted, and passed through Jinling. He wrote a letter in advance to Wang Anshi, who had retired here, saying that he would visit him in Jinling. At this time, Wang Anshi had retired from his job and was unemployed at home. He was old and frail. In addition, he had just experienced the pain of losing a son, and he was in a very sad and depressed mood.

Su Shi's visit moved Wang Anshi so much that he rushed to the dock to greet Su Shi. On the days when they got together in Jinling, they visited Jiangshan and Zhongshan, the famous places in Nanjing, sang poems, drank wine, and got along very happily. Of course, they still talked about the current situation, but they didn't dwell too much on past grievances.

In fact, Wang Anshi and Su Shi, apart from their differences in ideological understanding, both admire each other's literary achievements. For example, they have a common ground in poetry. The characteristic is that he loves to use dangerous rhymes. Su Shi's two famous poems "Ode to Snow" used the extremely dangerous rhymes "jian" and "cha". Wang Anshi admired them very much after reading them. He rhymed them again and again because he "loves his snow poems and can use rhyme", up to six times. There are so many heads.

After Wang Anshi's death, Su Shi once read a six-character poem "Inscribed on the Wall of Taiyi Palace in the West" by Wang Anshi in his early years. This made Su Shi look back on the past and sigh for a long time, so he also wrote two poems with secondary rhymes to express his feelings. He deeply sympathizes with and misses Wang Anshi, his former colleague and poetry friend.

These anecdotes between Wang Anshi and Su Shi also show that although they have different views on some people and some things. However, in terms of literature, they are true bosom friends, and they both understand the principle that "a good article will last forever, but an official will be prosperous for a short time."