苏东坡：诗人和吃货
Su Dongpo, poet and cook: the story behind Dongpo pork
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在杭州的饭馆里，你常常能看到一道菜：一块块方方正正的五花肉，颜色红亮，入口即化，肥而不腻。它叫“东坡肉”。可是你知道吗？“东坡”不是一个地名，而是一个人的名字。他是中国历史上最有名的诗人之一，也是一个出了名的“吃货”。
这个人本名叫苏轼，后人习惯叫他苏东坡。他1037年出生在四川眉山，从小就和弟弟苏辙一起读书。兄弟俩年纪轻轻就同时考上了进士，一下子成了京城里的名人。苏东坡的诗、词、文章和书法样样出色，被看作中国文化里难得的全才。
可是，才华并没有给他带来好运。他说话直，又爱写诗讽刺当时的新政策，结果在1079年，有人抓住他的几首诗不放，说里面有不满朝廷的意思。他被关进监狱一百多天，差点儿丢了命。出来以后，他被贬到湖北的黄州，做一个没有实权的小官。
在黄州，苏东坡的日子过得很苦。为了养家，他在城东的一块坡地上开荒种田，还因此自称“东坡居士”，“苏东坡”这个名字就是这么来的。有一首据说是他写的小诗，开头就说：“黄州好猪肉，价贱如泥土。”诗里说，这么好的猪肉，有钱人不肯吃，穷人又不会做。做法其实很简单：水要放得少，用小火慢慢地炖，火候到了，味道自然就好了。不过，学者们对这首诗是不是他写的，一直有怀疑。
后来，苏东坡到杭州做官。他带人清理西湖，用挖出来的泥修了一条长堤，就是今天的“苏堤”。相传杭州的百姓为了感谢他，纷纷送来猪肉，他就让家人按自己的办法做好，再分给修湖干活的人吃。大家吃了都说好，便把这道菜叫做“东坡肉”。
苏东坡的一生，起起落落，被贬的地方也越来越远。年近六十，他被贬到了广东惠州，后来又被贬到海南岛，那在当时几乎是天涯海角。可是他走到哪里，就吃到哪里。在惠州，他写下了一句至今还常被人说起的诗：“日啖荔枝三百颗，不辞长作岭南人。”意思是，要是每天能吃三百颗荔枝，就算一辈子留在岭南，我也愿意。
所以，下次你吃东坡肉的时候，不妨想一想：这道菜的背后，是一个被命运一次次打击，却总能从生活里找到滋味的人。
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 红 | hóng | red |
| 诗人 | shīrén | poet |
| 诗 | shī | poem; poetry; verse |
| 书法 | shūfǎ | calligraphy |
| 出色 | chūsè | outstanding; remarkable |
| 看作 | kànzuò | to regard as; to look upon as |
| 难得 | nándé | rare; hard to come by; seldom |
| 好运 | hǎoyùn | good luck |
| 命 | mìng | life (as in 生命) |
| 据说 | jùshuō | it is said; reportedly |
| 如 | rú | such as; for example |
| 学者 | xuézhě | scholar; academic |
English (for the teacher)
In Hangzhou restaurants you’ll often see one dish: neat square chunks of pork belly, glossy red, melting in the mouth, rich but never greasy. It’s called Dongpo pork. But did you know? “Dongpo” isn’t a place name; it’s a person’s name. He is one of the most famous poets in Chinese history, and a famous foodie too.
His real name was Su Shi, but later generations got used to calling him Su Dongpo. He was born in 1037 in Meishan, Sichuan, and grew up studying alongside his younger brother Su Zhe. While still very young, the two brothers passed the highest imperial exam in the same year, and all at once they were famous in the capital. Su Dongpo excelled at everything, poetry, song lyrics, prose and calligraphy, and is seen as one of the rare all-rounders of Chinese culture.
But talent didn’t bring him good luck. He spoke bluntly and liked to mock the new policies of the day in his poems, and in 1079 someone seized on a few of them, claiming they showed discontent with the court. He was locked up in prison for more than a hundred days and nearly lost his life. When he came out he was demoted to Huangzhou in Hubei, to a minor post with no real power.
In Huangzhou, life was hard for Su Dongpo. To feed his family he cleared a piece of sloping land east of the town and farmed it, and so he took the name “Layman of the East Slope”, which is where “Su Dongpo” comes from. A little poem said to be his begins: “Huangzhou has fine pork, as cheap as dirt.” The poem goes on: the rich won’t eat such good pork, and the poor don’t know how to cook it. The method is simple: a little water, a low fire, slow stewing, and when the heat has done its work the flavour comes by itself. Scholars, though, have long doubted whether he really wrote that poem.
Later Su Dongpo went to Hangzhou as an official. He led the clearing of West Lake and used the mud dug out of it to build a long causeway, today’s Su Causeway. Legend has it that the people of Hangzhou, to thank him, sent him pork from all sides, and he had his family cook it his way and share it out among the workers on the lake. Everyone who ate it praised it, and so the dish came to be called Dongpo pork.
Su Dongpo’s life was full of ups and downs, and each place he was banished to lay further away. Nearly sixty, he was sent to Huizhou in Guangdong, and later on to Hainan Island, which at the time was almost the ends of the earth. But wherever he went, he ate well. In Huizhou he wrote a line people still quote today: “Three hundred lychees a day, and I’d gladly stay in the south for good.” It means: if I could eat three hundred lychees every day, I’d be happy to stay in Lingnan for the rest of my life.
So next time you eat Dongpo pork, think about this: behind the dish is a man whom fate knocked down again and again, yet who always found something to savour in life.