赵孟頫 · Public domain
Northern Song · 1037–1101
Su Shi (Su Dongpo)
苏轼 · China
Writer, calligrapher, painter and gourmet
Courtesy name Zizhan, pen name Dongpo Jushi. For twenty years from 1060 he held posts across the country; in Hangzhou he had West Lake dredged and used the silt to build a long causeway, today's 'Su Causeway'. He was banished several times, as far as Hainan, and died in Changzhou in 1101 on his way back north.
Where the story happened
Places connected with this person
Legend · Dongpo pork
A pot of pork from Su Shi's exile in Huangzhou
Legend has it that after the 'Crow Terrace Poetry Case', Su Shi was banished to Huangzhou and, living in straitened circumstances, worked out a way of slow-braising pork. The dish was later adopted and refined by the people of Hangzhou — capital of the Southern Song — and became Dongpo pork, named after him. The story is hard to verify, but Su Shi was indeed a famous gourmet and also served as a local official in Hangzhou.
History · West Lake, Hangzhou
Two causeways left by two poets
In 822 Bai Juyi became prefect of Hangzhou; West Lake's old dyke had broken, the lake was drying up and the fields were parched, so he oversaw building a dyke to store water; today's 'Bai Causeway' is named in his memory, though the 'Duke Bai's Dyke' he actually built no longer exists. More than two centuries later Su Shi served in Hangzhou, dredged West Lake and used the silt to build a long causeway — the 'Su Causeway'.
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