A Revisiting of Su Shi's Theory of "Shaping up According to Anything Encountered"

The observation of water's shaping up according to anything encountered is often used to characterize Su Shi's poetic style of being naturally smooth,fluent and flexible.It seems that the devices and techniques adopted in the process of creation makes Su's unique literary style,but the formation of the style has more to do with his unique way of viewing the world and setting his themes and contexts.Susceptible to the Buddhism's intuitive way of conceiving the world and the Zen Buddhism's assertion of self-adaptation in a natural connection with the world,Su proposed that the writer should cultivate a mentality of serenity and nothingness when conceiving the world and reject any artificial materials for art;to him,what one sees,hears,feels and conceives are all proper materials for poetic creation.Rather than being confined to the area of literary creation,the water's quality of shaping up according to anything encountered is also reflected in Su's life philosophy,which is formed by an incorporation of Confucianism into the Taoist ideas.