Shi Su

Shi Su

Su Shi, courtesy name Zizhan (子瞻), art name Dongpo (東坡), was a Chinese poet, literatus, painter, calligrapher, and scholar-official of the Song dynasty. Born into a prominent literary family in Meishan, Sichuan, he was the son of Su Xun and brother of Su Zhe. Despite ambitions for high office, he became a repeated target in factional struggles between reformers and conservatives at the court, and he spent much of his career in exile, periods during which his literary output flourished.