Reading Reflection

    说到人杰地灵，我总是反复喟叹江浙地区是块风水宝地，尤其是绍兴、余姚等地，感觉耀眼得让人瞬目，可是林语堂说，四川人民不仅勤奋好学，独立自治，还擅雄辩，出进士。于是想起来两宋期间眉山此地共出现了886名进士，史称“八百进士”，而眉山也被称作“进士之乡”。我有点惭愧，因为长久以来的确忽视了“天府之国”，只是记着中原和江南地区的繁荣了。不过身边认识几位四川的朋友，是蛮优秀。有机会要去登一登蜀道，亲自去感受一下当地的风土，人家真的不只是以嗜辣文明呐。

    第二章在苏东坡的祖父、父亲身上着墨不少，其父苏洵就是《三字经》里“二十七，始发奋”的苏老泉，我印象中的确总是被用作只要肯勤奋，一切都为时不晚的好例子。但现在读完，我发现也许这个例子的引用还可以再扩展一下。苏洵肯定是天资聪颖，他能在童年时期就有敢于反抗威压，拒绝传统教育模式的意识，并且思维不同常人，那他在“弃学”的年月里应该是在学问以外的领域做了很多思考吧。否则的话，他甫一开始学习“传统教育”就能有如此高的文学成就实在是令人惊异。而放在现在，这样性格的人的确不好相处，这一点倒是古今未变。

    我对祖父苏序印象也很深刻，从一开始知道他不识字时，我就想那这样的人——尤其作为“唐宋八大家”里的三家之父辈——肯定在文学之外的个人品性方面颇有得道。果然，就看他是如何对儿子苏洵的教育态度也能略知一二，有多少父母能在孩子童年时期展露天资之时，便发现他们的天赋和个性，采取引导而不是拔苗助长的方法？苏序对乡邻说的那句“且让他自己领会去，终有一日会明白过来”的淡然和自信，真的好有智慧。当然这也和社会背景不可分割，在现代社会，即时放养了数年，孩子的自我成长也不会朝着最好的方向走吧。再者，苏序和苏轼的放旷潇洒简直如出一辙。如果说苏轼从父亲那延续了智力天资，那他一定从祖父那边传承了率真的天性。

Guiding Question

Why it would be sacrilegious for Su Tungpo to use the word preface in his tomes?

    Because this was a taboo in ancient China against mentioning one's parents' or grandparents' names which sometimes caused embarrassing redults. Su Tungpo's grandfather named Su Xu and the name 'Xu' means preface. Therefore, as a renowned scholar, Su had to call his prefaces forwords which share a same meaning but different word.

Words & Expressions

1.  eclipse (P20)

Equally amazing is the fact that, starting at the late age of twenty-seven, he did achieve such a high literary fame, a fame which was by no means totally eclipsed by his brilliant sons.

Eclipse: If one thing is eclipsed by a second thing that is bigger, newer, or more important than it, the first thing is no longer noticed because the second thing gets all the attention.   使黯然失色；使相形见绌（原意是日食/月食）

e.g. During the second industry revolution, the British Empire known as sun-never-sets was eclipsed by German and US.

2.  mediocre  (P20)

Such a state of affairs might not affect a mediocre person, but to one gifted with the mental powers that he showed in his Complete WorJ{s, the situation must have become unbearable.

Mediocre: If you describe something as mediocre, you mean that it is of average quality but you think it should be better.  平庸的；普通的；次等的

普通人，平凡人还可以说 a(n) normal/ordinary person

e.g. For your information, I was only considered mediocre among my peers.

3. stud with  (P21)

Even in middle-class society, conversations were often studded with learned instances and clever allusions, and had an air of archaic refinement to those from the outside provinces.

Stud with: to dot or cover.  用……点缀/覆盖。 这个短语和P15页的'dot with'有异曲同工之妙~ Dot也有“散步/遍布于……；星罗棋布”的意思。

The little hill stood against a vast plain of rice fields, orchards, and vegetable gardens, dotted here and there with bamboo groves and curiously dwarfed palm trees.

e.g. Studded with stars, the starry sky shined down the stream.