E65 老泉：时运不齐，仕途多舛

E65 老泉：时运不齐，仕途多舛

课程导读

在上节课中，我们跟随着青年时代的苏东坡寻山访水。而与此同时，父亲苏洵正在苦苦等待京中的任命消息。今天这节课，我们将看到老苏终于等到了一封命其赴京考试的圣旨，但苏洵竟然谢绝前去。为什么他要做出这样的选择？苏家一门三学士，儿子双双中举，为何父亲的仕途竟如此坎坷？

英文原文

Meanwhile Su senior was waiting for his appointment.

He was eligible for office at this time because mourning for a wife was not an impediment to holding an office, as mourning a mother was.

High officials at the capital had promised help, but he had been waiting for over a year and no news had arrived.

Finally an imperial edict came, asking him to go up to the capital and submit himself to special examinations.

This threw the old man into consternation.

By that time he had developed a phobia about all examinations.

He wrote a reply to the emperor declining to go, giving old age and poor health as his excuse.

But in his letter to a friend he said, "I do not necessarily want to be an official, nor do I decline on principle to be one... Why should I, at this dignified old age, submit myself to the disgrace of being judged by official examiners and become a laughingstock of others? ... I have already submitted my works to Ouyang Shiu. If he considers them good, why should there be further examinations? If he cannot believe the best that I have written, how can he rely upon the tests of a day?"

In another letter, to a high official, Mei, he said, "I have never been able in my life to conform to the standards of the judges, and that is why I have not succeeded to this day... I remember how when I was young and preparing to go into the examination hall, I got up at midnight, packed up my rice and cakes, and stood at dawn before the Eastern Palace Gate. Then we filed in together and sidled up to our respective seats and cowered over our desks. Every time I think about that scene, my heart shudders..."