E66 徒以老病身，自取轻笑名

E66 徒以老病身，自取轻笑名

课程导读

在上节课中，我们讲到苏洵以年老多病为由，谢绝参加朝廷的考试。然而，在与梅尧臣的私人信件中，他也谈论了自己对考试的恐惧与不满。在这节课中，苏轼两兄弟的丁忧期满，苏洵便带着两个儿子出川入京。关于这次朝廷任命，苏洵经历了怎样的心路历程呢？离开家乡之前，他又是如何与亡妻告别的呢？

英文原文

By June of the following year, 1059, he received another order from the government, a repetition of the first.

There was no mention of any special exemption from examinations; but nothing else would satisfy him.

The government leaders should believe in him—take it or leave it.

He was not going to be quizzed like a schoolboy.

So a third time he declined.

He was already about fifty, he wrote to say.

What could he do at this age for the country?

A scholar, after all, wants to go into the government only to do something for the country, or else he should live as a poor humble scholar.

If he should decide to go into the government now, he would neither gain an opportunity of serving the country nor enjoy the distinction of being a great recluse.

But, he concluded, it was summer already, and his son's mourning period would be over by the next month; he would go with them to the capital again.

He hoped to see the officials then and talk over the situation.

The tone of the whole letter suggests that he really did not mind going into the government even at the age of fifty, provided these influential people arranged that his papers would not be graded by the examiners like those of school children.

In fact, Su senior was prepared to leave his Szechuen home forever, now that his wife was dead.

It was clear that he belonged at the capital.

His two sons had obtained official degrees and the next step was, therefore, to see what openings there would be in the way of government positions for them, if not for himself.

Hardly two months had passed after the regular mourning period when the father and his sons set out once more for the capital, this time with the young wives.

Proper preparations had been made for the spirit of the deceased mother.

Su Shün had had images of six bodhisattvas made and placed in two carved and gilt wooden niches, to be set up at the Hall of Buddha Julai at the Paradise Temple.

These six bodhisattvas were: the Goddess of Mercy; the God of Wisdom; the Ruler of the Skies; the Ruler of the Earth; a saint specially in charge of pacifying souls who were victims of injustice in human life; and a celestial guide for all the wandering spirits.

Immediately before their departure, Su Shün formally presented these images to the temple and went to say farewell to the spirit of his dead wife.

The prayer ended with the words, "I have done these things in the hope that your soul, if it is still conscious, will either go up to Heaven or float around in the upper or the lower regions in complete comfort and ease, just as I myself am going to roam over the world in complete freedom."