Table of Contents

FOREWORD
PREFACE 
BOOK One CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
Chapter One Literary Patriotic Duke 
Chapter Two Meishan 
Chapter Three Childhood and Youth 
Chapter Four The Examinations 
Chapter Five Father and Sons 

BOOK TWO EARLY MANHOOD 
Chapter Six Gods, Devils, and Men 
Chapter Seven Experiment in State Capitalism 
Chapter Eight The Bull-headed Premier 
Chapter Nine The Evil That Men Do 
Chapter Ten The Two Brothers 
Chapter Eleven Poets, Courtesans, and Monks 
Chapter Twelve Poetry of Protest 
Chapter Thirteen The Yellow Tower 
Chapter Fourteen Arrest and Trial 

BOOK THREE MATURITY 
Chapter Fifteen Farmer of the Eastern Slope
Chapter Sixteen Poet ofthe Red Cliff 
Chapter Seventeen Yoga and Alchemy
Chapter Eighteen Years ofWanderings
Chapter Nineteen Empress’S Favorite
Chapter Twenty The Art of Painting 
Chapter Twenty—one The Art of Getting Out of Power 
Chapter Twenty-two Engineering and Famine ReHef 
Chapter Twenty-three Friend of the People

BOOK FOUR YEARS OF EXILE
Chapter Twenty-four Second Persecution
Chapter Twenty-five Home in Exile
Chapter Twenty—six Romance with Chaoyun
Chapter Twenty-seven Outside China
Chapter Twenty—eight The End 
Appendix A Chronological Summary
Appendix B Bibliographyand Sources
Appendix C Biographical Reference List
Wade—Giles to Pinyin Conversion Table
EnglishWorksbyLinYutang

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As one Chinese name per person is more than enough for the Westernreader to follow, I shall always call the father Su Sbiin, the elder son Su Tungpo,and the younger son Su Tseyu, following the prevailing Chinese practice. Theconfusion arising from so many names adopted by one scholar takes up a greatdeal of the time of a student doing research in Chinese history. In Su Tungpo'stime at least eight persons had the same name, Mengteh, which meant that theperson's mother, before she conceived, had dreamed that she had a bay.
When Tungpo was sixteen, there was an episode which put a heavy strainon the relationship between the father's and the mother's family, and whichreveals something of the father's character. As often happens in Chinesefamilies, the father has married Su Tungpo's elder sister to a first cousin in themother's family. We cannot know details at this late date, but we know that theyoung bride was unhappy in the Cheng family. Perhaps she was persecuted byher husband's relations. Anyway, she soon died and under circumstances thatstirred up Su Shiin's indignation. It seems the girl's father-in-law was a thoroughscoundrel. Su Shiin wrote a poem couched in bitter words and blaming himselffor his daughter's death. He then did an unusual thing. He compiled a familygenealogy, had it inscribed in stone, and erected a pavilion over it. To celebratethe occasion, he gathered the entire Su clan, before whom he intended toread a public denunciation of his wife's family. After the members of the clanhad poured wine offerings to the dead ancestors, Su said to the clansmen thata "certain" person in the village, meaning his wife's brother, represented apowerful family; that he had brought moral chaos into the village; that he haddriven out the orphan child of his own brother and monopolized the familyproperty; that he had placed his concubine above his wife and indulged inlicentious pleasures.