Su Zhe 蘇轍
man of letters · official · Northern Song China · 1039–1112
Su Shi's younger brother by three years. The two passed the examinations in the same year, and when his brother was jailed he offered up his own post to save him. Hundreds of poems the brothers exchanged over their lives survive.
Posts
1061 · After seeing off his brother Su Shi, who was leaving for his first post
Hand in hand we said goodbye on the plain of Zheng, and both spoke of our fear of the snowy mud on the long road. My horse, turning back, looks for the lanes of Daliang. You, the traveller, must already be west of old Mount Xiao.
相携話別鄭原上，共道長途怕雪泥。
歸騎還尋大梁陌，行人已渡古崤西。"Thinking of Mianchi, Sent to My Brother Zizhan"
Mid-Autumn Festival, 1077 · The year after his brother wrote his song of longing for him under the moon, at the first Mid-Autumn the two had spent together in seven years
How long we have been apart: seven Mid-Autumns have gone by. Last year, on this night at Dongwu, the bright moon was more sorrow than could be borne.
離別一何久，七度過中秋。
去年東武今夕，明月不勝愁。To the tune "Prelude to the Water Melody": Mid-Autumn at Xuzhou
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us