SOURCE: "Su Shih: A Theory of Perception in Art," in Images and Ideas in Chinese Classical Prose: Studies of Four Masters, Stanford University Press, 1988, pp. 133-53.

Here, Yu-Shih Chen explores Su's intellectual and artistic development during the period of 1071 to 1085, characterizing him as an intuitive and unorthodox thinker.

Su Shih (1036-1101) was 30 years younger than his patron Ou-yang Hsiu, and so their careers and thoughts were not … closely intertwined.… Politically, Su Shih, like Ou-yang Hsiu in his later years, was part of the conservative opposition to the New Law Reform. In literary theory, they are frequently mentioned together in the context of the ku-wen revival of the early Sung. Although intellectually and artistically they were of different generations and differed in almost every essential aspect, … they have been perceived by critics and literary historians as the principal advocates of ku-wen in the Sung and as leading stylists who...