The gay of genius-chapter 27

1.Central Question

Q: What was Su Tungpo's impression of Hainan?

A: Hainan was an island then under the Chinese empire, but inhabited choefly by the Loi aborigines, with a sprinkling of Chinese settlers on the northern coast. The island was all but uninhabitable from the Chinese point of view. The climate was very damp, oppressive in summer and foggy in winter. During the autumn rains everything grew moldy. The unhealthy climate provoked reflections on prolong life. But, later he realized that it had nothing to do with the climate, and that is the good attitide to life. The natives did not know any writing but were simple, honest souls, and they were lazy at farming and depended on hunting for food. As in some parts of Szechuen and Fukien, it was the women who did the work while the men stayed indoors to look after the babies. The people were highly superstitious, and a medicine man looked after the disease instead of a doctor. Su contracted the habit of going about the countryside picking medicinal herbs and identifying the different varieties. He identified with great satisfaction a certain herb which was referred to in the ancient histories by another name, and which nobody else had been able to find. Although there was no food here, there was no salt, but he could still enjoy himself. This was related to his optimistic and open-minded attitude.

2. Sentences

（1）There was no telling how long his exole was going to be, and the chances were against his returning to China alive.

到底以后他还流放在外多久，颇难预卜，生还内地之望，甚为渺茫。

（2）But his indomitable spirit and his philosophy of life hardly permitted him to lose his joy of living.

indomitable  adj.不屈服的，不可战胜的

此话表明，苏东坡虽屡次被贬，但仍没有失去对生活的热爱，从而衬托出苏东坡的乐观与豁达之心态。

（3）Su Tungpo wrote three or four allegories, but imaginative writing by Chinese scholar did not really develop until the thirteenth century, and, like the allegories written by other writers in Tang and Sung times, Su's stories were hardly more than thinly covered inventions for an all too obvious moral.

苏东坡写了三四个寓言故事，但是中国文人写的想象故事，直到十三世纪才有真发展。苏东坡写的也和唐宋寓言作家一样，都是明显的道德教条加上微薄的一点想象而已。

allegories  n.寓言