Su Shi Imprisoned in the Crow Terrace Poetry Trial

1079

The poet Su Shi - Su Dongpo - was arrested on charges that his poems satirized the emperor's reform policies. The so-called Crow Terrace Poetry Trial became a cause célèbre: conservatives saw persecution of genius, reformers saw sedition dressed in verse. Su Shi narrowly escaped execution and was exiled to Huangzhou, where his enforced isolation produced some of the finest poetry and prose in the Chinese literary canon. Exile improved his art.