The gay of genius-chapter 25

1.Central Question

Q: What contributions did Su Tungpo do to the local people during the exile?

A: A great fire at Poklo greatly excited Su Tungpo. The whole town was burned down.He was afraid that when the government tried to rebuild the city, there would be a chance to exploit the people. He asked Cheng to order the local government to obtain material in the open market and forbid levies of labor and material. And he also requested that Cheng arrange a conference with the tax commissioner and the transportation commissioner in the district, and propose to the government that the people should be taxed according to the current price of grain. He suggested the county magistrates to build two bridges, one cross the river and one cross the lake at Huichow. He did one thing that was specially appreciated by the populace, namely, the building of a great mound to rebury the skeletons found in ownerless graves, and wrote a sacrificial prayer to these unknown dead. He also had a fish preserve builtnear the lake west of the city,namely “Su Tungpo's Let-Live Lake”. In Huangchow, he invented a farmers' device, called a “floating horse”, used at the time of planting seedlings in rice fields. Aware of the frequent epidemics at Canton, Su wrote to Wang Ku to have a fund provided for the founding of a public hospital, as he had done at Hangchow. The people of Canton, too, like the people of Hangchow, were suffering from bad drinking water. So he suggested the government to guid mountain water to the city of Canton, and the water pipes could be made of big bamboo pipes. Thus, even though he was exile, he still made his own contribution to the local people.

2.Sentences

（1）Nevertheless, he had no real inkling of what was coming.可是来日如何，他并不真知道。

（2）The sacrificial prayer to her, apparently written after receiving the new, showed a deeply personal sentiment.由此可见，苏东坡对表妹的情感是如此的深刻而真挚。

（3）He could not be a publi servant, but he could still be a public inded citizen. 这句话表明，苏东坡虽不能做官，但他还可以做一个热心公益的国民。也就正很好总结了苏东坡在流放期间为当地百姓所做的那些好事。