穎沙彌帖 A letter to Tsanliaotzu

【作者介紹】

蘇軾（1037－1101），北宋文學家、書畫家、美食家。字子瞻，號東坡居士。漢族，四川人，葬於潁昌（今河南省平頂山市郟縣）。一生仕途坎坷，學識淵博，天資極高，詩文書畫皆精。

Inside Story

In the beginning of the letter, Tungpo gave a compliment on one of Tsanliaotzu’ disciples named Ying who was a neophyte. Tungpo thought that Ying was not only good at calligraphy, also had thorough apprehension on Buddhism and he would turn out to be an extraordinary disciple some day. However, the main point of the letter was to tell Tsanliaotzu not to come to visit him. The real reason was not because of the bad weather and strong weaves at the sea, but that someone was going to set Tsanliaotzu up. Tungpo did not want Tsanliaotzu to keep close contact with him otherwise Tsanliaotzu would get involved as well.