伏承帖 A letter to a friend

【About the author】

黃庭堅，字魯直，號涪翁，又號山谷，分寧人。生於宋仁宗慶曆五年，卒於徽宗崇寧四年，享年六十一歲。為江詩西派的領袖人物，更是東坡的好友。門人諡曰「文節先生」。魯直自幼聰穎，讀書幾可過目不忘。蘇東坡曾見其詩文，以為超軼絕塵，為蘇門四學士之一。舉進士，官至起居舍人，但因黨爭之故，先後被眨謫至黔州、涪州、鄂州，最後客死宜州。忠賢而不得志，這點和東坡相同，實在可惜。書亦為北宋四大家之一。

Inside Story

This is a letter Huang Tingchien addressed to a friend concerning some family matters. He asked the friend not to worry about his daughter who had married to Huang Tingchein. His mother treated the daughter well just like her own. In the letter, Huang Tainchien also mentioned the death of his younger brother and his wife. It was so hard for him to face such a tragedy that his hair turned into white. Recently he was aware of the death of his nephew who was the cleverest child among his brother’s children, which was even harder to accept the cruel fact and he was in deep grief.