Su Dongpo and the culture of Hainan

Three years after Su Dongpo was demoted, he gave lectures to Hainan students in the "Zaijiu Hall" where he lived in Danzhou, which caused "the sound of books and the sound of strings" in this "barbaric place".

Soon, it became a common practice for Hainanese people to study and study. After Su Dongpo left Hainan, in order to commemorate this pioneer who spread the Central Plains culture, the Hainan people built Dongpo Academy at the original site of Zaijiu Hall.

The arrival of Su Dongpo set off a climax of the spread of Han culture to Hainan. The Han culture brought by Su Dongpo had a huge impact on the development of Hainan culture. On Hainan Island, there are two buildings commemorating Su Dongpo. One is the Wugong Temple, and the other is the Dongpo Academy in Zhonghe Town, Dacheng City, Danzhou. In the courtyard there is the wine hall where Su Dongpo gave lectures to the people.

Extended information:

In the Song Dynasty, Hainan was a semi-civilized and barbaric land. The locals were very superstitious. When they were sick, they had no doctors and relied on warlocks to treat them. The only way to cure diseases is to kill cattle to worship the gods. Every year, the cattle brought in from the mainland are used to worship the gods. The wealthy people kill dozens of cattle.

Su Dongpo was a devout Buddhist and tried to change this bad custom. He personally went to the countryside to collect medicines, researched the types of medicines, wrote medical notes, and discovered medicines for treating diseases for the local people, such as nettle, cocklebur, etc.

When Su Dongpo arrived in Hainan, he found that the local people did not pay attention to agricultural production. They all traded incense, had many uncultivated fields, and lived by hunting. Li Jingxin said that at that time, locals would dip ungrown mice in sugar and eat them raw.

For this reason, Su Dongpo carried out propaganda and education on "persuading farmers" to them, saying that only by paying attention to growing wheat and grain can we meet the needs of life; only by actively developing agricultural production can we bring long-term welfare. He also wrote "Poem to Encourage Farmers" enthusiastically.

Su Dongpo had a huge influence on Hainan culture and set a precedent for Hainan cultural education. Before Su Dongpo came to Hainan, Hainan had not produced a real scholar. After he came to Hainan, he trained Jiang Tangzuo, the first scholar in Hainan, and Fu Que, the first scholar in Hainan.

Since then, Hainanese have repeatedly achieved success in the imperial examinations. According to statistics, through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, Hainan Province has produced 767 civil servants and 97 Jinshi. This cannot but be attributed to Su Dongpo’s great contribution to Hainan education.

Reference materials: People's Daily Online - Looking for Su Dongpo in Danzhou, Hainan