An ongoing exhibition celebrates the legacy of ancient Chinese literati and artist Su Shi, whose contribution to culture has made him a household name in the country, Wang Kaihao reports.

Editor's note: China Daily presents a series of stories covering major exhibitions and events as part of the 600th anniversary celebrations this year of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China's last imperial palace.

In 1082, during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), Su Shi had been living in poverty and grappling with depression for two years after he lost a political conflict.

He was demoted and assigned as a nominal official to work in Huangzhou (now a district in Huanggang, Hubei province) by the Yangtze River.

Su possessed great vision. He chronicled the historical vicissitudes of the Battle of Red Cliffs (Chibi). The decisive war in AD 208 prevented the powerful warlord, Cao Cao, from conquering the Yangtze's southern bank.

Su wrote: "East flows the mighty river, the huge waves sweeping away the brilliant figures of thousands of years past."

Many exceptional people of the era may have been submerged forever in the lengthy river of time but not Su.

Su's legacy, including his poetry, calligraphy and broad influence in other fields, has withstood the erosive waves of history. He remains one of the most-recognized Chinese cultural icons of all time.

In Beijing's Palace Museum－another immortal Chinese cultural monument that's also known as the Forbidden City－an ongoing calligraphy and painting exhibition portrays Su's epoch and its lasting legacies.

Man of Infinite Refinement: Special Exhibition on the Paintings and Calligraphy of Su Shi in the Palace Museum Collection runs through Oct 30 in the Hall of Literary Brilliance (Wenhua Dian).

Due to Su's outstanding status, the show is a key event to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the completion of the Forbidden City, China's last imperial palace.

The 78 exhibits are either Su's representative works or pieces created by his close friends, predecessors and students that reflect their interactions, or works by his followers from later periods that pay homage to Su.

These works span from the Northern Song Dynasty through recent history and cover a range of media, including calligraphy, paintings, epigraphic rubbings, documents and rarely seen books.

"As a star in literati circles, Su Shi used ink to create numerous masterpieces during his lifetime," says Palace Museum researcher Yu Wentao, who's a curator of the exhibition.

"Many people he inspired have displayed their creativity in calligraphy and painting. Thanks to our collection, people today can glimpse the charisma of this 'brilliant figure of thousands of years past'."

Though Su, who's also known by his sobriquet, Dongpo, is a household name in China, it's challenging to describe him in a few words as more than a poet.

This polymath is also honored as one of the eight most outstanding essayists from the Tang (618-907) and Northern Song dynasties.

The Former Ode on the Red Cliffs was generally considered to represent a zenith of his talent and has been chanted by generations over the following millennium.

Su has also been esteemed as one of four leading Song calligraphers and a pioneer of poetry genres. That's not to mention his contributions to fine-art theories, horticulture, pharmacology and gastronomy. It's widely believed that he developed the recipe for the popular pork dish, dongpo rou.

The exhibits also reveal Su's sentimentality.

In Zhiping Tie, a letter Su wrote to a monk in his hometown in Sichuan province, he emotionally recalls the memory of several tombs and asks the monk to take good care of them. The exquisite writing makes the letter a key calligraphy work from Su's early age.

During his difficult days in Huangzhou, Su frequently exchanged letters with his old friend, Chen Zao, who lived nearby.

Two letters Su wrote are juxtaposed at the exhibition. One reveals his excitement about a proposed meeting at the beginning of a new year. The other expresses his condolences for Chen's brother.

Both were written within one year. In 1964, they were mounted on the same paper, probably to preserve them.

"No matter how great Su was, he wasn't isolated from the surrounding environment," Yu explains.

"That extraordinary time centered him. And Su was a legend among his literati peers."

The exhibits reveal Su's star-studded social network, including his most famous student, calligrapher Huang Tingjian, versatile literati Mi Fu and Ouyang Xiu, painter Li Gonglin and a long list of other writers, calligraphers and painters.

For example, Junyi, which was written by Huang, is exhibited. It's one of Huang's two surviving works that mention Su's name.

Li painted Su's portrait in his later years. A Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) facsimile of Li's work is also on display. It depicts Su wearing a bamboo rain hat and clogs. Around that time, Su confronted an even bigger setback and was banished to Hainan Island.

"He was on the way to a friend's home but encountered heavy rain," Yu says.

"He had to borrow the hat and clogs from local farmers, and people laughed at him. Even so, he remained calm and optimistic toward life. Consequently, it later became a classical portrayal of Su's image."