Su Shi carried on with distinctive tradition of Haiku in his dilemma of choice between promoting to be the “emperor’s master” and withdrawing to be a “hermit”. The haiku tone in Su’s poetry was derived from his haiku mood developed out of tradition of haiku. This is a special mood embodied with a nonserious ridiculing psychology, nonsacred doubtful mental state and nonsentimental reasoning mind. As a result, Su’s nonpurposeful ridiculing was able to harmoniously coexist with imperial ruling order and consciousness of moral tradition.

Su Shi; haiku; An Ode to Litchi