答谢民师书（节选）
Letter to Shieh Minshih (selected)
[北宋]苏东坡
By Su Dongpo
所示书教及诗赋杂文，现之熟矣。大略如行云流水，初无定质，但常行于所当 行，止于所不可不止，文理自然，姿态横。孔子曰：“言之无文，行而不远。又曰：“辞达而已矣。”夫言止于达意，即疑若不文，是大不然。求物之妙，如系风捕影，能使是物了然于心者，盖千万人而不一遇也，而况能使了然于口与手者乎？是之谓辞达。辞至于能达，则文不可胜用矣D扬雄好为艰深之辞，以文浅易之说，若正言之则人人知之矣雄之陋如此比者甚众，可与知者道，雎与俗人言也，因论文偶及之耳6欧阳文忠公言：“丈章如精金美玉，市有定价，非人所能以口古定贵贱也。”
I have looked over your poems and prose. In general, writing should be like sailing clouds and flowing water, It has no definite [required] form, it goes where it has to go and stops where it cannot but stop. One has thus a natural style, with all its wayward charms. Confucius said, tIf a statement is not beautiful, it will not be read far and wide."Again he said, "In writing, all one asks is successful expression of an idea."One may think if a statement merely aims at expressing one's thoughts, it will not be beautiful. That is not true, it is not easy to express exactly a fugitive idea or a passing thought. First of all, it is difficult to see and appreciate it in one's mind and heart—not one in million can do it— and even harder to express it by writing or by word of mouth. When this is done, that thought of idea is given proper expression, and when one cun do this, one can do anything with writing. Yang Shiung (BC 53—AD 18) loved to dress up his superficial ideas in archaic, abstruse language. For if he said dearly what he thought, it would be shown to be something everybody knew already….These are examples of his superficiality. This is something about writing which can be spoken about only to those who really understand. I mention this merely in passing. Ouyang Shiu (1007—1072) said that writing is like gold or jade, with a definite market price for a certain quality. Literary reputation is not something which can be made or minimized by someone's expressed opinion.