After Su Shi, a great poet, became an official, he opposed Wang Anshi's reforms and was kicked out of the court. He should have lived a comfortable life, but some people just couldn't stand Su Shi and regarded Su Shi's poems as Taking it out to make a big fuss, this led to Su Shi being arrested and imprisoned for more than 100 days. He almost faced beheading. After that, Su Shi was sent to a remote area.
Generally speaking, the places where prisoners stay are relatively desolate. Su Shi also lived a very miserable life during this period. His friend couldn't bear it anymore, so he applied to the court for permission to stay next to his hut. He reclaimed 50 acres of wasteland and allowed him to grow food to increase his income to avoid starving to death. However, who knew that the wasteland had been deserted for decades and was not suitable for growing food at all. However, Su Shi finally reaped the results with his own efforts.
Later he built a new hut on the east slope. Because the hut was built when it snowed, Su Shi called the hut Dongpo Snow Hall. He became more and more satisfied, much happier than at the court. People there called Su Shi Dongpo Lay Scholar. As time went by, Su Shi also liked this name better, so he also called himself Dongpo Lay Scholar.
At that time, Bai Juyi was also assigned to a place called Dongpo. Bai Juyi lived very comfortably there and often wrote some poems about Dongpo to please people. Su Shi thought that he and Bai Juyi had the same problem. It happened that the place where Bai Juyi lived was also called Dongpo, so Su Shi also wrote a poem about Dongpo. Poetry, thinking that it could express their common thoughts, Su Shi often used Dongpo to express what he was thinking, so people also called it Su Dongpo.