The Leader of the Old Prose Movement – Han Yu

In the middle of the Tang Dynasty the Old Prose Movement took place, which exerted far-reaching influence in Chinese literary history. This Movement, which aimed for a return to the Confucian Classics and their classic style of writing, is a literary movement of reforming old prose. Its leader is the famous prose writer Han Yu. 1155815.com

Han Yu (768--825), polite name Tuizhi, was a native of Heyang (present-day Meng County, Henan Province). He was also addressed by posterity as Han Changli because he came from his ancestral home Changli (present-day Yi County, Liaoning Province). Orphaned at the age of three, he lived with his elder brother Han Hui. As he was eleven years old, his elder brother died and his brother’s widow brought him up. It was perhaps his misfortunes in life that stimulated his will to study hard. At seven he began to learn how to read and write; at thirteen he could write good essays; and at twenty-four he passed the imperial examination for Jinshi. At first he started his official career as a petty official outside the capital and later held the post of Xingbu Shilang (Vice Minister of Punishments) in the capital. As Emperor Tang Xianzong, a firm believer of Buddhism, decided to receive the Buddha’s fingerbone into the capital, Han Yu addressed a memorial to him against it and then was banished to the Chaozhou Prefecture as a prefect. However, he was soon summoned to the capital and filled the posts as high-ranking as Bingbu Shilang (Vice Minister of the Military Forces) and Libu Shilang (Vice Minister of the Interior).

An opponent of orthodox Confucianism, Han Yu strongly advocated the old prose, that is, the prose of the early Qin and the two Han dynasties, opposed the antithetical, high-flown style of literature and upheld the unity of literature with Confucian morality. In the writing of old prose he approved of the naturalness and fluency and disapproved of the imitation. His ideas in literary reform were reechoed and supported by Liu Zongyuan and the like and thus a massive old prose movement developed from strength to strength.

Ever-changing with sentential irregularity, Han Yu’s writings are very imposing and appealing. In his prose writings there are large quantities of novel expressions, many of which have found their way into the corpus of idioms and everyday expressions in modern Chinese. Take the following for example: mian mu ke zen (repulsive in appearance), tong gong yi qu (different in approach but equally satisfactory in result), fu shou tie er (be docile and obedient), yao wei qi lian (to fawn), lao bu ke po (unbreakable, impregnable), shen ju jian chu (live a secluded life). These lively idioms and expressions not only make Han Yu’s writing very expressive and impressive, but also add the valuables to the store house of Chinese language artistry. His prose writings are so influential to the prose writing of later generations that the Ming Dynasty scholar Mao Kun put him in the first place in his compilation A Collection of Works from Eight Masters of the Tang Song Period. 

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