Han Yu

Han Yu a Chinese writer, poet and official of the Tang dynasty, remembered as one of the greatest prose stylists in the history of Chinese literature and as a leader of the movement to revive the classical language and the Confucian tradition. His essays, his poetry and his campaigns for reform made him a central figure of the intellectual life of his age.

Early Life and Education

Han Yu was born in 768, during the troubled decades that followed the An Lushan rebellion. His family was of scholarly standing but not wealthy, and his parents died while he was still a small child, so that he was raised by his elder brother and, after that brother's death, by his sister-in-law. The experience of hardship and dependence marked him for life.

He was a dedicated student, reading widely in the classics and the histories, and he developed an early conviction that the prose of the ancients was the true vehicle of thought and moral teaching. He passed the imperial examination in 792, though only after several failures, and began the long and often frustrating pursuit of an official career.

His early official posts were modest, and his career was repeatedly interrupted by exile and demotion. He was a man of strong opinions and an unbending temper, and he was unwilling to keep silent when he believed that he saw injustice or falsehood, whatever the cost to his own advancement.

The Literary Reform

Han Yu led the movement known as the ancient prose revival, which sought to replace the ornate and artificial parallel prose of his time with the plain, vigorous and clear language of the classical age. He argued that writing should serve the transmission of moral truth and that the style of the great writers of antiquity was the proper model for the present.

His advocacy of the classical style, developed with his friend and fellow writer Liu Zongyuan, transformed the practice of Chinese prose. The movement encouraged writers to use a simple and direct language and to speak with personal conviction, and it produced a tradition of essays and letters of great force and clarity. Its influence lasted for a thousand years.

Han Yu practised what he preached. His own essays are celebrated for their energy, their argumentative power and their vivid colloquial touches, and they range over philosophy, ethics, politics, education and personal experience. He is regarded by many as the finest prose writer in the Chinese language, and his style was studied and imitated by every subsequent generation of scholars.

Confucianism and the Attack on Buddhism

Han Yu was a passionate defender of Confucianism at a time when Buddhism and Daoism enjoyed the favour of the court and the wealth of the empire. He argued that the Buddhist and Daoist establishments, exempt from taxation and rich in lands and patronage, were a burden on the state and a corruption of the ancient moral order, and he called for their suppression.

His most famous act was the Memorial on the Bone of Buddha, submitted in 819, in which he denounced the emperor's devotion to a relic of the Buddha and warned of the dangers of a foreign religion. The memorial so angered the throne that he was condemned to death, though the sentence was reduced to exile in the far south, to Chaozhou in Guangdong.

His defence of the Confucian tradition was not merely conservative. He sought to recover the essential moral teaching of the sages and to apply it to the problems of his age, and he insisted on the importance of the ancient texts. Through his writings he helped to prepare the way for the Confucian revival of the Song dynasty and for the later Neo-Confucian philosophers.

Poetry, Memorials and Prose Works

Han Yu wrote poetry throughout his life, and his verse, though less admired than his prose, is original and vigorous. He favoured an expansive and sometimes startling style, full of unusual images and deliberate oddness, and he experimented with the forms and rhythms of the art. He was one of the poets who gave the mid-Tang its distinctive voice.

His surviving writings include a large body of letters, prefaces, inscriptions and memorials, in which he set out his views on literature, education and government, and in which he offered counsel and comfort to friends. These pieces are among the most valued of Chinese essays, prized for their sincerity, their moral seriousness and their mastery of the classical idiom.

He also wrote on philosophical subjects, expounding and defending the Confucian doctrine of human nature and of the moral cultivation of the individual. His essays on these themes, and his insistence on the continuity of the Confucian tradition, were taken up by later thinkers and became part of the foundation of Chinese orthodoxy.

Influence and Legacy

Han Yu's influence on Chinese culture has been profound. He is honoured as the leader of the classical prose movement and as one of the eight great masters of Tang and Song prose, and his essays are studied as models of the art throughout East Asia. His insistence on clarity, moral purpose and the revival of the classics shaped the literary values of a millennium.

His defence of Confucianism against Buddhism helped set the intellectual course of the Song and later dynasties, and the Confucian revival in which he was an early figure gave rise to the great tradition of Neo-Confucian philosophy. His memory was honoured by later scholars, and temples were dedicated to him in recognition of his contribution to the faith and learning of the nation.

He died in 824, after a long career of service, exile, controversy and literary achievement. Posterity has confirmed his own high estimate of the importance of his work, and his name stands with those of the greatest writers China has produced, the exemplar of the scholar-official who uses the power of the word to speak truth to his age.

References

^[1] ^[2] ^[3] ^[4]

↑ Charles Hartman, Han Yu and the T'ang Search for Unity, Princeton University Press, 1986.
↑ Stephen Owen, The Late Tang: Chinese Poetry of the Mid-Ninth Century, Harvard University Press, 2006.
↑ David R. Knechtges, The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Cambridge University Press, 2010.
↑ Peter K. Bol, This Culture of Ours: Intellectual Transitions in T'ang and Sung China, Stanford University Press, 1992.

[r1-1] Charles Hartman, Han Yu and the T'ang Search for Unity, Princeton University Press, 1986.

[r2-2] Stephen Owen, The Late Tang: Chinese Poetry of the Mid-Ninth Century, Harvard University Press, 2006.

[r3-3] David R. Knechtges, The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Cambridge University Press, 2010.

[r4-4] Peter K. Bol, This Culture of Ours: Intellectual Transitions in T'ang and Sung China, Stanford University Press, 1992.

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