OUYANG XIU

Ouyang Xiu Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072), Contemporary Drawing
Xìng 姓:	Ōuyáng 歐陽(欧阳)
Míng 名:	Xiū 修
Zì 字:	Yǒngshū 永叔
Hào 號:	Zuìwēng 醉翁 Liùyī Jūshì 六一居士¹
Shì 謚:	Wénzhōng 文忠²
''1. late in his life''
''2. hence referred to as Ōuyáng Wénzhōnggōng'' 歐陽文忠公

'Ouyang Xiu' () (1007 – September 22, 1072^[1]), courtesy name is Yongshu, also self nicknamed The Old Drunkard 醉翁, or The Retired Scholar of the One of Six 六一居士^[2] at his late age, was a Chinese statesman, historian, essayist and poet of the Song Dynasty. Due to the multi-faceted nature of his talents and contributions to society, he would be regarded in Western parlance as a Renaissance man ^[3]

Contents

Early Life

Official Career

Prose

Historian

Poetry

Legacy

Notes

References

Books

Articles

See also

External links

Early Life

He was born in Mingyang, Sichuan^[4] where is father was a judge ^[5], though his family comes from present day Ji'an, Jiangxi. His family was relatively poor, not coming from one of the old great lineages of Chinese society. Losing his father when he was three^[6], his literate mother was responsible for much of his early education. He was unable to afford traditional tutoring and was largely self-taught. The writings of Han Yu, a literatus from the late Tang Dynasty was particularly influential in his development. He passed the jinshi degree exam in 1030 on his third attempt at the age of 22 and became a major establishment figure of the period, but independent thought continued to be one of his hallmarks.

Official Career

After passing the jinshi exam, he was appointed to a judgeship in Luoyang ^[5], the old Tang Dynasty eastern capital. While there, he found others with his interest in the ancient prose of Han Yu. ^[6]
Politically, he was an early patron of the political reformer Wang Anshi, but later became one of his strongest opponents. At court, he was both much loved and deeply resented at the same time.
In 1034, he was appointed to be a collator of texts ^[5] at the Imperial Academy in Kaifeng where be began an associate of Fan Zhongyan, who was the prefect of Kaifeng. However, Fan was demoted after criticizing the Chief Councillor and submitting proposals for reform in promoting and demoting officials. Ouyang than submitted a critique of Fan’s principle critic at court. While he earned a demotion to Western Hubei ^[10] for his troubles, he won praise as a principled official and led to his being a central figure in the growing reform faction.
Threats from the Liao Dynasty and Xi Xia in the north in 1040 caused Fan Zhongyan to come back into favor. He brought Ouyang with him by offering him a choice position on his staff. Ouyang’s refusal won him further praise as a principled public servant who was not willing to take advantage of connections. ^[10] Instead, Ouyang was brought to the court in 1041 to prepare an annotated catalogue of the Imperial library.
1043 was the high point in the first half of the eleventh century for reformers. Ouyang and Fan spurred the Qingli Reforms. Fan submitted a ten-point proposal addressing government organization. Among other things, these included increasing official salaries, enforcement of laws, eliminating favoritism, and reform exams to focus on practical statecraft. ^[12] However, the reformers were only in ascendancy for two years as the emperor rescinded these decrees of what also became known as the Minor Reform of 1043. Ouyang was a victim who was then demoted to a succession of magistracies in the provinces. Fan and Ouyang were considered to have formed a faction, which by definition was deemed subversive to the government, though Ouyang countered that Confucius himself said that good persons in society would naturally flock together in furtherance of their own goals. ^[13]
After serving briefly in Chuzhou, Anhui in 1049, he was recalled to the court to serve in an advisory capacity. However, the death of is mother in 1052 forced him to retire for more than two years to carry out his filial obligations.
After returning from his mandatory retirement, he was recalled to court and appointed to be a Hanlin Academy academician. He was also charged with heading the commission compiling the New Tang History, a task not completed until 1060. ^[14] He also served as Song ambassador to the Liao on annual visits and served as examiner of the jinshi examinations, working on improving them in the process.
In the early 1060s, he was one of the most powerful men in court, holding the positions of Hanlin Academician, Vice Commissioner of Military Affairs, Vice Minister of Revenues and Assistant Chief Councillor concurrently. ^[14]
Ouyang’s power aroused jealousy. Upon the ascension of the Shenzong emperor in in 1067, the name of Wang Anshi came to the attention of the emperor. Ouyang’s enemies had him charged with several crimes, including incest with his daughter. Though no one believed this charge credible, it still had to be investigated, causing him irreparable harm. Consequently, the emperor sent him to magistrate positions in Anhui, Shandong, and Anhui. While a magistrate in Shandong, he opposed and refused to carry out reforms advocated by Wang Anshi, particularly a system of low-interest loans to farmers. ^[5]
In 1071, formal retirement was granted five years before the standard retirement age.

Prose

In his prose works, he followed the example of Han Yu, promoting the Classical Prose Movement. While posted in Luoyang, Ouyang founded a group who made his “ancient prose” style a public cause He was traditionally classed as one of the ''Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song''.
Among his most famous prose works is the ''Zuiweng Tingji'' (literally means, Regarding the Pavilion of The Old Drunkard: 醉翁亭记), a description of his pastoral lifestyle among the mountains, rivers and people of Chuzhou. The work is lyrical in its quality and acclaimed as one of the highest achievements of Chinese travel writing. Chinese commentators in the centuries immediately following the work's composition focused on the nature of the writing. Huang Zhen said that the essay is an example of "using writing to play around", and Cui Xian was reminded of the spirit of the Jin Dynasty. It was agreed that the essay was about ''fengyue'', the elegant enjoyment of leisure. However, during the Qing Dynasty, commentators began to see past the playfulness of the piece to the thorough and sincere joy that the author found in the joy of others.^[17]

Historian

Ouyang led the commission compiling the New Tang History, which completed its work in 1060. He also wrote a New History of the Five Dynasties on this own following his official service. His style resembled that of the great Han Dynasty historian Sima Guang. He also focused on ethnical considerations in historical analysis. ^[14]
As a historian, he has been criticised as overly didactic, but he played an important role in establishing the use of epigraphy as a historiographic technique. Epigraphy as well as the practice of calligraphy figured in Ouyang's contributions to Confucian aesthetics. In his ''Record of the Eastern Study'' he states how literary minded gentlemen might utilize their leisure to nourish their mental state. The practice of calligraphy and the appreciation of associated art objects were integral to this Daoist-like transformation of intellectual life. He also composed the ''New History of the Five Dynasties'' and ''New Book of Tang'' in 1053 and 1060 respectively.

Poetry

His poems are generally relaxed, humorous, and often self-depreciatory; he gave himself the title The Old Drunkard. He wrote both ''shi'' and ''ci''. His ''shi'' are stripped-down to the essentials emphasised in the early Tang period, eschewing the ornate style of the late Tang. He is best known, however, for his ''ci'', which he was instrumental in raising to the level of being an important and widespread Song poetic style. ^[3] In particular, his series of ten poems entitled ''West Lake is Good'' set to the tune ''Picking Mulberries'' helped to popularise the genre as a vehicle for serious poetry.
Ouyang's poetry, especially the mature works of the 1050's, dealt with new themes that previous poets had avoided. These include interactions with friends, family life, food and beverages, antiques, and political themes. He also used an innovative style containing elements that he had learned from his prose writing. This includes his use of self-caricature and exaggeration.^[20] Ouyang's poetry bears the characteristic of literary playfulness common to Northern Song poetry. For example, many poems have titles that indicate that they originated in rhyme games, and feature extensive rhyming schemes throughout.^[21]

Legacy

Despite his success in his various endeavors, he did not accumulate great landholdings and wealth and only his third son attained the highest jinshi degree. ^[4]
He died in 1072 in present day Fuyang, Anhui. His influence was so great, even opponents like Wang Anshi wrote moving tributes on his behalf. Wang referred to him as the greatest literary figure of his age.

Notes

1. 8th day of the 8th month of Xining 5 (熙寧五年八月八日), which corresponds to September 22, 1072 in the Julian calendar.
2. He once explained to a guest that in his house he had 10,000 folios of books which he had collected, 1,000 scrolls of inscriptions dated as early as the Xia, Shang and Western Zhou, one ''Guqin'', one chess set, and usually one pot of wine. When the guest said this was just one of five, he replied, I am an old man amongst these five; does that not make six? Liuyi Jushi Zhuan 414
3. http://web.whittier.edu/academic/english/Chinese/Ouyangxiu.htm
4. [Mote p. 120]
5. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9057697/Ouyang-Xiu
6. [Mote p. 121]
7. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9057697/Ouyang-Xiu
8. [Mote p. 121]
9. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9057697/Ouyang-Xiu
10. [Mote p. 123]
11. [Mote p. 123]
12. [Mote p. 137]
13. [Mote p. 135]
14. [Mote p. 125]
15. [Mote p. 125]
16. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9057697/Ouyang-Xiu
17. The Old Drunkard Who Finds Joy in His Own Joy -Elitist Ideas in Ouyang Xiu's Informal Writings, Lian, Xianda, , , Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), 2001
18. [Mote p. 125]
19. http://web.whittier.edu/academic/english/Chinese/Ouyangxiu.htm
20. Mundane Transcendence: Dealing with the Everyday in Ouyang Xiu's Poetry, Hawes, Colin, , , Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), 1999
21. Meaning beyond Words: Games and Poems in the Northern Song, Hawes, Colin, , , Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 2000
22. [Mote p. 120]

References

Books

The Literary Works of Ou-yang Hsiu, Egan, Ronald C., , , , 1984,
, Mote, F.W., , , Harvard University Press, 1999,

Articles

Biography by James T.C. Liu in Franke, Herbert, ''Sung Biographies'', Wiesbaden, 1976,vol. 2, pp. 808-816.
Carpenter, Bruce E., 'Confucian Aesthetics and Eleventh Century Ou-yang Hsiu' in ''Tezukayama University Review'' (Tezukayama Daigaku Ronshu) Nara, Japan, 1988, no. 59, pp. 111-118.

See also

★ Twenty-Four Histories

External links

★ Britannica.com

★ Biographical profile

★ English translations of the ten "West Lake is Good" poems