1. Han Yu was a pioneer and a pioneer of the ancient prose movement. Since the decline of literary works in the Eight Dynasties, it is natural for him to have a high status.
We know that before the Tang Dynasty, there was no such thing as ancient prose in literature. The concept of ancient prose originated from Han Yu. He called his odd-single-line prose, which followed the pre-Qin and Han Dynasty styles, ancient prose, and opposed it to "vulgar writing," the parallel prose that had been popular since the Six Dynasties.
During the Zhenyuan period of Emperor Dezong of the Tang Dynasty, due to Han Yu’s efforts in promoting it, ancient prose had a wide impact. During the Yuanhe period of Emperor Xianzong of the Tang Dynasty, Liu Zongyuan also began to strongly support Han Yu, and the influence of ancient prose became even greater. In the twenty or thirty years from Zhenyuan to Yuanhe, ancient prose gradually overtook parallel prose and became the main trend in the literary world. This is the famous "ancient prose movement" in the history of literature.
2. When listing the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, they all start with Han Yu. This is actually a chronological order.
3. Han Yu is one of the most important Confucian thinkers since Confucius and Mencius.
Han Yu pioneered the ancient prose movement in literature, using prose as poetry, and created a new literary era. As an outstanding thinker, he maintained the authority of Confucianism throughout his life.
Extended information
Han Yu was an advocate of the ancient prose movement. He advocated inheriting the prose tradition of the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties, and opposed parallel prose that focused on tonal and rhythmic contrasts but ignored content. Han Yu's articles are majestic, thorough and logical, and he is respected as the first of the "Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties". People at that time had the reputation of "Korean". Du Mu juxtaposed Korean writing with Du's poetry and called it "Du's poetry and Hanbi"; Su Shi called him "the rise of literature and the decline of eight generations". The ancient prose movement advocated by Han Liu opened up the development path of ancient prose since the Tang Dynasty.