Han Yu was born in a small official family. He lost his father at the age of 3 and was raised by his eldest brother Han Hui. After Han Hui died, he was raised by his eldest sister-in-law. The loneliness of his boyhood prompted Han Yu to study hard and study Confucian classics carefully.
/kloc-at the age of 0/9, Han Yu took office in Chang' an. He tried again and again because he had no background. Later, in the eighth year of Zhenyuan (792), he became a scholar. After three failed examiners, Han Yu only got Bianzhou and Xuzhou as observation promotion officers, and lived a frustrated shogunate life for four years.
In order to seek success in his career, Han Yu had to run between dignitaries, write articles, sing praises and say many things against his will, all of which showed his servility and vulgarity. The poor life of his childhood made Han Yu obsessed with fame and fortune, but he still had honest intellectuals in his heart. When he made supervision suggestions, he spoke out bravely and cared about the sufferings of the people, and was demoted to Yangshan Order.
Han Yu was an active advocate of the ancient prose movement in Tang Dynasty. He studied under Liang Su, a pioneer of ancient Chinese prose, and then discussed and debated with Liu Zongyuan, Liu Yuxi and others. He jointly promoted the vigorous development of the ancient prose movement, broke the pattern of composition in genre, structure and technique since Wei and Jin Dynasties, and adapted to the needs of economic, political and cultural development.
Han Yu advocates "writing carries Tao". Most of his articles have rich practical contents: sympathizing with the working people, exposing the sins of the ruling class, praising heroes, exploring the way of writing, and voicing grievances for the oppressed poor scholars. They achieved great success in the practice of the ancient prose movement and had a far-reaching impact on later generations.
Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan, two literary masters, supported each other in the ancient prose movement. Han Yu wrote Biography of Mao Ying, satirizing the ruling minister at that time in the form of fable, and Liu Zongyuan gave warm praise. Han Yu also praised Liu Zongyuan's articles, and successively wrote Epitaph of Liu Zihou and Inscription of Luochi Temple in Liuzhou, praising Liu Zongyuan's literary contributions and achievements.
When Shunzong appointed Wang Group to carry out the Yongzheng political reform movement, Han Yu opposed the political reform from the standpoint of a noble family and was critical of Liu Zongyuan's participation in the political reform movement. In this political movement, Han Yu stood in an old-fashioned position that hindered progress. However, as an honest official with the idea of being close to the people, Han Yu is progressive in many cases. After resisting Liu Pi, Han Yu wrote poems of harmony and virtue to express his desire to maintain unity. In the assistant minister's office of the Ministry of War, he bravely completed the task of pacifying the rebellion of Zhou Zhen's royal court, showing the spirit of being fearless in times of crisis and actively safeguarding national unity. Han Yu also has the idea of loving the people. When he made the Yangshan Order, he loved the people as a son, so much so that "people's livelihood begins with his words". When he was in Chaozhou, he felt that crocodiles were harmful to the people and wrote "Sacrificing Crocodiles" to express his concern for the people. When Han Yu moved from Chaozhou to Yuanzhou Secretariat, he liberated more than 700 slaves. All these show Han Yu's political ideal of "the world is for the public".
Han Yu once argued with Liu Zongyuan about materialism and idealism. Liu Zongyuan criticized Han Yu's idealistic outlook on fate, regardless of rewards and punishments. At this point, Han Yu's thought is wrong.
But Han Yu advocated destroying Buddha, which is the glory of his thought. In the fourteenth year of Yuanhe, Han Yu went to the Buddha's bone platform and opposed Xian Zong's welcoming Buddha's bone into the palace for sacrifice. He believes that this will only harm society, but not achieve immortality. This offended Xian Zong and almost beheaded Han Yu. As a result of Pei Du's rescue, Han Yucai was saved from death and was demoted as the secretariat of Chaozhou. This action of Han Yu left a glorious page in the history of China's philosophy.
On the whole, Han Yu's life is full of flaws. His contribution to leading the ancient prose movement, his spirit of loving the people and his brave act of opening Buddha made him a great man in history. But the most remarkable thing is his achievements in literature. He is one of the eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties and the leader of the ancient prose movement. Su Shi praised him as "the decline of eight generations of literature, the drowning of the world's discipline", which is a peak in the history of literature.
Han Yu put his theory into practice in his poetry creation, and his works of fu, poetry, theory, saying, sacrifice, essays and other genres have achieved high artistic achievements. In Mr. Changli's collection, there are mainly the following aspects:
First, essays play an important role in Han Yu's prose. One of them is a novella with Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism as its main content. For example, from the perspective of realistic politics and economy, from the perspective of originality in philosophy, from the perspective of preaching and teaching. Most of these articles are clear and clear-cut. The other kind is some essays that mock the social status quo. Short stories, such as Miscellaneous Notes and Enlightenment, have clever metaphors and far-reaching implications. Novels such as Seeing the Poor and Understanding Learning use the question-and-answer forms and humorous brushstrokes of Dong Fangshuo's Difficult to Answer a Guest and Yang Xiong's Xiechao to express their frustrations, ridicule the vulgar habits in society, and have strange ideas and sharp edges. The other is about literary thoughts and writing experiences, with diverse genres, such as replying to Li Yixin in epistolary style, co-writing with him, giving a reply preface, sending a preface to Meng Dongye, and sending a letter to Master Gao Xian. Preface to See Meng Dongye is an article written by Han Yu to see his friend Meng Jiao off. In the article, Han Yu expressed his sympathy for his friend's misfortune, and used a large number of examples in nature and the world to illustrate the truth that "the grievance is the first debt." The author also advised Meng Jiao to cherish his talent, and tactfully expressed his criticism of the rulers' ineffective employment.
The second is narration, which also occupies a large proportion in Han Yu's prose. One is the study of Confucian classics, such as Pinghuai Xibei, which eulogizes the achievements of Ping 'an Fanzhen Rebellion in Tang Dynasty with the genres of Shangshu, Ya and Fu. The other kind inherits the tradition of historical prose in Historical Records. For example, Biography of Zhang Zhongcheng depicts the image of a hero, which integrates narration, discussion and lyricism, and is a recognized masterpiece. In addition, Historical Records and Hanshu without discussion are also a type, such as the epitaph of Wang Jun in Dali and the epitaph of Zhang Jun in Qinghe. The other type is written for writers with deep friendship, which can highlight their different characteristics, such as Liu Zihou's epitaph, Yao Zhen's epitaph and Nanyang Fan Shaoshu's epitaph.
Third, prose, a kind of eulogy in lyric text, expresses the deep feeling of flesh and blood, and is written in the form of prose, which breaks through the routine of four-character rhyme, such as "Sacrifice to Twelve Lang", which is a type; The other is to express the friendship of friends and the hardships of life, written in four-character rhyme, such as "one ocean is for Yu" and "one thick article is for Liu Zi". In addition, letters such as "A Wild Letter with Meng Dongye" and gift-giving prefaces such as "Sending Yang Shaoyin" are also masterpieces with certain appeal.
Han Yu's other essays, such as Biography of Mao Ying and Preface to Ding Shilian's Poems, are completely fictional and have the meaning of novels, but they are still different from the general legendary novels at that time. The Biography of Mao Ying has some feelings about the author's life experience, while The Preface to Ding Shilian's Poems is regarded by some people as a mockery of the words of the prime minister at that time. This kind of works, when people "laugh", and Liu Zongyuan thinks it strange (Liu Zongyuan read the postscript of Han Yu's biography of Mao Ying and answered Yang Huishu). Liu Zongyuan also wrote several similar articles.
Fourth, poetry. Han Yu's poems also have unique achievements and have always been called "Everyone". Its artistic characteristics are mainly manifested in strangeness, grandeur and strangeness. Poems such as "The Rhyme of Luhun Mountain Fire and Huangfu" and "The Influence of Eclipse Poems on Yuchuan's Self-confidence" are not only some "Tibetan Datura Paintings" (a review of Luhun Mountain Fire), but also have profound realistic contents of the times. That magnificent realm also exists in many landscape poems, such as Nanshan Poetry, Yueyang Tower's Four Knows of Fighting, and lyric poems such as Meng Dongye's Lost Son. There are also some works that reflect social reality, care about political gains and losses, and sympathize with people's sufferings, such as "A Gift on the Way to Jiangling" ... Three Bachelor of Hanlin ",which inherits Du Fu's tradition of" singing 500 words from Beijing to Fengxian "and" Northern Expedition "; Short stories such as Bianzhou Rebellion are close to the styles of Bai Juyi and Zhang Ji. Landscape poems such as Mountain Rock, the First Exhibition of Nanxi, and Apricot Flowers, as well as lyric poems such as One or Two Topics and Answering Zhang's Eleven Gong Cao, also have simple and natural characteristics.