First of all, as a politician, he is quite famous in politics. He entered the official career in his early years and witnessed the poverty and weakness in the Northern Song Dynasty. He and his good friend Fan Zhongyan wrote to the emperor together, demanding reform. He believed that the most serious problem in society at that time was corruption. The Northern Song Dynasty advocated literature and suppressed martial arts, which led to the long-standing phenomenon of more officials and less positions. Together with Fan Zhongyan, he initiated reforms to solve these problems. As a result, the political reform failed and both of them were demoted. Soon, Ouyang Xiu was recalled, and Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi and others re-implemented the reform, which was called "Qingli New Deal" in history. But still defeated by conservatives, Ouyang Xiu was demoted again. Later, in the first year of you, Ouyang Xiu was re-appointed by the then emperor to participate in the compilation of history books.
Ouyang Xiu is also a famous writer. In fact, his literary attainments far exceed his political achievements. He, Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan and Su Shi were called "Four Masters through the ages" by later generations, together with Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, Su Shi, Su Xun, Su Zhe and Wang Anshi, they were also called "Eight Masters in Tang and Song Dynasties". He presided over the revision of the New Tang Book, one of the twenty-five histories of China. Ouyang Xiu inherited and carried forward Han Yu's ancient prose movement in writing style, and advocated that the article should be plain and meaningful. At that time, the school sharply opposed to him was "imperial academy Style", which was good at playing with old sayings and talking empty words, which Ouyang Xiu was most opposed to. In his view, writing an article should be rigorous and simple. In layman's terms, it is to make people understand what you are writing. Therefore, Ouyang Xiu almost wrote something even in his prose.
It is said that five of the eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties came from his family, which shows his prominent position in the literary world. It was because of him that he injected fresh blood into the Song Dynasty at that time and made great contributions to the history of China literature.
Ouyang xiu's works
Ouyang Xiu had many famous works in the Northern Song Dynasty, among which Zuiweng Pavilion was the most popular.
Zuiweng Pavilion was created after relegation. At that time, Fan Zhongyan was a courtier in the DPRK, with half of the country, but unexpectedly everything was sinister. Fan Zhongyan was demoted to a big official at that time. Ouyang Xiu was very dissatisfied with this disposal method, so he wrote a letter to defend his good friend Fan Zhongyan and others, but the officials protected each other. Instead of solving this problem, Ouyang Xiu was demoted to other places. Ouyang Xiu also lived in that place in Behind the Dark Clouds, where he tried to do what he should do, and the local area was well managed by him. So I wrote "The Drunken Pavilion". He is the kind of person who enjoys family happiness and is a rare good official.
Zuiweng Pavilion is a very beautiful essay. The style of writing is particularly good. The environment described in the whole essay looks beautiful, and each sentence is particularly beautiful, full of unique and beautiful style, which is really rare in this kind of literary works in the ancient history of China. Although the beauty of the article is intoxicating, it shows Ouyang Xiu's complicated mood at that time. Ouyang Xiu pinned his political frustration as an official, his depressed mood on the road to success in the future, and his feeling of social depression on that beautiful environment, and gradually faded away in the mood of enjoying the people. The beautiful scenery described in the poem also reflects the traditional Confucianism, as the Historical Records says: "Virtue is only good at politics, and politics supports the people." This shows his enlightened image of being happy with the status quo.
Ouyang xiusanshang
Ouyang xiu was destined to have an indissoluble bond with San all his life. His career has experienced ups and downs, and there are even more "three cases" about his writing in his "Return to the Field". What is "three on"? Immediately, on the pillow and in the toilet.
The Origin of Ouyang Xiu's "Three Essays": Return to the Field, Volume II. Qian Wei Yan, the second son of Qian Chu, the last king of Wu Yueguo in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, was born in an imperial family, and his wealth was not a problem. But he has no hobbies in life, only likes reading. When he was in Luoyang, he once said to his subordinates: I only like reading in my life. I read the classics and history books of hundred schools of thought in the pre-Qin period when I was sitting. Read all kinds of miscellaneous notes while lying down. I'm still reading small words and various tunes when I go to the toilet. I may never put this book down.
Xie Jiang, a writer in Ouyang Xiu's time, also said: When he and Song Gongchui were in the History College, they saw that he had to take a book to read every time he went to the toilet. Reading is so loud that you can hear it from far away. It's really hard for a person to learn this. At this moment, Ouyang Xiu said to Xie Qiang, Me too. Most of the articles I have written in my life are on horses, on pillows and in toilets. I'm afraid only in these three places can I calm down and think about the article.
Ouyang Xiu, the author, added "three articles" to his article, which came from the reading stories of Qian and Song Gonghammer, aiming to tell us two facts. First: study hard. Don't give up any chance to learn, even if it's walking, sleeping or going to the toilet. Second: writing articles should be calm and meticulous, not impetuous. Ouyang Xiu's three classes are extremely private and rarely disturbed. Especially when you go to the toilet, the world is very complicated, and it is rare to have peace, but you should also use very little free time to calm yourself down and conceive a wonderful article.