The ancient prose movement in Song Dynasty is the inheritance and development of the ancient prose movement in Korea and Liu. However, Ouyang Xiu, Su San, Wang Anshi and Ceng Gong all made great achievements in prose creation. The prose style in Song Dynasty is quite different from that in Tang Dynasty. There are roughly the following aspects:
1. The prose of Song Dynasty abandoned the ancient and deep features of Liu Han's prose and developed the simple and natural features. Although Europe, the Soviet Union, Wang and Zeng have their own strong points, they have the same characteristics: their prose style, Bitang's prose, is deeper, more vivid, more natural and more lyrical, which is completely developed in the historical environment; It is more in line with the needs of all aspects of social life at that time. Therefore, Wen Song's influence on later generations is far greater than that of Tang Wen.
Second, the layout of the article is different: Tang Wen emphasizes the momentum of vertical and horizontal opening and closing, ups and downs, and emphasizes the surprise at the turning point; Song Wengui is slow, unassuming, flowing, flexible, eloquent, logical and expressive.
Third, the sentence arrangement is not the same: Tang Wen pays attention to scrutinizing sentences, sometimes mixed with strange sentences and words; Song prose is fluent and simple, and its language is fluent, which is the most distinctive.
In the ancient prose movement headed by Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan in the middle Tang Dynasty, in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, Li Shangyin, Wen and others specialized in writing four or six parallel essays in pursuit of rhetorical beauty, and the ethos of the Six Dynasties prevailed again and spread to the early Song Dynasty. At that time, Yang Yi, Qian, etc. Li shangyin, the literary world of the main league and the poetic world, resumed parallel prose. Because Yang Yi compiled a book "Quincy Rewards Collection", at that time, 14 people participated in the singing. In Preface to Poems, Yang described his poems as "carved sentences", which is very famous. They like to write parallel prose, regardless of the content of the article, but only pay attention to the dual ingenuity in form, the harmony in tone and the beauty in words. This ethos prevailed in the literary world for thirty or forty years. Ouyang Xiu said: "Liu Yang's elegant demeanor stirs the world", which shows the strength of Quincy style.
At that time, the scribes Shi Jie, Liu Kai, Sun Fu and Mu Xiu advocated the movement of ancient prose, advocated the integration of literature and Taoism, and put forward five points: "Ming Dow", "practical learning", "respecting Korea (therapy)" and "emphasizing prose" and "opposing Western Kun". They had good intentions, but their creative achievements were not great and failed to reverse the atmosphere. It was not until Ouyang Xiu appeared that he was able to inherit Liu Han's achievements and sweep away the style of "Kunxi style", thus making great achievements in prose in the Song Dynasty.
Ouyang Xiu occupies an important position in political and academic circles and enjoys high prestige. He is not only a master of prose, but also a master of poetry, ci and parallel prose. The reason why he advocated the movement of ancient Chinese prose was successful was that he didn't specialize in criticism, and he also made outstanding achievements in creation. At the same time, he was accompanied by scholars such as Su Shi, Mei and Wang Anshi. The ancient prose movement formed a powerful group and made more powerful and universal achievements than Han and Liu.
In literary thought, Ouyang Xiu emphasized Tao and Wen, putting Tao before Wen. He said: "Generally speaking, it is not difficult to write the winner in the writing of sages." (Answer to Wu Chong's Scholar's Book) also said: "A scholar who is a teacher must first seek his meaning, and if he gets his meaning, he will be flat, flat and pure, pure and solid, and full will be the glory of a writer." (The Book of Answering Ancestors' Choices) also suggested that scholars should take Korean as the research object: "Scholars should stop when it is right" (June 1 future notes). Later, Korean actually lived for more than 30 years. Due to the success of the ancient prose movement, prose was carried forward and replaced the position of parallel prose. Thus, the prose system of eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties (Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, Ouyang Xiu, Su Xun, Su Shi, Su Zhe, Wang Anshi and Ceng Gong) was established and became an unshakable model for later generations.
The ancient prose movement in the Northern Song Dynasty is a literary innovation movement with the call of restoring ancient ways. Under the vigorous advocacy of Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi and others, he inherited the achievements of Han and Liu, and further got rid of the habits of poets since the Han and Wei Dynasties, which has always influenced the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Gui Youguang, (Tang and Song School), Yuan Zongdao, Yuan Hongdao, Yuan Zhongdao (Gong 'an School), Zhong Xing and Tan (Jingling School) in the late Ming Dynasty, Yao Nai (Tongcheng School) and Zeng Guozhen in the Qing Dynasty all followed the path of eight masters. The aftermath of this movement did not fade away until the May 4th Movement of modern new literature.