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Biography of Ou-yang HsiuName: Ou-yang HsiuBirth Date: 1007 Death Date: 1072 Place of Birth: Mienchow, China Nationality: Chinese Gender: Male Occupations: statesman, author, essayist Ou-yang Hsiu Ou-yang Hsiu (1007-1072) was a Chinese author and statesman. A Confucian scholar-official, he played a distinguished role in government and also excelled as essayist, poet, and historian. His influence on the development of Sung literature was immense.Though his ancestral home was Luling, Kiangsi, Ou-yang Hsiu was born in Mienchow, in present-day Szechwan. He lost his father at the age of four and was brought up in Suichow, in what is now Hupei, under the protection of an uncle. At the age of 10 he discovered Han Yü, the great T'ang writer whose prose in the "ancient style" (ku-wen) and somewhat colloquial poetry were then out of fashion, and aspired to his achievement. In time Ou-yang became the most influential prose writer since Han Yü, establishing ku-wen as the dominant style for all prose writers during the Sung and afterward, and one of the shapers of Sung poetry with its …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…over. In 1067 he was made prefect of Pochow, near Yingchow, where he had earlier decided to make his home. In his old age he amused himself with collecting rubbings of ancient writing engraved on stone and metal, thus making for himself a name as an archeologist and classical scholar. In 1071, at 64, he retired from public service, and in the next year he died. Further Reading There are selections from Ou-yang's best-known works in prose and poetry in such standard anthologies as Herbert Allen Giles, ed. and trans., Gems of Chinese Literature (2 vols., 1884-1898; 2d rev. ed. 1923), and Cyril Birch, ed., Anthology of Chinese Literature (1965). The only book-length study of Ou-yang in English is James T. C. Liu, Ou-yang Hsiu: An Eleventh-century Neo-Confucianist (1967). While its treatment of Ou-yang as a writer is disappointing, it is a well-balanced critical biography providing thoughtful reconsideration of Ou-yang's many-sided achievements as a statesman, historian, and thinker. |