Han Yu

Han Yu

 or Han Yü

Han Yu, portrait by an unknown artist; in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan.

(credit: Courtesy of the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China)

(born 768, Henan province, China—died 824, Chang'an) Chinese poet and prose writer, the first proponent of Neo-Confucianism. An orphan, he joined the Chinese bureaucracy and served in several high government posts. He attacked Daoism and Buddhism, which were then at the height of their influence, and sought to restore Confucianism to its former status. He revived interest in the writings of Mencius and other neglected Confucian classics. His own works were written in a simple prose style unlike the elaborate manner popular at the time, and he became known as the “Prince of Letters.”

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Han Yü 

(second name T’iu-chih; also known as Ch’ang-li). Born A.D. 768; died 824. Chinese philosopher, writer, and public figure.

Han Yü was one of the founders of the “movement for the return to antiquity” in literature, a movement regarded by some researchers as the beginning of the renaissance in Chinese literature. Han Yü occupied various high positions, and he was often in disfavor because of his inflexible judgments. He spoke out against Buddhism and Taoism and condemned superstition. He demanded that the monasteries be destroyed and their holdings expropriated; he advocated the burning of anti-Confucian books and proposed the “great unification” of society on the basis of the old Confucian ideals. He introduced the “ancient style”—a style oriented toward early models of philosophical prose that were simpler in language and freer in form than the prevalent “parallel prose.” Han Yü wrote On the Way, On Human Nature, On Calumny, On Man, and On Spirits; his writings include reports (such as On Buddha’s Bone), essays, biographies, and philosophical lyrics.

WORKS

Han Ch’ang-lichi. Shanghai, 1958.
Han Yü’s poetische Werke. Cambridge, 1952.
In Russian translation:
In Antologiia kitaiskoi poezii, vol. 2. Moscow, 1957. (Selected poems.)
In Kitaiskaia klassicheskaia proza. Moscow, 1959. (Selected poems. Translated by V. M. Alekseev.)

REFERENCES

Gusarov, V. F. “O stilisticheskom modelirovanii prozy Khan’ Iuia.” In Zhanry i stili literatur Kitaia i Korei. Moscow, 1969.
Gusarov, V. F. “Politiko-filosofskie vozzreniia Khan’ Iuia.” Vestnik LGU, 1970, no. 14.
Konrad, N. I. “Khan’ Iui i nachalo kitaiskogo Renessansa.” In his Zapad i Vostok. Moscow, 1972.
Zhelokhovtsev, A. N. “Literaturnye vzgliady Khan’ Iuia i Liu Tszun-Iuania.” In the collection Istoriko-filologicheskie issledovaniia. Moscow, 1974.

I. S. LISEVICH