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.”