First, (1) The Decline of Wen Qi in the Eight Dynasties "means that Han Yu's articles are better than those in the previous eight generations, which is of epoch-making significance. ; "Dao Ji's" drowning in the world "means that his works pay attention to the reality of people's livelihood and have the same feelings of worrying about the country and the people as Du Fu. "Loyal officials are angry with prisoners" means that Han Yu dares to speak out and remonstrate with the monarch; "Bravely crowned and handsome in the three armies" means that Han Yu put down the rebellion of the town state army with his golden words, which means that Han Yu won a lot more than the soldiers. (2) "Eight Dynasties" refers to the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wei and Jin Dynasties, Song Dynasty, Qi Dynasty, Liang Dynasty, Chen Dynasty and Sui Dynasty. This is the time when parallel prose came into being and flourished. In addition, we can also understand the "eight generations" from the virtual point of view, that is, for a long time. "Decline" is aimed at eight generations of parallel prose, and a word "decline" expresses the derogatory and dissatisfaction of ancient prose writers in Tang and Song Dynasties. Judging from the development of parallel prose, this description is subjective, but it is still very accurate. Because parallel prose prevailed in this period, no matter the content or occasion, there were almost no parallel prose and no words, and they embarked on a formalistic style of writing, romantic and affectionate, moaning and prone to degeneration.
Second, from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, with the frequent change of political power and the rise of Buddhism and Taoism, Confucianism showed a scene of decline. In the Tang Dynasty, when Han Yu lived, the rulers believed in Buddhism and Taoism. Under this historical background, Han Yu initiated the "ancient prose movement" not only to eliminate the decadent trend of the Eight Dynasties in literature, but also to revive the "Confucian way" and Confucian spirit in politics. Su Shi praised his "decline of eight generations of literature", referring to the so-called "ancient prose" movement, which was a stylistic reform movement that changed beautiful and gentle "parallel prose" into simple and vigorous prose. The purpose of advocating "ancient prose movement" is to revive Confucian orthodoxy. To this end, he pointed out: "A gentleman in his position must think about his official death; If you don't get a place, consider revising your words to make it clear. I will add people to Ming Dow instead of thinking straight. " Because articles are the carrier of propaganda ideas, and ancient prose is the tool used by ancient sages to convey personal opinions, and good results have been achieved, it is necessary to link ancient prose with "Tao". He said in "Answer to Li Xiucai": "The more you yearn for the past, the better your words and the better your road." It can be seen that the core of the "ancient prose" movement thought is to emphasize Taoism, clarify the relationship between literature and Taoism, and advocate inventing the way of saints by writing ancient prose.
Thirdly, Su Shi praised "Daoji drowned the world" and affirmed Han Yu's efforts to restore Daoism and save rulers who were addicted to religious fanaticism. Han Yu was demoted for writing against Tang Xianzong's welcoming Buddha's bones. However, after he arrived in Chaozhou, he did not feel depressed. Instead, we always care about the people, solve problems for them, promote agriculture and mulberry, and educate them again. Although he was an official for a short time, he won the trust and support of chaozhou people. Chaozhou people commemorates Han Yu for hundreds of years in their most traditional and simple way. In this article, Su Shi not only warmly praised Han Yu, but also affirmed people's "deification" and sacrifice to Han Yu, which is related to the ideological level of the ancients and the limitations of understanding the world, but also objectively revealed a simple truth: be upright, be upright and be straight. You won't haggle over personal gains and losses; Sincerely doing practical things for the people and seeking happiness will always be remembered by the people.
Fourthly, in addition to successfully advocating the movement of "ancient prose", Han Yu himself has made remarkable achievements in prose and poetry creation. There are more than 300 essays that Han Yu can see today, which can be divided into three categories: argumentative essays, narrative essays and lyric essays. Among them, argumentative essays can be subdivided into five types: (1) political essays. For example, Take the Ring, The Imperial Review Platform on Famine, The Buddha's Bone Table, etc. all belong to this category, most of which are aimed at practical problems and reflect Han Yu's political vision and opinions. (2) is a philosophical paper. These articles, like the original Tao, primitive people and primacy, embody Han Yu's social outlook, outlook on life and values. (3) It is a literary theory. For example, Answering to Cui Lizhi and Answering to Chen Shengshu are mostly letters related to the movement of "ancient prose" advocated by Han Yu, discussing how to learn and write articles, which embodies Han Yu's literary view. This is a temporary document. The fourth is prose. For example, Four Essays is a metaphor for "cynicism". Another example is "Mourning", which is an article that studies the root causes of people's slandering each other and has a warning effect. Another example is the familiar teacher's theory. The author encourages others to study hard by being eager to learn. The fifth is reading notes. For example, reading Xunzi, Book of Rites and Mozi can reveal Han Yu's worries and thoughts.
Fifth, a new viewpoint is put forward in the theory of poetry creation. (A) put forward the theory of "vivid" and advocate the innovation of composition language. In Answer to Li Yuan's Book, Han Yu put forward the theory of "making it suitable when it is popular", saying that "making it popular leads to the short and long education, and those who excel in pronunciation also announce it". "Qi Sheng" refers to the writer's high attainments in benevolence and morality, which embodies a spiritual temperament and a personality realm, and has the same effect as the "noble spirit" cultivated by Mencius' "matching righteousness with Taoism". If you are full of gas, you can create appropriate articles, so as to unify the cultivation of gas and composition. In particular, Han Yu emphasized "moderation in words", instead of ignoring the writing skills of articles, he urged language innovation, "learning from the ancients' intentions, not their words" and "doing what the ancients said". (2) the theory of "injustice is the sound". Han Yu also put forward the theory that "injustice is the sound" in the preface to seeing off Meng Dongye. He said that "everything is unfair, it will sound" and "what people say is also true". From the point of view of literary theory criticism, the so-called "injustice makes a sound" means that a writer expresses his thoughts and feelings when he is frustrated and expresses his inner feelings by creative methods. This is in line with Sima Qian's theory of "writing books with indignation". However, he also pointed out that only those frustrated literati who have a block in their chests love singing and are good at singing, that is, "it is difficult to write happy words, but easy to write poor words."
Sixth, the pursuit of heroic and fantastic poetic style. In poetic theory, Han Yu advocates the pursuit of heroic and strange aesthetic style. In the poem Diao Zhang Ji, he said, "I sincerely ignore the traffic, and all kinds of strange images fill his mind." He commented on Meng Jiao's poems as "the words are hard and the plan is appropriate". In fact, all these show that he advocates and pursues a vigorous and fantastic poetic style.
To sum up, Han Yu was a literary leader at that time and a master of poetry and prose, which had a great influence on later generations. His theory on the relationship between literature and Taoism had a far-reaching impact on some writers and literary critics in the Song Dynasty and even in the Qing Dynasty.