In classical Chinese literature, "Tang and Song Dynasty Eight Greats" is a well-known, well-known to women and children, and the most familiar customary name.
The so-called "Eight Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties" refers to the eight representative writers of prose in the Tang and Song dynasties, namely Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan of the Tang Dynasty, and Ouyang Xiu, Zeng Gong, Wang Anshi, Su Xun, Su Shi, and Su Rui of the Song Dynasty. This title comes from the ming dynasty Mao Kun's compilation of the book "Eight Great Literary Notes of the Tang and Song Dynasties", but the origin is earlier.
As far back as the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu You had recorded articles by Han, Liu, Ou, Wang, and "Sansu" and compiled them into the "Collected Works of Mr. Eight Gentlemen", which was the original statement that combined the eight essayists of the Tang and Song dynasties. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the "first seven sons" Li Mengyang, He Jingming and others advocated "Wen bi Qin Han", promoted the prose proposition of ancient non-modern and imitation, and set off a counter-current of formalism that blindly respected the ancient and imitated the ancient.
Later, the "Tang and Song sects" Wang Shenzhong, Tang Shunzhi, Mao Kun, Gui Youguang, and others competed with them by admiring the tang and song ancient texts, and in order to set an example of study, reveal the entry track, and better advocate and promote the ancient tang and Song dynasties, Tang Shunzhi In the "Compilation of Texts" compiled by Tang Shunzhi, the tang and Song dynasties only took the articles of Han, Liu, Ou, "Three Sus", Zeng, and Wang, further affirming the status of the eight families of the Tang and Song dynasties.
Later, Mao Kun, who most respected Tang Shunzhi and had similar literary ideas to Tang, compiled the "Tang song eight big people wen banknote" on the basis of the "Wen Compilation", and officially proposed the name of "Tang song eight big people".
Although the book seems to have many defects and drawbacks today, because the prose advocating the "Eight Greats of the Tang and Song Dynasties" adapted to the needs of the literary struggle at that time, the works selected by "Wen Qian" were relatively large in terms of anthologies, compared with the complete works of each person, they were quite moderate, and their comments also had certain merits, so Mao Kun's book was published after it was published, "recited by everyone", "prevalent in the sea", and the title of "Eight Greats of the Tang and Song Dynasties" was also recognized by everyone.
Of course, the title of "Eight Greats of the Tang and Song Dynasties" is also not scientific enough, so it has been dissented by some people, such as the Qing Dynasty Yuan Ming, who said, "Fu Wensheng is in Tang, only two of them; Wen is also not sheng in Song, su is third." Lumen on that day, did he dare to take two dynastic texts and look at it? Or is it also a match for those who see and know? And the so-called family is said to be different in its own way. If the text of the Three Sus is like a hand, it must not be judged to be three; Zeng Wen ping is pure, such as the Great Xuan Bone, the even affix can not be broken, and the Southern Song Dynasty theory of science is opened, and It is more than Bo Zhongye with the Mid-Levels and The Sixth One? ”
This statement is not completely pertinent, but there is also a certain truth, such as the achievements of the eight families are different, very unbalanced, some people call it "everyone", it is indeed a little reluctant. However, with a concise and resounding name, the "Eight Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties" summarizes a group of well-known prose writers who are interconnected and have their own characteristics, which better reflects the style and achievements of the prose in the peak period of China's prose history - the Tang and Song Dynasties, which have their own reasonable and attractive places, so once they are proposed, they will not go away and have been popular until now.
The "Eight Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties" has opened up a new stage in the development of ancient prose in China, and has a lofty position in the entire history of prose, which plays the role of inheriting the past and opening up the future.
The popular article system of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties in China is a natural and smooth prose text, with a fine tradition of harmonious unity of content and form. After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, it began to appear and gradually occupied the dominant position in the literary world, which was a piao script that talked about duality, rhetoric, and heavy lattice.
Later, the style of this style became more and more elegant, the language became more and more detached from the reality of life, the content became more and more empty, and its last stream developed into a word game, which became a shackle to express ideas and reflect reality, which seriously hindered the healthy development of prose.
It was in this context that Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan of the Middle and Tang Dynasties launched the Guwen Movement, revived Confucianism, advocated prose and single lines, and freely wrote ancient Texts, opposing the dominance of the Ancient Texts, which was then known as the "Present Text".
The victory of this struggle to reform the prose of style, style, and language destroyed the dominance of the ancient chinese in the literary world, established a new type of prose such as ancient chinese, which was used to better propagate Confucianism, reflect social reality, serve the ideological and cultural struggle and political reform at that time, and inherit and develop the prose traditions of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties.
By the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the splendid and splendid literary style of Piao Li had made a comeback, and "the wind had not yet perished, and the new malpractice had been revived", and there was a difficult and strange bad tendency in the literary world, and the development of China's prose was once again seriously hindered.
Later, the victory of the Song Dynasty Neo-Guwen Movement in which Ouyang Xiu, Zeng Gong, Wang Anshi, Su Xun, Su Shi, and Su Rui actively participated changed this situation, and a more plain and natural prose style that was closer to the spoken word prevailed from then on.
The ancient texts established by Han and Liu have given off a new brilliance. After that, this kind of "easy to arrange couples in a single line, from deep to shallow, from simple to complex, from the words of the couplet of the beautiful to the beautiful, easy to be the body of the long and short", flexible and free, expressive ancient literary style, always dominated the literary world, until the rise of the vernacular of the May Fourth Movement.