The Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song () refers to a grouping of prose writers, during the

Tang Tang or TANG most often refers to: * Tang dynasty * Tang (drink mix) Tang or TANG may also refer to: Chinese states and dynasties * Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) b ...

and Song Dynasties, who were renowned for their prose writing, mostly in the essay form. Almost all of the eight masters are also accomplished in other aspects of Chinese politics and culture of their time. Two of the writers (Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan) are from the Tang, while four are from the Song.茅坤 : 唐宋八大家文鈔·卷二~卷五
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Background

The list of the eight writers was first drawn up in the Ming Dynasty. Zhu You ( 朱右), a scholar during the early Ming, first collected the essays of the eight, but it was the late Ming scholar

Mao Kun Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ...

( 茅坤) who coined the name in a book called "Compiled Transcriptions of the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song"; the subsequent popularity of this book cemented the place of the eight as masters of Chinese prose writing. During the Qing dynasty, Wei Yuan had eight volumes on the Eight Prose Masters (《纂评唐宋八大家文读本》).

The Eight

# Han Yu (768–824) # Liu Zongyuan (773–819) #

Ouyang Xiu Ouyang Xiu (; 1007 – 1072 CE), courtesy name Yongshu, also known by his art names Zuiweng () and Liu Yi Jushi (), was a Chinese historian, calligrapher, epigrapher, essayist, poet, and politician of the Song dynasty. He was a renowned writer a ...

(1007–1072) # Su Xun (1009–1066) # Su Shi (1037–1101) # Su Zhe (1039–1112) # Wang Anshi (1021–1086) #

Zeng Gong Zeng (, ) is a Chinese family name. In Cantonese, it is Tsang; In Wade-Giles, such as those in Taiwan, Tseng or Tzeng; in Malaysia and Singapore, Chen or Cheng; in the Philippines, Chan; in Indonesia, Tjan; in Vietnam, Tăng. The surname Zeng is ...

(1019–1083) Of the eight writers, the first two were from the Tang Dynasty, and the other six from the Song. Three of them were from the same family: Su Xun (father), Su Shi (elder brother) and Su Zhe (younger brother). In terms of prose, Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan were stylistic innovators. Responding against the florid and tightly restricted

pianwen Pianwen ( zh, s=骈文, t=駢文, p=piánwén, l=parallel writing, c=, first=t) is a highly stylised prose style, prevalent throughout the history of Chinese literature. Its prominent features lie in its regular lines arranged in couplets; in ...

prose form, which had become de rigueur since the Han dynasty, they promoted and wrote essays in a more direct, colloquial style which harkened back to more ancient Chinese prose; as a result, this literary movement was known as the

Classical Prose Movement The Classical Prose Movement () of the late Tang dynasty and the Song dynasty in China advocated clarity and precision rather than the florid ''pianwen'' () or parallel prose style that had been popular since the Han dynasty. Parallel prose had a ...

. While the movement would wane in the late Tang, Ouyang Xiu became another proponent in the Song Dynasty, revitalising a thread of Chinese prose writing that would exist until the late

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

References

{{Su Shi Chinese essayists Tang dynasty literature Song dynasty literature