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Liu Zongyuan (; 77328 November 819) was a Chinese philosopher, poet, and politician who lived during the
He died in 819.
Liu's best-known travel pieces are the ''Eight Records of Excursions in
A Third Look at "Li Wa Zhuan"
'' '' T'ang Studies'' (Print , Online ), 2007(25), pp. 91–110. Cited p.: 91-92.
Liu Zongyuan in Wengu textbase
five poems in traditional Chinese arrayed with Bynner's translation.
(Translated by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping) * * *Books of the ''
Book 350
Book 351
Book 352
Book 353
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Zongyuan 773 births 819 deaths 8th-century Chinese philosophers 8th-century Chinese poets 9th-century Chinese philosophers 9th-century Chinese poets Poets from Shanxi Politicians from Yuncheng Tang dynasty essayists Tang dynasty politicians from Shanxi Three Hundred Tang Poems poets
Tang Dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
. Liu was born in present-day Yongji, Shanxi
Yongji () is a county-level city in the prefecture-level city of Yuncheng, in the southwest of Shanxi province, China, bordering Shaanxi
Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. ...
. Along with Han Yu
Han Yu (; 76825 December 824), courtesy name Tuizhi (), and commonly known by his posthumous name Han Wengong (韓文公), was a Chinese essayist, poet, philosopher, and politician during the Tang dynasty who significantly influenced the devel ...
, he was a founder of 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 ...
. He has been traditionally classed as one of the "Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song
The Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song () refers to a grouping of prose writers, during the Tang Dynasty, Tang and Song Dynasty, Song Dynasties, who were renowned for their prose writing, mostly in the essay form. Almost all of the eigh ...
".
Biography
Liu Zongyuan was born in 773. Hiscourtesy name
A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...
was Zihou ().
Liu Zongyuan's civil service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
career was initially successful; however, in 805, he fell out of favour with the imperial government because of his association with a failed reformist movement. He was exiled first to Yongzhou
Yongzhou, formerly known as Lingling, is a prefecture-level city in the south of Hunan province, People's Republic of China, located on the southern bank of the Xiang River, which is formed by the confluence of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers, and b ...
, Hunan
Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...
, and then to Liuzhou
Liuzhou (; , IPA Pronunciation:) is a prefecture-level city in north-central Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. The prefecture's population was 3,758,700 in 2010, including 1,436,599 in the built-up area made of 4 urban ...
, Guangxi
Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...
, where he eventually became the city Governor. A park and temple in Liuzhou is dedicated to his memory. His exile allowed his literary career to flourish: he produced poem
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...
s, fables
Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral ...
, reflective travelogues and essays synthesizing elements of Confucianism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...
, Taoism
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of Philosophy, philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of China, Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmo ...
and Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
.
He died in 819.
Works
Liu's best-known travel pieces are the ''Eight Records of Excursions in Yongzhou
Yongzhou, formerly known as Lingling, is a prefecture-level city in the south of Hunan province, People's Republic of China, located on the southern bank of the Xiang River, which is formed by the confluence of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers, and b ...
'' ( 永州八記). Around 180 of his poems are extant, of which five were collected in the anthology ''Three Hundred Tang Poems
The ''Three Hundred Tang Poems'' () is an anthology of poems from the Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907). It was first compiled around 1763 by Sun Zhu (1722–1778Yu, 64–65), who was a Qing Dynasty scholar and was also known as Hengtang Tuishi ...
''. Some of his works celebrate his freedom from office, while others mourn his banishment.
One of his most famous poems is "''Jiangxue''" (), sometimes translated into English as "Winter Snow" or "River Snow". The poem has been an inspiration for many works of Chinese painting
Chinese painting () is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Painting in the traditional style is known today in Chinese as ''guó huà'' (), meaning "national painting" or "native painting", as opposed to Western style ...
.
:
Liu Zongyuan wrote ''Fei Guoyu'' (, ''Argument against the Harangues of the Various States''), a criticism of '' Guoyu''. In response, Liu Zhang ( 劉 章, 1095–1177); Jiang Duanli (); and Yu Pan
Yu Pan is an engineer and entrepreneur mentioned in one source as one of the original six people who started PayPal and the first employee at YouTube, as an early software engineer. He is a former Google employee and also a co-founder of Kiwi Cra ...
( 1300), Yu Ji's ( 虞 集, 1272–1348) younger brother, wrote texts titled ''Fei Fei Guoyu'' (; ''Argument against the Argument against the Harangues of the Various States'') in opposition to Liu Zongyuan's essay.Nienhauser, William H. Jr. (University of Wisconsin-Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...
). A Third Look at "Li Wa Zhuan"
'' '' T'ang Studies'' (Print , Online ), 2007(25), pp. 91–110. Cited p.: 91-92.
See also
*Classical Chinese poetry
Classical Chinese poetry is traditional Chinese poetry written in Classical Chinese and typified by certain traditional forms, or modes; traditional genres; and connections with particular historical periods, such as the poetry of the Tang dyn ...
*List of Three Hundred Tang Poems poets
The ''Three Hundred Tang Poems'' () is an anthology of poems from the Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907). It was first compiled around 1763 by Sun Zhu (1722–1778Yu, 64–65), who was a Qing Dynasty scholar and was also known as Hengtang Tuishi ...
*Tang poetry
Tang poetry () refers to poetry written in or around the time of or in the characteristic style of China's Tang dynasty, (June 18, 618 – June 4, 907, including the 690–705 reign of Wu Zetian) and/or follows a certain style, often considered as ...
References
Works cited
*Chen, Jo-shui, ''Liu Tsung-yüan and Intellectual Change in T'ang China, 773–819'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. . * Nienhauser Jr., William H.; Hartmann, Charles; Crawford, William Bruce; Walls, Jan W.; Neighbors, Lloyd, ''Liu Tsung-yüan'', New York: Twayne Publishers Inc., 1973. *External links
Liu Zongyuan in Wengu textbase
five poems in traditional Chinese arrayed with Bynner's translation.
(Translated by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping) * * *Books of the ''
Quan Tangshi
(''Complete Tang Poems'') is the largest collection of Tang poetry, containing some 49,000 lyric poems by more than twenty-two hundred poets. In 1705, it was commissioned at the direction of the Qing dynasty Kangxi Emperor and published under ...
'' that include collected poems of Liu Zongyuan at the Chinese Text Project
The Chinese Text Project (CTP; ) is a digital library project that assembles collections of early Chinese texts. The name of the project in Chinese literally means "The Chinese Philosophical Book Digitization Project", showing its focus on books ...
:
Book 350
Book 351
Book 352
Book 353
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Zongyuan 773 births 819 deaths 8th-century Chinese philosophers 8th-century Chinese poets 9th-century Chinese philosophers 9th-century Chinese poets Poets from Shanxi Politicians from Yuncheng Tang dynasty essayists Tang dynasty politicians from Shanxi Three Hundred Tang Poems poets