Ouyang Xiu

Ōuyáng Xiū ( Chinese  歐陽修  /  欧阳修 , W.-G. Ou-Yang Hsiu ), brush name Eternal Uncle ( 永 叔 , Yǒngshū ), also known as Drunken Old Age ( 醉翁 , Zuìwēng ) and Silent Scholar Six-One ( 六 一 居士 , Liùyī Jūshì ) (* 1007 ; † 1072 ) was a Chinese statesman , historian , essayist and poet of the Song Dynasty .

Ouyang Xiu (contemporary illustration)

Life

Born into a relatively poor family in Luling ( Jiangxi Province ), he lost his father at the age of four. Since he could not afford a traditional education, he worked self-taught. In 1030 he passed the Jinshi exam .

At first he was considered a supporter of the famous reformer Wang Anshi , but later developed into his adversary. In his late twenties, he was transferred to remote Chuzhou, Anhui Province , as a result of intrigue . Later he temporarily held the office of Minister of War and was a member of the renowned Hanlin Academy .

In 1072 Ouyang Xiu died in Yingzhou, Anhui Province.

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As a historian, Ōuyáng Xiū published the New Tang Annals ( 新唐書 , xīn táng shū ), a history of the five dynasties ( 新 五代 史 , xīn wǔdài shǐ ) and a work on bronze and stone inscriptions.

His prose is based on the example of Han Yu , a pioneer of the literature movement in the classical style ( 古文 運動  /  古文 运动 , gǔwén yùndòng ). Traditionally, Ōuyáng Xiu, along with Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan , Su Xun , Su Shi , Su Che , Zeng Gong and Wang Anshi, is one of the "eight great prose writers of the Tang and Song era". In his famous work The Pavilion of the Drunken Old Man ( 醉翁 亭 記  /  醉翁 亭 记 , zuìwēng tíngjì ) he described his rural , secluded life in the midst of the mountains, rivers and people of Chuzhou during his exile. During his voluntary retreat to the Ying River in his last years, however, he wrote the story of the silent scholar Six-One ( 六 一 居士 , liùyī jūshì ): The first five of the "six ones " stand for the poet's belongings, namely one Library of ten thousand volumes, a collection of ancient stone and bronze inscriptions, a lute, a chess set and a cup of wine. The sixth “one”, on the other hand, is Ōuyáng Xiu himself. In the “Elegy on the Autumn Lute” he tries unsuccessfully to point his young servant to the music of decay at the end of summer, to the shang tone that can be felt everywhere in nature.

Ōuyáng Xius' poems are mostly laid out in a relaxed, humorous and self-deprecating tone. He cultivated both the Shi and the Ci styles . In the Shi poems, true to the model of the middle Tang period , he reduces himself to the essentials and in particular avoids the overloaded pomposity of the late Tang. Of course, Ōuyáng Xiu is known for his Ci poems. In particular, his collection of ten poems, the Beauty of the West Lake ( 西湖 好 , xīhúhǎo ), to be sung to the tune of When Picking Mulberries ( 采桑子 , cǎisāngzǐ ), contributed to the spread of the genre.

literature

• Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer : History of Chinese Literature , Bern 1990, ISBN 3-406-45337-6

Web links

• Literature by and about Ouyang Xiu in the catalog of the German National Library
• Collection of stone rub-offs from Ouyang Xiu's writings (Chinese)
• History of the Five Dynasties