Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) was a Northern Song statesman, poet, historian, and man of letters. He was styled Yongshu, called himself Zuiweng and, in later life, Liuyi Jushi, and received the posthumous name Wenzhong. His native place is variously given as Luling (present-day Ji'an, Jiangxi) and Xinzheng.
Life
Orphaned young and raised in poverty, he studied under his mother, Zheng. He passed the jinshi examination in 1030 and began his career as Xijing liushou tuiguan; in 1034 he was summoned to the Academy and appointed a Palace Library collator.
After defending Fan Zhongyan in 1036, he rebuked the remonstrator Gao Ruone and was demoted to magistrate of Yiling in Xiazhou; the following year he was transferred to Qiande in Guanghua. In 1039 he became military judge of Wucheng, and in 1040 he returned as a Palace Library collator.
During the Qingli era he headed the Remonstrance Office and was promoted to joint compiler of the Daily Records and drafter of imperial edicts; in 1044 he became Hebei transport commissioner. After the Qingli reforms failed, he defended Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, and Du Yan, and was sent out as prefect of Chuzhou, later Yangzhou and Yingzhou.
In 1054 he served as acting prefect of Kaifeng and was then summoned as a Hanlin Academician, taking part with Song Qi in the compilation of the New Tang History. In 1057 he presided over the jinshi examination, promoted classical prose and opposed the “Taixue style”; he selected Su Shi, Su Zhe, and Zeng Gong, contributing to a change in Northern Song literary style.
He later rose to Deputy Commissioner of the Privy Council and Counsellor of State. At the beginning of Emperor Yingzong’s reign, his position on honoring Prince Pu as emperor gave rise to the Puyi controversy. In 1067 he was removed from office and made Academician of the Palace of Manifest Culture, Minister of Justice, and prefect of Bozhou. In 1068 he was transferred to Qingzhou; his opposition to the Green Sprouts Law led to a further transfer to Caizhou.
With the rank of Junior Preceptor of the Heir Apparent, he retired in the fourth year of Xining and returned to Yingzhou. He died at Ruyin in Yingzhou the following year, aged sixty-six, and received the posthumous name Wenzhong.
Literary and historical work
He wrote poetry, ci lyrics, and prose, led the Northern Song classical-prose movement, and was later counted among the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song. In his early years he exchanged poems with Yin Zhu and Mei Yaochen and was a friend of Song Qi and Cai Xiang.
His patronage of younger writers extended to Zeng Gong, Wang Anshi, and Su Xun and his sons, all of whom he praised. As a historian, he worked with Song Qi on the New Tang History and wrote the New History of the Five Dynasties; he also collected inscriptions on bronze and stone from the Three Dynasties onward into a thousand-volume compilation.
Works
His works include the *Collected Works of Ouyang Wenzhong*, *Jigu lu*, *Liuyi ci*, and *Shiben yi* in fourteen volumes; his portions of the New Tang History comprise seventy-five volumes of annals, treatises, and tables, while the History of the Five Dynasties comprises seventy-four volumes. His writings were later collected in 153 volumes.
Among his famous pieces are *The Old Drunkard’s Pavilion*, *Fu on the Autumn Sound*, *Discourse on Cliques*, and *Preface to the Biography of the Musician-Instructor in the History of the Five Dynasties*. Other works include 《歐陽文忠公試筆》, 《洛陽牡丹記》, 《六一題跋》, 《易童子問》, 《毛詩本義》, and 《九射格一卷》.
Further titles are 《筆說 一卷》, 《廬陵雜說 一卷》, 《桑懌傳》, 《太常禮院祀儀:二十四卷》, and 《歐陽參政書目:一卷》.
Family
His father was Ouyang Guan and his mother Zheng; he successively married women of the Xu, Yang, and Xue families. He had sons Ouyang Fa, Ouyang Yi, and Ouyang Fei; Ouyang Bian is variously listed as the fourth or youngest son.
References
- CBDB Ouyang Xiu (1384)
- 搜韵 歐陽修 (28466)
- 法鼓佛教人名规范数据库 歐陽修 (A009432)
- Wikidata Ouyang Xiu (Q334323)