Cover News Reporter Wang Yuexin Li Qing The Tang and Song Dynasties were the peak of ancient Chinese literary creation. It is recognized that there are eight people who wrote the best articles, known as the "Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties". They are the "King

Cover News Reporter Wang Yuexin and Li Qing

The Tang and Song Dynasties were the peak of ancient Chinese literary creation. It is recognized that eight people wrote the best articles, known as the "Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties". They are "Han Liuwang Zeng Ou San" Sue". Among them, "Sansu" father and son occupied three seats.

Pantuo statue in Dongpo. According to the Sansu Temple Museum

The Eight Peaks

Who are the "Eight Great Masters" of the Tang and Song Dynasties?

People who don’t know much about it think that poets such as Li Bai and Du Fu must be on the list when they hear the “Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties”. But in fact, the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties are the collective name for eight representative prose writers in the Tang and Song Dynasties. They are Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan in the Tang Dynasty, and Ouyang Xiu, Zeng Gong, Wang Anshi, Su Xun, Su Shi, and Su Che in the Song Dynasty.

Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties. According to Sansu Temple Museum

These eight people were all leading figures in the literary world at that time, and they successively promoted the wave of innovation in ancient Chinese prose. They also all had artistic attainments and outstanding achievements in prose. Han Yu advocated learning the prose language of the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties, breaking parallelism into prose, and expanding the expressive function of classical Chinese. He was listed as the first of the "Eight Masters of Tang and Song Prose". Liu Zongyuan and Han Yu were both advocates of the ancient prose movement in the Tang Dynasty. He attached great importance to the content of articles and advocated that literature should clarify the Tao. He believed that "Tao" should be beneficial to the country and the people and practical. He also paid attention to the social function of literature and emphasized that literature must be beneficial. In the world.

Ouyang Xiu was a great master of literature in the Song Dynasty. He inherited the spirit of Han Yu's ancient prose movement and put forward the idea that literature can clarify the Tao in prose theory. As a disciple of Ouyang Xiu, Zeng Gong was a supporter and participant of his teacher Ouyang Xiu's ancient prose movement, advocating that Taoism should be put first before literature. His prose is good at argumentation and he makes precise decisions. Wang Anshi, a famous reformer, was also a literary master. His prose was like his character, rugged and upright, strong, powerful and simple.

Sansu Temple. According to the Sansu Temple Museum

Su Shi is one of the most outstanding writers recognized for his literary and artistic achievements in China's thousands of years of history. His prose and Han Yu are called "Han Chao Su Hai". Su Xun's prose has clear arguments, powerful arguments, sharp language, unbridled and eloquent persuasion. Su Che's prose shows the style of traveling to foreign countries and the profound spirit of a scholar. He has his own opinions on ancient prose writing. He proposed the theory of "Literary Qi" in "The Book of Han Taiwei", which states that "Literature is shaped by Qi" and discussed the method of "nurturing Qi".

The first person to combine eight people's articles into one volume was Zhu You in the early Ming Dynasty. Zhu You selected the articles by Han, Liu and others as the "Collected Works of Mr. Six". Because he combined the three Sus into one family, it was actually the "Collected Works of Mr. Eight". Later, the "Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasty" compiled by Mao Kun in the late Ming Dynasty formally proposed the name "Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties", and the name "Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties" also became popular. Since the Ming Dynasty praised the eight schools of literature in the Tang and Song Dynasties, those who studied classical literature all regarded the eight schools as their sects.

Close relationship

Su Shi has a deep relationship with the "Seven Great Masters"

As a "top leader" in the literary world of the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Dongpo got acquainted with many famous literati. The remaining seven of the "Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties" all have close relationships with Su Shi.

It goes without saying that the relationship between Su Shi, Su Xun and Su Che is. There are three fathers and sons in one school, all of whom are great writers. Among the eight great masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, they occupied three seats in one fell swoop. Both the "Sansu" father and son have an inseparable relationship with Ouyang Xiu. Ouyang Xiu was the examiner of the "Three Sus" father-son imperial examination. Su Xun was supported and appreciated by Ouyang Xiu, and Su Shi and Su Che became Ouyang Xiu's disciples. Su Shi and Ouyang Xiu had a profound teacher-student friendship.

Ouyang Xiu Memorial Hall. Picture according to Sansu Temple Museum

Speaking of Ouyang Xiu’s students, Zeng Gong has to be mentioned.Zeng Gong was Ouyang Xiu's favorite student. From this point of view, Su Shi and Zeng Gong were brothers in the same discipline. At the same time, they both passed the imperial examination in the second year of Jiayou. The two appreciated each other and had many friends later. Correspondence.

Su Shi and Wang Anshi "fell in love and killed each other." In the court, the two had different political views and were tit-for-tat; but in literary creation, the two cherished and admired each other.

Wang Anshi Memorial Hall. Picture according to Sansu Temple Museum

If Su Shi and the other five Song Dynasty families are in the same dynasty, they are inextricably linked. But Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan were both great masters of the Tang Dynasty. They were separated by a dynasty, so what is the connection between Su Shi and them?

Su Shi generally dislikes people, and Han Yu is one of them. "Literary literature has caused the decline of eight generations, but Taoism has helped the world." This evaluation can be said to be very high, and Han Yu deserves it. Not only that, Su Shi was later demoted repeatedly, and his situation was quite similar to that of Han Yu. Even Su Shi laughed at himself, saying that he and Han Yu were both unlucky "Capricorn boys."

When it comes to Su Shi's relationship with Liu Zongyuan, many scholars believe that Su Shi was the "first reader" of Liu Zongyuan's poems. Su Shi has repeatedly evaluated and appreciated Liu Zongyuan's poems, confirming Liu Zongyuan's status in the history of poetry. In addition, Su Shi was also Liu Zongyuan's close friend. After Su Shi was demoted to Hainan, he had few friends and books around him. Only the books of Tao Yuanming and Liu Zongyuan were around him. Su Shi said that these two were his friends.

established an alliance

The Eight Families gathered together after a thousand years

It can be seen that the relationship between the Eight Families was closely connected across time thousands of years ago. They are connected by one name to this day.

Today, this connection continues. January 29th is the 987th anniversary of the birth of Su Dongpo. His hometown, Sansu Temple in Meishan, will once again hold a "Su Dongpo Party" in his honor. In addition to the regular commemorative activities, Meishan also prepared a special gift for Mr. Dongpo at this birthday party, that is, the eight great masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties will gather at the Sansu Temple.

In order to prepare this gift, Meishan Sansu Temple launched the "Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties" visit tour in October 2023, which lasted two months and visited the memorial sites (pavilions) related to the other five other eight great masters of the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties. At this year's birthday party, Meishan Sansu Temple will join forces with Chaozhou Han Wengong Temple, Liuzhou Liuhou Temple, Yongzhou Liu Zongyuan Memorial Hall, Chuzhou Ouyang Xiu Memorial Hall, Fuzhou Wang Anshi Memorial Hall, and Nanfeng Zeng Gong Memorial Hall to establish the "Memorial Site for the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties ( Museum) Alliance", hoping that through this "meeting" across history, we can connect the spiritual path with the sages and jointly explore the Chinese spirit, Chinese values, and Chinese power.

"The purpose of establishing this alliance is to bring together the forces of all parties to jointly explore the humanistic spirit, ideological concepts, and moral purpose of the eight cultural masters, and to inherit and carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture." said Chen Zhongwen, director of the Sansu Temple Museum.