The Acceptance And Innovation Of Han Yu's Proses By The Six Great Classical Prose Masters Of The Northern Song Period

Song Dynasty is a rush period in the history of Chinese culture development, especially the Northern Song period. Han Yu, who is ranked first among the "Eight Great Prose Masters of Tang -Song Period", was re-identified in this special context. Prosers and literary theorists of Song Dynasty not only took Han Yu's proses as scripts of their literary reproductions, but also made the interpretations of Han Yu's proses heedlessly and deliberately with the constantly changing of the society and culture. Han Yu's proses were accepted and developed in this way during Song Dynasty. The most representative ones of them are the Six Great Classical Prose Masters of the Northern Song Period. Their acceptance and innovation on Han Yu's proses have made us comprehend the extensions of the intrinsic meanings of Han Yu's proses, namely, literature's function of social shaping. In this dissertation, we are drawing roughly the outline of the features of the acceptance and innovation of Han Yu's proses by the Six Great Classical Prose Masters of the Northern Song Period with acceptation and hermeneutics. "The revolution of literature is imbued with reality, the ebb and flow of literature is related to times". The society background was one of the indispensable factors which attracted people's great interests to Han Yu's proses during the Northern Song period. In the beginning of Song Dynasty, the ruler carried out Confucianism to maintain the country and state power stable and unified, as well as "Respecting the ruler, excluding the minorities". The role of the literators was raised in high rank unprecedentedly. The imperial examination system was practiced extensively. The gorgeous development of productive forces and productive relations made people to pay more attention to the society and to have the intense sense of responsibility.It was complicated for Han Yu's proses to be accepted in Tang Dynasty. Han Yu took himself as a tutor seriously and gave aid to the young generations. Therefore, there were many disciples studied under Han Yu's directions. The innovation of Chinese classical prose successively advocated by Han Yu and other literators in Tang Dynasty was declining gradually due to the overwhelming momentum of the parallel proses. In this special situation, prose masters of the Northern Song period launched the acceptance of Han Yu's proses. They held on Chinese classical prose was the orthodox literary and Han Yu's proses belonged to it. In the beginning of Song Dynasty, Liu Kai found Han Yu's proses from Zhao in Tianshui. Consequently, Han Yu's proses revived in the Northern Song period. Then, Han Yu's proses were transmittedwidely by Mu Xiu , etc, and were advocated by Yin Zhu and Ouyang Hsiu. Tillthe Renzong age of Song Dynasty, Chinese classical prose played an importantrole. It is a general survey of the acceptance of Han Yu's proses in the NorthernSong period and the Six Great Classical Prose Masters of the Northern SongPeriod were the leading role. They fully accepted Han Yu's concepts that theprose elucidates Tao and writing for expressing injustice and discontent, etc.To some extent, "elucidating Tao" was closely related to the political needs ofthe government. The Six Great Classical Prose Masters of the Northern SongPeriod accepted and inherited Han Yu's proses by their own way. The profoundimplication "to elucidate Tao means to express aspiration" was unveiled again.The innovation is the ultimate goal of the acceptance. The innovation by theSix Great Classical Prose Masters of the Northern Song Period was based onthe different origins of practicing their "Tao". They wrote in differentmanners but in the same style. It was like a verse of a poem "the old springfestival couplets were always replaced by the new ones". The innovationoccurred due to the different life experience of the Six Great Classical ProseMasters of the Northern Song Period. Therefore, Han Yu's proses weredeveloped all the time. The Six Great Classical Prose Masters of NorthernSong Period renewed the vitality of Han Yu's proses, and stimulated a steady flow of creativity for the following generations.