(768-824) poet, prose writer
Han Yu is one of the most important Neo-Confucian writers of the late Tang dynasty. The son of a minor government official, Han Yu was born in the Honan province of China. His father died when he was only two years old, and he was raised by his older brother, Han Hui, and sister-in-law. He spent his youth studying the Confucian classics in preparation for the jinshi (chin-shih) government examination, which he failed twice before passing in 792.
Han Yu showed a predilection for Confucian political critique early in his career. In 795 he wrote the government’s ministers to seek employment and to remind them of their duty to surround themselves with talented writers and scholars, such as himself. His initial pleas did not work, and it was only after his marriage into a politically connected family in Loyang the following year that he obtained the first of many government posts.
Han Yu’s first job was in Bianzhou (Pien-chou), an important military outpost, where he was in charge of supervising the provincial government examinations. Through this position, he developed a reputation as a man of letters, and a growing number of scholars and poets came to Bianzhou to become part of his circle. One such poet was Meng Jiao (Meng Chiao), with whom Han Yu developed a long literary relationship. In 806, the two wrote a series of “linked verses,” poems in which the poets alternate sets of verses. Han Yu’s assignment in Bianzhou ended in 799 with the death of the imperial governor Dong Jin (Jong Jin) and the subsequent mutiny of the soldiers under the new leadership.
Throughout his life, Han Yu used his connections with the imperial universities in Chang’an and Loyang to cultivate a group of Neo-Confucian scholars who would enter the imperial government after passing the examination. Despite his outspoken criticism of the bureaucracy and run-ins with many upper-level officials that led to several periods of exile, he was able to find allies within the administration who allowed him to return to the capital and positions of power.
Han Yu’s strict Confucian adherence to proper bureaucratic procedures often gained him enemies, but his trustworthiness and moral code also allowed him to rise to great heights of power in his later years.
Critical Analysis
Throughout his career, Han Yu used his poetry and prose to elucidate political and social problems. He led what is known as the “ancient style” (du-wen) movement, which espoused clarity and simplicity in writing, and he combined his beliefs about how government should handle itself (sans heresy and decadence) with his beliefs about literary quality. In “An Enquiry into Slander,” for example, he theorizes over the loss of morals in people of his day. He discusses how, in the past, men of high morals expected as much, if not more, from themselves as they did from others. “With the great men of the present day, however,” he writes, “things are quite different. They make the most searching demands of others, but are sparing in what they ask of themselves. . . . How they can have any self-respect passes my understanding.”
In another essay, “Against the God of the Wind,” Han Yu uses satire to condemn the emperor’s demand that taxes be paid during a hard year. “The sentence of Heaven will fall upon you; when it does there can be no repentance,” he writes, adding, “even if you die, what man will mourn for you?”
Han Yu wrote a critique of the emperor’s inept handling of the mutiny of 799 in his “Two Poems on the Bianzhou Rebellion.” A later poem, “Craven,” serves as a commentary on the social and political situation at his next posting in Zhengzhou (Cheng-chou) after the Yellow River flooded.
One famous critique, however, cost Han Yu his job and nearly his life. The incident involved a Buddhist relic purported to be the finger bone of the Buddha. In 819, the finger bone, normally kept in a Buddhist temple west of Chang’an, was put on display in the capital. According to tradition, the relic helped to ensure the health of the nation, and thousands of people flocked to the capital to pay their respects to this sacred piece of history. The relic also brought in a large amount of money for several government officials. Han Yu wrote “Memorial on the Bone of Buddha,” in which he attacked those who catered to the emperor’s use of the ritual to gain public favor. He addresses the emperor directly in the essay, saying,”Were he [the Buddha] still alive today, were he to come to court at the bidding of his country, your majesty would give him no greater reception than an interview in the Strangers’ Hall, a ceremonial banquet, and the gift of a suit of clothes, after which you would have him sent under guard to the frontier to prevent him from misleading your people.” Han Yu does not understand why the emperor insists on escorting the Buddha’s bone into the building where it will be viewed by the masses. He says, “To my shame and indignation none of your ministers says that this is wrong, none of your censors has exposed the error.”
The emperor evidently read the essay as a ridicule of the ritual and a personal attack on himself rather than what it was—a call for government officials to demonstrate strong values and proper conduct. As a result, he commanded that Han Yu be executed for his insolence, but two ministers rallied support for Han Yu and were able to persuade the emperor to exile him instead to southern China. Han Yu immediately regretted his harsh testimonial and suffered the further pain of losing his 11-year-old daughter to illness on the journey south. The incident became famous in Chinese history and served as an indication of Han Yu’s skill at using literature as social and political commentary.
An English Version of Works by Han Yu
Growing Old Alive: Poems. Translated by Kenneth O. Hanson. Port Townsend, Wash.: Copper Canyon Press, 1978.
Works about Han Yu
Hartman, Charles. Han Yu and the T’ang Search for Unity. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986.
Owen, Stephen. The Poetry ofMeng Chiao and Han Yu. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1975.
