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-inlaw.
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 of Meng Chiao and Han
Yu. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press,
1975.