Ouyang Xiu was born in Mianyong (Mien-yang),
in the Sichuan (Szechuan) province of China.After
his father died, he and his mother moved to Hubei
(Hupeih) to live with his uncle. Legend has it that
Ouyang lived in such poverty that he learned to
write with a stick in the sand.At age 23, he became
a judge in Loyang, and during his three years there,
he spent much time developing his literary talents.
During his life, Ouyang Xiu held a number of
government positions and wrote many essays,
poems, and songs. Although his public-service career
was plagued by a series of exiles, he remained
dedicated to his literary pursuits. In his mid-20s,
he composed New History of the Five Dynasties, a
documentation of China’s political history during
the 10th century. In his 30s, he served as governor
of Chuzhou (Ch’u-chou), where he built the “Old
Drunkard’s Pavilion,” about which he wrote a famous
essay. In his 40s, he hosted legendary parties
for literary friends in which his famous ci (tz’u)
(songs) were performed, and he began work on the
New History of the Tang Dynasty (completed in
1060). He retired from public service in 1071.
Many of Ouyang’s works continued the classical
style of writing initiated by HAN YU, and he became
one of the leading literary figures of the Sung dynasty.
His essays focus on Confucian philosophy,
history, and politics, but he is best remembered
for the poetry and songs in which he uses images
of nature to explore the human spirit. In his poem
“Autumn,” for example, he compares images of the
dying landscape to the decay of the human soul:
. . . The trees will fall
In their due season. Sorrow cannot keep
The plants from fading. Stay! there yet is
man—
Man, the divinest of all things, whose heart
Hath known the shipwreck of a thousand
hopes,
. . . whose soul
Strange cares have lined and interlined,
until
Beneath the burden of life his inmost self
Bows down. And swifter still he seeks decay
When groping for the unattainable
Or grieving over continents unknown.
As translator L. Cranmer-Byng says in A Lute of
Jade, “Autumn,” like many of Ouyang Xiu’s poems,
is worthy of praise: “With its daring imagery, grave
magnificence of language and solemn thought, it is
nothing less than Elizabethan, and only the masters
of that age could have done it justice in the
rendering.”
An English Version of a Work by
Ouyang Xiu
A Lute of Jade. Translated by L. Cranmer-Byng. Indy-
Publish.com, 2003.
A Work about Ouyang Xiu
Egan, Ronald C. The Literary Works of Ou-yang Hsiu
(1007–72). Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University
Press, 1984.