Ouyang Xiu

He was born in Luling, Jizhou prefecture (in modern Jiangxi ) into a relatively poor family, losing his father when he was four. Unable to afford traditional Tutor ing, he was largely self-taught. He passed the ''jinshi'' exam in 1030 and became a major establishment figure of the period, but independent thought continued to be one of his hallmarks. Politically, he was an early patron of the political reformer Wang Anshi , but later became one of his strongest opponents. In his late 20s, Ouyang lost a factional battle at court and was sent out to the provincial Chuzhou 滁州 (in modern Anhui ).

In his prose works, he followed the example of Han Yu , promoting the Classical Prose Movement (古文運動). He was traditionally classed as one of the ''Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song''. Among his most famous prose works is the ''Zuiweng ting ji'' (醉翁亭记, lit. 'Regarding the Old Drunkard's Pavilion), a description of his pastoral lifestyle among the mountains, rivers and people of Chuzhou. The work is lyrical in its quality and acclaimed as one of the highest achievements of Chinese travel writing.

As a historian, he has been criticised as overly didactic, but he played an important role in establishing the use of Epigraphy as a historiographic technique.

His poems are generally relaxed, Humor ous, and often self-deprecatory; he gave himself the title "The Old Drunkard". He wrote both '' Shi '' and '' Ci ''. His ''shi'' are stripped-down to the essentials emphasised in the High Tang period, eschewing the ornate style of the Late Tang . He is best known, however, for his ''ci''. In particular, his series of ten poems entitled "West Lake is Good" (西湖好) set to the tune "Picking Mulberries" (采桑子) helped to popularise the genre as a vehicle for serious poetry.

In 1072 Ouyang Xiu died in Yingzhou , Anhui province.

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Ouyang Xiu