新散文的兴起——唐代古文

唐承六朝之后,公私文翰,并用骈俪,而末流弊滋,浮滥冗缓,叙事论理,不能真切,于是韩愈倡为散行之文,远师先秦西汉,以朴质条鬯之体矫正魏晋以来排偶藻饰之风,柳宗元、李翱、皇甫湜等和之,古文之体遂立。名为“古文”,实乃创新,虽取法先秦西汉,而能自具唐代新散文之风格,并非奴隶式之摹古也。

"Guwen" of Tang Dynasty: the Rise of New Prose Writing

After the Six Dynasties, writings of both public and private were characterized with rhythmical prose style so much that arguments and narration were often ambiguous in Tang Dynasty. Han Yu advocated to learn and inherit what masters wrote in Pre-Qin and Western Han periods for prose style, emphasizing unadorned and natural style to take the place of parallelism in Wei and Jin periods. Liu Zongyuan, Li Ao, Huangpu Shi strongly supported him in establishing such new prose writing style. The so-called "guwen," ancient way of writing, was virtually innovation because it embodies the new style of prose writing in Tang Dynasty rather than mere mimicry of the past masters although it learnt a lot from the earlier times.