Liu Zongyuan: River Snow, Exile & the Confucian Who Changed Chinese Prose

Liu Zongyuan (773 – 819 AD) was one of China’s greatest writers.

With his friend, Han Yu (768 – 824), he helped propel the guwen (ancient prose) movement. 

This changed how Chinese was written for millennia.

But to Liu, writing – and poetry – was secondary. 

He primarily saw himself as a Confucian revivalist.

Contents

Biography

Family background

Liu Zongyuan (柳宗元) was born into a relatively wealthy and cultured family of aristocrats.

Tang society was relatively stratified. Liu’s own ancestors had been part of the elite for centuries by the time he was born.

Just over a century before Liu’s birth, his family’s prominence had peaked and then dramatically declined.

Wu Zetian and the Liu’s fall from power

His ancestor was Empress Wang (? – 655 AD) was first the wife of the third Tang emperor, Gaozong (r. 649 – 83). Her patron was her uncle, Liu Shi (? – 659 AD) who became prime minister. 

However, they did not enjoy favour for long. After the death of his father Emperor Taizong (598 – 649 AD), Gaozong broke a taboo and married one of his father’s concubines. 

This woman, Wu Zhao (642 – 705) (better known as Wu Zetian), would go on to usurp the throne and declare the brief-lived Wu Zhou dynasty (690 – 705). She was the only empress in China’s history.

Liu’s ancestors, Empress Wang and Liu Shi, were two of the Wu Zetian’s first victims. Empress Wang was accused of killing Wu Zetian’s new-born child.

She was imprisoned and executed.

According to later records (which had an interest in exaggerating Wu’s cruelty), Empress Wang was sinisterly executed: beaten with a cane 100 times, mutilated (her hands and feet cut off), and left to die in a large wine vat.

Liu Shi was demoted and then executed (accused of treason) four years later. Members of his family were exiled and thrown out of office, too.

Liu Zongyuan’s parents

By the time of Liu’s birth, Wu Zetian’s reign was over (and denounced). His family were once again officials.

Liu’s father, Liu Zhen (739 – 793), had a relatively successful career as an official. At one point he was a censor in the Tang court in Chang’an.

And Liu’s mother, surnamed Li, appears to have been from a family of officials, too. Liu had two older sisters.

The Liu’s owned three properties in the Tang capital, Chang’an Chang’an (today’s Xi’an, Shaanxi Province).

However, their status was relatively low within the elites. This is a factor that some believe shaped Liu Zongyuan’s later relatively egalitarian outlook.

Liu’s childhood and youth

Liu was born and spent most of his early years in Chang’an.

Despite the damage caused by the An Lushan Rebellion (755 – 63) a decade before, it was still one of the world’s most sophisticated cities, with a population of about one million.

In 785, when Liu was a teenager, the family relocated about 620 miles (1,000 KM) away to Jiangxi Province for Liu Zhen’s official work.

About 5 years later Liu Zhen was reassigned to the capital.

Education

Like most children of the elite, Liu began studying young. 

His mother was teaching him poetry when he was three years. And he was well versed in the classical canon needed to pass the imperial exams. 

Later, he noted why he choose to study privately:

於戏！始仆少时，尝有意游太学，受师说，以植志持身焉。当时说者咸曰：“太学生聚为朋曹，侮老慢贤，有堕窳败业而利口食者，有崇饰恶言而肆斗讼者，有凌傲长上而谇骂有司者，其退然自克特殊于众人者无几耳。仆闻之 […] 遂退托乡闾家塾 […]
Alas, when I was young I considered going to the Imperial University – I wanted to receive instruction, establish goals and prepare for life. But at the time, all said: “Students at the Imperial University formed cliques, insulted elders and were rude to the virtuous. Some had descended into evil paths and were failing at their studies, thinking only of dining. Some loved sophistry and immorality and having reckless arguments amongst themselves. Others abused their superiors and cursed authority.” Hearing all of this […] I decided to study at my local private school […]

-Liu Zongyuan, 《与太学诸生喜诣阙留阳城司业书》

Liu gained a reputation as an intelligent student around this time. 

He failed the imperial exams three times (only 1 – 3% candidates passed each year), but passed on his fourth attempt in 793. He was still very young – only 20.

793 – 6: Father dies & time with uncle on frontier

Just a few months after Liu’s exam success, his father passed away. 

He had to enter the obligatory mourning period of three years, during which time he could not be appointed to an official position.

He spent the following years with his eldest and closest paternal uncle (whose name isn’t known). He also travelled along the frontier of the Tang empire.

Liu’s uncle was a staff officer for the military governor in Pinzhou, a frontier town 75 miles north west of the capital. 

It was an important strategic defence against Tibetans, who had briefly occupied Chang’an during the An Lushan Rebellion. 

Unfortunately, Liu’s uncle died suddenly in early 796. Liu accompanied his coffin back to Chang’an.

796 – 8: More exams 

Back in Chang’an, Liu got married. His wife was one Miss Yang. 

He also decided to try for higher exams. These were the notoriously difficult ‘vast erudition and magnificent composition’ (博学宏辞) exam.

This wasn’t a necessary step to gain employment. After all, he had already passed the imperial exam. 

After two years of study, he passed (aged 25). He was appointed to his first official position as an editor at Jixian Academy in Chang’an in 798. 

799 – 805: Personal loss and rising fame

Between 799 and 802, Liu’s wife and two older sisters passed away. His wife had also miscarried shortly before she died. His mother was his only remaining close relative. 

Meanwhile, his official career advanced at a quick pace. He rose the vice bureau director of the Ministry of Rites, a government rank higher than his father had achieved.

His reputation as a writer and intellectual also grew.

It’s important to note that Liu, like his contemporaries, would have seen these two aspects of his life as interconnected.

After all, education and examinations in the late Tang were still highly literary areas. And writing was an essential part of making policy suggestions noticeable and palatable to leaders. 

A generation before, the great poets both Li Bai (701 – 762) and Du Fu (712 – 770) had spent much of their lives chasing official careers. 

The latter lamented over his unsuccessful career later in life, whilst wondering: “A great name in literature [for me]?”

And during Liu’s era, the need for ideas to save the dynasty were seen as urgent, just as they had been during Li and Du’s lifetimes.

805: Palace intrigue 

In 805, Liu supported a failed power bid by a group of idealistic but inexperienced officials. 

The attempt was led by an official named Wang Shuwen (753 – 806) and the official and calligrapher Wang Pi (? – ca. 805).

After the death of Emperor Dezong (779 – 805), this small group seized key government positions and tried to quickly push through reforms.

However, other politicians stopped them Wang Shuwen was executed and Wang Pi died in exile. Other officials involved – including Liu – were sent into exile.

Later on, Liu would reflect on how he regretted his involvement in this event.

805 – 10: A decade of exile in Yongzhou

Wang was initially sentenced to exile in Shaozhou (today’s Shaoyang, Hunan Province), nearly 800 miles (approx. 1300 KM) south of Chang’an.

En route, his punishment was increased, and he was re-assigned to Yongzhou (in today’s Hunan Province), approximately a further 70 miles (112 KM) from Shaozhou.

It should be noted that exile this far south was often fatal for officials. It meant a very different climate, diet, and standard of living.

It also meant a degree of separation from society as many locals could not speak the same language as Liu and there weren’t other officials to meet with.

And now Liu was seen as an official with little to no prospects, his chances of finding a new wife from his own class were dramatically reduced.

To make matters worse, Liu’s mother died in 806. Liu later expressed his regret at the trouble he had caused her by his political mistake.

Han Yu would later note that exile helped form Liu into a great thinker. 

Of his surviving 540 works (including poetry, prose, letters, etc.), 317 are from this period.

It’s clear to see why this was the case. Down in Yongzhou, with few political or social distractions, reflection and productivity keep him occupied.

815: Recalled to the capital

At the beginning of 810, Liu was recalled to the capital. A month later, he arrived there.

However, old politician grudges against him hadn’t died. He was not appointed to a position in the capital.

Instead, three months after he had arrived, he was re-assigned to be provincial governor in Liuzhou (in today’s Guanxi Province), nearly 1,000 miles (1600 km) south of the capital.

During his brief time here, he worked against child slavery, repaired a Confucian temple, and restored Buddhist worship in a temple that is said to have been used for human sacrifice.

He died here, in 819, aged 46.

Liu Zongyuan the writer, poet and philosopher

Liu has long been revered as one of the greatest prose writers in Chinese history. 

And like Han Yu, he is also remembered as an important philosopher and poet.

These three activities (prose, philosophy, and poetry) are not ordered in the importance Liu would have given them, but how he has been seen by others. 

In Liu’s mind, the most important tasks were more likely philosophy (in as much as it can be applied practically), prose writing and then poetry. 

Philosophy

Three schools of thought dominated Tang dynasty (618 – 907) society.

• Buddhism: This had first entered China (from India) in the Han Dynasty (206 AD – 220 BC)
• Daoism: An indigenous Chinese philosophy based on the works of Laozi, Zhuangzi and others
• ‘Confucianism’: Known as rujia (儒家 – ‘scholar school of thought’) in Chinese. This was largely based on Confucius’ Analects and a canon of works that were associated with it.

Each of these schools of thought spoke of a ‘Way’ (道; Dao – hence Dao-ism’s name). This meant a path to understood and practice.

Many believed that each school of thought’s Way was different to one another.

Liu was primarily concerned with reviving Confucianism’s Way. Like Han Yu, and others, he felt that modern Confucianism had strayed, causing its Way to be obscured and misunderstood.

This was in part – he claimed – because of the negative influences of the other schools. 

(Liu did not mind many aspects of Buddhism in its Chan form – a Chinese sect. But he strongly disliked Daoism.

By contrast, Han Yu famously detested Buddhism and was sent into exile for his vehement critique of it).

What concerned Liu most with Confucianism was its ability help cultivate the empire.

He argued only via getting closer to the original texts of Confucianism (as opposed to later commentaries) could scholars truly understand it.

To him, Confucianism was a practical guide to ethics and values that influenced personal and political behaviour.

Liu did not systematically lay out his philosophy. An understanding must be gained from reading his various essays, letters, and poems.

This was a natural method for conveying his message. 

After all, Confucius’ Analects (the main text for Confucians) are a collection of different messages which approach the same issues in slightly different ways.

Take, for example, this point made in different forms:

Here, definitive statements are hinted at but never settled. This all fits with a larger principle running through the Analects:

子路宿于石门。晨门曰：“奚自？”子路曰：“自孔氏。”曰：“是‘知其不可而为之’者与？”Zilu stayed the night at Stone Gate. The gatekeeper asked: ‘Where are you from?’
   Zilu replied: ‘From Confucius’ household.’
  ‘Oh, that’s ‘the one who pursues what he knows can’t be attained’?’

– Analects (14.38)

In other words, the pursuit of the Way is relentless and related to cultivation. 

Liu wrote of the Analects:

《论语》之大，莫大乎是也。是乃孔子常常讽道之辞云尔。彼孔子者，覆生人之器者也。上之尧、舜之不遭，而禅不及己；下之无汤之势，而己不得为天吏。生人无以泽其德，日视闻其劳死怨呼，而己之德涸然无所依而施，故于常常讽道云尔而止也。此圣人之大志也，无容问对于其间。
The Analects’ greatness lies here: Here there are many statements Confucius about the Way. Confucius was a vessel protecting living people. He was born too late to meet Yao and Shun, their succession did not get passed to him. He did not have the power of King Tang [of the Shang dynasty] and he was not appointed by heaven to office. Living people could not benefit from his morality. Daily he saw and heard poverty, death, hatred, and complaints. But he could not put his morality into practice. He could only make many statements about the Way. 

– Liu Zongyuan

It’s easy to see how Liu would have identified his own political career with Confucius’. 

Liu’s thoughts on rulers and heaven

One aspect of Liu’s thought that stands out from many Confucian thinkers before and after was his disregard for the inherent link between ruler and heaven. 

Throughout Chinese history, the concept of ‘Mandate of Heaven’ (天明) and ruling all under heaven (天下)was referenced to justify emperor’s positions. It was a flexible concept, as by ruling poorly, it could be lost.

In three surviving articles, Liu argued against this concept. It fit with his wider, adamant denial of a link between metaphysics and morality.

彼上而玄者，世谓之天；下而黄者，世谓之地。浑然而中处 者，世谓之元气。[…] 是虽大，无异瓜蓏、痈痔、草木也。[…] 其乌能赏功而罚祸乎？功者自功，祸者自祸，[…] 欲望其哀且仁者，愈大谬矣。子而信子之义以游其内，生而死尔，乌置存亡得丧于果蓏、痈痔、草木耶！
What’s above and is dark, the world calls Heaven. What’s below and is yellow, the world calls Earth. What fills the spaces in between, the world calls primordial ether. […] 
No matter how large, these are not different from melons, abscesses and haemorrhoids, grass and trees. […] How are they able to reward and punish? Success is gained by oneself. Disaster is attained by oneself. 
Desire and focus on humanity and benevolence, travel about and live by these principles through life until death. Don’t attribute the cause of survival and extinction, success and failure, to melons, abscesses and haemorrhoids, grass and trees!

-Liu Zong Yuan, ‘Heaven Speaks’

Prose writing

Liu believed that literature could get people closer to the Confucian Way. 

This concept had been succinctly summarised by the Northern Dynasty writer Liu Xie (ca. 465 – ? AD): ‘writing illuminates the Way (文以明道)’.

Ultimately, words were a tool to be used in service of self-cultivation. Liu would certainly have been aware that this principle had been famously expressed in the Daoist classic, the Zhuangzi.

荃者所以在鱼，得鱼而忘荃；蹄者所以在兔，得兔而忘蹄；言者所以在意，得意而忘言。A fish trap is for fish. When you have the fish, you forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits. When you have the rabbit, you forget the snare. Words are for intentions. When you have the intention, you forget the words. 

– Zhuangzi (26. 13)

Liu’s essay ‘Yuzhou’s Iron Furnace Dock’ reflects the same sentiment:

During the late Tang, most formal prose was still written according to a strict ‘parallel prose’ structure. 

Its format required writers stick to lines of equal (parallel) length, which caused them to rely on stock and convoluted wording.

Along with his contemporary and friend Han Yu, Liu advocated for the move towards classic prose (guwen)usage. 

This push had been started a generation before by other intellectuals, bit it was Han Yu and Liu who are now most famously associated with it. 

Classic prose (or ancient prose) was not bound by structure. It used the direct and efficient language of the ancients to create a more flexible and clearer prose style.

It would not be until around Ouyang Xiu (1007 – 1072) was responsible for administering the imperial exams in the Song dynasty that it gained widespread usage.

This was when the great ‘Neo-Confucianist’ revival began to take place. Its development peaked with the work of Zhu Xi (1130 – 1200), and its influence did after his lifetime.

Thereafter, classical prose and Confucianism gained the level of prominence Liu would have hoped for – for nearly a millennium. 

In the early twentieth century, Lu Xun (1881 – 1936) complained:

我们要活过来，首先就须由青年们不再说孔子孟子和韩愈柳宗元们的话。
If we [the Chinese people] want to survive, first we must stop young people speaking the words of Confucius, Mencius, Han Yu, and Liu Zongyuan. These times are different – conditions have changed. 

– Lu Xun, ‘Voiceless China’ (1927)

By this point, Lu (and many intellectuals around him) felt that Confucianism was stifling China.

All of this aside, Liu’s popularity as a writer can largely be linked to how readable (in terms of style and and content) his essays are. 

This is a fate many Chinese writers and poets have shared over the years. In fact, it happens everywhere.

Were Liu’s essays not so entertaining and readable, his fame after death would not be what it is today.

Poetry

The great Song dynasty poet and statesman Su Shi (1037 – 1101 AD) was a keen admirer of Liu’s poetry. He once commented:

李、杜之后，诗人继作，虽间有远韵，而才不逮意；独韦应物、柳宗元发纤浓于简古，寄至味于淡泊，非馀子所及也。
After Li [Bai] and Du [Fu], poets continued to write, and although they had their charm, their talent did not equal their intentions. Only Wei Yingwu [737 – 792 AD] and Liu Zongyuan brought forth both the delicate and grand, simple and ancient, flavourful and plain. No one else managed any of this.

Su Shi, 《书黄子思诗集后》

Poetry had been the literary art of the early Tang (alongside calligraphy, see below). It was a part of the imperial exam and an expected skill of the educated elite.

There was still an active and innovative field of poetry during Liu’s time. Han Yu was also a keen poet, and Liu’s other contemporaries included Bai Juyi (773 – 846), Yuan Zhen (779 – 831), and Zhang Ji (767 – 830).

Four of Liu’s poems made it into the famous Qing dynasty compilation, 300 Tang Poems. His most famous is ‘Snow River’ (at the beginning of this article).

Snow River is one of the most popular and anthologised poems in Chinese literature.

Part of its charm its skilful placement of the characters 千, 万, 孤, and 独 at the beginning of each respective line.

Together they read 千万 (thousands and tens and thousands, i.e., ‘very’) 孤独 (lonely and alone), i.e., ‘Very lonely’.

(This brings to mind Vladimir Nabokov’s comments on his own short story ‘The Vane Sisters’ (1951), which spells out a message with the first letters of the last sentence: “This particular trick can only be tried once in a thousand years of fiction.”)

Calligraphy

Calligraphy flourished during the Tang dynasty. The generation before Liu produced many of China’s greatest calligraphers (just as it did for poetry, too).

Liu was known for his zhangcao script (‘draft cursive script’) calligraphy.