Dào le Běisòng, Ōuyáng Xiū jiēguò Gǔwén Yùndòng de qízhì, gǔwén cóngcǐ chéngwéi wéntán de zhǔliú.
In the Northern Song, Ouyang Xiu took up the banner of the Classical Prose Movement, and from then on plain prose was the mainstream of literature.
Tips
usage
Here 古文 means the free, unadorned prose of the Zhou and Han writers, set against 骈文, the ornate parallel prose of paired four- and six-character lines. Its ideal was later summed up as 文以载道 'writing should carry the Way'.
history
Led in the mid-Tang by 韩愈 and 柳宗元 and carried on in the Northern Song by 欧阳修, 苏轼 and others. Its eight leading writers are known as the 唐宋八大家.
