Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/172

 160 CHINESE LITERATURE

Passing over many poets equally well known with some of those already cited, we reach a name undoubt- edly the most venerated of all those ever associated in any way with the great mass of Chinese literature. HAN Yu (A.D. 768-824), canonised and usually spoken of as Han Wen-kung, was not merely a poet, but a statesman of the first rank, and philosopher to boot. He rose from among the humblest of the people to the highest offices of State. In 803 he presented a memorial protesting against certain extravagant honours with which the Emperor Hsien Tsung proposed to receive a bone of Buddha. The monarch was furious, and but for the intercession of friends it would have fared badly with the bold writer. As it was, he was banished to Ch'ao- chou Fu in Kuangtung, where he set himself to civilise the rude inhabitants of those wild parts. In a temple at the summit of the neighbouring range there is to be seen at this day a huge picture of the Prince of Literature, as he has been called by foreigners from his canonisation, with the following legend attached : "Wherever he passed, he purified." He is even said to have driven away a huge crocodile which was devasta- ting the watercourses in the neighbourhood ; and the denunciatory ultimatum which he addressed to the mon- ster and threw into the river, together with a pig and a goat, is still regarded as a model of Chinese com- position. It was not very long ere he was recalled to the capital and reinstated in office; but he had been delicate all his life and had grown prematurely old, and was thus unable to resist a severe illness which came upon him. His friend and contemporary, Liu Tsung- yiian, said that he never ventured to open the works of Han Yii without first washing his hands in rose-water.

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