Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/224

 CHAPTER II

HISTORY CLASSICAL AND GENERAL LITERATURE

THE first move made in the department of history was nothing less than to re-write the whole of the chro- nicles of the T'ang dynasty. The usual scheme had already been carried out by Liu Hsu (897-946), a learned scholar of the later Chin dynasty, but on many grounds the result was pronounced unsatisfactory, and steps were taken to supersede it. The execution of this pro- ject was entrusted to Ou-yang Hsiu and Sung C'hi, both of whom were leading men in the world of letters. Ou-YANG Hsiu (1007-1072) had been brought up in poverty, his mother teaching him to write with a reed. By the time he was fifteen his great abilities began to attract attention, and later on he came out first on the list of candidates for the third or highest degree. His public life was a chequered one, owing to the bold positions he took up in defence of what he believed to be right, regardless of personal interest. Besides the dynastic history, he wrote on all kinds of subjects, grave and gay, including an exposition of the Book of Poetry, a work on ancient inscriptions, anecdotes of the men of his day, an elaborate treatise on the peony, poetry and essays without end. The following is a specimen of his lighter work, greatly admired for the beauty of its style.

�� �