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Ouyang Xiu [Ou-yang Hsiu]
(b Mianzhou [now Mianyang], Sichuan Province, 1007; d Yingzhou [now Fuyang], Anhui Province, 1072). Chinese official, literary master, historian and epigraphist. A brilliant writer of poetry and prose, he came from a provincial background but parlayed his talent for literature into an outstanding career as a government official. He was a leader in the struggle of the early Northern Song (960–1127) Confucian literati to assert their own standards against those of the throne. Politically, they advocated the Confucian model of government, in which officials served as outspoken advisers to a humane and accessible ruler. Culturally, they promoted the didactic expression of Confucian morality, rejecting what they saw as the empty aestheticism of court-sponsored styles in literature and art. Ouyang Xiu triumphed in 1057 by instituting ancient prose as the required style for the national examinations.
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