-Excerpt from "Preface to Send Li May Return to Pangu" (Han Yu)
This preface was written in 80 1 year (the seventeenth year of Zhenyuan in Tang Dezong). Han Yu was thirty-four years old and left the Xuzhou shogunate to seek a job in Beijing. Since 792 (the eighth year of Zhenyuan), Han Yu has worked hard for his career for nearly ten years, but he has never been reused by the court, and he is in a difficult situation and unhappy. So, I took the opportunity to see my friend Li willing to go back to Pangu to live in seclusion, wrote this preface, and spit out the grievances in my chest. In the words of Li Yuan, the author describes three kinds of people: one is a high-ranking official who "sits on the mountain and watches the tiger fight, advances and retreats a hundred officials", the other is a mountain hermit who "lives in into the badlands without a fixed place", and the third is a stubborn and opportunistic villain. By contrast, we made a bitter mockery of those ambitious and extravagant bureaucrats and those who grovel and cling to powerful people, and greatly praised our friends' ambition of seclusion. The last paragraph of the article, in the form of an ancient song and rich lyrical style, chanted, praised and blessed a friend's seclusion, and also showed admiration. Han Yu's Preface is very famous, and this article has been especially praised in all previous dynasties. Su Shi's Postscript to Li Yuanxu said: "Ouyang Wenzhong said that there was no article in Jin, and Tao Yuanming's Return was just one. Yu also said that there were no articles in the Tang Dynasty, and Han Tui's "Send Li to Pangu" was just an article. I am willing to devote the rest of my life to this. I stop every time I start writing, because I laugh at myself and say,' If you don't put it down, you must learn to back down'. This article was written one year earlier than Shi Shuo, but its style is quite different. Readers can compare the contents and writing methods of these two articles with their own writing backgrounds.