A Study on the Time Consciousness of Ouyang Xiu's Guwen
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Lee, Chia-Hung
Abstract
“Time” is always connected with “life” in Chinese literature, because human lives start in the ceaseless flow of time. When people become aware of this, “time” means for two points: first, bodies decline when time goes by, and all living traces will be eliminated and become irreversible “past” after death. Thus, people always feel insecure and terrified about time. Second, people believe that the meanings of life will elaborate to the greatest extent when they fulfill themselves and become paragons of descendants, so human spirits will exist beyond their bodies, become “immortal”, persist in time, and take part in the unreachable “future”. Thus, “time” will no longer be suppression and constraint. From this aspect, in this essay “Time Consciousness” will start with the alteration that time brings to life, and discuss the emotions and thoughts this alteration triggers and the attitude it derives. These emotions and thought that “time” triggers all can be found in Ouyang Xiu （歐陽修)’s Guwen (古文). On one hand, he recollects the passing friends and loves, sighing and regretting for the lost “past”. On the other hand, he enquires and meditates upon how to reach “immortality” through recording the old things. The past, the present and the future are all in his works, so Time Consciousness really plays a big role in Ouyang Xiu’s Guwen, which evokes my interest in this theme. “Time” has always been the most important theme in Chinese literature. As the literary leader of Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), does his Time Consciousness succeed or respond to the models before? Therefore, my research approach is first to review the former authors and to survey the types they built for this theme. My generalization will be three types: the coming death, the shortening life, and the passing time. The first type often links to the failure of one’s life value, which means the anxiety of “nothing accomplished”. The second type usually eases the sorrow of shortening life with the emotion of “Carpe Diem”. These two types are connected with “Death” and comprise negativity. The third type unties “Old” from “Death” and weakens the sorrow, seizes the days, and enjoys life. The common point of these three types is the concern for the change of life when time passes. Ouyang Xiu’s Guwen contains these three types: Firstly, he is conscious of that life gets old and fades away when time passes, which presents a clear and thorough process of prosperity and decline. He witnesses all the rises and falls, contrasts past and present, and his emotions are inevitably affected. Meanwhile, he finds out that lives passed and left without vestiges, so he sighs with regret. Secondly, Ouyang Xiu focuses on how to leave marks in the future. He deems that things die out with time and people rely on extrinsic mediums too much to discover the mistakes of self-accomplishment, and thus, people’s common aspiration in centuries to be “immortal” gradually gets further apart and won’t come true. Thirdly, Ouyang Xiu converts the sorrow of time’s passing. When the thought of interaction between human and natural law is reversed, human beings are liberated from the subordination of nature, viewing the rises and falls as natural phenomenon, refraining from emotional influence, and being free from the cosmic nature. There would be no more cause and effect to confirm time by sensing the externality and to feel sorrowful by knowing time. To release sorrow from time makes people treat passing time with a moderate attitude, and ease the pain with rationality. With the former base, it is knowable of Ouyang Xiu’s inheritance, transformation, and reconstruction of predecessors’ paragons by historical review. First, Ouyang Xiu obviously accedes to the concern about the phenomenon that life advances with time, but his object differentiates from others. The former authors concern about themselves, and Ouyang Xiu’s others, which makes a distinction of focus and the origin of sorrows. The former works pay closer attention of one’s death and dread, while Ouyang Xiu cares about others’ variation of ups and downs. He mourns for the rare “gentlemen” and their births in the wrong times, and at the same time, he elaborates on their past prosperity, trying to preserve their life vestiges in the fluid of time by literary record, and makes later generations to understand and approve their meaning of being. It is evident that Ouyang Xiu emphasizes on the power of word, and he even takes writing as the true method to be “immortal” and break the time limit. Second, for the predecessors, to achieve accomplishments is just one of the thoughts to persist time. They have not reviewed how to achieve “immortality”, and later, people even divert to preserve external medium and neglect the truth that “immortality” is based on spiritual inheritance. However, Ouyang Xiu confirms the immortality of spirit and attributed the origin of immortality to self-fulfillment. Only when people fulfill themselves internally can they build up an unshakeable immortal value, and hence people can break the limit of time and achieve future. In the meantime, Ouyang Xiu reassures “literature” as the best immortal source, and he stresses on writing practically, which means to express the sincere emotions that people have in common. Therefore, Ouyang Xiu not only responds to his predecessors, but also establishes an integrated theory of “immortality”. Third, to break away from the sorrow of passing time is a new type that Ouyang Xiu sets up. Through sensible thoughts, he strives to break the limit of nature, tries to get rid of time from life, and makes people to look over their lives and enjoy life. The sensible thoughts are shared by authors in Song Dynasty like Shao Yong (邵雍) and Su Shi (蘇軾), while Bai Juyi (白居易), who sees life passing as nature similarly, doesn’t equip with these thoughts. The sensible philosophy echoes with the rational literature of Song Dynasty, which is commendable. When we review historically, we will find out that Ouyang Xiu’s time consciousness exhibits the significance of “human” and reveals his positivity. Facing time, which bestows upon people with endless anxiety, sorrow, and suffering, he tries to overcome the shadow of the elapsed time and give people more room and more confidence to carry on. His own practices of belief means that he expects himself to “win honor for great writing”(立言); that is, to record the fading past, and to pass it down to the infinite future.
Subjects
Ouyang, Xiu
Guwen
Time Consciousness
Immortality
Lyric
SDGs
Type
thesis
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