Wang Yu-Cheng and the Innovation of Poetry and Prose During the Early Period of Northern Song Dynasty

Wang Yucheng was a pioneer in the innovation of poetry and prose during the early period of China's Northern Song Dynasty. He was able to liberate his poems from the literary styles of Bai Juyi, but to develop Bai's tradition of sarcasm. Moreover, he advocated learning from Poet Du Fu, and blazed a new trail for the poets of Song Dynasty to learn from Du's styles. In the innovation of prose, he was able to develop the literary theories first advocated by Han Yu that literature should be for clarifying morality and ethics and literature should use ordinary vocabulary, simple style, and fluent expression, bringing forth his new idea of literature for transmitting virtue and clarifying the heart. Wang Yucheng, in theory and practice, set an example for the innovation of poetry and prose in Early Song Dynasty.