On Ouyangxiu's Elucidation on Prose Specialty

Independent prose theories appeared later in ancient literary ideology of China. The Song Dynasty was a period when prose consciousness was becoming conscious day by day,prose theory category was becoming clear day by day,Ouyangxiu,as a leader of the literary alliance of no equal of his time,wrote lots of excellent prose works,there were a large number of ideas specially elucidated for prose creation in his works,in which quite a few views showed the consciousness specially discriminating poetry from prose,which revealed his appreciation on sole prose specialty.The principle embodying eternal lives by words ran through his elucidations,and he thought prose had two important social functions: practical use and preaching.Ouyangxiu put forwards a distinction had to be made between discussion invention and the way of playing to the gallery and winning victory through unexpected moves,and maintained the discussion of prose should be distinct and succinct.