Why is Han Yu called "the decline of eight generations of Wen Qi"?

Su Shi praised Han Yu as "the decline of eight generations of literature", but judging from Han Yu's position in the history of China literature and his literary achievements, he was not over-praised. ? "Eight Dynasties" refers to the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Song Dynasty, the Qi Dynasty, the Liang Dynasty, the Chen Dynasty and the Sui Dynasty, which is the era when parallel prose was formed and reached its peak. In addition, we can also understand the "eight generations" from the virtual point of view, that is, for a long time. "Decline" is aimed at eight generations of parallel prose. The word "decline" expresses China ancient writers' disparagement and dissatisfaction with parallel prose in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Judging from the development of parallel prose, this description is subjective but accurate. Because after the Jin Dynasty, parallel prose prevailed, and almost everything was parallel prose, which was speechless and went astray by formalism. Most of the content is romantic, and the children are modal, moaning and prone to depravity.

In the middle Tang Dynasty, Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan launched a massive ancient prose movement, advocating writing prose in the form of scattered sentences and single lines, which gradually replaced the previous parallel prose and lasted for thousands of years. In this movement, Han Yu's pioneering work is indispensable. With his excellent theory and creative practice, he injected fresh blood into the artistic life of classical prose and opened up a broad road for the historical development of prose. Therefore, Su Shi, who has always been reluctant to praise others, also praised Han Yu's "decline of eight generations" in Chaozhou Hanwengong Temple Monument. Han Yu's contribution lies in that he not only restored the ancient tradition and historical position of China in the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties, but also greatly expanded the functions of prose, making this style, which was originally mainly used for writing, truly become a multifunctional language tool for freely exchanging ideas, describing things and expressing emotions, thus opening up a vast world of prose creation. At the same time, because he attached great importance to the expression of literary characteristics and the use of literary means, he created excellent literary prose and improved the aesthetic character of prose, thus establishing his lofty position in the history of literature.