The Life Journey of Ouyang Xiu, the Drunken Old Man of the Pavilion
Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072), the 'Drunken Old Man,' orphaned at four and taught with reeds on sand, became the engine of the Song classical revival — 'On Factions' in defense of reform, the 'Record of the Drunken Old Man's Pavilion' in exile, the examination of 1057 that discovered Su Shi, Zeng Gong and Su Zhe. Historian, epigrapher, statesman, patron: the grand duke of Song letters.
Timeline of the Journey
1007 · 绵州 — Born at Mianzhou where his father was serving; dead at four, the widow drawing characters with reeds on sand — the famous 'reed-writing' childhood.
1031 · 洛阳 — Assistant under the western capital's marshal; three golden years with Mei Yaochen and Yin Zhu, the old prose banner raised over wine. 'The east wind, and we shall meet again at this flower.'
1037 · 夷陵 — Exiled to Yiling county for defending Fan Zhongyan too loudly: 'in exile, still the wind that ends frost; the wild plum first to bloom at the county gate.'
1043 · 开封 — The Qingli reforms with Fan Zhongyan — and the counter-attack answered by 'On Factions': 'when gentlemen join in a true faction, the state flourishes' — politics permanently re-argued.
1045 · 滁州 — Down to Chuzhou: the fengle pavilion, the drunkard's pavilion, 'his醉 intent not in the wine but in the hills and water' — the prose of the age's best exile.
1049 · 颍州 — Prefect of Yingzhou; the west lake 'light boat, short oar,' and the resolve to end there.
1057 · 开封 — Chief examiner of 1057, prose over parallel ornament — the graduate list a roll of immortals: Su Shi, Su Zhe, Zeng Gong. Song literature made in one spring.
1071 · 颍州 — Retired at last to Yingzhou against the new laws: 'after the hundred flowers are gone, the west lake is still lovely.' Died there the next year, Duke and complete.
'The Drunken Old Man's intent is not the wine — it is the mountains and waters.' He discovered the century's writers, rewrote its history, and left its most quoted sentence about happiness: Ouyang Xiu, the reed-prefect who became everyone's grandfather.