Han Yu

Han Yu

Han Yu (Chinese: 韓愈; 768 – 25 December 824), courtesy name Tuizhi (Chinese: 退之), and commonly known by his posthumous name Han Wengong (韓文公), was an essayist, Confucian scholar, poet, and government official during the Tang dynasty who significantly influenced the development of Neo-Confucianism. Described as "comparable in stature to Dante, Shakespeare or Goethe" for his influence on the Chinese literary tradition, Han Yu stood for strong central authority in politics and orthodoxy in cultural matters. He is often considered to be among China's finest prose writers. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Han Yu has received more than 200,256 page views. His biography is available in 39 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 37 in 2019). Han Yu is the 390th most popular philosopher (down from 352nd in 2019), the 264th most popular biography from China (down from 229th in 2019) and the 14th most popular Chinese Philosopher.

Han Yu is most famous for his advocacy of the use of the vernacular language in literature.