¹ Wei Zhongju 魏仲舉 (fl. 1195) (comp.), Wubaijia zhuyin bian Han Changli xiansheng quanji 五百家註音辯韓昌黎先生全集. Although the title says 500 scholars, the actual number is 378. See 郝潤華, Hao Runhua, “Wubaijia zhu Han Changli ji zhengli xinde” 《五百家注韓昌黎集》整理心得, Guji zhengli yanjiu xuekan 古籍整理研究學刊 (January 2020), no. 1: 1–4Google Scholar. For Han's reception in the Song dynasty, see Jinping, Zha 查金萍, Songdai Han Yu wenxue jieshou yanjiu 宋代韓愈文學接受研究 (Hefei: Anhui daxue chubanshe, 2010)Google Scholar.

² For example, “Mao Ying zhuan” 毛穎傳 (Biography of Fur Point) narrates the life of a dutiful writing brush using the serious genre of historical biography. For its allegorical meanings, see Nienhauser, William H. Jr., “An allegorical reading of Han Yü's ‘Mao-Ying Chuan’ (Biography of Fur Point)”, Oriens Extremus 23/2, 1976, 153–74Google Scholar. In composing epitaphs, Han magnified specific, sometimes controversial, episodes to highlight the personality of the deceased. Changwu, Sun 孫昌武, Han Yu sanwen yishulun 韓愈散文藝術論 (Tianjin: Nankai daxue chubanshe, 1986), 104–6Google Scholar, 48–57. For his experiment with poetry to achieve an extraordinary style, see Kōzō, Kawai 川合康三, “Kan Yu no ki” 韓愈の奇, in Kōzō, Kawai, Shūnanzan no henyō: Chūtō bungaku ronshū 終南山の変容: 中唐文学論集 (Tokyo: Kenbun shuppan, 1999), 146–61Google Scholar.

³ For a study of how Han used a playful style to convey Confucian ideas, see Fang Chieh 方介, “Tan Han Yu yiwenweixi de wenti” 談韓愈以文為戲的問題, Zhongguo wenzhe yanjiu jikan 中國文哲研究集刊, 16, March 2000, 65–93. For the humorous nature of Han's works, see Hightower, James R., “Han Yu as humorist”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 44/1, June 1984, 5–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the playful nature of Han's prose, see Kawai, “Gire no bungaku – Kan Yu no gi wo megutte” 戯れの文学——韓愈の戯をめぐって, in Kawai, Shūnanzan no henyō, 254–78. Han even plays with rhyme. See Kwan, Wong Yiu 黃耀堃, “Shilun Han Yu ‘Song qiong wen’ de shenglü” 試論韓愈〈送窮文〉的聲律, Nankai yuyan xuekan 南開語言學刊 13/1, 2009, 27–34Google Scholar.

⁴ For an analysis of the three-tier government and the reason for omitting “Ti Cui Shanjun zhuan” 題崔山君傳 (Foreword to the biography of Cui Shanjun) from the series, see Mei Ah Tan, “Han Yu's ‘Za shuo’ 雜說 (Miscellaneous Discourses): a three-tier system of government”, Journal of the American Oriental Society 140/4, October–December 2020, 859–74, especially 870–72. In brief, it does not adhere to the genre characteristics and was also omitted from a Song edition of the series.

⁵ For a collection of these commentaries, see Ye Baifeng 葉百豐, Han Changli wen huiping 韓昌黎文彙評 (Taipei: Zhengzhong shuju, 1990), 22–7. “Long shuo” and “Ma shuo” were included in the seventeenth-century textbook Guwen guanzhi 古文觀止 (The finest of ancient prose), which remains influential even today. Wu Chucai 吳楚材 (Wu Chengqian 吳乘權, fl. 1694) and Wu Diaohou 吳調侯 (fl. 1694), Zuben Guwen guanzhi 足本古文觀止, rendered into modern Chinese by Wu Jinghui 吳敬暉 and collated by Wu Liucun 吳留村 (fl. 1648) (Shanghai: Guanghua shuguan, n.d.), j. 7, 72–4.

⁶ According to Hartman, “Ma shuo” condemns the political inertia and stagnation that characterized the last decade of Dezong's reign (779–805). Since the ability to locate and foster “talent” was an essential quality of Confucian sage-kings, the return of this quality was high on Han's programme for political reform. He argues that Han had already worked out many of the major philosophical premises that underpinned the Neo-Confucian synthesis. Charles Hartman, “The oneness of the sage”, in Charles Hartman, Han Yü and the T'ang Search for Unity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), 171–210. Chen argues that Han's aim to construct a Confucian moral and metaphysical philosophy differentiated him from Liu Zongyuan 柳宗元 (773–819), who simply treated the Confucian Way as the guiding principle of public life. Jo-shui Chen, Liu Tsung-yüan and Intellectual Change in T'ang China, 773–819 (1992; rpt. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 188–93, 119–26. McMullen, however, questions the scope and nature of the interior philosophy contained in Han's extant corpus. David McMullen, “Han Yü: an alternative picture”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 49/2, December 1989, 603–57.

⁷ Madeline K. Spring, “A stylistic study of Tang ‘Guwen’: the rhetoric of Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan” (PhD dissertation, University of Washington, 1983), 133–58.

⁸ Fang Li-Na's 方麗娜 linguistic analysis of “Huo lin jie” 獲麟解 (On capturing the unicorn) has provided a new approach to the study of Han's prose, but her research specifically looks at the correlations between sentences: her aim is to shed light on the relationships among syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Fang Li-Na, “Pianzhang de yuyi xianjie he yufa shouduan tanxi – Yi Han Yu ‘Huo lin jie’ wei li” 篇章的語義銜接和語法手段探析──以韓愈〈獲麟解〉為例, Gaoxiong shida xuebao 高雄師大學報 14, 2003, 127–49.

⁹ This translation has taken note of Spring, “A stylistic study of Tang ‘Guwen’”, 133–4, and the revised translation in Spring, Animal Allegories in T'ang China (New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1993), 143.

¹⁰ The punctuation here is modified from the edition of Ma Qichang 馬其昶 (1855–1930) and Ma Maoyuan 馬茂元 (1918–89) (eds), Han Changli wenji jiaozhu 韓昌黎文集校注 (1986; rpt. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1998), j. 1, 32–3.

¹¹ Their combined use is known as huihuan dingzhen 迴環頂真 (anadiplosis with chiasmus). Meng Zhaoquan 孟昭泉, “Zailun dingzhen cige de fenlei” 再論頂真辭格的分類, Zhongzhou daxue xuebao 中州大學學報 3, March 1994, 30–35.

¹² Its use can be traced to pre-Qin texts and the term first appears in Ren Fang's 任昉 (460–508) Wenzhang yuanqi 文章緣起. For its historical development, see Huang Lizhen 黃麗貞, Shiyong xiucixue 實用修辭學 (Taipei: Guojia chubanshe, 2007), 447–9.

¹³ For anadiplosis, see Richard A. Lanham, A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, second ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 10. When dingzhen refers to repetition at the beginning and end between paragraphs, it is known as lianhuanti 連環體 (the style of interlocked rings). Chen Wangdao 陳望道 (1891–1977), Xiucixue fafan 修辭學發凡 (Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe, 2008), 173–5.

¹⁴ According to Huang Qingxuan 黃慶萱, anadiplosis lines up thoughts and uses a common point to connect a number of complex issues. Huang Qingxuan, Xiucixue 修辭學, seventh ed. (Taipei: Sanmin shuju, 1994), 499–502.

¹⁵ Huang Lizhen, Shiyong xiucixue, 334–8.

¹⁶ Lanham, A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, 33.

¹⁷ Huang Lizhen notes that chiasmus helps elaborate the dependent or oppositional relation of two elements. Huang, Shiyong xiucixue, 336. For its literary effects, see Zhang Gong 張弓, Xiandai Hanyu xiucixue 現代漢語修辭學 (Hebei: Tianjin renmin chubanshe, 1963), 148–9.

¹⁸ Wu and Wu, Zuben Guwen guanzhi, j. 7, 72.

¹⁹ Cai Zhu 蔡鑄 (annot. and comm.), Caishi guwen pingzhu buzheng 蔡氏古文評註補正, tenth ed. (1929; rpt. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1934), j. 7, 20a–20b.

²⁰ Ma Maoyuan used his grandfather Ma Qichang's edited Dongyatang 東雅堂 edition, printed by Xu Shitai 徐世泰 (dates unknown) during the Wanli 萬曆 (1573–1620) era. See the preface in Ma, Han Changli wenji jiaozhu, 1–2.

²¹ Wang Weixian 王維賢, Zhang Xuecheng 張學成, Lu Manyun 盧曼雲, and Cheng Huaiyou 程懷友, Xiandai Hanyu fuju xinjie 現代漢語複句新解 (Shanghai: Huadong shida chubanshe, 1994), 45–6. In Chinese grammatical studies, complex sentences – sentences in which at least one subordinate clause (e.g. “when Han Yu wrote this essay”) is linked to a main independent clause – are now considered a type of simple sentence.

²² Xing Fuyi 邢福義, Hanyu fuju yanjiu 漢語複句研究 (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 2001), 5–6.

²³ Wang et al., Xiandai Hanyu fuju xinjie, 294–8; 305. Xing Fuyi and Wang Weixian are the two most influential scholars in the study of compound sentences. Shao Jingmin 邵敬敏, Xinshiqi Hanyu yufaxueshi 新時期漢語語法學史 (1978–2008) (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 2011), 442–50.

²⁴ There is no causative relation in the diagrammatic presentation, but it comes up in the analysis.

²⁵ Ma's edition has a full stop instead of a semicolon for the second clause. Since the principal clause is clause five, the first two clauses are actually parts of a compound sentence.

²⁶ For the identification of the subject in Chinese, see Chow Kwok-ching 周國正, “Lun Hanyu ‘(jufa) zhuyu’ de sheding” 論漢語「（句法）主語」的設定, Journal of Chinese Studies 38, 1998, 339–62.

²⁷ For a study of the different types of subjects that are “non-agent; non-patient”, see Zhang Xuetao 張雪濤 (comp.), Xiandai Hanyu 現代漢語 (Hefei: Anhui renmin chubanshe, 2005), 330–31.

²⁸ Christoph Harbsmeier, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 7, Part 1: Language and Logic, ed. Kenneth Robinson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 109; Edwin G. Pulleyblank, Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1995), 106; Paul W. Kroll, A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 110.

²⁹ Wang Haifen 王海棻, Zhao Changcai 趙長才, Huang Shan 黃珊, and Wu Keying 吳可穎, Gu Hanyu xuci cidian 古漢語虛詞詞典 (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1999), 81–2..

³⁰ Because adverbs are used only for modifying verbs and adjectives, some scholars, such as Yang Bojun 楊伯峻, treat fei as a copula verb. Yang Bojun, Gu Hanyu xuci 古漢語虛詞 (1981; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2000), 37. Graham calls fei a negative copula, translated as “is-not” and generally reinforced by a final ye. A.C. Graham, “The relation between the final particles ‘yu’ 與 and ‘yee’ 也”, BSOAS 19/1, 1957, 105–23; 107.

³¹ For the use of ze 則as a conjunction, see Wang et al., Gu Hanyu xuci cidian, 463–4.

³² Kroll, A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese, 546.

³³ Harbsmeier, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 7, 130.

³⁴ Kroll, A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese, 546.

³⁵ Li Tu, Wenzhang jingyi 文章精義, annotated by Wang Liqi 王利器 (1960; Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1998), 62.

³⁶ Wu Kaisheng 吳闓生 (1879–1949) and Li Gangji (annotator), Tongcheng Wushi guwenfa 桐城吳氏古文法 (Taipei: Wenjin chubanshe, 1979), 79; Ye, Han Changli wen huiping, 22.

³⁷ Li, Wenzhang jingyi, 74.

³⁸ Wu and Wu, Zuben Guwen guanzhi, j. 7, 72; Xiong Wan 熊琬, “Han Yu ‘Huolin jie’, ‘Long shuo’, “Ma shuo’ sanpian zhi fenxi yanjiu” 韓愈〈獲麟解〉、〈龍說〉、〈馬說〉三篇之分析研究, Zhonghua xueyuan 中華學苑 45, March 1995, 239–58.

³⁹ David McMullen's writings provide an overview of the tensions surrounding enfeoffment. For Taizong's intent to use hereditary enfeoffment to control, protect, and perpetuate his imperial bloodline so as to countercheck the power of the civil bureaucracy, see his “Big cats will play: Tang Taizong and his advisors”, Journal of Chinese Studies 57, July 2013, 315–8. For the overall debate on enfeoffment throughout Chinese history, see “Devolution in Chinese history: the Fengjian debate revisited”, International Journal of China Studies 2/2, August/September 2011, 135–54. For the significance of the Pu'an decree that enfeoffed various princes in 756, see “The emperor, the princes, and the prefectures: a political analysis of the Pu'an decree of 756 and the Fengjian issue”, Tang Studies 32, 2014, 81. For the policies that the post-rebellion emperors adopted towards the imperial clan, see “Put not your trust in princes: a political analysis of the Imperial clan from 755 to 805”, Tang Studies 36, 2018, 1–56.

⁴⁰ For a brief discussion, see McMullen, “Han Yü: an alternative picture”, 607–8.

⁴¹ Ma, Han Changli wenji jiaozhu, j. 1, 51–2.

⁴² “Ma shuo” demonstrates one of the major stylistic features pointed out by Spring: balance obtained through parallelism and antithesis. Spring, “A stylistic study of Tang ‘Guwen’”, 24.

⁴³ The original reads “wei zhi tian fu yu zhi” 謂之天扶與之. There are versions that do not include the character tian 天 or have chi 持 for fu 扶. Ma, Han Changli wenji jiaozhu, j. 1, 34.

⁴⁴ The translation of this quotation comes from Richard John Lynn, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 203.

⁴⁵ The translation of this discourse has taken note of Spring, “A stylistic study of Tang ‘Guwen’”, 134–5.

⁴⁶ Ma, Han Changli wenji jiaozhu, j. 1, 33–4.

⁴⁷ Chen Kui defines “parallel metaphor” as listing the metaphor in the first clause and revealing its meaning in the second. Chen Kui, Wen ze, 13.

⁴⁸ Wang Haifen and his colleagues treat zhe 者 as a demonstrative pronoun; Wang Haifen et al., Gu Hanyu xuci cidian, 469. Wang Li 王力 treats it as a pronoun; Wang Li et al., Gu Hanyu changyongzi zidian 古漢語常用字字典 (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 2006), 494. Pulleyblank treats it as a pronoun substitute; Pulleyblank, Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar, 66–7. Kroll's dictionary treats it as a verb or verb-phrase suffix; Kroll, A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese, 597. If zhe is a suffix, however, it can only be used to create a word, not a nominalized phrase. Yang Bojun treats it as an auxiliary particle; Yang Bojun, Gu Hanyu xuci, 335.

⁴⁹ Eryi 而已 (and that's all there is to it) shows a restrictive meaning and is often followed by the perfective-aspect final grammatical particle yi 矣 for additional rhetorical effect. Kroll, A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese, 101–2. In Chinese linguistics, er and yi are treated as modal particles. Yang, Gu Hanyu xuci, 31; Wang et al., Gu Hanyu xuci cidian, 75.

⁵⁰ For this use of ye, see Kroll, A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese, 538.

⁵¹ Hartman observes that Han's writings show an intimate knowledge of the entire Book of Rites. Hartman, Han Yü and the T'ang Search for Unity, 179.

⁵² “Li yun” 禮運 of Liji zhushu 禮記注疏, j. 22, p. 22, in Shisanjing zhushu 十三經注疏, coll. Ruan Yuan 阮元 (1764–1849), vol. 5 (Taipei: Yiwen yinshuguan, 1980), 440.

⁵³ The pause between “even if one is gaunt” 雖瘠 and “there is no harm” 不害 is very short and does not need to be punctuated. They can be considered contracted clauses.

⁵⁴ For this use, see Kroll, A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese, 163.

⁵⁵ Ma's edition has a full stop instead. Ma, Han Changli wenji jiaozhu, j. 1, 33. The full stop is replaced by a semicolon to be consistent with the compound sentence that follows.

⁵⁶ For this use of ye, see Kroll, A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese, 538.

⁵⁷ Horses are often metaphors for worthy literati. Madeline K. Spring, “Fabulous horses and worthy scholars in ninth-century China”, T'oung Pao, 2^nd Series, vol. 74, Livr. 4/5, 1988, 173–210; and Chapter 4, “Horses and their masters”, in Madeline K. Spring, Animal Allegories in T'ang China, 101–32. Lin Shu 林紓 (1852–1924) compares the essay with “Huo lin jie”, suggesting that both texts address the issue of recognition. Lin Shu, Han Liu wen yanjiufa 韓柳文研究法 (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1914), 5–7.

⁵⁸ The translation of this essay has taken note of that of Spring; see Spring, “A stylistic study of Tang ‘Guwen’”, 136–7, and the revised translation in Spring, Animal Allegories in T'ang China, 107–8. The original Chinese does not specify the subject who performs the series of actions in the last part, but the verbs suggest that the subject is likely the groom. Both si 食 and ming 鳴 are causative verbs, with the pronoun zhi 之 serving as object, referring to the horses.

⁵⁹ Yang Yong 楊勇 agrees with Yao Nai 姚鼐 (1731–1815) that there should be no punctuation here; otherwise the impact on the reader is less vigorous. Yang Yong, “Lun Han Yu wen zhi wenqi” 論韓愈文之文氣, in Han Yu xueshu taolunhui zuzhi weiyuanhui 韓愈學術討論會組織委員會 (comp.), Han Yu yanjiu lunwenji 韓愈研究論文集 (Guangzhou: Guangdong renmin chubanshe, 1988), 136–48; see p. 147. From the grammatical aspect, however, there should be a comma. Without punctuation, these two clauses would be considered “contracted”, but this kind of contraction is rare with the conjunction ranhou 然後 (only then).

⁶⁰ The period in Ma's edition has been replaced by a semicolon here, because the first two clauses are juxtaposed with the next two. Together, they present the two major causes for the disappearance of thousand-li horses: the need for connoisseurs and the scarcity of such people.

⁶¹ Ma, Han Changli wenji jiaozhu, j. 1, 35–6.

⁶² These are two of the three main ways repetition is used. It can also be used as an indicator of a shift or pause. Spring, “A stylistic study of Tang ‘Guwen’”, 38–40.

⁶³ The combined use of anthimeria and antanaclasis is a stylistic feature of Han's prose. Spring, “A stylistic study of Tang ‘Guwen’”, 47–53.

⁶⁴ The definition of anastrophe follows Spring, “A stylistic study of Tang ‘Guwen’”, 31.

⁶⁵ For an explanation of this partitive construction and examples, see Yang Bojun 楊伯峻 and He Leshi 何樂士, Gu Hanyu yufa ji qi fazhan 古漢語語法及其發展, 2^nd edition (Beijing: Yuwen chubanshe, 2003), 483.

⁶⁶ Yang Bojun, Wenyan yufa 文言語法 (Beijing: Dazhong chubanshe, 1962), 118–20.

⁶⁷ For this usage of ye, see Kroll, A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese, 538.

⁶⁸ Sun treats the last two sentences as question and answer. Sun, Han Yu sanwen yishulun, 161–2.

⁶⁹ Yang believes that a final judgemental comment contributes to the vigour of Han's writing. Yang, “Lun Han Yu wen zhi wenqi”, 147.

⁷⁰ Xie comments that these two features helped created the vigorous effect so often associated with ancient prose writers such as Han Yu. Xuhua, Xie 謝序華, Tang Song fanggu wenyan jufa 唐宋仿古文言句法 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2011), 255Google Scholar.

⁷¹ For the major characteristics of “Miscellaneous Discourses”, see Zhezhen, Nan 南哲鎮, “Tangdai zashuo yanjiu” 唐代雜說研究, Guji yanjiu 古籍研究, no. 1, 2004, 196–200Google Scholar; 197.

⁷² For example, “Pi shuo” 羆說 (On the brown bear) ridicules a hunter for driving away an animal by mimicking the sound of a stronger one, only to fall prey to the latter; it shows that those who rely on external force will perish. The other type of discourse is not metaphorical. It takes the form of a dialogue on an issue and can be explicitly didactic. For example, “Tian shuo” 天說 (Discourse on heaven) records his conversation with Han Yu on whether Heaven has a will to exercise reward and punishment. “Bu she zhe shuo” 補蛇者說 (Discourse on the snake-catchers) has the Jiang 蔣 family speak of the tragic deaths its members suffer for capturing poisonous snakes in exchange for tax exemption, thereby condemning harsh government policies. For Liu's eleven discourses, see Zongyuan, Liu, Liu Zongyuan ji 柳宗元集 (1979; rpt., Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2006)Google Scholar, v. 2, j. 16, 441–70.

⁷³ For Han's promotion of ancient-style prose to replace parallel prose, see Sun, Han Yu sanwen yishulun, 40–62.

⁷⁴ “Da Liu Zhengfu shu” 答劉正夫書, in Ma, Han Changli wenji jiaozhu, j. 3, 206–8.

⁷⁵ “Da Liu Zhengfu shu”, 207; “Da Li Yi shu” 答李翊書, in Ma, Han Changli wenji jiaozhu, j. 3, 170.

⁷⁶ “Yu Feng Su lun wen shu” 與馮宿論文書, in Ma, Han Changli wenji jiaozhu, j. 3, 196.