Liu Zongyuan
The Classical Prose Movement was spurred in large part by the writings of Tang authors Liu Zongyuan (773–819) and Han Yu (768–824). This new prose style broke away from the poetry tradition of the "piantiwen" (, "parallel prose") style begun in the Han dynasty. Although writers of the Classical Prose Movement imitated "piantiwen", they criticized it for its often vague content and lack of colloquial language, focusing more on clarity and precision to make their writing more direct. This "guwen" (archaic prose) style can be traced back to Han Yu, and would become largely associated with orthodox Neo-Confucianism.