Han Yu
Han Yu ranks among the most important personalities in the history of traditional Chinese culture. His works not only become classics in Chinese literature, but his writings redefined and changed the course of the tradition itself. He was a stylistic innovator in the many genres he wrote in, and was a major influence on the literary and intellectual life of his time as well as later dynasties. The writings of Han Yu were influential to Song Dynasty writers and poets, in particular Ouyang Xiu who popularized the use of "guwen" as advocated by Han Yu, a style that would stay as the model for Chinese prose until the revolution in Chinese literature of modern China. In an inscription for a shrine to Han Yu, Song Dynasty poet Su Shi praised Han Yu: