The Characteristics and Significance of Ouyang Xiu's "Guest as Host" in His Ancient-Style Prose.

Critics since the Song Dynasty, inspired by Soto Zen theory, developed the concept of "host-guest" to analyze the com¬position of the ancient-style prose. Ouyang Xiu's ancient-style prose is the representative of applying the concept of "guest as host, " or "guest before host, " or "reciprocal betwen guest and host, " or "hierarchy of guest and host. " Compared with Han Yu and Su Shi, Ouyang Xiu is better at expressing rich and fine emotions with the concept of "guest-host. " In the ancient-style prose, "guest" is prioritized over host, when the prose writings need to establish turns and twists in the textual composition and e¬motions in the text, before the guest position merges with the host position. By way of using guest position to support the develop¬ment of ideas, the writings usually have a gentle start, with sufficient space to unroll the meaning, which enriches the writings with charm and elegance, thus a new style is formed with a new state for the ancient-style prose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]