Han Yu: “Memorial on the Buddha’s Bones”

Audience

Given the importance that Chinese civilization has traditionally placed on writing and history, Chinese authors wrote with an eye to audiences in the present and the future. Writing, whether personal or professional, addressed both public audiences (officials and court historians) and private audiences (friends, family, colleagues, and future readers). First and foremost, Han Yu's memorial was a public appeal to the emperor to end his sponsorship of Buddhism. Han Yu was making a statement to the emperor and his officials. The memorial was also a public document for those in the future to note. Upon submission it became part of the imperial archive and would be used by court historians when they compiled the official history of Emperor Xianzong's reign. Han Yu himself had served in the Historiography Office, drafting the official history of previous Tang emperors. He was fully aware of how memorials would be used to create official histories. The official histories were the basis of historical education throughout the empire, and one's legacy would be shaped in part by one's public documents. Becoming famous for the right reasons and leaving a good legacy repaid the debt owed to one's ancestors and promoted the status of one's family and clan in the present and the future.

Privately Han Yu was also a famous literary figure whose poetry and prose were published in collections during his lifetime and after his death. The memorial would be added to his collected works as a model essay and as a record of his beliefs and positions. Han Yu had an eye toward his own historical record when he wrote this piece. He knew that in posterity he would be remembered as a strongly Confucian official who had had the courage to chastise an emperor for what he considered inappropriate support for Buddhism.