Life

Ouyang was born in Panhu village (潘湖), Chidian (池店), Jinjiang, Fujian. His family had resided for several generations in the southeast and included magistrates and assistants in Quanzhou who came to service without examination.

Ouyang Zhan completed the jinshi degree in 792, alongside Han Yu and many other notable scholars in the year that came to known as the 「list of tigers and dragons」 (龍虎榜). Han Yu claimed that Ouyang Zhan was the first scholar of national standing to emerge from the southeast, a claim repeated by Wang Dingbao, but there were at least three degreeholders in the early eighth century from the Southeast.

Ouyang became assistant lecturer at the College of the Four Gates at the Imperial Academy in 799 and held it until his death.

Ouyang became an ardent participant in Han Yu's Classical Prose Movement. His writings have been compiled in ten volumes (歐陽行周文集). His poetry appears in a section of the compilation Quan Tangshi.

Death

Ouyang fell in love with a courtesan from Taiyuan. When his official duties forced him to leave her, he promised to return.

However, she was unable to muster the patience required and died of loneliness. When Ouyang heard the news, he too died of grief. This story was recounted in Meng Jian's (孟簡; jinshi 791) "Recounting Ouyang Xingzhou』s Affairs" (述歐陽行周事), a work about Ouyang's relationship with the courtesan that led to both of their deaths. In addition, Han Yu's elegy for Ouyang (歐陽生哀辭) became a famous historical homage.

Legacy

Ouyang Zhan had three sons and is the first ancestor of all the majority of Ouyang surnames in Jinjiang.

生平

先祖歐陽韶自唐初由江西波陽徙居潘湖，祖父歐陽衍是溫州長史，父歐陽昌曾仕博羅縣丞。歐陽詹性喜靜，弱冠能屬文，「五試于禮部」，貞元八年（792年）進士，賈稜為狀元，歐陽詹第二，韓愈第三，同榜還有李觀、李絳、崔群、王涯、馮宿、庾承宣等22人，皆天下選，時稱「龍虎榜」。

歐陽詹是福建第一位甲第進士、泉州第一位進士。貞元十五年（799年）官至國子監四門助教。歐陽詹全力參與韓愈的古文運動。貞元十五年（799年），力薦韓愈為四門博士。《閩政通考》載，「歐陽詹文起閩荒，為閩學鼻祖」。貞元十六年(800年)，客死長安，韓愈寫有《歐陽生哀辭》。著有《歐陽行周文集》十卷。《全唐詩》收其詩一卷。有三子，長子歐陽檟，次子歐陽蔭，三子歐陽秬。

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