Listen to this articlechén yán wù qù 陈言务去
The Necessity of Eliminating Banal Expression
主要有两层含义：其一，指写文章时要去掉那些用腻了的陈旧言辞；其二，指构思文章时要摈除人云亦云的庸俗之见。这是唐代著名文学家韩愈（768—824）针对散文写作提出的观点。韩愈强调写文章应该变革创新，努力摒弃一切陈旧的言辞和论点，不可因循守旧。这一见解与韩愈所领导的“古文运动”提出的“文以明道”，提倡古文、反对骈文等观点是一脉相承的。
This term has a two-fold meaning. Firstly, it refers to the need to rid an essay of banal wording. Secondly, it encourages authors to discard mediocre, derivative ideas when writing. It is a term raised by the Tang Dynasty man of letters Han Yu (768-824) about prose writing. Han emphasized that essays should be written in an innovative way. He guarded against stereotyped expression and argument and opposed any rigid convention. This view echoed the idea of “writing to convey Dao” put forward by Han Yu during the Classical Prose Movement he led, a movement which aimed to abandon rhythmical prose characterized by parallelism and ornateness in favor of ancient prose of the Han Dynasty.
引例 Citations：
◎当其取于心而注于手也，惟陈言之务去，戛戛乎其难哉！（韩愈《答李翊书》）
（当把心里所想写出来的时候，一定要把那些陈旧的言辞和论点都去掉，这是多么费力、困难的事情啊！）
How difficult and exhausting it is to try to eliminate all banal wording and arguments when a person writes what he feels! (Han Yu: A Letter of Response to Li Yi)
◎陈言务去，杜诗与韩文同。黄山谷、陈后山诸公学杜在此。（刘熙载《艺概·诗概》）
（去除陈旧的言词，杜甫的诗歌与韩愈的文章是一致的。黄庭坚、陈师道诸人学习杜甫的诗歌正在这一点上。）
Du Fu’s poetry is no different from Han Yu’s prose in that both eliminate stereotyped wording. Huang Tingjian and Chen Shidao emulated Du Fu exactly on that point. (Liu Xizai: Overview of Literary Theories)
