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He was born in Luling, Jizhou prefecture (in modern Jiangxi) into a relatively poor family, losing his father when he was four. Unable to afford traditional tutoring, he was largely self-taught. He passed the jinshi exam in 1030 and became a major establishment figure of the period, but independent thought continued to be one of his hallmarks. Politically, he was an early patron of the political reformer Wang Anshi, but later became one of his strongest opponents. In his late 20s, Ouyang lost a factional battle at court and was sent out to the provincial Chuzhou 滁州 (in modern Anhui).

In his prose works, he followed the example of Han Yu, promoting the Classical Prose MovementThe Classical Prose Movement ( Chinese pinyin guwen yundong of the late Tang dynasty and the Song dynasty in China advocated clarity and precision rather than the florid piantiwen style which had become popular since the Han dynasty. Piantiwen focused on (古文運動). He was traditionally classed as one of the Eight Great Prose Masters of the TangTang Dynasty ( 618- 907) followed the Sui Dynasty and preceded the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms Period in China. The dynasty was interrupted by the Second Zhou Dynasty (690-705) when Empress Wu Zetian seized the throne. The Tang dynasty, with its c and Song. Among his most famous prose works is the Zuiwen ting ji, a description of his pastoral lifestyle among the mountains, rivers and people of Chuzhou. The work is lyrical in its quality and acclaimed as one of the highest achievements of Chinese travel writing.

As a historian, he has been criticised as overly didactic, but he played an important role in establishing the use of epigraphyEpigraphy (Greek, "written upon") is the study of inscriptions engraved into stone or other permanent materials, or cast in metal, the science of classifying them, elucidating them and assessing what conclusions can be deduced from them. The character of as a historiographic technique.

His poems are generally relaxed, humorous, and often self-deprecatory; he gave himself the title "The Old Drunkard". He wrote both shiShi is the Chinese word for " poem"; it can also be used to mean Chinese poetry other than lyrics, or (most commonly) the classical form of poetry developed in the late Han dynasty and which reached its zenith in the Tang dynasty. Origins From the 2nd cen and ciCi poetry (, interchangable with pinyin ci) is a kind of lyric Chinese poetry. Beginning in the Liang Dynasty, the ci followed the tradition of the Shi Jing and the yue fu they were lyrics which developed from anonymous popular songs (some of Central Asia. His shi are stripped-down to the essentials emphasised in the High Tang period, eschewing the ornate style of the Late Tang . He is best known, however, for his ci. In particular, his series of ten poems entitled "West Lake is Good" (西湖好) set to the tune "Picking Mulberries" (采桑子) helped to popularise the genre as a vehicle for serious poetry.

In 1072 Ouyang Xiu died in Yingzhou , Anhui province.