"余事作詩人"是韓愈《和席八十二韻》中的詩句,其本義為韓愈對席八的贊許。自宋代始,部分論者將其作為獨立的話題,闡發一己之見。部分論者將自己的理解附會到韓愈身上,形成解讀與還原之間的錯位。他們對"余事作詩人"的理解包括:以詩歌為文章余事,以詩歌為政事、德行之余事。前者反映出北宋歐陽修等人的詩學觀念,后者延續了古人傳統的價值判斷。重視典故、出處的箋釋思路,會在一定程度上忽視原詩的本意,從而成為誤讀不斷的重要原因。此外,后人在詩歌中對"余事作詩人"的化用,則繼續了"詩人"身份的詩性表達,也接近于韓詩原意。

"To Be a Poet in The Spare Time"was a verse from Han Yu( 768-824),and he praised Xi Ba with this verse. From North Song Dynasty,some people made it as an independent topic to express their own opinions. And some people even add their own understandings to Han Yu,which lead to the confusion about quoting and annotating. They had two explanations about the verse,poem was less important than essay,or poem was less important than government affairs and moral integrity. The former reflected the poetics of Ou Yangxiu( 1007-1072) and others,and the latter continued traditional values of ancient people. The action which attaching importance to the allusion and annotation was the important reason of misunderstanding real intention,and it also ignored the original mean of this verse. Additionally,in the process of borrowing this verse to create new poetry,the later generations continued the poetic expression when they used this verse,and it more closed to the original intention of Han Yu.