關於韓愈詩歌對怪奇風格的追求，歷來都從避熟取生的動機著眼，在唐宋詩變革的格局中加以認識和討論。實際上韓詩最重要的變革是在唐詩清奇雅正的美學理想中單單發展了「奇」的一面，遂以險怪、謔俗、生新、粗硬的趣味，衝擊和顛覆了古典詩歌典雅和諧的審美理想，開中國文學「現代性」之先聲。韓愈詩歌在清初以前始終未得到較高評價，典型地表現為「被壓抑的現代性」。從葉燮《原詩》推崇韓愈為古今三大詩人之一，到清代中葉詩壇全面肯定宋詩，其間的同步性顯示了一種新審美價值觀的確立，意味著中國詩學語境已由古典進入現代，韓愈評價的戲劇化變化是與中國文學的現代性進程密不可分的。

Discussions on Han Yu's poetry are usually focused on "creativeness" in the context of the changeable Tang and Song poetry, regarding it as his motivation to pursue strangeness.But in fact, his most important innovation in poetry is the "strangeness" itself, which breaks Tang poetry's aesthetic tradition that emphasizes classicality and harmony. The interest of adventurousness, humorousness,freshness and coarseness in his poems impacts on and overthrows the aesthetical ideal of classic poetry, and initiates the modernity of Chinese literature.This modernity is obviously suppressed, as Han's poems have not been highly evaluated until the early Qing Dynasty, when Ye Xie respects Han in his "Tracing the Cause of Poetry" as one of the three greatest poets in Chinese history. Besides Ye's respect for Han, Yuan Mei's high praise on Song poetry also shows the establishment of a new aesthetic value which stresses modernity more than classicality. The dramatic changes of evaluation on Han's poetry are closely related to the modernization of Chinese literature.