Yuan Mei was the most famous and influential poet in the mid-Qing Dynasty, ranking first among the "Three Great Poets of Qianlong" and occupying a leading position in the field of poetry for nearly 50 years. He is also a county magistrate with a good reputation. Yuan Mei is a school of its own, with the same name, known as "South Yuan and North Hebei". Yuan Mei is also a gourmet. He wrote the famous Menu with Garden, which is an important work that systematically discusses cooking techniques and North-South cuisine.
Yuan Mei, Zhao Yi and Zhang Wentao (Chuanshan) are also called the three great masters of Ganjia School. Yuan Mei likes to call people kind, reward literati, advocate female literature and recruit female disciples, which was accepted by the poetry circle at that time.
Yuan Mei advocated writing poems to express temperament and opposed Confucian poetry teaching. Some poems criticize Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism in the Han Dynasty, declaring that "the Six Classics are all dross". Yuan Mei's literary thought also covered literary theory, literary development, stylistic function and so on, which was of progressive significance at that time.
Yuan Mei's creative and talented poems are unique in the field of poetry that emphasizes Confucian classics and learning. Yuan Mei's ancient poems have attracted much attention for a long time. In fact, the creation of classical poetry embodies the genius characteristics of Yuan Mei's poetry, full of vitality and creativity, and presents aesthetic characteristics different from modern poetry creation.
Yuan Mei has been active in the field of poetry for more than 40 years, with more than 4,000 poems, which basically embodies his theory of soul, unique style and certain achievements. The main feature of the ideological content of the Yuan Dynasty is to express the spirit, express the true feelings, interests and sentiments in personal life, which are often unconstrained and sometimes abrupt. In art, he does not imitate the past, sticks to one pattern, expresses his thoughts and feelings with skillful skills and fluent language, and captures the artistic image. Pursue the artistic style of truth, nature, freshness and agility. Among them, there are two kinds of outstanding representative works: one is live lyric travel poems, and the other is poems mourning the past and satirizing the present.
Yuan Mei combined "Qi" with "knowledge", based on temperament, intelligence and knowledge, and pursued truth, novelty and liveliness. On the whole, Yuan Mei does not object to the emphasis on melody, decorative sound and elegant allusions in the form of poetry, but only demands subordination to the spirit of expression.
Yuan Mei's theory of spiritual nature is a step forward and comprehensive compared with the public security school, and is considered as the main representative of the theory of spiritual nature in Ming and Qing Dynasties.