Poetic Style of Ming Dynasty Represented by Sanyang

The retro school, represented by "the first seven poets" and "the last seven poets", monopolized the literary world and advocated that "literature must flourish in Qin and Han Dynasties and poetry must flourish in Tang Dynasty", and abandoned the established tradition of literary development since Tang and Song Dynasties in prose creation and embarked on the road of retro. As far as the influence is concerned, some literati and scholars blindly imitate the ancients in Qin and Han dynasties in their prose creation, and their works become soulless fake antiques.

For quite a period before the middle of Ming Dynasty, the literary world represented by Sanyang pursued elegance and beauty in form, praised merit and whitewashed peace in content. After Wang became an official, he felt that his previous works also pursued elegance in form and lacked real life content, and he had doubts about this style of writing. During Hongzhi and Zheng De years, Li Mengyang, He Jingming and others advocated the "retro" literary movement, and put forward the idea that "literature must be in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and poetry must flourish in the Tang Dynasty" and opposed the vain "taige style".