Wang Anshi's "Fei Ming Qu" and "Wu Jiang Ting" are innovative in traditional themes, giving full play to the characteristics of long-term discussion in Song Dynasty, and they are recognized as excellent works beyond similar works in Tang Dynasty. Su Shi, on the other hand, took poetry as his word, and at the same time pushed Ouyang Xiu, Mei and others' "taking literature as poetry" to the point of "opening up the atmosphere and becoming a generation of grand views". Su Shi's poems are bold and unconstrained, touching the ground and giving birth to spring, full of innovative spirit. The seven metaphors in one breath in his famous sentence "Hundred Steps of Flood" are the best portrayal of nature: "Like a rabbit walking on an eagle, a good horse bets on thousands of feet on a slope, a broken arrow flies under the column and a ball flies on the gap." Some short poems by Wang and Su deliberately seek novelty, such as Wang's "A Boat in Guazhou" and Su's "A Pen on a Stream", which show people's whimsy with fresh images or are thought-provoking with rich philosophies, and have been passed down for a long time, adding a lot of brilliance to Song poetry.
Other important poets in this period were Huang Tingjian (1045 ~105) and Chen Shidao (1053 ~ 1 1), who were also trained by Su Shi, but their poetic styles were different from those of Su Shi. Regarding the characteristics of Song poetry, it is generally believed that the most important thing is argumentative and prosaic culture. "Poetry is based on literature", and some poets in the Tang Dynasty, such as Han Yu, have begun to do so.
Taking this as a standard, those who became a generation of poetic styles began with Ouyang Xiu, Mei and others, and reached the extreme with Wang Anshi, Su Shi and Huang Tingjian. From "taking poetry as the text" to "taking poetry as the theory", the reason why Song poetry is unique and forms its own style under the influence of powerful Tang poetry is deeply rooted in the times. During the Northern Song Dynasty, from the Qingli New Deal to Wang Anshi's political reform, the political reform and the factional struggle that followed it have always been the main concerns of intellectuals. At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the main battle and the main peace divided the ruling and opposition scholars into two completely different factions. The vast majority of poets have the dual identities of bureaucrats and intellectuals. "Talking about current affairs and striving for talent" is the common feature of these people. Secondly, in the Song Dynasty, Confucianism changed the old habits of Tang people who stuck to the previous generation and doubted the classics and confused the ancient times, and became a trend. Scholars who have been bureaucratized have been added as scholars. The so-called argumentative people are mainly caused by these two special times. In addition, there are two unprecedented characteristics in the two Song poetry circles, one is the emergence and formation of poetry factions, and the other is the emergence and popularity of "Poetry Talk" as a way of poetry criticism. There are many schools in the Song Dynasty, which are related to the stimulation of Buddhist sects and complicated political party struggles. For example, at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Lv Benzhong (1084 ~ 1 145) wrote the "Sect Map of Jiangxi Poetry Society", and Huang Tingjian listed 25 people as follows, so there were the so-called three schools of Jiangxi poetry, just like the "Fa Si" of Zen Buddhism. All the people listed are self-motivated and smell the same. As for the difference of literary views, it leads to the poet's portal views and strict barriers, which has an inherent causal relationship with "poetry talk"