In the summer of 1922, Liu Dabai compiled his new poems published in 19 19 to 1922 into an episode, named Old Dreams, and handed them over to the Commercial Press. However, the publication of this first novel experienced various hardships, which made Liu Dabai very unhappy. First of all, it took 20 months from submission to publication. This is because there was a great demand for new teaching materials at that time, and the Commercial Press mainly printed teaching materials, so it was called "educational cause". At Liu Dabai's repeated urging, Old Dreams was published in March 1924. In Liu Dabai's words, "it is twice as many months as human beings live in the womb." Secondly, the quality of printing and binding is very rough, the text is arranged incorrectly, and many words are added to the poem, which makes readers puzzled. This book is horizontally arranged from left to right, 40 pages long and narrow, and 500 pages are bound into a thick volume with a gray cover, which makes Liu Dabai's nose explode. What's even more ridiculous is that there is a new book brand hanging in front of the general distribution office of the Commercial Press. Whenever a new book is published, it is necessary to hang a book brand of the book on it, and then move the first book brand forward after another new book is published. The cover of "Old Dreams" is horizontal from the left, but the writer of the famous book copied it in reverse and wrote "Old Dreams". Even a few months after the book was published, many of Liu Dabai's friends thought that the book had not been published, but they were told that there were only "old dreams" and no "old dreams", which made Liu Dabai really laugh and cry.
Anyway, "Old Dreams" finally came out. Because there were few new poems at that time, they were very popular. They printed 2000 copies and sold out quickly. The Commercial Press asked Liu Dabai whether to reprint it, but he was politely declined. Five years later, in September of 1929, Liu Dabai completely broke up the old dream, saying, "Some have gone, some have been added, some have been moved and some have been changed" and regrouped, "Make the torn old dream into Ding Ning, recreate it, tears of autumn, and sell cloth rumors". Ming Kai Bookstore published these four new poems from September 1929 to June 1930 respectively, which were well received by readers.