Li Shangyin's poems have a distinctive and unique artistic style, beautiful words and profound meanings. Some poems can be interpreted in many ways, while others are obscure. There are about 600 existing poems, especially untitled poems, the most prominent of which is his love poems. Li Shangyin is good at writing seven laws and five-character laws, and there are also many excellent works in seven-character poems. Ye Xie, a poet in the Qing Dynasty, commented on Li Shangyin's Seven Musts in his original poem as "affectionate entrustment, tactfully worded, but unparalleled in a hundred generations."
His poems reflect his thoughts, and his basic thoughts on human nature basically belong to Confucianism, but he takes a fancy to practicality and has a certain critical spirit to Confucianism. He believes that it is not necessary to take Confucius as a teacher and "forbearance" as the holy thing. He also has Buddhism and Taoism, advocating "nature" as his ancestor.