First, the highly centralized political system imprisoned the literati's spirit of freedom, and second, Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty bound the literati's thoughts. In addition, the negative influence of "orthodox literature" in the ancient prose movement in the Tang Dynasty made it difficult for the literati in the Song Dynasty to develop and display their personalities freely, forming an introverted personality. Because of the great achievements of poetry in Tang Dynasty, the literati in Song Dynasty had to find new ways to create poetry. The social environment of internal troubles and foreign invasion also prompted the literati in the Song Dynasty to use literature as a weapon, criticize the current disadvantages, arouse patriotic feelings, and make the literati in the Song Dynasty naturally move toward "taking literature as poetry".
Poetry based on literature is an important event in the history of China literati poetry. "Poetry based on literature" enriches the expressive methods and expands the expressive contents of poetry, which provides useful inspiration for Su Shi's later "Poetry based on literature" and has a far-reaching impact on the development of China's poetry after the Tang Dynasty. The reason why Su Shi's poems can be compared with Li Bai's "Flying high in the sky" and Du Fu's "The establishment of Qiao Yue" is that he opened up a new realm of "flowing water" by taking prose as poetry.