This poem was written in the ninth year of Song Dynasty (1 173), when Lu You was performing military affairs in Jiazhou (now Leshan County, Sichuan Province). Cen Can, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, is a historian, and Cen Can wrote Cenjiazhou Collection, which contains a large number of poems describing frontier fortress scenery and military life. Those poems are full of heroic spirit of generous service to the country and optimistic spirit of not being afraid of hardship. Lu You liked Cen Can's poems when he was a teenager and thought he was the greatest poet after Li Bai and Du Fu. After going to the History Department, he collected and printed Cen Can's poems and portraits. The content and style of this poem are deeply influenced by Cen Can, and the "Qiu Meng" written in the poem also has traces of imitating Cen Can. However, what Cen Can describes is often true, although it is often exaggerated; Lu You's poems are the works of "Ji Meng", although they seem true; Cen Can shows the frontier fortress during the period of national prosperity, while Lu You writes about the rivers and mountains that are still occupied by foreigners. There must be a huge gap between the two. Therefore, although Cen Can's shadow can be seen in this poem, there is sadness in generosity, and there is sadness besides heroism, which Cen Can does not have and is unique to Lu You.
This poem is all about dreams, and describes the moving scene of Song Jun soldiers going forward bravely, destroying the enemy and recovering the lost land. The whole poem is permeated with the poet's fighting enthusiasm for starting the Northern Expedition and restoring the Central Plains. The title states that "consciousness does something", but it doesn't write the sadness behind "consciousness" to reality, so that people can appreciate the poet's deep sadness from the joy of paper and understand his ideal that is difficult to realize in reality from dreams.