A problem in the history of ancient literature

Zhong Rong highlighted the characteristics of emotional appeal in his poems, and emphasized "seeking directly" to express the poet's "eyes" and "seeing", so that it had the "true beauty" of "natural English purport", and praised Ruan Ji's poems "Xing Tao spirit, thinking so slowly", which was similar to the later proposition of "the theory of spiritual nature". So Yuan Mei said: When Zhong Rong's poems were copied, it was when he knew the soul.

Yuan Mei's "spirit" includes temperament, personality and poetic talent. Temperament is the first element of poetry. "There is no poetry except temperament" ("I miss Qian Yusha Fang Bo and tell him to return to Li"). This temperament should express the poet's unique personality. "Poems can't be written without me" (Volume 7 of Poems with Fate), and "continuation poems" have the flavor of "writing with me". The so-called "ancient words, ancient words" is a clear-cut advocacy of "follow me" creative and writing purposes. This is the core of the aesthetic value of soul theory. However, it is not enough to have personality and temperament, but also to have poetic talent to express all this. "A poet without talent can't convince his soul with classics" (Preface to Poems in Jiang Xinyu Zazang Garden), and he should pay equal attention to intelligence and talent, talent and knowledge in artistic conception.