Mei Yaochen expanded the scope of the use of poetic materials to include ugly and trivial objects of nature and humans. This was helpful in satirizing the absurdity of a more complex and detailed reality by combining various classics based on the exis...
Mei Yaochen expanded the scope of the use of poetic materials to include ugly and trivial objects of nature and humans. This was helpful in satirizing the absurdity of a more complex and detailed reality by combining various classics based on the existing classical tradition, such as the allegory of Classic of Poetry and Zhuangzi.
There are times when a cruel and vicious setting is necessary to vividly reveal the harsh social reality. Additionally, there is a demand for depictions of cruel scenes in order to safely express the violent nature of humans. Mei Yaochen wrote poems depicting the decomposition of the human body and the killing of animals such as birds and fleas. Although the purpose was satire, he also put effort into depicting the cruelty itself to enhance artistry.
The expansion of these poetic materials was a major factor in the style of strangeness of Mei Yaochen’s poetry. Mei Yaochen used the same poetry as the poets of previous eras and contemporaries as a model, but achieved a higher level of achievement than them. He worked on the creation of poetry with a sense of competition, and the basis of his poetry creation was the combination of regularity and ingenuity in The Art of War and The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons.