Wiping the Dust at the Five-Hundred-Stone Grotto Heaven, Vol. 5

...seeking to be different from the ancients, yet they could not force themselves to be the same. Therefore, viewed from the perspective of their differences, it is not only that Su and Huang are not Tang poetry; Su and Huang themselves do not emulate one another. It is not only that Yang and Lu are not the poetry of Su and Huang; Yang and Lu themselves emerge simultaneously without obscuring one another. Moving further down, reading the works of Yishan and Daoyuan is also as if Su, Huang, Yang, and Lu had not existed before them. This is because over these several hundred years, poetry and the energy of heaven and earth have both been renewed; these few gentlemen simply had the ability to attain it.

Since the Ming dynasty, Gao Qingqiu learned [from the past] but did not succeed in forming his own style. When the "Former and Latter Seven Masters" arose, they did not investigate the continuity of literature throughout history, but instead drew boundaries and took narrow segments. If it is five-character verse, it must be Han or Wei, or else Wang or Meng. If it is regulated verse, it must be the High Tang. If it is seven-character old-style poetry, it must be Gao, Cen, Wang, or Li. They even selected a few pieces to serve as standards, and when their anthologies were published, fake poetry was created: sentences were patterned and characters imitated. They combined ten thousand voices into one, and the names of Zhang Jia or Li Yi could be swapped at will. In summary, it is like a child learning to speak; like a brave ape mimicking human speech; like a merchant dressing in the robes of others to pass for a Han or Tang official; like a masked actor whose joys and sorrows do not come from himself but are forced; or like carving a wooden puppet that is pulled to move but lacks life. Afterward, the younger students who study this do not see the entirety of ancient poetry, and they enjoy these theories because they can deceive the age and conceal...