Li Mengyang, a native of Ming Dynasty, has a flexible mind. He is famous for his pretensions and outstanding achievements in restoring Qin tang style. He led the national literary world with "Pavilion Style". Scholars all over the world study and admire Li Dongyang's writing style, and only Li Mengyang laughs at its weaknesses. He advocated that writing articles should be based on articles in Qin and Han Dynasties, and writing poems should be based on poetic style in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, that is, "literature must be in Qin and Han Dynasties, and poetry must be in the prosperous Tang Dynasty". If you don't write poetry according to this style, it is not a good article or poem; He, together with He Jingming, Bian Gong, Kang Hai and Wang, is called the "seven gifted scholars". In order to distinguish him from the seven gifted scholars who appeared later in the literary world, he was called the "first seven", and he was the first one.
The literary "retro" movement advocated by Li Mengyang prevailed for a century, and was later replaced by the "public security school" represented by Yuan Zongdao, Yuan Hongdao and Yuan Zhongdao. The proposition that "literature must be in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and poetry must flourish in the Tang Dynasty" was advocated at that time to oppose the formalistic style of whitewashing Taige style and eight-part essay, which was called retro and had certain positive significance. However, overcorrection and emphasis on learning style and statutes from the ancients have brought negative factors to the literary world.
Li Mengyang, He Jingming and others swept away the wind of literary world, and their intention and starting point of worshiping the ancient and archaizing were correct. But people like Li and He Yi simply imitate the form and appearance of old literature, not the spirit and content of old literature. They only learn superficial knowledge and lose their character, which is similar in shape but not in spirit. Imitating the ancients purely in form, mechanically and dogmatically imitating their composition, paragraph method and syntax will only imprison the literati's creative thinking and stifle their most precious creativity and imagination, resulting in future generations being trapped in the barriers of their predecessors forever but feeling good about themselves, and it is impossible to jump out and get married.
Li Mengyang, a writer in Ming Dynasty