The term refers to the meaning implicit in an inspiration, or meaning and charm generated when poetic emotion encounters an external object or scene. It is an artistic image an author creates when appreciating the beauty and charm intrinsic in an object or scene. According to this term, an author should incorporate his sentiments and thoughts into the object or scene depicted to convey them through artistic images and aesthetic appreciation. This will spark the reader’s imagination and thus enable him to gain a deeper appreciation of a poem.

A good poem instills meaning and inspiration in its description of scenery and imagery. If a poem only describes scenery and fails to inspire people, no matter how eloquent the description may be, it will have little appeal. (Wang Changling: Rules of Poetry)

Poets of the Southern Dynasties were good at using rhetoric but weak in logic. The poets of our Song Dynasty champion logic but are weak in creating inspirational ideas. Poets of the Tang Dynasty gave equal weight to both meaning and inspiration, with logic implicit in both. The poems of the Han and Wei dynasties blended the choice of words, logic, and the inspiration imperceptibly. (Yan Yu: Canglang’s Criticism of Poetry)