Poems of this style first emerged during the reign of Emperor Wu of Qi of the Southern Dynasties. That period, lasting from 483 to 493, assumed the regal title of Yongming, hence the name of this poetic style. Yongming poems featured metrical structure and parallelism. They were also known as the “new poetry,” as opposed to the “old poetry” of the Han Dynasty and the Wei period. Xie Tiao (464-499), Shen Yue (441-513), and Wang Rong (467-493) were leading poets of the Yongming style. This style was marked by a poet’s deft use of metrical structure and parallelism, thus enhancing the stylistic beauty and artistic expressiveness of poetry. It laid the foundation for the emergence of the “early modern” poetry, or regulated verse. However, the Yongming poetic style was weakened by an excessive emphasis on tonal patterns at the cost of content, drawing criticism of some poetry critics of the time. The style was thus burdened by this inherent risk in its quest for innovation.

Literary writing flourished towards the end of the Yongming period. Shen Yue from Wuxing, Xie Tiao from Chenjun, and Wang Rong from Langya, encouraged and praised each other out of their shared artistic aspirations. Zhou Yong from Runan was well versed in metrical patterning. The poems by Shen Yue and the others were very strict about the use of metrical schemes, namely, the level tone, the rising tone, the falling-rising tone, and the falling tone, and departure from the strict use of such metrical schemes was forbidden. This particular style of poetic creation became known as the Yongming style. (The History of Qi of the Southern Dynasties)