This term means using a literary form to express resentment towards social injustice and satirize and admonish those in power. It especially refers to the poems in The Book of Songs, in which poets criticized and satirized the politics and the ruling class of the time to vent their indignation and resentment. Scholars in the Han Dynasty considered resentment in The Book of Songs as controlled venting and the satiric sting constructive admonishment. They therefore combined the two into a term of literary criticism with positive implication. After the Tang and Song dynasties, the term gained a connotation of intense criticism and indignation. However, the essential meaning was still a yearning for good governance and social harmony.

When the benevolent way of ruling in the Zhou Dynasty was abandoned, there appeared poems that expressed resentment towards those in power and satirized or admonished them. When the king no longer cared for the general public, people stopped using poems to express what they had in mind. (The History of the Han Dynasty)