This concept holds that too many flowers disfigure the branches of a tree (because this interferes with the overall beauty); and excessive body weight damages the bones (by reducing their ability to support the body). The term was coined in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons of Liu Xie (465?-520? or 532?) in the Southern Dynasties. Liu used this as a metaphor to illustrate the principle that elements such as image, sound and color serve to convey the sentiment of a piece of writing. If one overuses techniques and piles on the rhetoric to simulate the image, sound and color of things, or contrives too deliberately to create beauty, sound and color, it will harm the structure and content of the writing. In response to the literary style of the Qi and Liang dynasties, which emphasized rhetoric, rhythm, and form, Liu articulated the principles of integrating form and content and organizing rhetoric according to the needs of content expression, while pointing out that excessive pursuit of rhetoric and writing techniques not only gets in the way of theme and content, but also adds nothing to true formal beauty.

Some people only pursue rhetoric, contemptuously abandoning the true purpose of writing. Although they may have read thousands of works in the style of fu, they only become more confused about the stylistic characteristics and basic requirements when composing these works. As a result, just as too many flowers on a tree weigh down on the branches and obesity damages the bones, the fu works they write will not be able to help guide and lead people, nor can they encourage and alert them. (Liu Xie: The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons)

A piece of writing which is concise and clear, not pompous and oblique is to be commended. An analysis of an issue, to be deemed admirable and illuminating, should be made in a clear and reliable way, and it should not be complicated and abstruse. (Liu Xie: The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons)

If a piece of writing is rich in rhetoric but lacks real emotion, it is bound to be boring to read. (Liu Xie: The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons)