An author should produce a piece of writing to express emotions and not produce emotions for a piece of writing. In the chapter “Emotions and Rhetoric,”Liu Xie (465?-520? or 532?), the Southern Dynasties author of The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, points out two contrasting attitudes towards literary creation. Some writers, who inherit the realistic tradition of The Book of Songs, “draw inspiration from grief and joy in real life and express feelings based on real events.” Their writings faithfully reflect reality and accurately depict what is on their mind. Others, who intend to fish for fame and compliments, produce emotions out of nothing to cater to popular aesthetic criteria. Liu strongly advocates the former attitude and argues against the latter. It is because writings based on real emotions, which include both personal and empathetic feelings, are key to the organic development of literature, while emotions produced for writing, hollow and subject to material benefits, reduce the realistic significance and aesthetic value of literary works. For writers, real experiences in life and perception of the true nature and feelings of humanity can help correct the defect of “manufactured emotions” and achieve an almost natural effect of art in writings, even if they are elaborately designed.

The poems in The Book of Songs were each written based on emotions, while later verse writers provoked emotions for rhapsodies and eulogies. How do we know this is so? It is because feng (ballads) and ya (major and minor court hymns) were composed by meditative and impassioned poets who chanted their feelings to satirize their superiors. This is what is meant by producing a piece of writing for emotional release. The writers of rhapsodies and eulogies, on the contrary, had no pent-up feelings. They greedily pursued exaggerated ornaments in writing to fish for widespread fame. This is what is meant by producing emotions for a piece of writing. (Liu Xie: The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons)

The five-character poems of the Han and Wei dynasties were composed on the basis of pent-up emotions. Therefore, they are mild in style and profound in emotion. The five-character poems of Yan Yanzhi and Xie Lingyun were based on fabricated ideas. Therefore, they are affected in diction and prolix in the expression of ideas. (Xu Xueyi: Sources of Poetry and Differences in Style)