Sages can fully examine the laws of the universe and observe and study the subtleties of things. All-embracing and adaptable to different conditions of things, their thoughts perfectly agree with objective facts. For example, The Spring and Autumn Annals is succinct, where a single character can convey the writer’s praise or criticism. Yet the poem “The Seventh Month” in “The Bin Ballads” of The Book of Songs and the chapter “Conduct of the Scholar” of The Book of Rites do not hesitate to reiterate the authors’ respective ideas and express their feelings with manifold words. Therefore, to learn writing from the sages means to compose admirable articles that not only conform in manners to the rules of writing and correspond in content to objective facts but also adapt flexibly to different situations as required.

A sage has such thorough and profound wisdom as to communicate with gods and see the subtlest substances, just as the sun and moon shine upon every corner and cast light on all things. Hence his writing sets the rules, and his ideas fit perfectly with objective facts. He may either express his intentions with concise language or detail his emotions with rich words. At times, he may be explicit about the principles to establish the main body of his treatise; at other times, he is implicit in his account to conceal the purpose of his writing. (Liu Xie: The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons)