Liu Xie (465?-520? or 532?), a literary critic of the Southern Dynasties, discussed the characteristics of sages’ writings in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons. He stated that sages, on the basis of understanding and exploring the natural ways of heaven and earth, skillfully balanced writing styles such as concealing and highlighting, and used the right amount of words and expressions in their classics, thus making such writings elegant in form and rich in content. Therefore, these classics were regarded as models of writings. This view of Liu’s is also the basic principle underlying ancient Chinese literary theory. In later literary critique, the Confucian classics were followed as the standard of good writing for both poetry and prose.

Those who create rituals and music are called sages, and those who enlighten and educate people are recognized as the wise and learned. We owe much to ancient sages and learned people who started using social norms and music to cultivate the human character. Confucius’ writings are easily available to us, which express the thoughts and sentiments of sages. (Liu Xie: The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons)