Inspiring imagery is an artistic achievement of profound literary significance

and with great aesthetic taste, obtained through the perfect blending of an

author's feelings with an objective situation or scenery. Xing (兴) is an impromptu

inspiration of the author, and xiang (象) a material object he borrows from

the external world in his writing. Tang-dynasty poetry critic Yin Fan first

used the term "inspiring imagery" in his "Preface to A Collection of Poems by

Distinguished Poets" in commenting on the works of poets in the golden period

of the Tang Dynasty. It later became a standard for assessing the merit of a

poetic work.