The term refers to an individual's inner mind vis-à-vis the outside world, which

consists of two aspects, namely, temperament and talent. During the Southern

and Northern Dynasties, xingling (inner self ) became widely used in literary

writing and criticism. It refers to the combination of a writer's temperament

and talent, other than his social ethics, political beliefs, and literary traditions;

and it stresses that literature is inspired by traits of individuality and should

give expression to them. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, along with the

trend of giving free rein to individuality and shaking off intellectual straitjacket,

renowned scholars such as Yuan Hongdao and Yuan Mei advocated giving full

expression to one's inner self, namely, one's thoughts, sentiment, emotion and

views. They underscored the role of intellectual and artistic individuality in literary

creation as opposed to the rigid School of Principle of the earlier Song and Ming

dynasties, literary dogma and blind belief in classicism which constrained people

from expressing human nature and inhabited literary creativity. The Xingling

School thus became an important school in literary creation.