A poet should directly express his thoughts and sentiments when he is inspired.

This is a concept for writing poems proposed by poetry critic Zhong Rong of

the Southern Dynasties in his work "The Critique of Poetry" as a reaction to the

excessive use of allusions and quotes from earlier works. Inspired by naturalist

ideas of Daoism and by his own reading of the fine works of earlier poets, he

developed a new form of poetic creation which he named "direct quest." By this,

he meant directly describing matters that one senses and learns about, directly

expressing one's inner feelings, and creating aesthetic images in which the

sensibilities match up with current realities. The theory of natural disposition

and intelligence used in Ming- and Qing-dynasty poetics was influenced by this

idea.