Significance of Wen Yiduo's View on Poetics

During Chinese poetic development in the 20th century, poets of the first generation aimed to break tradition while those of the second generation wished to push the development of Chinese poetics. Wen Yiduo' s theory and practice hold an important position historically and currently. On one hand, he guided destructive poetic movement to a constructive one; on the other hand, his questions about the form and aesthetic meaning of poems is helpful to prevent Chinese poems from focusing more on contents than form rules.