Jiang Yan's Viewpoint on Literary Criticism and its Impact on the Book Comments on Poems

Jiang yan, a writer in southern Dynasties was famous for being good at modeling one's literary style on that of the ancients. There are unique opinions of literary criticism in his book 30 Miscellaneous Poems. The preface of the book embodies his main idea in literary criticism. The 30 poems modeled after the ancients in this book demonstrate the developing procedure of five-character poems from Han Dynasty to the period between Jin Dynasty and Song the first dynasty of Southern Dynasties in his special order of poets. Jiang Yan's view on literary criticism has a deep influence on the literary critical writings of later ages, especially on the book Comments on Poems.