This essay is divided into eight section: 1) introduction , 2) Chung Jung's 鍾嶸(465-518)life span , 3) the years of the composition of the Shih p'in and Chung's attitude as suthor , 4) the principles of its composition , 5) its contents , 6) the criteria followed in Chung's poetics , 7) the genre in which it is written , and 8) concluding remarks . Although the problems set forth in sections (2) , (3) , (4) , (5) , and (6) have been psrtly treated by recent scholars on the Shih p'in , this study is more detailed and its conclusion is different . For instance , in Section Six , the suthor divides Chung's poetic criteria into six items: 1) a preference for the expression of sentiments over Classical references , 2) a preference for emotional response over logical persuasion , 3) a preference for natural rhythm over stylized versification , 4) a preference for polish over straight forwardness , 5) a preference for elegance over stilted language , and 6) a preference for embellishment over licentiousness . For another example , in Section Five in the discussion of the contents of the Shih p'in , the three schools of poetic style are re-evaluated . Ts'ao Chih 曹植 , originally considered as belonging to the kuo-feng 國風 school , can also be included in the hsiao-ya 小雅 school , while Juan Chi 阮籍 , a poet of the hsiao-ya school , can likewise be included in the kuo-feng school . In Section Seven , in which the genre of Shih p'in is discussed , it is pointed out that almost all the parts discussing the three classes of poets are written in prose , as a sharp contrast to the three classes of poets of the Ch'i-Liang 齊梁 style . It is clear that Chung was influenced by the style of Ssu-ma Ch'ien's Shih chi 史記 . So far this has not been discussed by other scholars .