Ji Anchang's poem, like the Qing Kingdom Literary Prime Minister's earlier one, both praised and criticized, though it leaned more heavily toward criticism.
The poem said that some of Fang Yun's verses were extraordinarily strange, worthy of being called the strangest under heaven, prompting many people to imitate them. Yet later generations found it difficult to surpass them and still insisted on imitation, causing this crooked trend of pursuing novelty to spread like seawater flooding the land, overflowing into disaster. And who had caused this harmful influence?
The people of Qing Kingdom immediately brought out some of Fang Yun's earlier unusual poems as examples, such as the Ten-Character Palindromic Poem, the Four Seasons Palindromic Poem, and so on.
Ji Anchang's talent was so swift that Jing Kingdom's scholars began to feel a sense of crisis. Many secretly composed poems, wishing to strike back at Ji Anchang, only to discover that they could not contend against him by themselves.
Many Jing Kingdom people sighed softly. If they had prepared beforehand and united their strength, they would not have lost to Ji Anchang. But this literary contest had come so suddenly that they lacked the strength to respond.
At that moment, Jing Kingdom's scholars missed Fang Yun beyond measure.
Just as the Jing Kingdom people were at their wits' end, Jiang Hechuan, his beard and hair both white, rose to his feet and said with a smile, "This old man had intended merely to watch from the sidelines, but I cannot bear to see someone muddling the public's view and turning black into white. Therefore, I have composed a poem to set things right at their source."
After speaking, Jiang Hechuan pondered briefly, then recited, "Before Fang Yun, doubt no more; in passing down the legacy, who came first? Separate false forms,