Li Shi weighed his options back and forth, agonizing for a while, and finally selected Cao Mengde's "Observing the Vast Ocean"as the foundation for his full-fledged masterpiece.
Are ancient prose poems not good?
Of course they are!
Each is a celebrated masterpiece, whether in terms of literary, artistic or ideological aspects, they are all classics.
Otherwise, Li Shi wouldn't have had such a tough time deciding.
Still, he eventually chose the poem "Observing the Vast Ocean".
The primary reason lies in the author of this poem, the person Cao Cao.
Cao Cao, styled Mengde.
The kind of person he was needs to be seen from two different sides. In the chronicles, he "uses the emperor to command the lords," and harbours ambitions of ruling. He is the "villain of troubled times" who would "rather betray the world than let the world betray me."
Yes, and this man also has a strange hobby, he likes to prey on women.
He is still the origin of the numerous "Cao Zei" on the internet.
