INCOMPLETE TREASURE: Half of the Yuan Dynasty painting mentioned by Premier Wen Jiabao at a press conference on March 14 is housed in a museum in Zhejiang Province (CFP)

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is renowned for his learning, and he frequently quotes ancient Chinese literature when giving speeches or meeting the press. He again made an impression at a press conference following the closing of the Third Session of the 11th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, on March 14, quoting classical Chinese poetry to elucidate the points he was making.

In his opening remarks, Wen delivered a retrospection of the past two years, saying the Chinese people had weathered extremely tough circumstances and done it with fortitude. In the next few years, he said, the road would still be an uneven one and it could be full of thorns. Then he quoted a line from Strategies of the Warring States, an ancient Chinese historical book about the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.), calling on the nation not to slacken its efforts or waver in its resolve even slightly.

Compiled by Liu Xiang (77-6 B.C.) in late Western Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-A.D. 8), Strategies of the Warring States is an important text of its era. It tells of the strategies and political views of politicians at that time and reveals the period's historical and social characteristics. Literally, the line quoted by Wen is: "Even if you finish 90 miles of a 100-mile journey, you are still only halfway." It is a vivid comparison that shows it is more and more difficult to move forward as the target gets nearer and nearer. The saying encourages people to start well and end well.

Then Wen expressed his determination to try all out to do his work well in the remaining years of his term by quoting a line from The Lament, the masterpiece of Qu Yuan (340-278 B.C.), a revered statesman and poet in the Warring States Period who is regarded by the Chinese as the father of Chinese poetry. The line Wen quoted means "for the ideal that I cherished in my heart, I would not regret dying a thousand times." It is one of the best-known lines of Qu's works.

The Lament, the longest of Qu's and all ancient poems of China, is considered one of the greatest works in Chinese and world poetry. It was written during a period when Qu had been exiled by the king of his country, the State of Chu. In the poem, he wrote about his own life experiences and ideals, expressed depression after being persecuted by treacherous court officials, and deprecated the king's fatuity and court corruption. At the same time, by way of his rich imagination and skilful similes, Qu expressed his immutable desire for truth and justice and his deep love of his country and the sadness of being forced to leave it.

The Lament was a representative work in the Songs of Chu, a collection of poems written in the Warring States Period and the Western Han Dynasty, featured with a new form of poetry that sprouted and blossomed in the State of Chu during the period. Qu was one of the central figures in creating the new poetic form, which abandoned the classical four-character verses used in the poems in The Book of Songs and adopted verses of varying lengths.

When a reporter with Newsweek raised a question about China's attitude at the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December 2009, Wen responded with lines from a poem of Liu Yuxi (772-842), a famous poet from the Tang Dynasty (618-907): "My soul and conscience are unsullied, despite the rumors and slanders of others." Then Wen told the reporters what actually happened in Copenhagen.

In reply to a reporter from Taiwan's United Daily News who asked a question about the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement between the mainland and the island, Wen quoted a line from the Chronicle of Zuo, the earliest Chinese work of narrative history about the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.), a gem of classical Chinese prose.

Wen quoted: "Differences between brothers cannot sever their blood ties." In saying this, Wen meant because the mainland and Taiwan are like brothers, any problems between the two sides could eventually be resolved. He said he still cherished a very strong will to visit Taiwan, and in his view 5,000 years of the Chinese nation's history exerted a strong appeal and cohesiveness for all Chinese people—and the culture of many thousand of years should not be abandoned because of twists and turns in cross-Taiwan Straits relations in the past decades.

Wen also told a story about a famous Chinese painting portraying the scenery along Fuchun River in east China's Zhejiang Province by Huang Gongwang, a well-known painter of the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368). For centuries, the painting changed hands many times and had been separated into two parts. Now, half of it is kept in a museum in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, on the mainland and the other half is housed in the "National Palace Museum" in Taiwan. Wen said he hoped one day the two pieces of the painting would eventually be brought together again—and expressed the same wish is not only for the painting but also for the people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits.

Answering the question of a reporter from AFP about Sino-U.S. relations, Wen quoted two lines of Climbing the Peak of Feilai, a poem of Wang Anshi (1021-1086), a famous poet of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127): "We have no fear of the clouds that may block our sight, as we are already at the top of the height." In using this quote, Wen was suggesting China and the United States manage their bilateral relationship from a long-term perspective.

Regarding the adjustment of China's economic policies, Wen quoted an old saying from Yi Zhuan, a collection of commentaries on The Book of Changes, compiled in the Warring States Period: "Timing is essential in deciding when one should act and when one should stay still." Wen's meaning was that China needed to watch very closely developments and trends in domestic and global economies throughout 2010, practicing the utmost prudence while also exercising flexibility.