The characteristic that Chen Shi-Dao (陳師道) regarded himself as a poet was quiet profound. He proclaimed that poetry can bring people the glory. He contemplated the relationship between the poor and the poetry. In his old age, he even called himself the old poet. All these behavior represented Chen Shi-Dao's particular self-understanding. He believed that poetry has eternal significance. So he seldom regarded the official honor but the poetry. Thus, he manifested the subject of a poet. Creating poetry was his request throughout his life. In his poetry, we can find the changing definition about a poet in the later period of the Northern Song Dynasty. Specifically, Chen Shi-Dao confronted the value of being a poet with isolation and politics, and confirmed himself as a poet through Du Fu's (杜甫) poor destiny and enhanced the self image of a poet. On the one hand, the self-proclaim that one poet was poor because of poetry expressed the consciousness of following Du Fu (杜甫), on the other hand, the emphasis on self-cultivation showed the moral request by the writer of the Song dynasty. In brief, Chen Shi-Dao paid attention to the innermost self by the moral request and Buddhism beliefs. He undertook the poor destiny being a poet positively and pursued the poetry as his life values. Those behavior demonstrated that how Jiangxi poet (江西詩人) made decisions in a time of turmoil. The historical significance of Chen Shi-Dao's choice of becoming a poet lies in its symbolizing the turning inwards of the literati of the late Northern Song Dynasty. His assertion of a poet also provided a way to fulfill the individual value in the artistic world.
