Huang Tingjian
Chen Yan, the main theorist of the poetics of the Tongguang school, characterized Chen Sanli's poetry as "obscure and profound" (). Chen Sanli was said to have learned from the Northern Song poet Huang Tingjian, but he did not imitate, he developed this style [Kowallis, p. 194]. Many of Chen's poems reflect the chaos and suffering of the Chinese people during the early 20th century.