Abstract: Weng Fanggang, poet and poetic reviewer of the Qing Dynasty, lived during the reign of the two emperors of Qianlong and Jiaging, both of whom attached importance to and praised and honoured knowledge and learnings, and what officially meant by so-called learnings was the extensiveness of knowledge accumulation.The premise for the advocation of “poems by learners” was the acknowledgement of the “flourishing age”, which also had something to do with the restoration of the cloze poems in the imperial competitive examination. It provided a way for poetic writers to avoid disaster at a time when literary inquisition prevailed, and it also served as a way for them to avoid what was vulgar and familiar. And furthermore, it conformed to the supreme ruler’s attachment of importance to “learnings” and “poetic education”.

Key words: Weng Fanggang, poems by learners, learnings, cloze poems