In the Ming dynasty, literary societies flourished. According to Chien Chin-sung, an associate professor of Chinese literature at National Sun Yat-sen University, literati would gather to compete at writing "eight-legged" essays, and if they had any energy left over they would write poetry.
明朝時「文社」盛行，據中山大學中文系副教授簡錦松表示，當時文人聚在一起比賽八股文誰寫得好，行有餘力，也會一塊兒作詩。