「詩窮而後工」是中國古典詩學的重要命題之一，其說雖淵源有自，然明確提出此說的，則是北宋的歐陽修，而這又與北宋黨爭有著密切的聯繫，是北宋黨爭背景下的產物。在歐陽修之後，此說成為一種帶有普遍意義的看法，遂又有其逆命題「詩能窮人」以及後者的反命題「詩能達人」等觀點的出現。

“Shi qiong er hou gong” (If one is in a poor situation, one will become skilled in writing poetry.) This is one of the important topics in classical Chinese poetry. The idea can be traced back to earlier periods, but it was first presented by Ouyang Xiu, and was closely connected with factional strife in the Northern Song dynasty. After this, it became a general viewpoint, and from this emerged the ideas that poetry can impoverish people or help people achieve immortality.