In his Introduction, François Cheng reviews the history of this text, a study report written as part of the Practical School of Higher Studies, which later became École des Hautes social science studies: "Published half a century ago, this study brief could be qualified, without any pretension, of "historical object". It is indeed in this form artisanal that it was first subjected to reading by Barthes, Kristeva, Lacan, and then French and foreign sinologists. Reposting it today in facsimile is a way of it to restore the freshness of an irrepressible momentum, at the dawn of the semiotic research initiated then in France. "And he continues:" The original title of the text is Analyze formelle de l'oeuvre poétique from a Tang author: Zhang Ruo-xu. Of this poet of the 7th century, we do not know, in reality, only one poem, the famous "Night of moon and flowers on the spring river", comprising thirty-six verses. " For this facsimile reissue where the calligraphies of Hsiung Ping-ming were also preserved, François Cheng chose to give the work the very title of the poem.