Premier uses poetry, prose and passion to make his point

Journalists at Premier Wen Jiabao's press conference yesterday might have felt that they hadn't done enough homework - they were plugged into political and social affairs all right, but not quite clued into ancient Chinese literature.

During the two-hour conference, the premier turned repeatedly to the country's literary canon - prose and poetry penned by historic personages - to make a point.

He opened the question-and-answer session by quoting Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644): Action is rooted in the present, judgment will be made by posterity.