In the mid-T'ang movement for the reform of literary style, literary form, and literary language, Liu Tsung-yüan made brilliant contributions. His travelogues, metaphorical satires, and miscellaneous other works are a precious heritage of Chinese literature. This has long been well known, but his important place in the history of the development of Chinese materialism and atheism, on the other hand, has long since been hidden in obscurity.