Question about resource and representation

Hi,


According to RFC 7231, a representation is a state of a given resource


   For the purposes of HTTP, a "representation" is information that is
   intended to reflect a past, current, or desired state of a given
   resource, in a format that can be readily communicated via the
   protocol, and that consists of a set of representation metadata and a
   potentially unbounded stream of representation data.


and a payload in a POST request is also a representation.


   The POST method requests that the target resource process the
   representation enclosed in the request according to the resource's
   own specific semantics.


Then what is the resource which the representation enclosed in the
POST request reflects? I think the representation may not reflect a
state of the target resource for the POST request.


Thanks in advance.


Best regards,

EungJun