This paper aims at an introspection of the ancient Chinese literature research in the past hundred years. Then the author put forward his opinions about some important divergences of the present research, such as the value tropism of the research, the basic methods for study, the choice of research topics, the theory guidelines of the research, the basic methodologies for research, defining the research objects, the major viewpoints, the areas of research and the viewpoints of the scholars.

At the end of the Ming dynasty the initiative was taken in the edition that collected together for complete works the total output of literature by period. The practice remained up to the Qing dynasty when there came out Quantangshi and Quantangwen, etc., and commanded popular attention in academic circles. And since modern times Chinese scholars have poured out tremendous enthusiasm for the compilation of such types of works especially for the last twenty years. The works, to their knowledge, have achieved more than forty types, which were published one after another or whose compilations are well under way. The range almost includes works of all genres composed in different historical period. Such publications in vast number are by no means certain to exert a dominant influence on the twenty-first century study of Chinese literature and history, and scholars should place the overwhelming importance on some common problems that have come up from such compilations.

The academic controversy over the “origin of ci” has lasted over a thousand years throughout the study of this Chinese poetic genre. According to their own account by literati of the Tang dynasty, ci was collected from folks of the fields for both its phrase and tune. But since the Song dynasty, different arguments have arisen. Some held that ci had its origin in the so-called “long-and-short lines”, while others postulated “phrase-filling in uniform tunes”; still others believed in its derivation from “foreign-tune with Chinese phrase”. Starting from the 20th century, the focus of debate shifted to whether ci had evolved from native vernacular songs or been invented for new tunes, and, if the latter was true, whether the tune came from abroad (Hu €?) or within China (Hua SN). However, all these arguments have some theoretical flaws resulting from: (i) an isolated and undefined academic context and research orientation; (ii) a method of substituting the part for the whole, which may have distorted the true picture of Chinese-foreign music exchange; (iii) the false premise that new tunes gave rise to new genres of poetry; and (iv) the disregard of the reality in learning and spread of ci performance and composition, and neglect of the role played by social changes and human subjectivity in the budding of new literary genres.

From the Qin dynasty on there were two opinions about the merchant-measant relations: one was physiocracy and the other was equivalency. Influenced by the two opinions, Chinese ancient poetry had changed for three times. Firstly, since the physiocracy had been weakened in the mid-Tang dynasty, the thought that merchant should have the same status as peasant appeared in the poetry creation, leaning to an idea of physiocracy. In the second, the scholars in the Song dynasty, such as Fan Zhongyan, Ouyang Xiu and Su Shi, adopted the thought of equivalency, but they stressed on the government policies. And the last, breaking through physiocracy and the idea of “stronger merchants will hurt peasants” some artists like Tang Yin, Xu Wei and Wang Shizhen, in the mid-Ming dynasty did agree with the merchants in thought of “living for pleasure” which got responses in their poems.

Based on a study of mythological literatures in China, Korea and Japan, this paper is intended to set up the coordinate axis which can estimate the time period of the Creation Mythology and therefore fix the period of the Myth of Origin in the Creation Mythology group in the three countries, and set up a time-platform suitable for East Asian mythology studies.

Many Chinese believe that France is a “romantic” nation though they may offer different answers to the question “why”. A recent source study shows that this image comes from the travel note written by a French priest Julie Aleni when he took a mission in China, from Wonders in the Voyage and Traveling around Europe and America by Zhang Deyi, a Chinese diplomat in France at that time and from Travel Notes by Wang Tao. Therefore, many Chinese modern writers borrowed this image to their works. Hence it has been created as a set image in the intertextual context of cultural homogeneity and heterogeneity. Therefore, this paper is intended to trace the signs of these cultural interactions so as to see how “Romantic France” has come to be a set image in Chinese culture.