Definition of Literature by Chinese Literary Greats from Ancient to Modern Times

1. Literature is one of the disciplinary classifications of the social sciences, along with philosophy, religion, law, and politics, as the upper level of social learning, serving the social economy.　

2. Literature originated in human thinking activities. The first to appear is oral literature, generally associated with music can be sung lyric poetry. The earliest formation of written literature are China's "Shijing", India's "Ramayana" and ancient Greece's "Elyon Chronicles" and so on. The traditional European classification of literary theory divides literature into three main categories: poetry, prose, and drama. During the pre-Qin period in China, all works written in words were collectively called literature, and it was only after the Wei and Jin dynasties that literature was gradually listed separately. In modern times, literature is usually divided into four categories: poetry, fiction, prose and drama.　

3. Literature is a discipline in which language and writing are used to express social life and psychological activities. It belongs to the category of art of social ideology. 4, literature is the art of language and text (literature is organized by language and text, open up the realm of speechless), is an important form of social and cultural expression.　

5. Literature is a kind of language art, the aesthetic ideology in the discourse.