The word "literature" first appeared in Eight Books of the Analects of Confucius, and Zhu's Notes on Four Books in the Southern Song Dynasty held that literature, ancient books and records were also "dedication" and "virtue". Therefore, the literature at this time refers to ancient books and articles, refers to the knowledge and remarks of ancient sages, as well as their familiar etiquette and their own experiences. There are also relevant quotations in the Collection of Records of Yu Xia, which shows that the original meaning of the word literature refers to ancient books and sages.
In the Song Dynasty, Ma Duanlin took literature and dedication as the basis of narration and discussion: literature is a book of classics and history. Dedication is the record of courtiers' speeches, Confucian comments and conversations between celebrities and officials. Under his influence, the understanding of documents is limited to general written records, and what cannot be expressed as written records cannot be called documents.
The Modern Significance of Literature
With the development of society, the concept of literature has changed a lot. In addition to ancient books, people also call monuments, antiques, models, inscriptions and paintings historical documents. The definition of literature is the carrier of all recorded knowledge. In this definition, knowledge is the core content of literature, and the carrier is the material shell on which knowledge exists, that is, some artificial solid attachments that record knowledge.
For thousands of years, our ancestors have created rich and splendid cultural achievements, which are mainly recorded in the voluminous ancient books and classics. These are classical documents. Among them, the books and materials directly related to a certain subject are the literature of that subject. The basic task of classical philology is to inherit the methods, experiences and achievements of ancient proofreaders.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Literature