The literature of Song Dynasty mainly covers ci, poetry, prose, story-telling novels, drama scripts, etc. Among them, ci has the highest creative achievement, followed by poetry and prose, followed by story-telling novels. The literary works of the Song Dynasty inherited the style of the early Northern Song Dynasty and the late Tang Dynasty, with colorful words, which were mostly used for singing and responding. With Wang Yucheng's concern for people's livelihood and the court's attention to Confucianism, literary writers began to attach importance to the missionary function of Confucianism, but their achievements were not high. It was not until the second ancient prose movement brought by Ouyang Xiu that literary talents began to write in plain language, and the content reflected the disadvantages of life, and literary creation entered a peak.
Song dynasty literature, the so-called "elegance", refers to the literati literature mainly circulating in the upper and middle classes of society, referring to poetry, prose and ci; The so-called "vulgarity" refers to novels and operas mainly circulating in the lower classes of society. Traditional sayings such as "Tang Poetry", "Song Ci", "Yuanqu" and "Novels and Dramas of Ming and Qing Dynasties" pointed out the key points of the development and prosperity of literary styles in various dynasties. We should fully evaluate the achievements of poetry and prose in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, but we can assert that it failed to surpass Song, Yue and Tang Dynasties.
If the poetry and songs of the Song Dynasty (especially the poetry and songs) are yesterday that writers of the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties yearn for and admire constantly, then the great development of novels and operas in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties is the brilliant tomorrow of vernacular novels and operas that have just developed in the Song Dynasty.