What does the word literature mean in the history of China?

Literature originated from human productive labor. The earliest literature is oral literature, which is usually combined with music to form lyric poems that can be sung. The earliest written documents are China's The Book of Songs, Indian Ramayana and ancient Greek Ilion Ji. The classification of European traditional literature theory divides literature into three categories: poetry, prose and drama. China's works written in words in the pre-Qin period were collectively referred to as literature, and literary works were listed separately only after Wei and Jin Dynasties. Modern literature is usually divided into four categories: poetry, novel, prose and drama. Literature is a subject that expresses social life and psychological activities by words and characters. It belongs to the artistic category of social ideology. Literature is the art of language and writing (literature is composed of language and writing, which opens up the realm of silence) and is an important manifestation of social culture. Due to the progress of publishing and education and the all-round development of society, it has lost its monopoly position and become a branch of popular culture. The so-called serious literature is different from popular literature or popular literature.