First of all, with the development of modern society, the politics and militancy of literature are getting stronger and stronger, and it is becoming more and more obvious. Gong Zizhen initiated the new century of modern literature. Most of his poems and essays exposed realistic problems from the perspective of politics and social history and became tools for realistic politics and social criticism. Later Feng Guifen, Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, etc. Publicize reformist ideas and cooperate more directly and closely with reformist political and cultural movements. The leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom advocated "impromptu writing", and their poems and essays were weapons to inspire the people's revolutionary fighting spirit and overthrow the Qing Dynasty. A large number of Nanshe poets such as Zhang and Qiu Jin made their poetry creation serve the national and democratic revolution more consciously.
Secondly, the theme and content of literature, that is, the field where literature reflects reality, has expanded unprecedentedly, including poetry, drama and novels. Poetry, in particular, is particularly prominent. Progressive poets not only systematically reflect many important events in modern history, but also more and more reflect new things, new ideas and new knowledge in the capitalist world.
Thirdly, it inherits and develops the excellent artistic traditions of realism and romanticism. Gong Zizhen first broke through the rule of revivalism and formalism since the middle of Qing Dynasty and became a romantic poet in early modern times, but many of his essays and poems also showed profound realism. Lin Changyi's Poem Shooting Eagle Tower reflects the realistic viewpoint of poetry creation. Many progressive writers' works focus on exposing the decadent darkness of the real political society, showing the rising trend of realistic literary thoughts and creative movements.
Finally, the form, language and even stylistic features of literature have also changed, that is, they tend to be popular. Huang Zunxian clearly advocated "I write by hand", indicating that the poet tried to break through the old form. Prose not only has Liang Qichao's new style of doing things for the people, but also has vernacular Chinese under the requirement of language unification. The emergence of drama and the application of folk literature in many aspects are all manifestations of the need for popularization. Chen Tianhua's Suddenly Looking Back is a famous work written in the form of folk songs.
Modern literature presents an obvious transitional state. Traditional literature represented by Tongguang, Changzhou Ci School and Tongcheng School has been active for some time. However, many novels aim at widely exposing darkness, are related to events, have a loose structure, and rarely shape typical images of the times. The so-called condemnation novels in the late Qing Dynasty generally have such shortcomings, which are all manifestations of the transitional state. However, modern literature is successful. Its basic themes of anti-imperialism, patriotism and democracy, its breakthrough in the old form, and its exploration and efforts in integration of language and popularization all prepared certain historical conditions for the new literature after the May 4th Movement.