Essay is a branch of prose and a variant of argumentative writing, which is both argumentative and lyrical. Essay is a kind of literary paper that directly and quickly reflects social events or trends. Its characteristics are "miscellaneous and literary", short and pithy, meaningful, rich in the color of literary and art workers and the language of poetry, and unique artistic appeal. In the fierce social struggle, essays are sharp weapons for fighting.

Liu Xie, a literary theorist in the Southern Dynasties (Liang Dynasty), was the first person in the history of China literature to put forward the concept of "essays" as an independent style. He wrote a chapter "Essays" in Wen Xin Diao Long. On the one hand, he summed up the creation of previous essays and named it "Essays". On the other hand, he listed three types of prose since Qin and Han Dynasties, among which Song Yu's Answer to the King of Chu, Mei Cheng's Seven Hair and Yang Xiong's Julian are the earliest representative works. But in fact, as early as the rise of pre-Qin prose, essays have also appeared. Qin Baijia's articles are actually essays.