Although the dispute between Confucian Classics in modern literature and Confucian Classics in ancient literature has a long history, it is relatively recent to be named as a school. According to the research of scholars such as Qian Mu and Li Xueqin, although scholars before the late Qing Dynasty often talked about China's ancient classics and China's modern classics and did a lot of textual research and appraisal, they did not distribute them according to modern Chinese and ancient Chinese. The initiator of the diversion of modern prose and ancient prose is Liao Ping, and Liao Ping wrote Textual Research on Modern Ancient Prose in 1886, proposing that the Confucian classics in Han Dynasty can be divided into two schools, which are antagonistic and incompatible. "The Western Han Dynasty flourished in modern learning, and the Eastern Han Dynasty flourished in ancient learning." In Zheng Xuan, both schools were destroyed. Later, Kang Youwei wrote A Study of New Confucian Classics and Pseudo-Confucian Classics, emphasizing the difference between modern Confucian Classics and ancient Confucian Classics. His views were obviously inspired by Liao and developed. Since then, the academic community has generally accepted this statement.
Historically, the opposition between "ancient prose" and "modern prose" began in Historical Records. Sima Qian not only mentioned the Book of Ancient Essays (Scholars), but also claimed that "I read the ancient prose in the Spring and Autumn Annals" (Wu Taibo's family), but he did not put forward the concept of the opposition between ancient prose and modern prose. Zhi wrote Hanshu, following the book classification of Liu Xin's Seven Laws, and the official records began to be divided into two categories: the study of modern texts and the study of ancient texts. The so-called "Jin Wen Jing" refers to the classic written in official script that prevailed in the Han Dynasty (that is, the Jin Wen at that time); And "Modern Literature Classics" refers to the training of chapters and sentences and the interpretation of Classics. The so-called "ancient classics" refer to the ancient books written in the languages of the six eastern countries during the Warring States period; The "ancient prose" in the classical Chinese prose has its strict time and geographical restrictions. It is different from the figures in the Spring and Autumn Period, and even more different from the figures in the Yin and Zhou Dynasties. In addition, the characters of Shandong, Qi, Liang and Chu are also different. "The study of China's ancient classics" refers to the interpretation of chapters and sentences in China's ancient classics and the significance of classics. There are obvious differences between modern Confucian classics and ancient Confucian classics not only in font, but also in the form of words and chapters, as well as in the names, systems and explanations of Confucian classics. The appearance of Confucian classics in modern literature and ancient prose is directly related to Qin Shihuang's "burning books to bury Confucianism". After the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, in order to strengthen the centralized rule of autocratic monarchy, Qin Shihuang implemented a cultural policy of unifying thoughts, and "burning books" was one of its manifestations. In the thirty-fourth year of Qin Shihuang (2 13 BC), Prime Minister Li Si put forward the idea of "burning books" on the grounds that Dr. Guan Chun criticized the Qin Dynasty for not implementing the system of enfeoffment: "Those who are not involved in the history of Qin Dynasty burn books, and those who are not involved in the post of doctor, dare to collect poems and books in hundreds of languages all over the world, so we should carefully examine them and burn them." Some people who dare to speak "poetry" and "books" abandon the market. Think of the past as a family that is not the present. ..... If you don't burn it in the next ten days, you will be drowned as a city. So those who don't go, medical books, divination, planting trees. If you want to study law, you should take an official as your teacher. Make it' can'. " After the book burning, there was a library in the imperial court, which was occupied by a doctor, so there were a few poems, books and other classics after the Qin Fire. In 206 BC, Xiang Yu led troops to slaughter Xianyang in the west and burned the official residence of the Qin Dynasty. In March, the fire did not go out, and all the books hidden in the Qin Chamber were burned. Due to the destruction of classics, the remaining classics that appeared one after another since the Western Han Dynasty began to be divided into modern prose and ancient prose.