China's epic research started again in 1980s. Most of his works are based on the social development theory of Marxist historical materialism, combined with the historical stages of primitive society, slave society and feudal society in ethnology as a reference, and according to the concept that literature is the reflection of social life, this paper discusses the generation era of creation epic and heroic epic, and then explains the historical origin of specific epic works. According to previous professional knowledge, folk literature researchers believe that epic is developed on the basis of myths, legends, stories, ballads and proverbs. According to the basic principles of Marxist literature and art, China scholars believe that epic is a literary phenomenon in the historical category. They mainly define the nature and characteristics of the epic from the social and historical content reflected by the epic, that is, it originated from the childhood when the nation was formed and is an encyclopedia of people of all ethnic groups. They are aware of the solemnity of epic poems expressing national or religious identity. Zhong Jingwen believes that "epic" is a relatively large-scale ancient work among long poems with folk narrative style. In the language of poetry, it narrates the legend about the formation of heaven and earth, the origin of human beings, and important events such as national migration, national war, brilliant achievements of national heroes, so it grows with the history of the nation. In a sense, national epic is often the visualized history of the nation in a specific period. "

China's understanding of epic is basically based on Marx's exposition of Greek classical epic. Homer's two epics are the same age as China's The Book of Songs. The classic form of Homer's epic has the original characteristics of early people's oral culture. It is the creation of poetic wisdom and is non-renewable. People repeatedly quoted Marx as saying, "As far as some art forms are concerned, such as epics, even everyone admits that once art production appears as art production, it can no longer be created in the epoch-making and classic form in world history. Therefore, in the field of art itself, some remarkable art forms are only possible in the underdeveloped stage of art development. " [22] For a long time,

For China scholars, an epic in a strict sense is a heroic epic in a classical form. Because epics can only be produced in the childhood of human history, some long narrative poems praising heroes produced later by class society are excluded from epics. Chinese epic scholars have done a lot of research on the origin, formation and development of epic, but the biggest gain is only some general conclusions-epic originated from human childhood or heroic age. Epic can be divided into two categories, creation epic and heroic epic. Creation epic, some people call it "primitive" epic or mythical epic. Genesis, Meige, Song of the Assisi and Ancient Songs of the Miao Nationality, which spread among the Naxi, Yao and Bai nationalities in China, all belong to this type of epic. The contents of these works are basically the same, mainly describing the formation of heaven, earth, sun and moon, the emergence of human beings, the sources of livestock and various crops, and people's lives in early society. Heroic epic is an epic with the story of national heroic struggle as its main theme. It originated from what Engels called "military democracy" and "heroic age". At this time, the power of clans and tribes has grown enough to form confrontation with natural enemies and foreign enemies. Three epics of ethnic minorities in China are all included in the category of heroic epics. The ethnic minorities in the north and south of China have a long epic tradition. However, China lacks early written texts, and epics are basically spread orally among remote ethnic minorities in China. Therefore, the oral life style is a major feature of China's epic. Secondly, due to the unbalanced historical development of all ethnic groups, the epic of all ethnic groups presents a pluralistic and multi-level cultural history. Early epics are closely related to creation myths and primitive beliefs. Epics about clan revenge, tribal wars and ethnic migration are related to secular hero worship, showing the characteristics of heroic poetry. After entering the modern society, some ethnic groups still have new epics. Third, all ethnic groups in China have various types of epics. Northern nationalities such as Mongolian, Tibetan, Uygur, Kazak and Ke are good at long heroic epics, while southern Dai, Yi, Miao and Zhuang are mostly small and medium-sized ancient songs. Scholars are studying its origin, various forms of communication, text types, their artistic characteristics, cultural roots, and their influence on later literature. Most of China's epics were discovered after the 1950s. The collection, recording, translation, collation and publication of epics have been going on for nearly 30 years. China's epic research started late, and a more systematic study began in the mid-1980s. It was after 1949 that China academic circles recognized epic as a folk literature style. This is mainly the result of the influence of Marxist aesthetics and literary concepts. After 1980s, the academic circles began to study epic as a genre of folklore, among which the anthropological school had the greatest influence. After entering the mid-1990s, scholars began to establish the "living form" of the epic, and thought that China's national epic belonged to the oral tradition.

There are many epics in China ancient literature, which are mainly distributed in northwest, southwest and northeast regions, especially in minority cultures. Among them, Gesar by Tibetans, Jianger by Mongolians and Manas by Kirgiz have become "three traditional epics in China", all of which are "living epics" handed down to this day. In addition, there are countless epic traditions in southwest China.