During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the emergence of my country’s first poetry collection, the Book of Songs, was the first major event in the history of ancient literature. The Book of Songs collects 305 poems from the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, covering a period of more than 500 years. It is divided into three parts according to music standards: "wind", "elegance" and "song". "Feng" refers to local music and songs outside the Kyoto of the Zhou Dynasty, "Ya" refers to the music and songs of the areas directly ruled by the Zhou Dynasty, and "Song" refers to the music and dance music used in ancestral temple sacrifices. The ideological content of The Book of Songs reflects a wide range of social life. Some poems expose the corruption of rulers and cry out against exploitation and oppression, such as "Shuo Shu" and "Fa Tan"; some poems express hatred of corvee military service, such as "Bo Xi" and "Gentleman" "Yu Yong"; some poems praise the true love between men and women and the yearning for a better married life, such as "Jing Nu" and "Jian Jia"; some express the misfortune of women's marriage, such as "Meng". In short, all aspects of social life at that time, as well as the thoughts and feelings of the working people, were truly reflected in the Book of Songs. It has a distinct sense of the times and people's character. In terms of art, the "Book of Songs" has smooth tones and simple language. Fu, comparison, and xing are often used to express expressions. The technique of poetry is to directly state the matter, use analogies to compare, and excite the feeling of objects, and chant other objects first to arouse affection. Later generations regarded the Book of Songs as the highest model for learning.

In the late Warring States Period, in the Chu State in the south, Chu poets represented by Qu Yuan, based on studying Chu folk songs, created a new style of poetry with the unique brilliance of Chu culture - Chu Ci. Chu-style poems are mainly six-character or seven-character verses, of varying lengths, flexible and changeable, and often use the modal particle "xi". The poems are full of magical and magnificent imagination and overflowing with the unique cultural romance of Chu region. The great patriotic poet Qu Yuan used this poetic form to create the first long lyric poem "Li Sao" in the history of ancient literature, the eleven beautiful and moving "Nine Songs", nine chapters of the poem "Nine Chapters" in which he expresses his aspirations and feelings, and "Tianwen", etc., ***25 works of Chu Ci. Qu Yuan's successors include Song Yu, Tang Le, Jing Cha and others. "Li Sao", as the pinnacle and representative work of Chu Ci art, is known as "coquettish" together with "The Book of Songs" in the history of literature, and it has set an example for later generations.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, various countries were in dispute, and lobbyists emerged in droves. In the political and cultural environment where a hundred schools of thought contended, a group of politicians and thinkers emerged, writing a large number of essays characterized by thorough reasoning, rigorous logic, sharp rhetoric, and good use of metaphors, also known as the essays of scholars. The prose of each scholar has its own characteristics: "The Analects" is graceful and gentle and full of philosophy, "Mencius" is majestic, sharp and inspiring, "Mozi" is simple and rigorous and full of logic, "Xunzi" is honest, rich and academic, and "Han Feizi" is steep and steep. It is thorough and political, "Laozi" is mysterious and thoughtful, and "Zhuangzi" is full of romance. Among the prose of various scholars, the most literary ones are Zhuangzi, Mencius, Xunzi and Hanfeizi. Complementing the prose of Zhuzi for a time, is the historical prose which mainly records words and events. "Zuo Zhuan", "Guoyu" and "Warring States Policy" are either ordered by year or by country, and are mostly written by historians from various countries. Many of the excellent chapters have twists and turns in plots, vivid characters, well-cut cuts, and high artistic quality, such as "The Battle of An" and "Zheng Beike's Duan Yu Yan" in "Zuo Zhuan", which either describe the fierce war process or show the rule of rule. The struggles within the group are excellent in terms of narrative writing. The characters in "Warring States Policy" have more personality and brilliance, and the description skills have become more sophisticated. It is a work with the highest literary value among historical prose.

The Qin Dynasty implemented a cultural autocracy policy, burned books and harassed Confucian scholars, and the second generation died, leaving almost no literature to speak of. In addition to the few surviving stone inscriptions praising the merits of the Qin Emperor, Li Si's "Book of Remonstrance and Chasing Guests" is a rare excellent prose chapter from this period.

The two Han dynasties worshiped literature, and the unified and prosperous empire required the use of literature to promote peace through singing and dancing. As a result, Ci Fu, a literary style that mainly describes emperors and urban life, came into being. Fu is the most popular literary style in the Han Dynasty and a symbol of literature of a generation. Its style is derived from Xunzi's "Fu Pian" and is formed by absorbing certain formal elements of Chu Ci. In the early Han Dynasty, the poems written by Jia Yi and Huainan Xiaoshan were still in the shape of Chu Ci and were called Sao style poems; Meicheng's "Qifa" established the formal pattern of the poems in the Han Dynasty; by the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the trend of presenting and reciting poems became very popular , produced a large number of Fu family. Sima Xiangru's "Zixu Fu" and "Shanglin Fu" describe the prosperity of the imperial garden and the joy of field hunting. Later, Yang Xiong wrote "Sweet Spring" and "Yu Xue". These poems are written in a grand and vigorous manner: most of them aim to praise virtues. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ban Gu's "Dongdu Fu" and "Xidu Fu", Zhang Heng's "Tokyo Fu" and "Xijing Fu" were still splendid masterpieces among the great prose works. As social conflicts intensified day by day and the empire was no longer strong, some far-sighted people began to use poetry to express their emotions and stimulate the times. Zhang Heng's "Guitian Fu", Zhao Yi's "Ji Shixie Fu", Cai Yong's "Shu Xing Fu" are masterpieces in this field. Their creations broke through the original system of Fu and had a positive influence on the lyrical Fu in the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the prose Fu in the Tang and Song Dynasties.