Zhang Zhi-dong and the "Methods of Literary Study"

Zhang Zhi-dong,a representative of the Westernization Movement at the end of Qing Dynasty,constituted in 1903 a draft of university learning,in which the course description of Methods of Literary Study reveals the earliest disciplinary development of in China.The article narrates the making of the constitution,the origin of the course,the first class of Methods of Literary Study at Peking University in 1910,and the replacement of the course by Literature.The study of Zhang Zhi-dong and the process of setting up this course will help us trace the development of Chinese literary theory back to the beginning of the 20~(th) century.