Abstract: During the Qing Dynasty, intellectuals in Jiangnan communicated with each other through literature, which could be analyzed in three aspects: talking about literature while drinking, taking writing as a profession, and achieving great success in writing. These three aspects embody the overall condition that the intellectuals take writing as a channel, a profession and a tool, reflecting their cognition of the social effects and cultural functions of "character-literature" in different levels. Socializing through writing is not a phenomenon in Jiangnan alone during the Qing Dynasty, but a shared practice among all intellectuals in ancient China to some extent. However, the complexity of society and history during the Qing Dynasty and the aggregation of Jiangnan literati turned their preference to "character-literature" into a culture-worship mentality. In particular, when facing radical social changes, the literati seemed to believe in Chinese characters' enormous creative power more than their material strength. Socializing through writing and the worship of characters embody Jiangnan literati's aesthetic experience and value exploration of their local cultural symbols, showing their pursuit of enlarging literary field and of moral principles.

Key words: Qing Dynasty, intellectual in Jiangnan area, socializing function of characters, worship of characters