Abstract: This paper attempts to discuss the framework of "Wenxue Yanju Fa" (Literary Research Methodology) in the 1904 educational system reform and tries to describe and understand the space which this reform carved out for the coming knowledge production and theory formation. During the late Qing dynasty and the early Republic of China period, the institutionalization efforts to construct the discipline of literary studies kept much of Chinese traditional culture and its literature. As a specific device, the envisaged course of "Literary Research Methodology" was constructed mainly on traditional learning and local imagination, and it was marked with the characteristics of a general course, while its undefined and undetermined boundaries allowed much space for the knowledge production in the subsequent generations.

Key words: Chinese literature, literary research methodology, A History of Chinese Literature, Methodology of Literary Studies, general course