Abstract: Traditional distinction between the Southern and the Northern China's literature were made on historical specificities, while Liu Shipei in his pioneer essay in modern literary criticism "On the Difference between the Southern and the Northern China's Literature" took a theoretical perspective that viewed the distinction as an ahistorical literary framework a priori. Liu's argument may be read as a point for a paradigmatic breakup, but Liu did not push forward his idea in his practice. Instead, he attached more weight to the essence (zhi) over the literary (wen) in this traditional pair of concepts, and his contribution in the history of literary theory, due to the interaction between his literary criticism and the intellectual-political history, was beyond the conventional scope of literary criticism.

Key words: Liu Shipei, "On the Difference of the Southern and the Northern China's Literature", the literary vs the essence (wenzhi), paradigm