明代是复古理论与实践的繁荣期。作为一种重要的话语策略，文章“复古”不仅是文学层面的价值判断，更与人格及世运互为指涉。明代文章复古的群体划分以馆阁之臣与郎署成员为主体，前者主张师法平易典则的宋文，后者则取径语体古拙的秦汉古文。二者对文章复古路径的不同选择，既是对制约文章语体的话题、场合、态度以及听者与说者身份等内在要素的考量，又是不同政治阶层间借以争夺文柄、维系内部利益格局与寻求政治变革的需要。

The Ming dynasty saw a surge of "the revival of the ancient" in both theory and practice of leisure essays. The revival of the ancient was both value judgment at the level of literature and cross-reference between personality traits and social changes. Essay writers who promoted the revival of the ancient fell into two groups, one comprising members of the learned societies and academies, the one including officials from ministries in the central government. The former advocated a plain style as exemplified by the Song-Dynasty prose, while the latterfavored the archaic style of the Qin and Han dynasties. The different approaches chosen to revive the ancient responded to both internal requirements and external conditions. On the one hand, they took into considerations how the theme, author's situation and attitude, as well as the social status of the author and the reader, were conditioned by the chosen style. On the other hand, the approach to reviving the ancient needed to fulfill the requirements from different socio-political strata to gain control of literary standards, maintain power structure, and seek political reformations.