古代文学批评在要求文学创作追求微言曲笔、含蓄褒贬的同时，也往往追求自身的隐微修辞与效果。无论是面对政治权力或文学的社会功能压力，还是表达某种文学主张、意见与评价，隐微修辞都是文学批评规避压力、涵养蕴藉的策略性反应。隐微修辞应用于各种复杂的文学关系，也呈现出十分丰富的表现形态。通过材料取舍、谋篇遣词等“笔法”曲传微旨，或假借典故、总集、别集、笺注和评点等侧翼迂回，寄托抑扬，或将散见于不同之处的批评见解并置以形褒贬或寓规于颂，反言以讽。在长期的历史发展中，如何在较广泛的社会心理期待的基础上恰当解读文学批评的深微之意，也需要开放式的批评共同体的商量培养。

Ancient Chinese literary criticism pursues the effect of subtle rhetoric not only in its subject, namely the literary products it critiques, but also in the criticism itself. Whether it is to face the political power or the pressure on literature to fulfill its social functions, or to express literary propensity, views and evaluations, the use of subtle rhetoric in literary criticism is a strategic response that avoids pressure and cultivates profound meaning. Subtle rhetoric is applied in various complex literary relationships and presents rich forms of expression: it conveys subtle meaning through careful selection of materials and wording as well as other “writing techniques”; it takes a circuitous route to express emotions via allusions, compilations, collections, annotations, and comments as reference; it also employs juxtapositions of critiques and eulogies scattered in various literary resources as well as satirical ironies. In the long run, the appropriate interpretation of the deep and subtle meaning of literary criticism based on the broad social psychological expectations requires an open discussion among the community of critics.