Abstract: Due to the influence of the eighteenth?century view juxtapose scholars of the Confucian classics against scholars of literature，there has been a tendency to view textual criticism as a matter of Confucian scholarship and to seek its origin the in late Ming Neo Confucianism. For this reason the tradition in the literary world has been overlooked. In fact，textual criticism was not at all belittled in literary world and Yan Ruoqu had a high regard for Qian Qianyi as a past master of the practice. A prominent characteristic of Qing textual criticism was the tendency to emphasize “cultivation of the arts” over “seeking the way. ” In other words，the Confucianists were closer to seeking the way and the literati gave greater importance to cultivating the arts. In this way，the conventions of late Ming and early Qing literati probably had more influence than Confucianists on the essential academic character of textual criticism.