Ancient prose refers to the characters in the Spring and Autumn Period, Warring States Period and previous ancient books. Xu Shen said in "Shuo Wen Jie Zi Xu": "Mrs. Zhou wrote fifteen pieces of Da Zhuan, which is different from ancient Chinese." Compare the ancient prose with the big seal script, saying that the ancient prose is a general term for the characters before the Book of Poetry.
Later, in contrast to parallel prose, it is a kind of prose with strange sentences and no dual temperament. Parallel prose prevailed after Wei and Jin Dynasties, paying attention to duality, neat syntax and gorgeous words.
Su Chuo opposed the flashy style of parallel prose in the late Northern Dynasties, and imitated the style of Shangshu to write Dayu, thinking that the article was a standardized genre, called "ancient prose", that is, writing articles in the prose language of the pre-Qin Dynasty. Later, in the Tang Dynasty, Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan and so on. It is advocated to restore the tradition of rich content, free length, plain and smooth prose in the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, that is, to call such prose ancient prose.
After writing Ouyang Sheng's Mourning, Han Yu said, "The more ancient it is, the worse it is to read its sentences. You can't see the ancients, but learn the ancient road. " Teacher Shuo said: "Li, ... is good at ancient Chinese prose and six arts. He studies in his spare time regardless of time."
They all formally put forward the names of ancient Chinese prose, which were used by later generations. In other words, ancient prose is first used as the title of words, and then it is synonymous with style.