Although the compilation and research on medieval literature history have undergone a history of 100 years, some weaknesses, blind spots, biases and disagreements still exist. For example, the consciousness of literature largely shields some important style and literary phenomena during the process of Chinese literature development, so that the writing of literature history has gradually deviated from the reality of literature development. As for the problem of the linear way of thinking, the writings on traditional Chinese literature history mostly narrate its historical development according to its dominant vein and evolution process by the time clue, and therefore it is difficult to emphasize and highlight the genuine appearance of literature history from the spatial dimension. As a result, the genuine aspects of literature history can hardly been seen. Another problem is the restriction of discipline, especially the restriction of traditional academic research under the classification of disciplines since the founding of new China, which most obviously caused the separation of the traditional literature and history research. With the gradual prosperity of newly excavated literature, the old research mode can be changed to some extent, and new research space can be expanded. Some aspects can even be rewritten and constructed. The most important two kinds of documents in newly excavated documents are stone inscription documents (the largest one is epitaph) and manuscript documents. These two kinds of documents are original documents in the research of medieval literature history. Compared with the documents handed down from ancient times, the newly excavated epitaph reflects the characteristics of family culture in the medieval times in the original physical form and text form. These living biographies reproduce a group of figures between the 3rd and the 9th centuries. Especially the poet’s epitaph, the self-composed epitaph, and the coupled epitaph are exquisite in image building, narrative lyricism and creative process. The manuscripts of medieval literature are mostly Dunhuang manuscripts and Turpan manuscripts, plus the manuscripts returned from Japan. These manuscripts not only provide the text materials for literary research, but also are important witnesses of the literary communication and cultural exchange. The newly excavated documents of the medieval times show more connotations of literature history, and also act as important carriers of medieval literary research. They can promote the diversification of the research on medieval literature history. An important way of writing medieval literature history is to transform from linear way of thinking to diversity narration, and to lay emphasis on the relationship between the cohesion of the center and the marginal vitality of literature. Attention should also be paid to the female writing on medieval literature to reveal the special paths of literary development. It is also very important to construct the family pedigree of medieval literature by the family inheritance of literature, as well as to stress research on the evolution of the literary system in order to reexamine the positioning of the literature-centered research.

newly excavated document    medieval literature history    epitaph    manuscript    diversity