Abstract: Discipline of modern applied writing originated in the literary reform movement of the early 20th century. CHEN Duxiu opened the road of “de-literalization” of applied writing, but it was LIU Bannong and QIAN Xuantong who really guided the applied writing to the path of “de-literalization”. In the New Culture Movement, they further explored how to adapt to the new era through the “de-literalization” of applied writing at the academic and technical levels, and finally promoted the applied writing to a road of self-renewal. As far as the construction of applied writing is concerned, the questions raised by LIU Bannong a hundred years ago, “Wenzi Language” or “Wenxue Literature”, are still worthy of reflecting deeply today, and this can find a way out to break through the bottleneck in the discipline of applied writing.

Key words: literature, written language, de-literalization, discipline of modern applied writing