在過去的漢語史的分期中，魏晉南北朝的地位很曖昧，有的學者把它和唐五代甚或宋代合併為中古漢語，有的學者把它歸入近代漢語，有的學者把它歸入古代漢語。本文以先秦漢語及近、現代漢語的語法特徵為參考點來考較不同時段的異同，指出東漢和魏晉南北朝沒有分屬兩期的必要，同時也指出在東漢魏晉南北朝時，先秦漢語的重要語法特徵幾乎都已不復存在，而且部分近代漢語的語法特徵在其時也已出現。總之就語法特徵而言，東漢魏晉南北朝和先秦漢語差距相當大，但與近代漢語復有出入，可以說差不多位於先秦漢語和近代漢語間的中點，因此我們認為有理由把東漢魏晉南北朝分離出來獨立為中古一期，而與上古漢語和近代漢語鼎足而立。

　　　　　The classification of the period extending from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Six Dynasties with respect to the history of Chinese grammar has been quite controversial. Some have included this period in Middle Chinese, which extends through the Tang Dynasty to the five Dynasties and possible also the Song Dynasty. Others have classified the Eastern Han Dynasty-Six Dynasties period as Early Mandarin, and others yet as Old Chinese. The author of this paper compares the languages of the different stages of Chinese history on the basis of a series of grammatical features. He points out that there is no need to divide the Eastern Han Dynasty and Six Dynasties into two independent periods. The grammatical features of the Pre-Qin period had nearly disappeared by this time and some of the grammatical features of Early Mandarin had already emerged. In view of the most important grammatical features mentioned in this paper, the language of the Eastern Han Dynasty and Six Dynasties is quite different from that of Old Chinese but is also distinct from that of Early Mandarin . We can therefore conclude that the position of the language is approximately midway between Old Chinese and Early Mandarin. Therefore, we have sufficient reason to separate the language of this period from Old Chinese and Early Mandarin and classify it as Middle Chinese on its own.