Scholars from Northern Song onward have generally agreed that Ouyang Xiu's 歐陽修 appointment to the post of examination administrator symbolized the success of the classical prose movement. Nevertheless, some questions regarding the further development of the movement remain. In the year of 1029, the seventh year of Tiansheng 天聖, there was a decree of “A Prohibition of the Frivolous Writing,” and the importance of this decree has been overlooked by scholars. This paper suggests that the literary trend in the Tiansheng period underwent a change from one of frivolousness to that of a simple style: 1. In the sixth year of Tiansheng (1028), the court appointed Chen Congyi 陳從易 and Yang Daya 楊大雅 as drafters, symbolizing that the emperor tended to appoint elders and to advocate simple and plain styles of writing. 2. The court signalled the changes of the standard in the selection of scholar-officials by changing the appointees of examination administrators. It is conceivable that these changes reflected to some extent the influences of the personal taste of the examination administrators in shaping the literary trend. 3. The regional administrators, including those in the levels of magistrates and counties, started to found many local schools in the Tiansheng period. These school administrators generally adopted Yan Shu's 晏殊 and Fan Zhongyan's 范仲淹 ideals and principles in running these schools.