本文首先強調八股文對明清兩代深刻的影響，呼籲學者重視八股文的研究。續又分析八股文研究不振之故，乃因今人抱持著負面印象，且八股文文體極難，令研究者望而卻步。就文獻的角度而言，科舉文獻涵蓋廣闊，制度因時修正，建立研究的基礎知識頗為不易。且八股文過時即廢，又於清末廢除科舉，使文獻的湮滅更為嚴重。八股文在內容、形式、遣詞用語等，受到嚴格的束縛，加上揣摩考官所好、追逐風氣所趨，此皆使今人辨識、論定時文作者的風格更為不易。

This thesis is about the influence that eight legged essays had in the Ming and Qing dynasty. The purpose of this thesis is to arouse scholars' concern to eight- legged academic studies. By virtue of lacking studies on eight legged essays, this thesis will be analyzed the reasons why there is a negative impression in scholars' minds due to the difficulty of the writing style. Regarding the bibliography of imperial examination, the reference dimension of which is extensive, and the imperial examination system in that time was reformed easily by officials. Hence, building up the datum for academic research became tougher. Eight legged essays were abolished rashly while the styles of writing were out of date, even only after a short period of time. At the end of Qing dynasty, the imperial examination system was abrogated that made a great loss of the bibliography. Eight legged essays were constrained by the content, forms and lexical usages, moreover; they could be fathomed to acquire examiners' preferences of article styles by examinees. Therefore, the tendency made it arduous for modern scholars to distinguish and discuss the examinees' writing styles.