在歷史的長河中，中國文學經典的範疇與其他國家的文學相比更為穩固，但卻並非一成不變，而是不斷發展變化的。最早的規範化的努力要追溯到秦始皇時期的「書同文」，但這其中帶有鮮明的政治動機。尤其是他通過限制文學、哲學以及其他諸子百家的經典範疇來鞏固他的統治。但隨著時間的推移，情況發生了改變。「數字化」逐漸演變成經典化的一個重要過程。如「五經」的出現，以及後來「四書」誕生。當然，具體的數字並無絕對意義，例如「六藝」向「五經」的過渡，並未影響其成為「經典」的地位。另外，雖然這些經典擁有的不同版本，但這也不會影響其「經典地位」。這些篇章以及相關的評論被珍藏在歷代的注經、解經書中。後來，漢賦、唐詩和宋詞相繼成為中國文學經典範疇的一部分，直到明清時期小說的加入。清代試圖將這些典籍分成「經、史、子、集」四類，並將更多的非經典的著作納入其中。與此同時，西方也建立了自己視野的中國文學經典範疇，翻譯有極大地促進了現代文學的發展，中國的經典和非經典文學都成為了世界文學的一部分。然而，在中國和西方有關的中國文學史上，一些在中國非常著名的經典文學章節並沒有出現在西方所認為的中國文學經典當中，而另一些在西方的出現中國文學經典在今天的中國卻鮮為人知，其中一些甚至算不上是什麼經典。由於政治的原因，批判文學和臺灣本土文學在大陸所受到的壓制加劇。目前，西方所著的《中國文學史》1翻譯活動的日益活躍以及越來越多批判文學和臺灣本土文學在大陸大量湧現的潮流表明：這些不同研究路徑開始相互了解和融合。

In the stream of time, the canon of Chinese literature was much more fixed than in other national literatures, but it was never totally fixed and changed dynamically. The first standardization efforts date back to Qin Shihuangdi, who clearly had political motifs. He especially used a limited canon of literary, philosophical and other texts to legitimize his power. Over time, certain alterations were made, the Five Classics were enriched by the Four Books and even these texts varied over time, even the number from six to five. The civil exams enshrined these texts and their commentaries. Han fu, Tang shi, Song ci became part of the literary canon, in Ming and Qing dynasty novels were added and Qing dynasty tried to categorize and collect more of the non-canonized texts. The West established its own version of a Chinese canon, translations speeded up the development of modern literature, canonized and non-canonized Chinese literature became part of world literature. Chinese literary histories appeared in China and the West and still some famous pieces of canonized Chinese literature does not appear in the Western canon of Chinese literature and some pieces from the Western canon of Chinese literature are not well known in China today and certainly do not count as part of the canon. Political reasons helped to suppress critical literature and Taiwan literature in the mainland. Recent trends like the translation of Western literary histories of Chinese literature into Chinese49 and the greater availability of critical and Taiwanese literature in the mainland show that all these different approaches begin to become aware of each other and merge.