章太炎在《訄書．清儒》篇裡提出了清代中期思想界存在「文士」與「經儒」的分野。這一分途說並不是空穴來風，但由於揚「經儒」而抑「文士」的基本態度，使得其具體論說不免問題叢出。其中兩個突出的問題是：其一，太炎認為清代中期的「文士」與「經儒」之間存在一種幫派似的「交惡」。事實上，這樣一般性地概括「文士」與「經儒」之間的關係是缺乏事實根據的。其二，太炎說：「桐城諸家，本未得程朱要領，徒援引膚末，大言自壯」，使得「文士」與「經儒」之間裂痕更為擴大。然而嚴格地說，「桐城諸家」援引程朱來「大言自壯」，基本上是從方東樹才開始的；「桐城派」（乃至「古文家」）與「理學」被捆綁到一起，也大體是道、咸以降才發生的事情。

I In the ＂Qingru＂ (清儒) chapter of his work Qiushu (訄書), Zhang Taiyan (章太炎) claims that during the middle of the Qing dynasty, scholars formed into two distinctive and competing schools, the Wenshi (文士, literati) and the Jingru (經儒, Confucian scholars). While this point of view is reasonable up to a certain point, it suffers from two grave defects. First, Zhang depicts the two schools almost as if they were two rival gangs battling it out-but he provides very little evidence to support such a broad generalization. Second, Zhang claims that the Tongcheng School (桐城派), who were allied to the Confucian scholars, cited Cheng Yi (程頤) and Zhu Xi (朱熹) to bolster their views. Such an assertion cannot possibly be true, however, since the Tongcheng School did not begin citing Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi until much later, during the Daoguang (道光1821-1850) and Xianfeng (咸豐1851-1861) periods.