There was popularity of ＂archaic and liberal arts learning＂ among the intellectuals during the mid-Ming period. The idea of archaic and liberal arts learning could be used to praise those who had distinguished achievements in the field of arts and literacy, and it also set the criterion by which one's writing style was evaluated. During this period of time, many governmental officers held the idea of archaic and liberal arts learning through the act of publishing novels in block-printed forms. This, nevertheless, had made the popularity of single-printed novels. Published in 1544, the novel Gu Jin Shuo Hai (On Now and Then) was the first block-printed collections in the form of the novel in the Ming Dynasty. According to presumptions made by later, the author of the text was Lu Ji. However, it needs to be noted that, through various archaeological researches, the author should be recognized as Lu Ji's father, Lu Shen. Gu Jin Shuo Hai was Lu Shen's realization of archaic and liberal arts learning, and it was also a reply to both the revivalists of the Ming Dynasty and Wang Yang Ming's philosophy of mind, both of which had been predominating thoughts prior to the publication of the text. Moreover, there was a connection between the shifted ways of transmission and the changed status of the novel as a literary creation. Gu Jin Shuo Hai witnessed these changes. Before the text being published, novels could only be printed in hand-copied or single-printed forms. But Lu's family started a new way of making novels be read through their systematic editing, gathering, and publishing. This also shows that the status of the novel, through the idea of archaic and liberal arts learning, had a more consolidated foundation upon which it could be transmitted