本文認為：古代漢族的冠笄之禮，由於示會從封建地邦變遷為征伐戰國、統一帝國，儀節中重要的「三加冠服」一項遂失去其意義，連帶使冠笄之禮式微。但冠笄之禮中的「取用」一項，其來源及社會功能與三加冠服不同，仍然長期保存下來，宋代以後更以創作「字說」的方式維持其社會功能。字說的興起與冠笄之禮的衰微，在時間上恰相銜接；而其衰亡，則與取字習俗的大致終結同時；這此現象說明了二者的密切相關性。由於字說此種文體的興衰，與藝術性文體不同，遂亦檢討了文學理論家對於文體遞變的若干說法，以供學界參考。

　　　　　Because of the vicissitude of the ancient society, from the feudal states to the invasive warring kingdoms, and then the united empire, two kinds of the mportant rites in ancient Han tribe; the capping and hairpining (wearing hairpins) ceremonies, and the "three times of capping and clothing ceremony", had lost their significance. But one item, "giving the literary name", was different from the "three times of capping and costuming ceremony" in its origin and social function. So it had been preserved for a long time. After the sung Period, people maintained its social function by the mode of creating an essay on "the reasons of giving literary name". The rising of an essay on "the reasons of giving the literary name" and the falling of the capping and hairpining ceremonies just connected with each other. The falling of "the reasons of giving names" and the end of the custom, "giving the literary name", were almost ended at the same time. Those phenomena have shown the high relationship between the ceremony and the custom. The rising and falling of the essay on, "the reasons on giving the literary name", is different from artistic genres, so we can also review and discuss several literary theorists' statements of the vicissitude of genres.