本文招在梳理文賽概念的形成及其變遷，明代文人群體的壯大，並對文人與文臣、道學家、武士之差別或聯繫作適當的辨析，進而對明代文人的特徵及其影響作出恰如其分的評估。作者認為，明代文人固然是知識階層的一部分，具有知識階層所具有的的一切共性，卻又是獨具特點的一個社會階層。一至晚明，由於龐大的山人或布衣文人層的存在，文人已從士人階層中脫穎出，並成為不同於文臣、道學家、武士，即自具個性特徵、人格追求、生活方式的群體。從廣義的角度來說，文人與文臣、道學家之間並無差別，均屬儒家知識階層亦即「士」的一分子。然從狹義的角度來說，文人與文臣、道學家之間又多有不同。在明代，文人與文臣、道學家、武士之間，又別具一種互相滲透、互相影響的關係。晚明士人主體意識高漲，士人生活的漸趨活躍，文化的多姿多彩，無不與這些純粹的文人有關，而與儒家學者或道學家之流無涉。作者進而認為，即使是純粹的文人業餘精神，在晚明也受到整體文化世俗化的影響，表現出一些俗化傾向。

　　　　　This article focuses on the formation and transformation of the concept of literait (wenren文人) and the expansion of the literati class, and concludes with an analysis of the similarities and differences between the literati, civil officials (wenchen文臣)，neo-Confucian scholars (daoxue jia道學家) and military officers (wushi武士) in the Ming dynasty. The author also attempts to provide an appropriate proposal of the characteristics and influences of the Ming literati. While the literati belonged to the intellectual class and shared general characteristics with them, they also formed a unique social stratum. When the scholar-recluses (shanren山人) became a prominent social class in the late Ming, the literati separated from the scholar-officials (shi士) becoming distinct form the civil officials, neo-Confucian scholars and military officers, with their own individual character, personality and lifestyle. In a broad sense, they were all members of the scholar-official class and possessed qualities common to the above three. Nevertheless members of each group did infiltrate and influence the others. The late-Ming literati became keenly conscious of their own status, and due to their great activity in scholarly pursuits, they did much more than the Confucian scholars or neo-Confucians to enrich the cultural life of the late Ming.