Jin Shengtan'sDiliu caizi shu (Sixth Work of Genius), a commentary on Xixiang ji (The Romance of the West Chamber), is considered to be a landmark in the history of Chinese literary criticism. In addition to his comprehensive approach to the critique of a drama, Jin is noteworthy for developing new literary standards through the use of categorization and commentary. In addition, Jin endeavored to establish clear-cut standards for evaluating the literary merit of popular literature and whether such works should be regarded as "classical." In this paper I examine how in Diliu caizi shu Jin applies his keen judgment to challenging the established literary views of his time. I also discuss how by regarding the text as a venue for discussion and taking commentary as an arena for debate, Jin succeeds in establishing the literary merits of Xixiang ji, a process which he saw as being akin to the reconstruction of a classical text.