所謂「文體」，指文章之藝術形相。北周顏之推家訓文章篇稱之為「體度風格」，乃文體之體之增詞廣訓；而近世流俗往往以「風格」一詞冒之，則屬斷章取義，以篇概全。蓋「風格」一詞之原義，本用作對人之品鑒，始自晉書庾亮傳「風格峻整，動有禮節，時人皆憚其方嚴」一語，風即風神、風情、風姿、風采，一種文雅態度，而格，即品格，是峻整方嚴，不隨流俗之節概。轉用於品鑒文學創作，但指某種高雅方正之特殊文體而言，不能包括文體之全面。且其廣義使用，乃近數十年來事，並不能推展至劉彥和時代。文心雕龍之用「風格」，但一見於議對篇「陸機斷義……風格存焉」之語。禮記?衣鄭注訓格為法，則此處之風格，或即同於章表篇之「風矩」、奏啟篇之「風軌」，其不足代表文體之體，固彰彰明甚。即使用與風骨或後世文學批評中之氣格相同，依然但能成為文體之一體，故不可將其與譯文Style混為一談。又「文體」淆亂而為「文類」之代稱，相習已久，甚且有積非成是之勢。跡「類」名之建立，似始於蕭統文選序所謂「詩賦體既不一，又以類分，類分之中，各以時代相次」。此後對文章題材性質不同之區別，幾無不曰「類」矣。唐歐陽詢問之藝文類聚、宋陶叔獻之西漢文類，元陳旅之國朝文類，皆名正言順之顯例。體與類之相混淆似已萌芽於南宋章樵古文苑序「歌、詩、賦、書、狀、箴、銘、碑、記、雜文，為體二十有一」，而大盛於明代鄙陋之文章選家，吳訥有文章辨體內外集，徐師曾有文體明辨正附編，賀仲來有文章辨體彙選，凡此所謂「體」，實皆文章之分類，既如此張冠李戴，因之文心雕龍上篇所分之文筆二十類，此後咸認為體，而文體之本義於焉泯沒矣。於是以訛傳訛，鑄成金日之大錯。日本鈴木虎雄支那詩論史、青木正兒支那文學思想史暨國人若劉大杰中國文學史、郭紹虞中國批評史，莫不將文章分類說成分體矣。名不正則言不順，凡此皆有分別予以辨正釐清之必要。至於文體所含體裁、體要、體貌之三方面意義及其自覺過程，文體八種基型之根源所在及彥和理想中之文體究竟為何，文體之形成與作家性格具有何等關係？再從各文類、各時代、各作家比論其創作風格，茲分五章二十一節作切實之檢討。最後更分析體性篇全文結構以為殿。

The term "style" refers to the particular kind of writing characteristic of a person, group, or period. During the North Chou Period, in Yen Tse Tui' essay, style was described as signifying manners and features. In our time, this term has been misinterpreted as "characteristics" due to the practice of generalization. In English, it is called style, in Japanese it is called "pattern and shape". Moreover, style is sometimes confused with genere. This misnomer began in South Sung Dynasty by Chang Chiao. This misnaming, unfortunately, tends to enjoy increasing acceptance among less knowledgeable groups- The author of this paper considers it is time now to correct (rectify) the mistaken application of this term. Illustrated in this paper are the three dimensional meanings of style-those of structure, of substance, of form, and the eight fundamental patterns, and their origin. Divided into 5 sections, this paper deals with the following subjects/issues: (1) The relation between the formation of style and the personality/disposi-tion of a writer, (2) The ideal style of writing of Liu Shieh, (3) An analysis of the spirit and style of the writers' works of different periods.