Abstract: Adhering to the pure flavour of literature,opposing commercial and power in literature,and emphasizing literary independence are the three esthetic principles of SHEN Cong-wen′s literary criticism.He put forth a series of critic conceptions and principles,such as “symmetry”,“harmony”,“techniques”,“originality”,ect.In the critic method and style,he practiced impress-type criticism,i.e. he didn′t start from the writer′s life and outside environment,but penetrated into the depth the writer′s inner heart and analysed and judged the writing itself,meanwhile,he paid high attention to the variety of criticisms,and objected to stereotype.His literay criticism takes a prominent place in the history of modern Chinese literary criticism.

Key words: SHEN Cong-wen, literary criticism