文学一词今义的形成乃晚明天主教和晚清基督教合力建构使然。1623年艾儒略刊刻《西学凡》和《职方外纪》二书，提出"文艺之学"一称，主要内容包含各种诗文与议论文章等等。1635年，杨廷筠身后出版的《代疑续篇》中，引用尤属《职方外纪》的艾著，改"文艺之学"为"文学"二字，而这是"文学"摆脱《论语》以来以孔门经籍或教育修身为主的古义之始。杨廷筠的用法，清中叶以后的基督教传教士如艾约瑟赓续之，而且在《六合丛谈》中指陈内含史诗、悲喜剧与史传等西方古来的文学文类，甚至含括西人观念中的修辞学在内。"文学"的今义，自此灿然大备，而且随魏源《海国图志》与维新派人士与文人如梁启超与王国维等人的援用，逐渐演为中国现代性的一环。

This paper studies the formation the modern connotation of the term "wenxue"(literature) as the result of the co-construction of Catholicism in the late Ming Dynasty and Christianity in the late Qing Dynasty. In his books Xixuefan and Zhifang Waiji published in 1623, Guilio Aleni coined the term "wenyi zhi xue", which aims to include various types of poems and argumentative writings. In YANG Ting-yun's posthumous work Daiyi Xupian published in 1635, Aleni's "wenxue zhi xue" in Xixuefan was quoted and replaced by "wenxue", which was the first time that the term "wenxue" obtained its new meaning different from its traditional one as Confucian classics or cultivation since the Analects. YANG's usage was continued by Christian commissionaires such as Joseph Adkins, who also used "wenxue" in his Liuhe Congtan to include epics, tragedies and comedies, historical records and even rhetoric in the Western tradition. The modern connotation of "wenxue" has gradually formed since then and with its application in WEI Yuan's Records and Maps of the World, and reformers and scholars such as LIANG Qi-chao and WANG Guo-wei, "wenxue" has made contribution to China's modernity.