Abstract: In order to define the stylistic rules of legends in the Tang Dynasty, scholars always take factors like the works' length, plot structures, depictive writing and imaginational[JP2]content into consideration. It seems ambiguous if scholars take these factors as the standards to determine specific works. In terms of the scope definition of single-piece legends in the Tang Dynasty, there is conceptual confusion among a "novel" and an essay of "biography", a historical "biography" and a piece of "miscellaneous historical story". When selecting legends from novel collections in the Tang Dynasty, scholars are confused about how to distinguish the style of legends from that of notes and they also hold different opinions on texts' selecting as well as on the strictness of the standard. The case of contemporary scholars' scope definition of the legends in the Tang Dynasty is of significance for the study of ancient novels and even the study of ancient literature in general.

Key words: legends, scope of works, definition