Abstract: Ancient Chinese attached great importance to issues about past and present. As one of the cultural concepts，the concept of past and present deeply affected their literary ideas and then their ideology of literary theory，which can be manifested in the specific ways such influence worked. The concept of past and present on one hand worked as cultural background for literary criticism as a demonstration of cultural orientation of that age;on the other hand it actually affected the ideology of literary theory as the thinking mode concerning past and present was implemented to the discussion of the past and present of literature. Furthermore，because the concept of past and present and literary theory intertwined on questions about inheritance and development，the concept of past and present inevitably affected the latter at the level of specific contents.

Key words: the concept of past and present, ancient literary theory, Three Kingdom, Jin Dynasties and North and South Dynasties, Wen Xin Diao Long