[Purpose/significance] This paper aims to analyze the similarities and differences, the advantages and disadvantages between the ancient synopsis and the modern abstracts. It helps improve the technical methods of literature and provide an observation angle to understand "what is the essence of literature" in order to further reflect the human existing concept of knowledge.[Method/process] We combine the differences between Chinese and Western culture and the different positions of the literature essence, compare the different orientations of the ancient synopsis with that of the modern abstract systematically on "what to state" and "how to state".[Result/conclusion] The sages positioning literature in the height of "literature for moral instruction" attach great importance to "the nature of man and the world", expecting to restore the "human" through the author and the living circumstances of the "world" and revealing the "literature" behind the "Tao"; however, the modern literature is only to record all the carriers that have knowledge, which lack of the connotation of "Tao". Accordingly, the modern abstract emphasis on concentrating the objective knowledge that the literature records, thus a formalized and standardized statement of standards is formed.