Retracing the origin of literary historiography and taking the books of history of German literature as an example, this article reveals the tradition of literary historiography, analyses why literary historiography has to face the challenge and explores the success and failure in the attempts to innovate in the face of the difficulties. Based on Gadamer's hermeneutics, this article thinks of literary historiography as a symbiotic relationship in the dialogue between the writer and writing objects and thus puts forward the solution of its own to the literary historiography.