A study of the ancient Chinese literary theory should go hand in hand with the actual works of literature. One should familiarize oneself with the relevant literary works to be best of one's ability. It is difficult to reach the correct interpretation if one is discussing theories out of context. This article will examine three examples of such: 1. Liu Xie's Wenxin diaolong (The literary mind and the carving of dragons) shows an intention to criticize the unhealthy approach at the time. If one conducts an extensive reading of the poetry and prose of the Song-Qi period, one will understand that the unhealthy approach in Liu Xiu's mind refers, to a large extent, to what he calls eshi (mistaken force) in the chapter "Dingshi" (Stylistic force). 2. If one considers expressions such as yixiang (images) and xingxiang (affective style) in ancient literary criticisms together with their corresponding literary works, one will see that they are not mere descriptions of images. 3. The study of the relationship between philosophical thoughts and literary theory of a period should be combined with a look into the actual literary works, so that the discussion will remain relevant without deviating from the actual facts.