《史通》是一部史学评论著作，其内容总括万殊，包吞千有。关于散文，刘知几主张内容要“实录”、风格要简约，模拟古人以“貌异心同”为上；关于小说，刘知几就文言小说的分类、小说与史诗的关系、小说创作中的虚实关系、小说的杜会功能等方面提出了较为全面的看法。 “Stratton” is a book of historiographical commentary, the content of which includes all sorts of things, including swallowing. On the prose, Liu Zhizi advocated content should be “real record”, style should be simple, analogy the ancients with “different meanings” as the first; on the novel, Liu Zhiji on the classification of classical novels, novels and epic, novel writing The relation between reality and reality, the function of the society of the novel and so on.