Through the interpretation of the ”Wen Yan”文言(Commentary on the Hexagrams of Qian亁 and Kun坤) in the Yi Jing易經 (Book of Changes), Ruan Yuan阮元, a renowned scholar of classical studies during the Qing Dynasty, developed a unique view of literary criticism, which has widely drawn the attention of students of Chinese history and literary theory. However, being influenced by modern academic disciplines, students who specialize in literature tend to ignore the elements of classical studies in Ruan Yuan's theory. They suppose that Ruan's citation of the ”Wen Yan” is merely an appeal to authority as a rhetorical device, so as to help him more easily elaborate his own theory. These comments on Ruan's theory are neither accurate nor conclusive. Confronting these prevalent views, this paper aims to elucidate the homogeneity between the prose theory and the classical studies of Ruan Yuan in terms of the method of Classical commentary. The author concludes that (1) Ruan's ”Wen Yan Shuo”文言說 is a result of his own classical studies, rather than an essay with the intent to appease Confucian tradition; (2) his advocacy of Wen Xuan文選 is also one of the results of his classical studies; (3) the reason for extending his discoveries of classical studies to the domain of literature was to reunify the paradigm of literature of literature and that of classical studies.