Abstract: The Zhongzong Dynasty first began to regard Wang Bo, Yang Jiong, Lu Zhaolin and Luo Binwang as a literary group, and called them "four outstanding men" or "four talented men". Although people including the four outstanding men discussed the issue of ranking, those discussions were scattered and inconclusive. Since the Song Dynasty, "Wang Yang" and "Lu Luo" frequently appeared as pairs. Later, maybe because of the pronunciation habit of "flat front and narrow back", they were identified as "Wang Yang Lu Luo". Influenced by Zhang Shuo and Liu Su's "Pei Xingjian's comments on the four outstanding men", there were many cases in Tang and Song Dynasties where the official selection criteria of "valuing morality but belittling literature and art" was used to belittle the "four outstanding men". Du Fu was the first to rectify the fame of the "four outstanding men" from the standpoint of poetry criticism, and regarded them as a key link in the development of literature in the Tang Dynasty. With the deepening of the people's understanding of the development stage of poetry and prose, Wang, Yang, Lu and Luo's literary ideas and writing practice of inheriting Qi and Liang traditions and ushering in Tang literature got recognition. Finally, the four talents became the representatives, side by side with Shen, Song and Chen Zi'ang, of the literary circle of the early Tang Dynasty.

Key words: Wang Yang Lu Luo, four outstanding men, poetics theory, inheriting Qi and Liang traditions and ushering in Tang literature