Abstract: According to the complication style of Chu Ci (the lyrical ballads), it has been proved that the Nine Debates is authored by Song Yu. Thus, it is unnecessary to make a further study about it. Following Sun Kaidi, however, recently, He Jingshong reaffirmed such opinion that “ Nine Debates is the work of the Han Dynasty”. With the application of the history of Chinese character to identify the time of the ancient works, Mr. He made an investigation about whether the author of Nine Debates (the lyrical poem) is Qu yuan. However, in terms of the preservation of ancient books and geographical differences, the identity of writers and their literary styles, as well as the language style in their literature, it can be found that he overestimated the applicability of this method. Therefore, the opinion about “Nine Debates is the Work of the Han Dynasty” is unacceptable. Also, the conclusion made by Mr. He in such method, at a great extent, still needs further analysis and discussion.

Key words: Nine Debates, Han Dynasty, the history of Chinese vocabulary, the creation time of ancient book, applicability