Abstract: “Biography is to find out truth of the historical facts, while ‘biographical literature’ is characterized by the emotional truth.” The former falls in the category of history, while the latter in the field of literature. With respect to biographical literature, the starting point of function is to solve the problems of history and reality, with emotional truth as the starting point of academic theories and aesthetic judgment as logical starting point of the writing. On this basis, biographical literature endeavors to reveal the subject’s role in the historical trend. Writers’ emotions in judging characters, events and details and the intellectual and philosophical existence are the basic value orientation of the biographical literature writing

Key words: biographical literature; logical starting point; value orientation

Liu Jianjun is Professor of world literature at Northeast Normal University, China. He is Chairman of the Specialized Committee for Foreign Literature in China Higher Education Academy and head of Jilin Society of Literature. Liu is also a member of both the National Social Science Fund Jury and the National Art Fund Jury. His main research foci include Christian literature and culture, the European medieval literature, etc. His recent publications are Thesis: The Medieval Literature in Europe (2011) and The Holy and Profane: Talks of Professor Jianjun Liu on Christian Literature and Western Literature (2014).