Abstract
As the lucubrate of Chinese modern academic history and the work of packing up historical data continue to proceed，the historical value of letters is becoming noticeable．The straight matter is divided into five chapters．The first chapter looks back to the tradition of LAD．The first section analyzes the characteristics of letter as one of writing styles through its genesis，definition and feature，and dicusses the functions of letter in human communication and the rights of attribution of letter．In this way，it puts up the foundation of researching LAD．And discusses the historical development process of letter study in a historical point of view．The third section talks about modern scholars how to succeed and develop the tradition of LAD，taking Hu Shi for example．The second chapter researches LAD from an academic communication point of view，and it is a creative point in this research．That is trying to bring into the new theories of relevant subjects in order to enrich the research visual angles，researching it under the theories of academic communication system，and endowing it a totally new theory support．The third chapter is the packing up and publishing statistic of modern scholars' letters florilegium．By checking and reading a lot of data and spending a great deal of time，I composd a brie f catalog o f modern Chinese scholars' letters and a brie f catalog o f modern Chinese scholars' collections．They discuss the new features of modern and former scholars' letters，especially the new characteristic—LAD combined with modern media．
The fourth chapter puts stress on the functions of LAD．The first function is message transfer．The second one is the academic organization function of LAD．This dissertation describes how LAD takes part in the routine work of academic organizations，for instance，recommending teachers to universities，driving clerks moving and establishing academic organizations．It especially analyzes the active functions of those LAD adopted modern media in the academic magazines，and this dissertation takes the letter column of new youth for example．Excepting this，the function of letter as an emotioral link is also worthy of attention．The fifth chapter tries to establish ties of LAD by subject，mainly taking the LAD of taking urgent steps to save books for example．The most important example is Zheng Zhenduo and“the documents preservation organization”．This article tries to excavate the content of these letters and deeply research the function and value of them．
Key words：Letters about academic discussions（LAD），academic communication，modern scholars
