The article focuses on the development of literary societies, mainly comprising poetry societies and eight-legged essay societies. The Furong Society (芙蓉社), a famous poetry society of Jiangxi, was supported by Yu Yuede (余曰德), a local literatus, and Zhu Duokui (朱多煃), an imperial clansman, while the Literary Classicism Movement was becoming popular nationwide. The members of the Furong Society came mostly from these two groups. During the mid-Wanli (萬曆) era, the new tendency of eight-legged essay writing arose. Many literati participated simultaneously in eight-legged essay societies and poetry societies. On the one hand, eight-legged essay writing attracted more attention from literati than poetry-composing, and was mostly regarded as the main priority. On the other hand, imperial clansmen continued to run poetry societies, Longguangshe (龍光社) being the most famous, but some poetry societies were criticized severely and regarded as useless. At the same time, a new style of poetry societies was advocated by only literati, excluding imperial clansmen, of which Kuangshanshe (匡山社) is a typical example.