How to check the catalogue of ancient books?

Liu Xiang's Bielu is China's first bibliography work.

After his death, Liu Xin followed in his father's footsteps and edited Seven Outlooks, the first classification in China.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ban Gu appreciated Liu Xiang's catalogue thought very much, and compiled the Records of Han Shu Literature and Art on the basis of the seven views, which initiated the catalogue of Historical Records.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Xun Xu sorted out the palace books according to Liu Xiang's Bielu and compiled Zhongjing's New Works, which created the independent setting of the history department in the four-part classification system and catalogue classification system of ancient books in China.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zheng Qiao made new progress in bibliography, and his academic thoughts were "understanding", "seeking truth from facts" and "innovation". His thoughts on bibliography are mainly reflected in A Brief Review of Complaints, A Brief Review of Literature and Art, and A Brief Review of Atlas, which put forward that "those who want to make books clear must make them clear" and formed detailed book examples.

The General Catalogue of Sikuquanshu compiled by the Qing court has made unique achievements in the aspects of catalogue style, abstract writing and document textual research. The four-part classification of classics, history, zi and Ji in literature classification has a great influence on later bibliography, which provides convenience for modern people to consult ancient documents. Some scholars believe that reading this book is the way to learn. Zhang Xuecheng is a master of China's ancient bibliography thought. His philosophical thought is "Tao never leaves the device" and his academic view is "Six Classics are all history". His Book of Changes in Qiu Tong is a theoretical monograph on bibliography. Zhang Xuecheng inherited and carried forward the ideas of Liu Xiang, Liu Xin and Zheng Qiao in bibliography, and highly summarized the essence of China's classical bibliography by "distinguishing chapters and examining the original". He put forward the methods of writing notes and abstracts, indexing, using interaction and clipping. It improves the value of bibliography and promotes the theoretical research of bibliography.

China's modern bibliography thought was influenced by western bibliography to some extent. Liang Qichao's Bibliography of Western Studies is the first book classification system in modern China. It breaks the traditional description method and classifies the translated western books with a brand-new modern subject category. In classification, it is divided into three categories: western learning, western politics and miscellaneous, which breaks the "four points" perpetual system, including natural science and social science.

Yao Mingda is an important figure in the history of modern bibliography in China. He advocates the subject catalogue, carefully writes and solves problems, and separates the shelving catalogue from the book-seeking catalogue. The former is classified and the latter is themed. In the History of Bibliography in China, he criticized that modern bibliography was more effective than western methods, but lost the advantages of ancient bibliography in China, and advocated the compatibility between China and the West. On the basis of inheritance and reference, he initiated the development of bibliography in China. Yu Jiaxi developed Zhang Xuecheng's viewpoint in Introduction to Bibliography, and thought that contents, preface, description and so on are all indispensable parts of the catalogue style, and the catalogue must have these contents in order to play the role of "distinguishing chapters and examining the origin of mirrors". Du Dingyou and others, influenced by the international community, have the subject and group membership of bibliography, belonging to Class A and Class B respectively, and pay attention to the retrieval idea of bibliography. China's early modern bibliography mainly studied foreign bibliography and summarized China's ancient bibliography thought.