Eastern Culture Nucleus: Chinese Rare Books in the USC Libraries

Subjects

Four branches 四部 is a traditional Chinese bibliographic classification scheme to catalogue and organize books into four categories, namely jing 經 (Classics), shi 史 (History), zi 子 (Masters) , and ji 集 (Literature). The fourfold classification scheme started to develop in the third century and became standardized in the sixth century. 

Classics 經 comprises the Thirteen Classics of Confucianism 十三經, commentaries on the classics, and philology. History 史 contains historical works and documents, as well as works in geography, epigraphy 金石學, historiography and bibliography. Masters 子 includes a wide range of subject areas, such as masters and hundred schools of thought 諸子百家 of the late Warring States (475-221 BC), agriculture, medicine, fine arts, astronomy, math, encyclopedias 類書, Buddhist and Daoist works, etc. Literature 集 primarily consists of literary works and anthologies, collected works of individual authors, and poems.

This page has paths:

Contents of this path: