Abstract:
In Liu Zhi-ji’s Shi-Tong, the annalistic style and biographical style are the orthodox historical styles of history system, and the other, namely the historical materials being used to write orthodox historical books, are non- orthodox historical styles. Until Liu Zhi-ji’s time, the novels still take recording saying and matters as their main characteristics. And consequently, Liu Zhi-ji could make use of them to write historical books and regard them as historical materials. So Liu Zhi-ji didn’t have intention to discourse upon novels, and meanwhile, his concept of novels didn’t go beyond other people in Tang dynasty taking Sui-Zhi as a representative. Ten kinds of partial recording novels in the chapter Mixed Depiction were the classificatory embodiment of Liu Zhi-ji’s concept about pan-historical materials, and weren’t the classification of novels.