[1] By the Han dynasty, the first attempt to categorise Chinese classics was done by Liu Xiang (劉向; 77 BCE – 6 CE) and his son Liu Xin (劉歆; 46 BCE – 23 CE) into 6 distinct categories with a general catalogue making it a 7-part system.
These categories were later redefined by Li Chong (李充) by moving historical works into Yi (乙部) and philosophical writings into Bing (丙部).
The Sibu classification was formally established by the Tang dynasty, occurring in the work, Suishu·Jingjizhi (隋書經籍志).
The work adopted names for the four categories, 經, 史, 子, and 集.
This system was in used up to the Qing dynasty and influenced classification methods in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.