Liu Hsin and His Classification of the "hundred schools"

The second historian who attempted to classify the "hundred schools" was Liu Hsin (ca. 46 B.C.-A.D. 23). He was one of the greatest scholars of his day, and, with his father Liu Hsiang, made a collation of the books in the Imperial Library. The resulting descriptive catalogue of the Imperial Library, known as the "Seven Summaries", was taken by Pan Ku (A.D. 32-92) as the basis for the chapter, Yi Wen Chih or "Treatise on Literature", contained in his dynastic history, the History of the Former Han Dynasty. In this "Treatise" we see that Liu Hsin classifies the "hundred schools" into ten main groups. Out of these, six are the same as those listed by Ssu-ma T'an. The other four are the Tsung-Heng chia or School of Diplomatists, Tsa chia or School of Eclectics, Nung chia or School of Agrarians, and Hsiao-shuo chia or School of Story Tellers. In conclusion, Liu Hsin writes: "The various philosophers consist of ten schools, but there are only nine that need be noticed." By this statement he means to say that the School of Story Tellers lacks the importance of the other schools.

In this classification itself, Liu Hsin did not go very much further than Ssu-ma T'an had done. What was new, however, was his attempt for the first time in Chinese history to trace systematically the historical origins of the different schools.