The history of Chinese ancient books and records is well established and of long standing. With its numerous forms and categories, its contents is still focused (or centered) on biographical sketches about historical figures. No doubt that they are mainly gathered in the history books. However, a large amount of them are also scattered in local annuals, anthologies, sketchbooks, etc.
How the users can secure easy access to these kinds of materials depends totally on the systematical introduce of reference books. This article cites Chapter 7 of Mr. Chin- lang Chang's Guide to Chinese Reference Books, elaborating the classification, function, layout, coverage, and their merits and demerits of these biographical materials.