In the period of the Tang Dynasty in China, it was widely done to excerpt necessary parts from old books to classify and recompile them for making prose and poetry or organizing knowledge, and such books were called Leishu.
中国の唐代では、詩文の作成や知識の整理のために、古典の中から必要な箇所を抜書きして分類編纂することが広く行われ、これを類書と称した。