It was consequently compiled in chronological order by pairs of a teacher and a student and was not organized by category as in hongi (biographical records) or retsuden (a series of biographies) that were written in style of biographical historiography represented by Shiki (the Chinese Historical Records).
ゆえに、史記に代表される紀伝体の、本紀や列伝などの分類による叙述ではなく、師弟順によって編年体的に編集されている。