Ruǎn Xiàoxù 阮孝緒

Shìzōng 士宗. Liáng-dynasty 梁 recluse-scholar and bibliographer, native of Chénliú Wèishì 陳留尉氏 (modern Hénán). Author of the Qīlù 七錄 (“Seven Records”), an influential seven-fold bibliographic catalogue (preface 523) classifying the empire’s books under the divisions jīng 經, 紀, 子, wén 文, shù 術, 佛, and dào 道. The work is lost as a whole but survives in extensive fragments and in the Suíshū jīngjí zhì 隋書經籍志 derivation. Liáng shū 梁書 (juan 51) and Nán shǐ 南史 (juan 76) give his biography.