Chinese Library Classification


The Chinese Library Classification, also known as Classification for Chinese Libraries, is effectively the national library classification scheme in China. It is used in almost all primary and secondary schools, universities, academic institutions, as well as public libraries. It is also used by publishers to classify all books published in China.
The Book Classification of Chinese Libraries was first published in 1975, under the auspices of China's Administrative Bureau of Cultural Affairs. Its fourth edition was renamed CLC. In September 2010, the fifth edition was published by National Library of China Publishing House.
CLC has twenty-two top-level categories, and inherits a Marxist orientation from its earlier editions. It contains a total of 43600 categories, many of which are recent additions, meeting the needs of a rapidly changing nation.

The CLC system

The 22 top categories and selected sub-categories of CLC are as follows:

A. [Marxism], [Leninism], [Maoism] and [Deng Xiaoping theory]

The other library classifications in China are:
The other library classifications for Chinese materials outside mainland China are: