刘歆
Traditional Chinese lexicography divided characters into six categories (). This classification is known from Xu Shen's second century dictionary "Shuowen Jiezi", but did not originate there. The phrase first appeared in the "Rites of Zhou", though it may not have originally referred to methods of creating characters. When Liu Xin (d. 23 CE) edited the "Rites", he glossed the term with a list of six types without examples.