Abstract: In the Sui Records (Sui Zhi) and the collections afterwards, The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons has been classified in the Literature (Ji) section. Although there are scholars arguing that it belongs to the category of Philosophy (Zi), their voice is too insignificant to challenge the prevailing view due to the immense influence of Sui Records. Notably, "Preface to the Records (Xu Zhi)" and the "Schools of Thought (Zhu Zi)" are highly consistent in their description of the author' s intention and the nature of the book The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, which forcefully demonstrates that the author Liu Xie has meant it to be a philosophical work. This finding is helpful for us to better understand both the authorial intention and the characteristic of the book.

Key words: Liu Xie, The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons , the Category of Philosophy, "Preface to the Records (Xu Zhi)", "Schools of Thought (Zhu Zi)"