First, the Liexian Zhuan was not listed in Ban Gu's 111 CE Book of Han Yiwenzhi ("Treatise on Literature") imperial bibliography, and the 636 Book of Sui was the first official dynastic history to record it bibliographically. However, the Yiwenzhi does list many works written and compiled by Liu Xiang, including two with similar titles: Lienǚ Zhuan (, Biographies of Exemplary Women) and Lieshi zhuan (, Biographies of Exemplary Officials).
