Chinese historical and literary records are vast and voluminous. Searching through catalogs for titles, looking through books word for word, and making notes and extracts by traditional research methods is a laborious and painstaking process. Many years must be spent before writing a thesis on preparatory work alone; this, plus the continual increase in new information and materials, has been a problem of great concern to researchers in history and literature.
中國歷代遺留下來的史料，累積起來數量相當龐大，雖然整理研究的工作持續在進行，但是傳統的研究方式，先找書目、找書、找目錄，從內文逐字查、作筆記… … 等繁瑣的步驟，往往寫一篇論文的事前準備工作，就得耗費經年，加上資料日益增加，整理起來就更困難。