以史书艺文志为标志，“小说”文类观的确立，经历了《汉书·艺文志》《隋书·经籍志》《新唐书·艺文志》三座里程碑。在此过程中，“小说”作为一种文类概念，其内涵和指称也经历了一个由“子之末” 到“史之余”的演化过程。由此，“小说”既易与“传记”文类相混杂，又易与“杂史”混杂。比较而言，从“小说” 起源来说，它更易与“传记”而非“杂史”混杂。“小说”与“杂史”的混杂主要表现为历代公私书目中“小说”与 “杂史”的混杂著录和“小说”与“杂史”类作品部分内容的羼杂。“小说”与“杂史”的文类混杂主要源于两者同属有别于正史的野史稗史，均为载录闻见或传闻而成，在载录各类历史人物之琐细轶事方面存在交集。 “小说”与“杂史”文类间的畛域区分主要体现为“小说”所记“琐闻佚事”过于琐细，多无关“朝政军国”，无关 “善善恶恶”之史家旨趣。

The establishment of the conception of fiction experienced three main stages respectively represented by “The Records of Art and Literature” in The Historical Records， “The Records of Classics and Books” in The History of Sui and “The Records of Art and Literature” in The New History of Tang. In this process， fiction， as a conception of a literary genre， also changed from “the end of philosophical writings” to “the rest of historical records”. Thus， “fiction” inclines to be confused with both “biography” and “unofficial historical record”. Relatively speaking， its more likely to be confused with the category of biography. The confusion between fictions and unofficial historical records is mainly about the mixed records in public and private book lists in successive dynasties and the confusion between the contents of the two kinds of works. This confusion is resulted from the fact that they are both different from official history and they both record hearsay and anecdotes of historical figures. The difference between them lies in the fact that fictions are too detailed about the anecdotes and unrelated with politics， military and the concept of good and evil which historians are interested in.