As the earliest extant bibliography with abstracts compiled by a private bibliophile in China, CHAO Gong-wu’s Reading Notes in the Official Residence has an irreplaceable role and great significance in the history of Chinese bibliography. However, from the perspective of the history of literature and the academic history of literary criticism, its catalogue style, categories, prefaces and abstracts reflect the author’s idea of literary criticism. It is not only a magnum opus in bibliography, but also a collection of reading notes involving the history of literature and the history of literary criticism. Hence, it is a unique text for us to understand literature and politics in the Song Dynasty. ZHAO Xi-bian’s Supplementary Reading Notes is also an important complement to CHAO’s Reading Notes in literary criticism.