Since 1992, the Institute of Chinese Studies has received grants from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange in Taiwan and the Research Grant Council in Hong Kong for establishing a database of traditional texts in the Six Dynasties period. Over 1000 titles have been inputted since 1992, amounting to more than 25 millions words.

Weijin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties lasted for 370 years which was a relatively long period of divided sovereignty in the Chinese history. There were massive interactions between different ethnic groups and cultures during this period which led to the flourishing of various philosophical beliefs, for instance, Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. Many thinkers, writers and historians thrived on the rapid cultural development which became the solid foundation of the Tang Dynasty. A lot of literary works with various styles, especial those under the Ji category, appeared in this period. A comprehensive database on these texts could definitely help scholars to study the literature, philosophy, history and languages of the Six Dynasties.

1. The entire corpus of traditional texts of a specific period, regardless of their categories and volumes, is inputted into the database. It can assist scholars in the comprehensive study of the culture, history and language of the relevant period as well as their developments.
2. Since a lot of the texts in this period were lost or fragmentary, researchers had made use of a lot of the works collected by scholars in the Qing Dynasty for meticulous accuracy.
3. All inputted texts were based on the best available editions with the least subsequent tampering, mainly from the Sibucongkan edition. Textual comparisons and punctuation were carried out for all texts. Variant readings were given in footnotes for the reference of the readers so even if readers disagree with our judgment, they can always convert back to the original texts.