刘向

A member of the Han imperial clan, he was put in charge of the palace library in 26 BC. For every book he collated he wrote a summary, collected as the 别录, which his son 刘歆 turned into the 七略, the first catalogue of Chinese books. He also gave the 战国策 its name and its present shape, and put together the anthology 楚辞.

His own collections of stories, 《说苑》, 《新序》 and 《列女传》, are the source of idioms such as 叶公好龙 and 螳螂捕蝉.