Archives refer to various forms of original records with preservation value directly formed by people in various social activities. Original recordability is its essential attribute. Ancient Chinese archives have different titles in different dynasties. It was called "Ce" in the Shang Dynasty, "Zhong" in the Zhou Dynasty, "Classic Books" in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and "Documents", "Copy Cases", "Case Slips"," Case Files", and "Book Books" after the Qing Dynasty. "Files" are often used, and are now collectively called "files".

Detailed definitions are given in the "Archives Law of the People's Republic of China" and "Cihai", which refer to the direct formation of political, military, economic, scientific, technological, cultural, and religious activities of past and present state institutions, social organizations and individuals Historical records in various forms, such as texts, charts, audio and video, etc., which are valuable to the country and society.

From the above two definitions of archives, it can be seen that archives have two important attributes, one is the original record, and the other is the preservation value, which also reflects the basic content of the archives business: first, it must be collected in the process, Sort out the original records, find the original records that are truly valuable for preservation, and at the same time, as time goes by, appraise the existing archives, remove some files that have lost their preservation value, and provide convenience for later statistics and utilization. That is, the six aspects of collection, sorting, storage, identification, statistics and utilization, referred to as "six links".