noun
series of biographies; collection of biographies
Refers to a genre of historical writing, especially in East Asian historiography, where biographies of notable individuals are compiled in a single work or section. Often used in titles such as 列伝体 or 史記列伝.
司馬遷の『史記』には多くの列伝が収められている。
Sima Qian's 'Records of the Grand Historian' contains many series of biographies.
この本は、戦国武将の列伝としてよく読
This book is widely read as a collection of biographies of Sengoku warlords.
From Chinese 列傳 (lièzhuàn), literally 'arranged biographies'. The term was adopted into Japanese and is used in the context of classical Chinese and Japanese historiography.