The article deals with factual data on chuci (verses of Chu) collections, presented in the bibliographical treatises from the official historiographic works Suishu (Book of Sui), Jiutangshu (Old Book of Tang) and Xintangshu (New Book of Tang). Although most of the texts there recorded were irretrievably lost, the available information about the genre enables us to assume, firstly, a further growth in the popularity of chuci poetry in the spiritual life of the 3rd6th centuries and among a variety of groups of educated people: from court scholars to literati, who preferred a free-from-service lifestyle, and, secondly, the existence of a series of different versions of the Chuci collections. Thirdly, we may assume the formation of the commentary school of chuci, within which the most important directions of the future studies in the area have emerged.