Tumor staging has a major bearing on the prognosis and development of treatment regimens. China’s earliest liver cancer staging can be dated back to the 1970s. The National Collaborative Meeting on the Research of Liver Cancer Prevention and Treatment held in Shanghai in 1977 developed the diagnosis, classification, and staging criteria for primary liver cancer. According to this system, liver cancer is divided into three stages: Liver cancer of stage I is usually asymptomatic; liver cancer of stage II is intermediate between those of stage I and III; liver cancer of stage III is usually combined with any of the following conditions: jaundice, ascites, cachexia, and extrahepatic metastases. In 1997, the Sichuan Liver Cancer Committee made a revision of the 1977 staging system. That is, by further dividing liver cancer of stage II into four substages. The updated staging system not only included patients’ clinical conditions but also tumor size and the modified Child-Pugh score. In 1999, the Chinese Society of Liver Cancer further revised the 1977 staging system by subdividing stage II into substages IIa and IIb (Table 4.1). This new staging system also considered tumor emboli in the portal vein, hepatic vein, inferior vena cava, and bile duct and liver function apart from the T, N, and M classification in scheme of Union for International Cancer Control (UICC). However, the earlier staging systems did not incorporate treatment guidelines or treatment recommendations. Nevertheless, all of them represented active explorations in liver cancer staging and laid a foundation for the subsequent development of China’s guidelines for liver cancer diagnosis and treatment.