史書大部分都有《循吏傳》的編寫，以敘述一朝代的循良官吏。《金史・循吏傳》列述21人，同時又提出另外19位循吏的名單。這些人物可考察者共有28人，其中八成為進士，有4人為女真族人。他們都非顯赫的家世，並且未集中於哪一朝，其為循吏的事蹟超過半數是在低階地方官時，他們在後來有七成都能升任為高官。在政績上以治理與行政才能表現出惠政者居多，其次是維護社會秩序及生命安全為主，處理司法與賦役方面也頗為多見。此外，由其他史料中尚可見到類似的循吏約有70多人，可供參考。除去突出書寫政績外，民間社會對循吏表達行為有請留、感應異象、立碑與祠像等，可反應出社會文化的傳統，這些也是對循吏書寫的重要內容，以塑造他們的形象。

In most of the Official Dynastic Histories there were the biographies of good officials to describe the deeds of outstanding and competent officials. There were twenty-eight good officials recorded in Jing shih Xunli chuan. They were not born of famous family and stay in power under different regimes. Many of them performed very well when they were local low order officials and then elevated to high-ranking officials. They had great contributions in many fields, like administrative management and jurisdiction. In addition to the description of their achievements, there were many records which represent the image of good officials in the minds of the masses.