We systematically investigate the periodic orbits of the Lorenz flow up to certain topological length. As an alteative to Poincar ′e section map analysis, we propose a new approach for establishing one-dimensional symbolic dynamics based on the topological structure of the orbit. A newly designed variational method is stable numerically for cycle searching, and two orbital fragments can be used as basic building blocks for initialization. The topological classification based on the entire orbital structure is revealed to be effective. The deformation of periodic orbits with the change of parameters provides a chart to the periods of cycles. The current research may provide a methodology for finding and systematically classifying periodic orbits in other similar chaotic flows.