noted by Guan Xia & Liu Yiqing 
Ministry-Compiled Reading Book Series 
A New Account of the Tales of the World

The book is written by Liu Yiqing of the Southern Song Dynasty. It is a representative work of ancient Chinese literary sketches and the earliest collection of humanity-depicting novels. This book mainly narrates the conservations and anecdotes of the intellectuals in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms Period and the two Jin Dynasties, and reflects the life, thoughts, interests and speeches of the literati and celebrities. Lu Xun praised it as a textbook for scholars with literary reputations.