Shih-shuo hsin-yu (A New Account of Tales of the World), compiled by Liu I-ch'ing (403-444), is a collection of anecdotes, short conversations, and pithy observations on personalities who lived in China between about 150 and 420 A.D. Mather’s classic translation incorporates the commentary of Liu Chun (461-521), adding invaluable information through citations from lost works of the third and fourth centuries.

The new edition introduces numerous revisions to this first complete English translation of the work.