本书主要记载东汉末年至东晋末年200多年间士族阶层的言谈风尚和琐闻轶事。全书记事1130余则，分德行、言语、政事、文学、方正等36类，显现出魏晋士人的精神风貌，反映了当时社会政治、历史、道德、美学、哲学等方面的情况。(This book describes the gentry-class speech fashion and trivial anecdotes in the period of over 200 years between the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the late Eastern Jin Dynasty. The book offers 1130 accounts that fall in 36 categories, such as virtues, speech, political affairs, literature, and uprightness, showing the Wei and Jin spirits, reflecting the situations of society and politics, history, ethics, aesthetics, philosophy, and so on.)