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The Shih-shuo hsin-yu, conventionally translated as A New Account of Tales of the World, is one of the most significant works in the entire Chinese literary tradition. It established a genre (the Shih-shuo t'i) and inspired dozens of imitations from the later part of the Tang dynasty (618-907) to the early Republican era of the twentieth century. The Shih-shuo hsin-yu consists of more than a thousand historical anecdotes about elite life in the late Han dynasty and the Wei-Chin period (c. 150-420 C.E.). These beautifully written and artfully constructed stories are divided into thirty-six categories and cover a variety of subjects: people's physical appearance, innate abilities, moral qualities, psychological traits, political and social connections. A product of prevailing intellectual practice known as "character appraisal" (jen-lun chien-shih), the Shih-shuo hsin-yu reflects the unique style and manner of its time known to later generations as the Wei-Chin "spirit" -- an outgrowth of new intellectual trends that emerged during one of the most creative and iconoclastic periods of imperial Chinese history.

Despite a general recognition of the Shih-shuo hsin-yu's place in China's literary history (and to a lesser extent that of Japan), the genre itself has never been adequately defined or thoroughly studied. Spirit and Self in Medieval China offers the first thorough study in any language of the origins and evolution of the Shih-shuo t'i based on a comprehensive literary analysis of the Shih-shuo hsin-yu and a systematic documentation and examination of more than thirty imitations. The study also contributes to the growing interest in the Chinese idea of individual identity. By focusing on the Shih-shuo genre, which provides the starting point in China for a systematic literary construction of the self, it demonstrates that, contrary to Western assertions of a timeless Chinese "tradition," an authentic understanding of personhood in China changed continually and often significantly in response to changing historical and cultural circumstances.