In the early years of the Southern Sung, re-carvings of the Classics and Histories were all based on surviving imprints from the Northern Sung. Consequently, texts were often identical to those of the Northern Sung, including the use of taboo characters in them. This edition belongs to a re-carving of a Northern Sung edition, its text and annotations being far more refined than those of many other Southern Sung and later editions.

This is the finest surviving edition of Tu Fu’s poetry. Fully annotated, the characters of the print are solemn and upright in the forceful manner of Yen Chen-ch’ing’s calligraphy. The spacing of the woodblock carving is also ample, making it a superb example of Sung dynasty engraving and also the sole surviving copy.

This is one of the few Sung dynasty imprints describing the customs of peoples outside of China proper. Two years after the author Hsü Ching was sent to Korea (then known as Koryo) as an emissary, and following the fall of the Northern Sung, only the text of his illustrated account survived. Afterwards, his nephew Hsü Ch’an had the text reprinted into a book, and this is the only surviving copy of the imprint.

The Ch’en Residence refers to the bookshop opened by Ch’en Ch’i and his son. Located in the Mu-ch’in ward of the Southern Sung capital Lin-an, it specialized in engraving poetry collections of less notable figures of the T’ang and Sung dynasty. Known as a "book-booth edition", most were produced with beautiful and upright characters.

This book is a collection of essays and memorials written by high officials of the Northern Sung that was first compiled by Chao Ju-yü and then classified and edited by him. Before this edition, there had been a previous imprint, but it had been destroyed in war. This particular edition was reprinted with funds raised by Shih Chi-wen, the Superintendent of Fuchow.