Fourteen research papers on traditional China. They form three groups, each mixing discursive pieces with more technical research: books and publishing; medieval narrative and culture; vernacular culture. Fundamentally these studies develop a more open way of reading China's traditional narrative literature.

Glen Dudbridge retires in 2005 as Shaw Professor of Chinese, University of Oxford, after a career of forty years during which he has written on China's narrative traditions, religion, mythology and publishing culture. Among his books are The Hsi-yu chi (1970), The legend of Miaoshan (1978, rev. ed. 2004), The tale of Li Wa (1983), Religious experience and lay society in T'ang China (1995), Lost books of medieval China (2000).