Miscellaneous History of the Southern and Northern Dynasties records the anecdotes of Liu and Song characters from the late Han Dynasty to the Southern Dynasties. Written by Liu Song Imperial Clan (403-444), with a note by Liang (word filial piety). Liu Xiang, who wrote Shi Shuo in the Han Dynasty, has long since passed away. The book was originally named Shi Shuo, which was later distinguished from Liu Xiangshu, also known as Shi Shuo Shu Xin. It was renamed today after the Song Dynasty. There are eight volumes in the original book, ten volumes in Liu Xiao's notes, and three volumes in this book, which are divided into 36 subjects such as morality and speech. It describes the anecdotes of celebrities and nobles from the end of Han Dynasty to Liu Song Dynasty, which are mainly manifested in stories about people, metaphysics and smooth stories. Sui Shu Economic Journal listed him as a novelist. Although the individual facts recorded in this book are not accurate, they reflect the ideological style of the aristocratic families at that time, and preserve the historical materials of society, politics, thought, literature and language, which is of great value.

Many scholars gathered under Liu Yiqing's door. They wrote this book based on similar works of predecessors, such as Pei Qi's Yu Lin. Liu Yiqing only advocated and presided over the compilation, but the style of the book was basically the same, and there was no trace of copying books by multiple hands or groups, which should be attributed to the power of its editor-in-chief. Some Japanese scholars infer that the author of this book is He Changyu, a disciple of Liu Yiqing and a good friend of Xie Lingyun.

Liu xiaobiao's ancestral home is Qingzhou in the Southern Dynasties. In 469, the Northern Wei Dynasty captured Qingzhou. Later, he moved to Pingcheng, became a monk, and later became secular. Qi Yongming returned to Jiangnan in 486 to participate in the translation of Buddhist scriptures. The notes in this book were made by Liu after he returned to Jiangnan. He adopted the method of Pei Songzhi's annotation of the Three Kingdoms to fill the vacancy and correct the fallacy. There are countless filial piety and lucky money, and more than 400 kinds of books are cited. Yu Jiaxi's Notes on Shi Shuo Xin Yu, Xu Zhen's Notes on Shi Shuo Xin Yu and Yong Yang's Notes on Shi Shuo Xin Yu all have comments from later generations. Scholars in the Tokugawa era in Japan wrote several notes on Shi Shuo Xin Yu. Ma Ruizhi is also available in English, and Jia Mu Tian Cheng is available in Japanese and French. (Zhou Yiliang)