This anthology presents as selection of Chinese prose compositions from the 3rd century AD to the present. The essays start from the early masters of the form, Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren, take in the stalwarts of the middle generations, like Ye Shengtao, Zhu Ziqing, Feng Zikai, Liang Shiqiu and Liang Yuchun, and conclude with living writers who publish in Taiwan and the mainland.