An anthology of cases adjudicated around 1630 by the author as magistrate of Junxian 濬縣 (Bei Zhili), or in some instances as acting magistrate in neighboring counties. The work was originally part of Wan’er ji 莞爾集, a 20-j. collection of the author’s administrative pieces from his tenure at Junxian, now lost but mentioned in the Mingshi bibliographic treatise and described in Cheng Jiming’s preface. The 308 entries deal with a total 302 cases. (A few are general narratives, e.g. on bandit suppression, and some cases are discussed in several entries.) Each entry is a “judgment” (讞)—the word that defines the nature of Zhang’s authorship in chapter captions—and uses the name of the culprit as its title. It consists of a short narrative of the case and ends with the legal and/or moral basis for judgment, the sentence itself being indicated only occasionally. The text is over-abundantly punctuated. The mulu also features 24 “commentaries on important criminals” (審錄要囚參語) as an appendix, though in fact they are not distinguished from the rest of j. 12. A number of cases deal with military families and military domains. According to Jiang Yonglin (see below), the 302 cases judged by the author are not in the form of official documents but are rather rewritten narratives emphasizing the author’s reliance on the Penal Code and on moral values in making decisions. Yang Yifan (see below) also notes the elegance of the style. In fact they are more like “rescripts” (批) in form. According to Jiang, in two-thirds of the cases the litigants were from outside Junxian, partly due to Zhang’s reputation as an impartial judge; he remarks that in his judgments Zhang hardly ever invoked the substatutes (例) attached to the Ming Code, making a point of relying on the regular statutes instead. This seems to contradict a number of assessments of judicial practice in the Ming, beginning with that of the Mingshi itself. In any event, in a number of cases involving local interests, in particular those of lineages, Zhang seems to have avoided a strict application of the Code and preferred to decide in a way that preserved local practice. Many cases are indeed dealing with “minor affairs” (such as family or commercial conflicts) that the magistrate would resolve by simple arbitration and with arguments more moral than juridical. The work may be considered both as a model anthology for officials and (Jiang’s interpretation) as warnings intended as admonishment to the public. According to Cheng’s preface, the word xun 㽦 in the title is used in comparison with deep plowing that brings out the richness of the soil: in the same way, Zhang’s direct and well-crafted judgements go directly to the hearts of the contending parties. (Jiang renders the title as Court Verdicts That Touch the Heart.)