Advice on administering justice for beginning and inexperienced magistrates, in 29 rubrics. He Gengsheng’s pref. notes that works like Chen Hongmou’s Congzheng yigui or Wang Huizu’s Zuozhi yaoyan and Xuezhi yishuo (qq.v.), which deal with the larger principles of local government, cannot go into details, and this is what the present work does. The text’s organisation in 29 rubrics was effected by the magistrate of Raoyang 饒陽 (Zhili), Wang Languang, who stresses in his pref. that the work can help not only beginners but experienced officials as well. Notes in the upper margin refer to the author’s tenure as acting department magistrate of Pingquan 平泉州 (Zhili); his pref. was written in Luanyang 灤陽 (probably Luanping 灤平), where the work was first printed. Every step of the procedure is discussed, with an insistence on the peculiar circumstances of such crimes as homicides, robbery with violence, sexual crimes, etc. The prudence, leniency, and compassion of the judge are stressed. There is an entry on how to deal with pettifoggers (訟棍), likened to carbuncles on the body (如人身之有瘡疽). The last entries deal with special assignments to investigate cases in other counties and with joint investigations. The prefs. and postfs. celebrate Muhan’s experience in law and efficiency as a judge. Huang Pengnian’s 1887 ed. was produced for a library of books on administration that he collected in a pavilion named Suliu tang 蘇柳堂, near his offices of Shaanxi surveillance commissioner, to teach officials about law. The success of the work can be seen in the fact that it had eds. in several provinces (Huang Pengnian’s pref. mentions Jiangxi, Anhui, and Hubei).