The 285 comparatively short entries, which seem to be a random collection of reflections, advice, and anecdotes concerning the administrative, judicial, and financial aspects of local government, cover the usual contents of standard magistrate handbooks, but in a particularly lively way. J. 1 discusses the various aspects of the official’s preparation when still expectant (候補), behavior, relations with colleagues and subordinates and with notables, how to preserve one’s integrity, how to fill out various forms, and so forth; it also includes a detailed bibliography of the works with which a magistrate should be familiar. J. 2 is similar in style, but focuses more directly on administrative practice; in addition to warning against improper types of official behavior, it provides information on how to handle litigation, how to hire and pay private secretaries and servants, and how to determine judicial penalties. J. 3 is devoted entirely to judicial administration, on which it provides detailed and comprehensive advice concerning commonly encountered problems, discussing, e.g., tricks for taking testimony, what to do if one of the plaintiffs is rich and the other poor, how to deal with litigation masters (訟師), what to do if a witness has been bribed, and so forth. J. 4 is a miscellany of administrative topics ranging from effective methods for suppressing banditry to the proper use of judicial torture, and from the organization of the yamen to the care of orphans and the poor. The author explains in the fanli that the work was first written to help his sons and grandsons in their official careers; while this is a topos, Pingping yan appears to have been considered particularly useful by the general readership of its time.