The contracts themselves were formal agreements of transaction, and did not therefore betray the distress that must have accompanied the sale of a child, but they nevertheless reveal a great deal about the misfortunes that people faced in traditional Chinese society.
雖然契約主要在於約定規束，因此即使是賣子、賣女，賣家心中的傷痛不會現於筆墨之中，然而透過這樣交易性質的文案，仍可看出舊時代的一些不幸。