A book that is not a joke collection as such but which had a lasting influence on subsequent Chinese humor is Hsih shuo hsin yu, or A New Account of Tales of the World, a collection of biographical anecdotes written during the early fifth century.
在這些戲謔性質的筆記、小說中，卻有一本書，光芒掩過「嫡出」的笑話集，被公認為對整個笑話作品流脈有重大影響，那就是「世說新語」。