Yin Chang-i, who has discovered thousands of such contracts during the last few years, explains: "Among the five elements of historical research, namely people, events, time, place and artifacts, old contracts are classified as artifacts. In fact, they reveal far more than other types of artifact, and they are much more authentic than records that have been compiled by subsequent generations."
「在研究史學的人、事、時、地、物五種元素中，老契約屬於物的一種。它不僅比其他古物可以解讀更多的史料，而且較經後人整理過的史籍要真實得多」，近年來發掘數千件老契約的尹章義指出。