本书有所侧重地论述了唐代政治、教育、军事、交通、社会制度的几个方面。在占较大篇幅的官制部分，对唐代培养使用科学技术人才的直官制度及其与职、散、勋、爵共同构成的官制体系的论述，对中日几代学者倾全力研究的永徽职员令残卷的进一步探讨，对唐代视品官制的恢复、分析等，均为创新见解。军事制度中对城傍、陌刀的研究，发展了陈寅恪先生的种族文化学说。对其它制度，也有具体深入的研究。此外，本书还在探索制度本身与政治甚至人的关系、揭示制度背后所体现的精神等方面提供了新的视角。

This study aims to engage the textual realities of medieval literature by shedding light on the material lives of poems during the Tang, from their initial oral or written instantiation through their often lengthy and twisted paths of circulation. Tang poems exist today in stable written forms assumed to reflect their creators' original intent. Yet Tang poetic culture was based on hand-copied manuscripts and oral performance. We have almost no access to this poetry as it was experienced by contemporaries. This is no trivial matter, the author argues. If we do not understand how Tang people composed, experienced, and transmitted this poetry, we miss something fundamental about the roles of memory and copying in the circulation of poetry as well as readers' dynamic participation in the creation of texts. We learn something different about poems when we examine them, not as literary works transcending any particular physical form, but as objects with distinct physical attributes, visual and sonic. The attitudes of the Tang audience toward the stability of texts matter as well. Understanding Tang poetry requires acknowledging that Tang literary culture accepted the conscious revision of these works by authors, readers, and transmitters.

本书是侯旭东教授关于中国秦汉至魏晋南北朝时期地域社会研究的论文合集。共收十余篇有关中国古代地域社会研究的论文，既有对传世史料的重新解读，也有大量利用新出土文献者。

本书以中华书局点校本“二十四史”及《清史稿》中记载的天文现象为研究对象。通过利用现代天文计算方法，对于诸史本纪、表和天文志的相关天象记录，一一进行查验，主要涉及日食、月食、月五星列宿掩犯等天象。时间上起《史记》，下讫《清史稿》，涵盖有历史记载以来的各个时期。
通过运用现代天文计算方法查验，发现诸史中的错误记录，其中超过半数可以考出其原来面貌，本书即这些“可考”的记录及考证结果。由于日食在古代受到特别的重视，因此某些年代错误而无考，甚至正确的日食记录（如春秋时期），也收入本书。此外，本书还包括少量注释条目。