Zhiren Novels refer to the novels that record and narrate the anecdotes and behaviors of people. The name Zhiren was derived by Lu Xun from Zhiguai (Supernatural) Fictions.

New Anecdote of Social Talk is the representative work of the Zhiren Novels. The book was compiled by Liu Yiqing (403-444), who was also an imperial clansman and officer in the Song Kingdom of the Southern Dynasties Period (420-589).

The general edition of New Anecdote of Social Talk has six volumes, including 36 articles, like Virtue, Language, Politics and Literature, etc., which are mainly about the words, deeds and anecdotes of the persons with literary talent from the late Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) to the Jin Dynasty (265-420) and the Song Kingdom (265-479) of the Southern Dynasties Period. The people mentioned in the book are all real persons that existed in history, but the words and stories about them in the book do not necessarily to be in line with actual facts. A considerable number of articles in the book are compiled from other books like The Records of the Great Historian and The History of the [Former] Han Dynasty. Other parts are also from the predecessors. Some stories, such as the conversation between Xie Lingyun and Liu Yiqing, might come from contemporary hearsays, as these people lived roughly at the same time with the author.

There are more articles recording the words rather than acts. The recordings were usually the speeches written down word by word without many decorations, and some of the words are therefore difficult to understand now. Meanwhile, those articles could usually display the characteristics of a person only with a very few words. For instance, Gen Wen, a powerful and aggressive minister said: If I can't leave a good name through ages, then why don't I go down in history as a symbol of infamy? Within a few words, a picturesque image of an overweening, ambitious man was sketched. Since the articles in the book are all deliberately selected and the language is also very polished, the book is generally more readable than ordinary unofficial history. With the great ability to generalize, the author could visualize a vivid image of the character with a very limited number of words. Some of the stories about one person are scattered in the whole book, but they still portray a complete image of character.

Most of the articles in the book are in the form of prose in an unadorned style. Sometimes the articles adopt the daily language, but this makes the article even more expressive and meaningful, and distinguish them from other contemporary works. Hence this book has always been popular among the people, and some of Chinese idioms actually came from it.