The story takes place in Shangyu of Zhejiang Province. Zhu Yingtai disguises herself as a young man to go to Hangzhou to study. There she meets Liang Shanbo in class. They grow so fond of each other that they become sworn brothers. Three years pass by, and Yingtai receives a letter from her father who urges her to return. The two find it hard to part, so Shanbo accompanies Yingtai for miles and miles. On the way, Yingtai time and again drops clues to make Shanbo understand that she already regards him as a partner for life, but he fails to get the hint. Yingtai cannot but tell him that ‘he’ has a sister at home and would like to marry her to Shanbo. If he is willing, he should send a matchmaker with the betrothal gifts early to her home. On returning home, Yingtai finds out that her father has arranged for her to marry Ma Wencai, son of the Prefect, for the reason that he is a good match. On the other hand, Shanbo happily discovers that Yingtai’s ‘sister’ is none other than Yingtai herself, so he comes to see her at home. When the lovers meet again in Yingtai’s chamber, Shanbo hears the devastating news that she is already betrothed to the Ma family. They cry bitter tears before they part. But Shanbo is so distressed that he soon falls ill and dies. On hearing the sad news, Yingtai puts on mourning clothes and visits Shanbo’s grave. A storm suddenly comes up, the tomb opens, and Yingtai jumps in. Their spirits turn into two butterflies that would stay together always.

The story opens with a birthday banquet at the Imperial Commissioner of Xiangyang’s residence. His Excellency’s wife, Fang Duohua, is a snob, and likes to flaunt her status and wealth. It happens that her nephew, Fang Qing, whose family has fallen into hard times, comes to ask for a loan so that he can go to the capital to attend the civil examination. But Duohua is not one to remember what care and concern she had received from Qing’s family when she was down and out. Instead, she slings insult upon insult on Qing, and orders him to leave. Qing is a filial son, and honours his promise to his mother that he would not retort despite the fact that his aunt is such a vain snob. Before he leaves, he vows that he would not appear before her again unless he has plucked the laurels in the civil examination.

Wang Kui is a scholar who has failed in the national civil examination in the capital. Unable to take the long journey home, he is in dire straits when Jiao Guiying, a famous courtesan, finds him and takes him in. She supports him in his studies, and later the two are married. But when Kui plucks the laurels at the civil examination in the capital this time, he has a change of heart. He marries the daughter of the Prime Minister and sends Guiying a letter of annulment, seeking to divorce her. Guiying is devastated and with nowhere to turn to, she goes to the Temple of the God of the Sea where the two of them had made their pledge never to part two years ago. She makes an invocation to the God and tearful accuses Kui of his infidelity and heartlessness before she hangs herself. The Judge in Hell accepts Guiying’s plaint, goes with her spirit to the capital to catch Kui alive.

Lin Daiyu has lost her mother at a young age, and has to take up residence at her maternal grandmother’s place. There she grows up with her cousin, Jia Baoyu, and the two are very much in love. When Baoyu receives a hard beating from his father for having befriended a young actor, Daiyu goes to visit him in his chamber, only to be unwittingly turned away by his maid. Outside his door, she happens to see Baoyu seeing Baochai, another cousin, out. She mistakes that to be Baoyu’s intention not to accept her and is heartbroken. Now it is late spring, and when she sees the falling petals, she feels that she is seeing her pitiable self, homeless, drifting, and unloved. So she decides to get a hoe to dig a grave for the fallen petals. Baoyu traces Daiyu to the garden and pours his heart out.

A young scholar Xu Wenxiu meets Cai Lanying, the daughter of a high official of the imperial court. It is love at first sight. In his urge to see her again, Wenxiu sells himself into the Cai's Residence as a slave. The two finally meet after two weeks, and become secretly betrothed. But their affair has come to the attention of Lanying’s mother, who marries her to another. Lanying refuses to accept the arranged marriage and leaves home disguised as a man. She attends the same national civil examination as Wenxiu, and comes third while Wenxiu comes top. Not knowing the situation behind all these, Lanying’s father gives her to the scholar who has come second in the examination. It is a hilarious situation of three top scholars vying for one wife. Later, with the assistance of Wenxiu’s uncle, the young lovers are finally reunited in Lanying’s study, and the two enter into wedlock.

The story takes place in the Ming Dynasty. Li Suping’s father was framed by the corrupt eunuch, Liu Jin, because he refused to bribe him. In order to give her father a proper burial and to raise her younger brother Fengming, Suping sells herself to a pimp. But she refuses to become a prostitute, vowing instead to pay for her debt by sheer academic excellence. She sells her poems and prose for three taels of silver per piece, so she gives herself a new name, Chen Sanliang (‘sanliang’ meaning ‘three taels’ in Chinese). When she and her brother are separated by an unfortunate chance, she adopts Chen Kui, whose family has fallen victim to Liu’s treacherous manoeuvrings. Chen Kui attends the national civil examination and comes top, which is followed by an appointment as an Imperial Commissioner. Back home, Sanliang is being sold to an old man, Zhang Zichun, as wife. When she refuses to comply, she is tied up and forced to go to Cangzhou. Zhang bribes the prefect, so Sanliang is tortured in an unfair trial. To everybody’s surprise, this corrupt prefect is none other than the younger brother, Fengming, whom she has not seen for ten years. At this juncture, Chen Kui the new Imperial Commissioner arrives on his inspection rounds. Sanliang turns her own brother in, and requests Chen to punish him according to the law in the hope that this would make a new man out of him.

The story takes place in the 3^rd Century, during the Eastern Han period. Jiao Zhongqing is a petty officer in Anhui and newly married to Liu Lanzhi. The two win the admiration of friends and neighbours for being such a fine match, so much so that they are dubbed a pair of peacocks. But Lanzhi fails to find favour with her mother-in-law, who takes in all the gossip of their next door neighbour and wants to expel Lanzhi from their home in order to find a high-born lady as her son’s new wife. Zhongqing is forced to annul the marriage and send Lanzhi home to her family. The loving couple painfully parts with the pledge that they abide by their love vows, in the hope that they would be together again someday. But time passes, Lanzhi waits, but no news comes from the Jiao family that welcomes her return. Only numerous matchmakers come and go. Forced by her mother and elder brother with rhyme and reason, Lanzhi cannot but agree to remarry. With a heavy heart, she finds no one to share her sorrows. So in the evening quiet, she steals out of her house to cry, just when Zhongqing has heard the news and rushes over. The couple is able to see each other again, but is fraught with mixed emotions since they parted. They renew their vows of love and promise that they would die rather than be separated. When finally the wedding day comes, Lanzhi throws herself into the pond to honour her pledge, and Zhongqing also hangs himself to die with his love.

Guiying’s ghost finds its way to the capital as she wants to test Wang Kui’s heart herself. Despite giving him several chances in the hope that he would change his mind, Guiying fails to bring him round. He even wants to shut her up forever. Without any hope now, Guiying captures the spirit of Wang and takes him to the netherworld.

The excerpts are taken from The Dream of the Red Chamber. The Matriarch of the Jia family senses that Baoyu and Daiyu are in love, but she prefers Baochai to be her granddaughter-in-law. So she takes Wang Xifeng’s suggestion of ‘swapping the bride’. Baoyu is told that he would marry Daiyu, when in fact the bride is Baochai. When he discovers the truth, Daiyu has already passed on. Baoyu tears out of the bridal chamber to mourn Daiyu at her altar before he leaves home with a disillusioned heart.

The story takes place in the Ming Dynasty. A scholar, He Wenxiu, falls into hard times and has to make a living as an itinerant singer in the street. Wang Lanying, the daughter of a squire, takes pity on him and sees that he is a talented scholar, so she gives him some silver. But such an act is considered ‘indecent behaviour’ by her father, who threatens to kill her. Fortunately Lanying’s elder brother comes to their aid, and Lanying and Wenxiu can get married and elope to Haining in Zhejiang. Lanying’s beauty attracts the attention of Zhang Tang, an unscrupulous squire, who makes passes at her. She fights with a pair of scissors, managing to escape. She is saved by a middle-aged woman, Madam Yang, who takes her in and hides her in a mulberry orchard. Zhang does not give up, and deliberately kicks a maid to death and incriminates Wenxiu by moving the corpse to his place. Wenxiu is found guilty is sentenced to banishment to the army. On the way, his guard takes pity on him and releases him. Later Wenxiu plucks the laurel at the national civil examination and is appointed an Imperial Commissioner of Zhejiang. He returns to Haining, disguises himself as a fortune-teller, and visits the mulberry orchard three times. Finally the husband and wife are reunited, while the real murderer is caught, and the wrongs are addressed.

The story takes place in the Song Dynasty, during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong. A royal consort, Lady Li, has given birth to a son. Out of jealousy, another royal consort, Lady Liu, colludes with the Chief Eunuch, Guo Huai, to substitute the new-born prince with a skinned dead cat and gives orders to the palace maid, Kouzhu to throw the baby into the imperial moat. Kouzhu cannot bring herself to carry out the order and turns to the Chief Eunuch Chen Lin for help. Chen secretly smuggles the young prince out to put him under the care of Xian the Eighth Prince. Twelve years later, Prince Xian, on the pretext that he is willing to let his emperor brother ‘adopt’ his son, returns Lady Li's son to become the Crown Prince. Liu grows suspicious, and orders Chen Lin to interrogate Kouzhu. Despite the torture, Kouzhu refuses to tell the truth and commits suicide.