This work is a Southern Song local gazetteer, which was published in the fourth year (1268) of the Xianchun reign of the Song emperor Duzong. The author collected extensive material and, based on two earlier gazetteers, Qiandao Lin’an zhi (Gazetteer of Lin’an during the Qiandao reign) and Chunyou Lin’an zhi (Gazetteer of Lin’an during the Chunyou reign), he expanded the text and published the Lin’an gazetteer in 100 juan. The first 15 juan list imperial residences and record details concerning the imperial city (Lin’an, present-day Hangzhou) and central offices. The juan that follow are grouped into categories of territory, such as mountains and rivers, edicts, imperial orders, appointed officials, palaces, culture and education, the military, local customs, tributes, personalities, ancestral temples, monasteries, gardens, antiquities, family tombs, sacrificial rites and ceremonies, artifacts, and so forth. The work is complete, with rich sources. The textual research was detailed and systematic. The maps depicting the imperial city, the capital, the offices, the Qiantang River in Zhejiang (now the eastern province of which Hangzhou is capital), the West Lake (one of the most beautiful features of the city) and the administrative prefecture, the county borders, landscapes of the nine counties and others, are clear and in great detail. Among the numerous historical sources quoted in the work, such as Yu di zhi by Yan Zhu, Huang chao jun xian zhi by Fan Zichang, and Da Song deng ke ji, the majority no longer exist. The Ming and Qing gazetteers on the West Lake all used this work as a source. It is a masterpiece among the Southern Song local gazetteers, and is an important historical resource for studying histories of Hangzhou and the Song dynasty. It was universally praised by historians. Shown here are the prefaces (one of them by the compiler, Qian Shuoyou, 1216−88) and table of contents. Qian Shuoyou, a native of Jinyun, received his jin shi degree in 1241. He was prefect of Lin’an and Pingjiang (present-day Suzhou) among many other posts, including vice director of the Ministry of Revenue.