| Prologue : a historical overview of Six Dynasties aesthetics | 1 |
| Pt. I | Images and representations : painting, calligraphy, and garden construction | |
| 1 | Replication and deception in calligraphy of the Six Dynasties period | 31 |
| 2 | The essay on painting by Wang Wei (415-453) in context | 60 |
| 3 | Xie He's "six laws" of painting and their Indian parallels | 81 |
| 4 | A good place need not be a nowhere : the garden and utopian thought in the Six Dynasties | 123 |
| Pt. II | Words and patterns : poetry and prose | |
| 5 | The unmasking of Tao Qian and the indeterminacy of interpretation | 169 |
| 6 | Crossing boundaries : transcendents and aesthetics in the Six Dynasties | 191 |
| 7 | Literary games and religious practice at the end of the Six Dynasties : the Baguanzhai poems by Xiao Gang and his followers | 222 |
| Pt. III | The parameters of Six Dynasties aesthetics : modes of discourse | |
| 8 | Shishuo Xinyu and the emergence of aesthetic self-consciousness in the Chinese tradition | 237 |
| 9 | Nature and higher ideals in texts on calligraphy, music, and painting | 277 |
| 10 | The conceptual origins and aesthetic significance of "Shen" in six dynasties texts on literature and painting | 310 |