This is not only the oldest illustrated children's primer known to exist in China, it is more than a century older than the first picturebook for children in the West. The Tui-hsiang szu-yen is a booklet of only eight leaves with 306 drawings to illustrate 388 characters. Its obvious purpose was to teach people how to read everyday terms, some of them known by single characters, others by two. It reflects in simple form the material culture of the time, together with certain terms no longer in use.