The main question of this research is to deal with the issue: How did the writer of Xingke Tiben 刑科題本 (Board of Punishments routine memorials) think about and construct these documents? How are we to fill or modify the gap between reality and writing? Xingke Tiben cannot be isolated from the social and cultural entities in which they were created. Their construction relates closely to the judiciary system and popular publications. Therefore, this research also takes a documentary journey, comparing and contrasting different texts such as references in texts describing daily life, lawyers' documents, and legal literature with the aim of grasping the vivid shifts between them so as to clarify the culture of criminal writings in imperial China.