In analyzing the structure of characters and defining the words represented by them, Xu strove to clarify the meaning of the pre-Han classics, so as to ensure order and render their use in governance unquestioned.

Xu's motives also included a pragmatic and political dimension: according to Boltz, the compilation of the Shuowen "cannot be held to have arisen from a purely linguistic or lexicographical drive".

[2]Previous Chinese dictionaries like the Erya (c. 3rd century BCE) and Fangyan were limited, with entries loosely organized into semantic categories, and merely listing synonymous characters.

In the process, he included many section headers that are not considered ones today, such as 炎 (yán 'flame') and 熊 (xióng 'bear'), which modern dictionaries list under the ⽕ 'FIRE' heading.

However, Wang Guowei and other scholars have shown that they were regional variant forms in the eastern areas during the Warring States period, from only slightly earlier than the Qin seal script.

[3] Although the "six principles" (liùshū 六書) of traditional character classification had been mentioned by earlier authors, Xu Shen's postface was the first work to provide definitions and examples.

Since Han studies of writing are attested to have begun by pupils of 8 years old, Xu Shen's categorization of characters was proposed to be understood as a mnemonic methodology for juvenile students.

The oldest extant manuscript currently resides in Japan, and consists of a six-page fragment dating to the Tang dynasty, amounting to about 2% of the entire text.

In 986, Emperor Taizong of Song ordered Xu Xuan and other editors to publish an authoritative edition of the dictionary, which became the Shuowen Jiezi Xichuan (説文解字繫傳).

Xu Xuan's textual criticism has been especially vital for all subsequent scholarship, since his restoration of the damage done by Li Yangbing resulted in the closest version we have to the original, and the basis for all later editions.

While the Shuowen Jiezi has historically been very valuable to scholars and was the most important early source regarding the structure of Chinese characters, much of its analysis and many of its definitions have been superseded by later scholarship, in particular that resulting from the late 19th-century discovery of oracle bone script.

Ding Fubao collected all available Shuowen materials, clipped and arranged them in the original dictionary order, and photo-lithographically printed a colossal edition.