[4] Su'e pian is more than 10,000 Chinese characters long and comprises some forty-three chapters and ninety illustrations collected in four volumes.

[3] Each sexual position described in the novel is given a name such as "Stopping the Horse to Pull the Saddle" (駐馬板鞍),[5] "Flowers Longing for Butterflies" (花開蝶戀),[4] "Boat Widthwise Over the Ferry" (野渡橫舟),[5] and "The Union of Yin and Yang" (囫圇太極).

[3] An English translation of the story was written by E. D. Edwards and published in Chinese prose literature of the Tang period (1935).

[8] A complete Ming edition of the novel, believed to be the only one left in existence and previously owned by Columbia University professor Wang Jizhen (王際真), is housed in the library of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction in Bloomington, Indiana.

[1] The anthology Ganze yao (甘澤謠) by Yuan Jiao (袁郊) records the short story of Su'e, an artist and poet who is also the concubine of Wu Zetian's nephew, Wu Sansi; Su'e later reveals herself as a "spirit of flowers and the moon" sent to Earth to "lure the human mind and body".