劉晨、阮肇入天臺故事初見於《幽明錄》，後為《續齊諧記》所襲取，唐宋以來多見流傳。該故事具有多層遞進的文本層次，不同的文本層次也相應展現不同的意義。這樣的層次及意義，在類書節略大義的處理方式和目類劃分的規定之下，顯得愈加明晰。而故事文本在流轉複製過程中，也伴隨時代與語境的變遷發生變化。有關意義則在這些出乎不同立場的選擇性改造中發生轉移。

The fairytale of Liu and Ruan (劉阮) was first collected in Youming Lu (幽明錄), then in Xu Qixie Ji (續齊諧記) and other relevant texts since the Tang and Song dynasties. The development of the story involves many progressive plot layers, with each layer conveying different meanings. These different layers and meanings become clearly recognizable with the help of plot summaries and categorization in ancient Chinese reference books (leishu 類書). During the circulation process of the texts, the story has evolved with changing times and contexts. The story has gone through changes, due to intentional selections and modifications made by the subsequent authors with different viewpoints.