Li developed a standard 8-rank grading system for different sizes of timber elements. The system was known as the cai-fen system of units and could be universally applied to buildings. Some of the book used material from preexisting architectural writings, but most of the book is documentation of the inherited traditions of craftsmen and architects passed down by word of mouth. Li's book provides a glossary of technical terms that includes mathematical formulae. He incorporated topography in his estimations for buildings on various types of sites. He also estimated the monetary costs of hiring laborers of different skill levels and types of expertise in crafts. His estimates are on the basis of a day's work and include the materials needed, taking into account the season in which the work is done.
Li's work incorporates building rules and regulations, accounting information, standards for materials used in construction, and the classification of various crafts. The 34 chapters in the book specify in detail the units of measurement, the construction of moats and fortifications, and standards for stonework as well as for greater and lesser woodwork. It includes the specifications (and illustrations) for constructing bracketing units with inclined arms and joints for columns and beams, as well as directions for wood carving, turning and drilling, sawing, bamboo work, tiling, wall building, painting and decoration, and the formulas for decorative paints, glazes and various coatings. Included are the mixing proportions for mortars in masonry, brickwork and glazed tile. The book provides hand-drawn illustrations of all the practices and standards. He outlined structural carpentry in great detail, providing standard dimensional measurements for all the components.
Although others were written and compiled beforehand, Li's book is the oldest existing technical manual on Chinese architecture to have survived intact and in its entirety.
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