歷來研究較少分析《儒林外史》的抒情性與地景之關係，《儒林外史》描寫南京時多以文人閒情為主，主要關心「美景」，故以「煙水氣」形容其抒情意境，分為以下三小節討論：「雨花臺的風雅士庶」探討杜慎卿、蓋寬和荊元遊雨花臺的抒情性；「玄武湖的高士／隱士」討論莊紹光在玄武湖花園中「抒情意境」的建立與崩壞；至於「秦淮河畔的名士」則以敘述者士大夫視角為主的南京書寫，介於「士遊」與「庶遊」之間。而「蘇杭金粉香」則是「市井閒情」，關注焦點多為「遊人」和「食物」，較近於平民品味，又分為兩小節討論：「西湖的士遊代表」探討在「士遊」文化之下的馬純上，是由士人到庶民旅遊型態的過渡代表；而「虎丘的道學家與旅遊者」討論王玉輝在旅遊途中的觸景傷情，呈現人、景、情融合的抒情性，因而削弱其道學家形象。總之，「文人閒情」與「市井閒情」各自呈現出不同階層的抒情方式，並凸顯出明清旅遊文化之下所產生的文本特色。

Historically, there has been less analysis of the relationship between the lyricism and the landscape of Unofficial History of Scholars, which describes Nanjing as the main site of literary leisure. The description is mainly concerned with ＂beauty＂, so it is described as ＂smoke＂. The lyrical conception is divided into the following three sub-sections: ＂The Elegant Gentry of Yuhuatai＂ discusses the lyricism of Du Shenqing, Ge Kuan and Jing Yuan; ＂The Hermits of Xuanwu Lake＂ discusses Zhuang Shaoguang's ＂lyrical vision＂ in the Garden of Xuanwu Lake. The establishment and collapse of the ＂Qinghuai Riverside＂ was written in Nanjing. This work is dominated by the literati's perspective in its discussion of the traveling literati and regular people. The ＂Perfume of Women in Suhang＂ discusses ＂city leisure＂. The focus is mostly on ＂tourists＂ and ＂food＂, which is closer to the taste of regular people. It is divided into two sections: the first is ＂The representative literati tourists at West Lake＂. Ma Chunshan represents the culture of tourist among the literati and normal civilians; and ＂Taoists and tourists＂ discusses Wang Yuhui's sentiment about travel, fusing the lyricism of people, the landscape and sentiment of scenery, and thus weakening the image of the Taoist. In short, ＂literary leisure＂ and ＂city leisure＂ each present different forms of lyricism, and highlight the textual features produced under the tourism culture of the Ming and Qing dynasties.