diff --git a/lib/webpack/RemoveEmptyChunkPlugin.js b/lib/webpack/RemoveEmptyChunkPlugin.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d2102c9022
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/webpack/RemoveEmptyChunkPlugin.js
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+// https://github.com/webpack-contrib/mini-css-extract-plugin/issues/85
+module.exports = class Plugin {
+  apply (compiler) {
+    compiler.hooks.emit.tap('vuepress-remove-empty-chunk', compilation => {
+      Object.keys(compilation.assets).forEach(name => {
+        if (/_assets\/js\/styles\.\w{8}\.js$/.test(name)) {
+          delete compilation.assets[name]
+        }
+      })
+    })
+  }
+}
diff --git a/lib/webpack/baseConfig.js b/lib/webpack/baseConfig.js
index ae6aaa608f..8bb028adff 100644
--- a/lib/webpack/baseConfig.js
+++ b/lib/webpack/baseConfig.js
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ module.exports = function createBaseConfig ({
   publicPath,
   themePath,
   notFoundPath
-}, { debug } = {}) {
+}, { debug } = {}, isServer) {
   const markdown = require('../markdown')(siteConfig)
   const Config = require('webpack-chain')
   const { VueLoaderPlugin } = require('vue-loader')
@@ -142,10 +142,12 @@ module.exports = function createBaseConfig ({
     applyLoaders(normalRule, false)
 
     function applyLoaders (rule, modules) {
-      if (isProd) {
-        rule.use('extract-css-loader').loader(CSSExtractPlugin.loader)
-      } else {
-        rule.use('vue-style-loader').loader('vue-style-loader')
+      if (!isServer) {
+        if (isProd) {
+          rule.use('extract-css-loader').loader(CSSExtractPlugin.loader)
+        } else {
+          rule.use('vue-style-loader').loader('vue-style-loader')
+        }
       }
 
       rule.use('css-loader').loader('css-loader').options({
@@ -174,10 +176,39 @@ module.exports = function createBaseConfig ({
     .plugin('vue-loader')
     .use(VueLoaderPlugin)
 
-  if (isProd) {
+  if (isProd && !isServer) {
     config
       .plugin('extract-css')
-      .use(CSSExtractPlugin, [{ filename: '_assets/css/styles.[hash:8].css' }])
+      .use(CSSExtractPlugin, [{
+        filename: '_assets/css/styles.[chunkhash:8].css'
+      }])
+
+    // ensure all css are extracted together.
+    // since most of the CSS will be from the theme and very little
+    // CSS will be from async chunks
+    config
+      .set('optimization', {
+        splitChunks: {
+          cacheGroups: {
+            chunks: 'all',
+            styles: {
+              name: 'styles',
+              // necessary for extraction to include md files as well
+              test: m => /css-extract/.test(m.type),
+              chunks: 'all',
+              enforce: true
+            }
+          }
+        }
+      })
+
+    // enforcing all styles extraction leaves an empty styles chunk.
+    // prevent it from being emitted.
+    // this is a bug in mini-css-extract-plugin
+    // https://github.com/webpack-contrib/mini-css-extract-plugin/issues/85
+    config
+      .plugin('remove-empty-chunk')
+      .use(require('./RemoveEmptyChunkPlugin'))
   }
 
   return config
diff --git a/lib/webpack/clientConfig.js b/lib/webpack/clientConfig.js
index 9a1f5c550c..57ec9d8945 100644
--- a/lib/webpack/clientConfig.js
+++ b/lib/webpack/clientConfig.js
@@ -29,7 +29,13 @@ module.exports = function createClientConfig (options, cliOptions) {
 
   // generate client manifest only during build
   if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production') {
-    const VueSSRClientPlugin = require('vue-server-renderer/client-plugin')
+    // TODO this is a temp build of vue-server-renderer/client-plugin.
+    // Switch back after problems are resolved.
+    // Fixes two things:
+    // 1. Include CSS in preload files
+    // 2. filter out useless styles.xxxxx.js chunk from mini-css-extract-plugin
+    // https://github.com/webpack-contrib/mini-css-extract-plugin/issues/85
+    const VueSSRClientPlugin = require('./clientPlugin')
     config
       .plugin('ssr-client')
       .use(VueSSRClientPlugin, [{
diff --git a/lib/webpack/clientPlugin.js b/lib/webpack/clientPlugin.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0198f5d5f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/webpack/clientPlugin.js
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+// Temporarily copied from a dev build
+
+'use strict'
+
+/*  */
+
+var isJS = function (file) { return /\.js(\?[^.]+)?$/.test(file) }
+
+var isCSS = function (file) { return /\.css(\?[^.]+)?$/.test(file) }
+
+var onEmit = function (compiler, name, hook) {
+  if (compiler.hooks) {
+    // Webpack >= 4.0.0
+    compiler.hooks.emit.tapAsync(name, hook)
+  } else {
+    // Webpack < 4.0.0
+    compiler.plugin('emit', hook)
+  }
+}
+
+var hash = require('hash-sum')
+var uniq = require('lodash.uniq')
+var VueSSRClientPlugin = function VueSSRClientPlugin (options) {
+  if (options === void 0) options = {}
+
+  this.options = Object.assign({
+    filename: 'vue-ssr-client-manifest.json'
+  }, options)
+}
+
+VueSSRClientPlugin.prototype.apply = function apply (compiler) {
+  var this$1 = this
+
+  onEmit(compiler, 'vue-client-plugin', function (compilation, cb) {
+    var stats = compilation.getStats().toJson()
+
+    var allFiles = uniq(stats.assets
+      .map(function (a) { return a.name }))
+      .filter(file => {
+        return !/styles\.\w{8}\.js$/.test(file)
+      })
+
+    var initialFiles = uniq(Object.keys(stats.entrypoints)
+      .map(function (name) { return stats.entrypoints[name].assets })
+      .reduce(function (assets, all) { return all.concat(assets) }, [])
+      .filter(function (file) { return isJS(file) || isCSS(file) }))
+      .filter(file => {
+        return !/styles\.\w{8}\.js$/.test(file)
+      })
+
+    var asyncFiles = allFiles
+      .filter(function (file) { return isJS(file) || isCSS(file) })
+      .filter(function (file) { return initialFiles.indexOf(file) < 0 })
+
+    var manifest = {
+      publicPath: stats.publicPath,
+      all: allFiles,
+      initial: initialFiles,
+      async: asyncFiles,
+      modules: { /* [identifier: string]: Array<index: number> */ }
+    }
+
+    var assetModules = stats.modules.filter(function (m) { return m.assets.length })
+    var fileToIndex = function (file) { return manifest.all.indexOf(file) }
+    stats.modules.forEach(function (m) {
+      // ignore modules duplicated in multiple chunks
+      if (m.chunks.length === 1) {
+        var cid = m.chunks[0]
+        var chunk = stats.chunks.find(function (c) { return c.id === cid })
+        if (!chunk || !chunk.files) {
+          return
+        }
+        var id = m.identifier.replace(/\s\w+$/, '') // remove appended hash
+        var files = manifest.modules[hash(id)] = chunk.files.map(fileToIndex)
+        // find all asset modules associated with the same chunk
+        assetModules.forEach(function (m) {
+          if (m.chunks.some(function (id) { return id === cid })) {
+            files.push.apply(files, m.assets.map(fileToIndex))
+          }
+        })
+      }
+    })
+
+    // const debug = (file, obj) => {
+    // require('fs').writeFileSync(__dirname + '/' + file, JSON.stringify(obj, null, 2))
+    // }
+    // debug('stats.json', stats)
+    // debug('client-manifest.json', manifest)
+
+    var json = JSON.stringify(manifest, null, 2)
+    compilation.assets[this$1.options.filename] = {
+      source: function () { return json },
+      size: function () { return json.length }
+    }
+    cb()
+  })
+}
+
+module.exports = VueSSRClientPlugin
diff --git a/lib/webpack/serverConfig.js b/lib/webpack/serverConfig.js
index 6e63a3085f..85c4106687 100644
--- a/lib/webpack/serverConfig.js
+++ b/lib/webpack/serverConfig.js
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ module.exports = function createServerConfig (options, cliOptions) {
   const VueSSRServerPlugin = require('vue-server-renderer/server-plugin')
   const CopyPlugin = require('copy-webpack-plugin')
 
-  const config = createBaseConfig(options, cliOptions)
+  const config = createBaseConfig(options, cliOptions, true /* isServer */)
   const { sourceDir, outDir } = options
 
   config