This is a six-juan, four-volume handwritten copy, with no authors or publication date given and no prefaces or postscripts included. It was issued during the Qing dynasty. The first three juan contain the names of 97 nationalities and tribes, called Gu fan (ancient foreign tribes), such as Jiuyi (nine wild tribes), Xianbei (Mongolic nomadic people), Huihe (a Uyghur tribe), and descriptions of the places which they inhabited. Many of these places were at the western frontiers of China, for example Hetao (Great bend of the Yellow River) and Gaochang (an ancient, now extinct, city in Xinjiang). The fourth and fifth juan are entitled Man bu (barbarian groups), and consist of more than 155 names of groups who lived mostly along the southern frontiers, such as Wumeng and Hongjiao Lama (the Red Hat Sect lamas). The last juan is called Xinjiang (literally, "New Frontiers") and dates from the Qing dynasty. It lists the names of 23 geographical locations, including Hami, Turfan, Korla, Kucha, Aksu, Khotan, Kashgar, Urumqi, and Yili. Each entry has brief information about the locale, its people, their characteristics, and local features. As the work lacks details about authorship, publishing, and imprint, it can only be assumed that it was produced by an author or authors to provide general knowledge of the different peoples living in China’s frontier areas and their ethnic identities and characteristics. No mention is found in the work as to whether these peoples and tribes paid allegiance to the Chinese government.