David Holm, D.Phil. (1980) in Chinese, University of Oxford, is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Ethnology at National Chengchi University. He has published extensively on the traditional language and culture of the Zhuang, a Tai-speaking people indigenous to Southern China.Meng Yuanyao, Ph.D (2002), University of Melbourne, is Professor in the Department of Minority Languages in the Guangxi University for Nationalities. He has published The Names and Classification of Common Plants in Zhuang (in English, 2006), and numerous books on Zhuang song texts, ethnobotany, and other aspects of traditional culture. Most recently he has served as chief editor of a new edition of the Zhuang-Chinese Glossary (in Chinese, 2018).

"This extraordinarily thorough 850-page study is a major contribution to the historical linguistics of the Tai family of languages and an unique window onto the feudal system of Tai communities in southwestern China in the Ming era. […] This magnificent book is principally a contribution to the study of Tai linguistics and especially to the understanding of the Zhuang language. But the song itself is a beautiful and very affecting piece of work, wonderfully captured in the seemingly artless translation. – Chris Baker, Journal of the Siam Society 110. 2 (2022)

• PrefaceList of IllustrationsAbbreviationsConventionsIntroductionEnglish TranslationInterlinear TranscriptionTextual and Ethnographic NotesAppendix: Song Markets in PingguoPlates: Photo-Reproduction of Manuscript PagesBibliographyGlossary and ConcordanceChinese Character IndexIndex of Vernacular Characters and AllographsIndex of Zhuang Characters and Other SymbolsEnglish-Zhuang IndexIndex of Scientific Names of Plants and AnimalsSubject Index