Nan Zhuo is the author of Jie Gu Lu (Record of the Jie Drum). Beyond this, publicly available information about his life is quite limited: his nationality, dates of birth and death, courtesy name, and English name are not clearly recorded. Only one work by him is currently held in the collection, namely Jie Gu Lu. The book focuses on the jie drum, an ancient percussion instrument, describing its form, origins, performance techniques, and anecdotes about related musicians. It is an important source for the study of Tang dynasty music and drum traditions. In the book, Nan Zhuo shows careful attention to the structure of the instrument and performance practice; the writing is concise and concrete, possessing both historical value and significance for musical culture. Because information about the author himself is scarce, later readers have known him mainly through this transmitted work. Under the category of classic works, Jie Gu Lu also provides reliable textual evidence for examining ancient musical life.
