Zhou Qufei is the author of the Song-dynasty work Lingwai Daida (Answers from Beyond the Passes). Publicly available information about his life is limited: his birth and death years, native place, and official career are not reliably recorded. What is known of him rests chiefly on this book, completed in the Southern Song, which describes what was seen and heard in Lingnan and surrounding regions, covering geography, customs, local products, transport, and overseas contacts, and showing a strong character of firsthand observation and compiled material. Its accounts of the states of the South China Sea and maritime routes have been especially valued by later scholars of ancient Chinese foreign exchange, who often cite it when studying Lingnan society and knowledge of overseas geography in the Song period. As a historical reader, the work is plainly written and clearly organized, combining the informal notes of a travel record with the order of a local gazetteer. Because little else about the author can be verified, his image comes mainly through this book.
