Meng Gong was a figure of the Southern Song period. Public sources offer limited information about his life, official career, and dates of birth and death, so these cannot be described in detail. The one work attributed to him that survives, Mengda Beilu (A Complete Record of the Mongol-Tatars), is the main basis for understanding his writing. Drawing on firsthand observations and reports about the Mongols (then called "Tatars"), the book describes their tribal origins, customs, military and administrative organization, and relations with neighboring regimes; it is an early Chinese-language work to introduce the Mongols systematically. Written mainly as itemized notes, it emphasizes factual arrangement over elaborate argument, with plain language and a distinct contemporary perspective. Because of its early date, later historians have often treated it as important reference material for the early Mongol-Yuan period and Song-Mongol relations, giving it a place in ethnic and frontier history. It is currently classified under Eastern philosophy, though in content it is closer to a record of history, geography, and customs.
