It was written in 492–493 by Shen Yue from the Southern Qi dynasty (479–502).
Later editors reconstructed those volumes by taking material from the History of the Southern Dynasties, plus a few works such as the Historiette of Gao by Gao Jun, though many of those volumes were no longer in their original condition.
The Qi court commissioned Shen Yue in 487 to complete the Book of Song.
Dien includes partial translations of The Disputation at Pengcheng, a conflict in present-day Xuzhou.
[3] Dien compares the Northern Wei and Liu Song accounts of this one in a long series of conflicts between the two states.