Ma's catalogue provides a wealth of philately related information of high historical significance that is much needed in the research and study of early Chinese stamps.

A small quantity[1] of 1000 copies was printed by Shun Chang & Co. (順昌),[2] in Shanghai, China in June 1947 (民國三十六年).

The catalogue had made it possible for universal sharing and education of early Chinese stamps by all collectors in China or overseas.

A full page advertisement on the back cover of the November 1947 issue of The New Light Philatelic Magazine, Vol 14, No.

A small horse emblem ("馬圖", pronounced "Ma" in Chinese, the editor's last name, mainly used for anti-counterfeiting) is embossed at the centre of the back cover.

The front and back covers are further embossed with wrinkle like patterns such as those found on the palm of a hand, except within the area of the horse emblem.

Every authentic copy has a distinct serial number (out of 1000) stamped in black ink on the endpaper opposite the back cover.

[citation needed] The pages are bound together, using the "Sewing Through the Fold" method, with four binding threads visible.

On account of the very low initial production, a retail price not affordable by most collectors, and the lack of official second printings or updated editions for the next 40+ years, many unauthorized copies were produced in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan and sold worldwide well into the 1980s.

While the author was well aware of the outright stealing of his work, he was neither compensated, nor have the ability to enforce a stop to the copying due to China's political environment at the time and its isolation from the rest of the world, which both had immense affect and influence on publication and copyright laws.

Outside of the Liberated Areas, co-existing provisional governments also find themselves difficult to unify their monetary system with the central authority of the time.

Such complicating factors demanded an unusual varieties of overprints (to restrict their use in a designated region so to stop speculators from profiting) or surcharging (charging extra money in National currency to make up for the difference in value).

After such a long period of complicated factors, coupled with other secret markings and numerous printing errors in between had all made it very difficult to distinguish and to document every early Chinese stamp, comprehensively or by chronological order alone.

In all, there are five main issuers of early Chinese stamps - Treaty Ports, Qing Dynasty, Republic of China, Japanese occupation, and Liberated areas.

Although the catalogue is printed in both Chinese and English text together, the material presented are not formal equivalent in nature and should not be regarded as a word-for-word translation.

After much inquiries by his family and colleagues, they found the reason for the delay was partly due to the inclusion of some politically sensitive commemorative stamps issued near the final years of the Republic of China which at the time were deemed to be the "enemies of the people" and deemed inappropriate for publication by the 中國集郵出版社.

His son Ma Youzhang in an article published in the January 1989 edition of China Philately paying tribute to his late father accounted for how his father while updating the English manuscripts of the catalogue would secretly return home from the hospital when his work required it.

Lee H. Hill Jr., who now operated a publishing house, is an old acquaintance of Ma, whom he met while on a business trip to the United States back in 1947.

While Lee H. Hill took only four months to edit and typeset the manuscripts and promised the book would be published by the end of July, and he would send the first copy to Ma by express mail.

Market prices have been updated to 1987 values and are expressed in Renminbi for the ease of reference by Chinese Nationals.

Due to Ma's poor health and his desire to personally witness his book's publication, numerous typesetting related errors were only discovered after the catalogue was printed and sold.

A total of 138 digitally scanned images of actual stamps are printed in black & white throughout the 202 pages on 8.5 X 11 papers.

The additional title "Volume 1 - Empire 1878-1911" is added, as well as an update to the publication date of 1995 on the front cover.

The title of the third edition has been updated to 中國郵票圖鑑 1878 －1949 (Zhong guo you piao tu jian) written in Simplified Chinese.

Updates are included for any new variation types discovered since the previous edition, including revisions to some historical information of each stamp issue, ways to decipher the different varieties, corrections of some misprints, and revised market prices, which have been updated to 2009 values and are expressed in Renminbi for the ease of reference by Chinese Nationals.

This edition is reserved as commemorative gifts from Ma Zubg-Sung, with his autograph and chop stamped on the inside cover.

Similar to the first edition, for the purpose of anti-counterfeiting, a small horse emblem ("馬圖", pronounced "Ma" in Chinese, the editor's last name) is engraved at the centre of the back cover.

Officially there is a horse-emblem engraved on the back cover, however, a sample of an error variety has been found without such a horse emblem.

Below is a listing of the stamp varieties covered: This section is to track the ownership history of confirmed first editions.

Every piece of evidence (knowledge of particular owners) is treated as a valuable clue for provenance, therefore it can be geographically located and chronologically dated.