Abstract: With the Dian Ｒecords Unofficial History of Nanzhao and The Origin of the Kingdom of Bai as examples this paper explores the writing compilation and spread of the history of Nanzhao Kingdom and Dali Kingdom by differentpeoples living in southwestern China during the Ming and Qing dynasties This paper argues that the production of historicalknowledge involves the interactions of multiple parties including native peoples: From translation and writing by local scholars to collection and compilation by exiled men of letters and on to funding and publishing by officials the tales historyand literature about Nanzhao Kingdom and Dali Kingdom found a wider audience through people of different regions and identities Meanwhile these literature works constitute a field for different groups of people to initiate dialogues and discussionson the past: scholars from outside used“records”to incorporate the history of Nanzhao Kingdom and Dali Kingdom inthe ideological domain of the Central Kingdom; local elite included the stories of their ancestors in local chronicles to expresstheir dual identities; and local monks put down oral stories on paper so that they could reach a wider audience Inthis process the“insider views”and“outsider perspectives”of different groups of people converged as they exchanged ideasand related to each other through the writing of history