ChinaKnowledge.de -
An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art

Han-Jin chunqiu 漢晉春秋

Oct 1, 2013 © Ulrich Theobald

Han-Jin chunqiu 漢晉春秋 "Spring and Autumn Between the Han and Jin Periods" was a history of the Later Han 後漢 (25-220 CE), Shu-Han 蜀漢 (221-263) and early Western Jin 西晉 (265-316) dynasties written by the Eastern Jin-period 東晉 (317-420) writer Xi Zaochi 習鑿齒 (d. 384), courtesy name Xi Yanwei 習彥威. He hailed from the region of modern Xiangyang, Hubei, and was governor (taishou 太守) of the commandery of Xingyang 滎陽. He also wrote the biographic collections Xiangyang qijiu ji 襄陽耆舊記 and Yiren gaoshi zhuan 逸人高士傳.

The Han-Jin chunqiu was originally 54-juan long and narrated the history from the beginning of the Later Han period down to the reign of Emperor Min 晉愍帝 (r. 313-316) of the Western Jin. For the Three Empires period 三國 (220-280), the author saw the empire of Shu-Han as the rightful successor of the Han, and the Cao-Wei dynasty 曹魏 (220-265) as usurpers. In his eyes, the Han dynasty only ended when Sima Zhao 司馬昭 from the Wei empire conquered Shu, only two years before the foundation of the Jin dynasty. This is the reason why the book was seen as a narrative of the transition between the Han and the Jin dynasties.

The Han-Jin chunqiu was lost during the Song period 宋 (960-1279). The Qing period 清 (1644-1911) scholar Tang Qiu 湯球 (1804-1881) collected all surviving fragments of the text, with a length of 3 juan. It is included in the series Guangya shuju congshu 廣雅書局叢書, and also in the Hanxuetang congshu 漢學堂叢書 and Huangshi yishu kao 黃氏逸書考.

Source:
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰 (ed. 1996), Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe), Vol. 1, p. 896.