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Jinli qijiu zhuan 錦里耆舊傳

May 17, 2019 © Ulrich Theobald

Jinli qijiu zhuan 錦里耆舊傳 "Biographies of the elders of Jinli", also called Chengdu liluan ji 成都理亂記 "Bringing down the turmoil of Chengdu", is a history of Sichuan during the 10th century written by the Song-period 宋 (960-1279) scholar Gou Yanqing 句延慶, courtesy name Changyi 昌裔. He hailed from Pingyang 平陽 (today's 臨汾 Linfen, Shanxi) and was district magistrate of Yingling 應靈 near Rongzhou 榮州.

The 4-juan long book describes the fight for power between the families Wang 王 and Meng 孟 of the Former Shu 前蜀 (907-925) and the Later Shu 後蜀 (934-965) dynasty, respectively. Jinli is the name of a district in the city of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan. The bibliographic chapter in the official dynastic history Songshi 宋史 lists it as an 8-juan long text. Chen Zhensun 陳振孫 (c. 1183-1262), author of the book catalogue Zhizhai shulu jieti 直齋書錄解題, explains that Gou Yanqing was not the author, but only revised an existing book in the possession of Liu Wei 劉蔚 from Rongzhou 榮州 (today's Zizhou 資州, Sichuan), assistant director of the palace library (mishu cheng 秘書丞). It seems that the first half of the book was lost at some time.

The book is arranged in the manner of a chronicle, but quotes many official documents in great detail. The very positive image in which the rulers of Later Shu are describes suggests that the text was written by an official of the court of that dynasty. The book is included in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Duhuazhai congshu 讀畫齋叢書 and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編.

A 10-juan long sequel called Xu jinli qijiu zhuan 續錦里耆舊傳 or Jinli qijiu xuzhuan 錦里耆舊續傳 written by Zhang Xu 張緒 continues the history of Sichuan until 1009.

Sources:
Bian Xiaoxuan 卞孝萱 (2003). "Jinli qijiu zhuan 錦里耆舊傳", in Bian Xiaoxuan 卞孝萱, ed. Tangdai wenxue baike cidian 唐代文學百科辭典 (Beijing: Hanyu da cidian chubanshe), 1139.
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, 1045.
Sichuan baike quanshu bianzuan weiyuanhui 《四川百科全書》編纂委員會, ed. (1997). Sichuan baike quanshu 四川百科全書 (Chengdu: Sichuan cishu chubanshe), 498, 1055.
Wu Feng 吳楓, ed. (1987). Jianming Zhongguo guji cidian 簡明中國古籍辭典 (Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe), 888.
Zhan Zilin 詹子林 (2010). "Song-Yuan Chengdu difang wenxian de lishi dilixue jiazhi: Yi Shu taowu, Jinli qijiu zhuan, Suihua jili pu wei li 宋元成都地方文獻的歷史地理學價值——以《檮杌》、《錦里耆舊傳》、《歲華紀麗譜》為例", Xue lilun 學理論, 2010 (1).