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Jinshu bieben 晉書別本

Feb 15, 2016 © Ulrich Theobald

Jinshu bieben 晉書別本 is a revision of the official dynastic history of the Jin dynasty 晉 (265-420), Jinshu 晉書. It was written by the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) scholar Jiang Zhiqiao 蔣之翹 (1596-1659), courtesy name Chuzhi 楚稚, from Xiushui 秀水, Zhejiang.

The name of Jiang's 130-juan long version of the Jinshu is rendered differently in various sources: it is also called Jinshu zhu 晉書注 "Comments on the Jinshu" or Shanbu jinshu 刪補晉書 "Shortened and supplemented Jinshu". The original dynastic history, compiled during the Tang period 唐 (618-907), was mainly based on Zang Rongxu's 臧榮緒 (415-488) history of the Jin dynasty and some other history books, but added a large amount of paragraphs from literary sources that are historically not trustworthy, and also include many errors. This fact had already been mentioned by Liu Zhiji 劉知幾 (661-721) in his histriographical critique Shitong 史通.

Jiang Zhiqiao abbreviated lengthy passages, added missing information, and revised wrong statements. His product shortened 40 per cent of all chapters and cut out about twenty per cent of the whole length. The corrections were based on other sources on that time, like the books Yuanjing 元經, Shiliuguo chunqiu 十六國春秋, Shishuo zhu 世說注 by Liu Xiaobiao 劉孝標 (reconstruced as Shishuo jiuzhu 世說舊注 by Yang Shen 楊慎) or Huayang guo zhi 華陽國志. He also consulted Sima Guang's 司馬光 critical book Tongjian kaoyi 通鑒考異 for textual errors.

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. 929.