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The Tongjian jishi benmo 通鑑紀事本末 "Historic Events of the Comprehensive Mirror in their Entirey" is a rearrangement of the chronicle Zizhi tongjian 資政通鑒. The Tongjian was written by the Song period 宋 (960-1279) scholar Yuan Shu 袁樞 (1131-1205). In this type of history particular historic events are arranged around certain central themes that make it much easier to understand the origins of certain development and their results, than a simple chronological arrangement of the events (biannianti 編年體) as performed in the Zizhi tongjian or the arrangement of history in the shape of biographies (jizhuanti 紀傳體, like in most official dynastic histories. The 142 juan "scrolls" long book comprises 1,362 separate historic events in their entirety, beginning with the dissolution of the ancient state of Jin 晉 by the marquesses of Han 韓, Wei 魏 and Zhao 趙 in 403 BCE and ends with the foundation of the Song dynasty in 960. These events are arranged in 239 chapters, with 66 additional chapters appended to some of the main chapters, making out a total of 305 chapters. During the compilation process, Yuan Shu made use of the cut-and-paste method and rearranged paragraphs of the Zizhi tongjian, but in such a refined way that the reader is not aware that the text was actually not compiled as a coherent narrative but in a potpourry method. The content concentrates on event history and neglects a lot of other interesting aspects, like politics, administration and economy.
The Tongjian jishi benmo was first printed in 1176. There is a commentary written for each chapter compiled by the late Ming period 明 (1368-1644) historian Zhang Pu 張溥. The most common version of the Tongjian jishi benmo is that of the Zhonghua shuju press 中華書局.
Yuan Shu's Tongjian jishi benmo proved so useful and easy-to-read that it became the ancestor of a throughly new tradition of historiography, the jishi benmo 紀事本末 type. They combined the style of the dynastic histories with Yuan Shu's book and created, for example, the Songshi jishi benmo 宋史紀事本末 or Mingshi jishi benmo 明史紀事本末. The compilers of the collectaneum Siku quanshu 四庫全書 added to these books the historiographical type of the military annals (fanglüe 方略) describing the military campaigns of the Qing dynasty 清 (1644-1911).
During the Guangxu reign 光緒 (1875-1908) the Guangya press 廣雅書局 published the collectaneum Jishi benmo huike 紀事本末匯刻 including all large histories of this type:
- 左傳紀事本末 Zuozhuan jishi benmo, 53 juan by Gao Shiqi 高士奇 (Qing)
- 通鑑紀事本末 Tongjian jishi benmo, 239 juan by Yuan Shu 袁樞 (Song), comm. by Zhang Pu 張溥 (Ming)
- 通鑑長編紀事本末 Tongjian changbian jishi benmo, 150 juan (8 missing) by Yang Zhongliang 楊仲良 (Song), comm. by Feng Qi 馮琦原 (Ming)
- 宋史紀事本末 Songshi jishi benmo, 159 juan by Chen Bangzhan 陳邦瞻 (Ming), comm. by Zhang Pu 張溥 (Ming)
- 遼史紀事本末 Liaoshi jishi benmo, 40 juan by Li Youtang 李有棠 (Qing)
- 金史紀事本末 Jinshi jishi benmo, 52 juan by Li Youtang 李有棠 (Qing)
- 元史紀事本末 Yuanshi jishi benmo, 27 juan by Chen Bangzhan 陳邦瞻 (Ming), comm. by Zhang Pu 張溥 (Ming)
- 明史紀事本末 Mingshi jishi benmo, 80 juan by Gu Yingtai 谷應泰 (Qing)
In 1996, Wang Liansheng 王連升 published a comprehensive history of China with the title of Xinbian Zhongguo lichao jishi benmo 新編中國歷朝紀事本末 (Taiyuan: Shanxi jiaoyu chubanshe), whose volumes are each dedicated to one dynasty. The idea is based on the book Lichao jishi benmo 歷朝紀事本末, published in 1910 (Shanghai: Wensheng shuju) by Chen Rusheng 陳如升 and Zhu Jirong 朱記榮.
Sources:
Chen Guangchong 陳光崇 (1992). "Tongjian jishi benmo 通鑑紀事本末", in: Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Zhongguo lishi 中國歷史, vol. 2, p. 1145. Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe.
Shi Tingyong 施廷鏞 (ed. 1986). Zhongguo congshu mulu ji zimu suoyin huibian 中國叢書目錄及子目索引匯編, p. 208. Nanjing: Nanjing daxue chubanshe.
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Exemplarious translation
卷十：吳蜀通好
漢獻帝建安二十年。初，劉備在荆州，周瑜、甘寧等數勸孫權取蜀。
權遣使謂備曰：「劉璋不武，不能自守，若使曹操得蜀，則荆州危矣。今欲先攻取璋，次取張魯，一統南方，雖有十操，無所憂也。」
備報曰：「益州民富地險，劉璋雖弱，足以自守。今暴師於蜀、漢，轉運於萬里，欲使戰克攻取，擧不失利，此孫吳所難也。議者見曹操失利於赤壁，謂其力屈，無復遠念。今操三分天下已有其二，將欲飲馬於滄海，觀兵於吳會，何肯守此，坐須老乎？而同盟無故自相攻伐，借樞於操，使敵承其隙，非長計也。且備與璋托爲宗室，冀凴英靈以匡漢朝。今璋得罪於左右，備獨悚懼，非所敢聞，願加寛貸。」
權不聽，遣孫瑜率水軍住夏口。備不聽軍過，謂瑜曰：「汝欲取蜀，吾當被髮入山，不失信於天下也。」
使關羽屯江陵、張飛屯秭歸，諸葛亮據南郡，備自住孱陵。權不得已，召瑜還。及備西攻劉璋，權曰：「猾虜，乃敢挾詐如此！」備留關羽守江陵，魯肅與羽鄰界，羽數生疑貳，肅常以歡好撫之。
10.1. Wu and Shu on good terms
In the 20th year of the era Jian'an "Establishing peace" of Emperor Han Xiandi, when Liu Bei still resided in Jingzhou (present-day Hubei), Zhou Yu and Gan Ning several times tried to pursue Sun Quan (ruler of Wu) to conquer Shu (present-day Sichuan, the territory of Liu Zhang).
Sun Quan sent a messanger to Liu Bei, telling him: "Liu Zhang is no martial figure, and he will be unable to protect himself. If Cao Cao (ruler of Wei) conquers Shu, Jiangnan will be in great danger. Therefore my wish is that we first conquer the territory of Liu Zhang and then that of Zhang Lu (Hanzhong, in present-day southern Shaanxi), so that the whole southern realm is unified. Under such a condition, we would not have to worry about even ten Cao Caos."
Liu Bei answered: "The province of Yizhou (Shu) has a rich population, and its territory is secured by mountains. I fear that, even if Liu Zhang is weak, he would be able to defend himself well. To wage war in Shu and Han[zhong] would mean to care for a logistics train ten thousand miles long. The projection to conquer this territory by war and assuring a success for it, would be quite difficult for Sun's state of Wu. Disputing that matter, you can see that Cao Cao has been defeated at the Red Cliff, and one could say that his force has vanished, and that he is nobody to worry about in the future. Yet now, Cao Cao possesses already two parts of the three parts of China and wishes to drink his horses at the green sea and to show to his soldiers Guiji, the capital of Wu. How could we stand this situation and sit there until we grow old? Yet if we would create an alliance there would be no reason to attack each other, and this would provide rather a support for Cao Cao to perpetuate the enmity. This is by no means an intelligent plan! I am from the same family as Liu Zhang and have to hope to take over the holy duty of the house of the Han Dynasty. If Liu Zhang is accused by anybody here around, it is only me who can be afraid, so that I do not have to ask for any wrongdoings but rather have to be lenient against him.
Sun Quan did not follow this suggestion and dispatched Sun Yu with a naval force to occupy Xiakou. Liu Bei did not respond to the by-marching forces [as Sun had expected] and said to Sun Yu: "If you want to conquer Shu, I have to cover my hear and to withdraw to the mountains, in order not to loose the confidence of the empire." He sent out Guan Yu to occupy Jiangling and Zhang Fei to Occupy Zigui. Zhuge Liang stood read in Nanjun, and Liu Bei himself in Chanling. In such a situation Sun Quan could not but call back Sun Yu. Liu Bei thereupon made his troops ready for a campaign against the west to attack Liu Zhang. Sun Quan exclaimed: "That scoundrel! How can he deceive me like this!" Liu Bei left back Guan Yu to protect Jiangling and Lu Su and Guan Yu in the nearby areas, and whenever there was an illoyal thought in Guan Yu, Lu Su perceived and supported him.
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Chinese literature according to the four-category system
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