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The Xu zizhi tongjian changbian 續資治通鑒長編 is a chronicle of a part of the Song dynasty 宋 (960-1279) and a sequel to the landmark history Zhizhi tongjian 資治通鑒 written by Sima Guang 司馬光. The author of the Changbian was Li Tao 李燾 (1115-1184) who, as a secretary in the Veritable Records Institute (shiluyuan 實錄院), had access to primary sources. The appending term changbian 長編 has been chosen by Li Tao to express the minor quality of his book, which was not as concise and refined as Sima Guang's book. Of the originally 980 juan "scrolls" only 520 are preserved. The book covers the period between the reign of Emperor Taizong 宋太宗 (r. 976-997) and the end of the Northern Song dynasty 北宋 (960-1126). Li Tao made use of official dynastic histories, veritable records (shilu 實錄) and various books on statecraft as well as private sources like family chronicles, so-called wild histories (yeshi 野史), i. e. inofficial histories, and so on, and used it critically for his book. He was looking for a balance between conciseness and a narrative style, and sometimes even renders his own opinion to certain events. During the compilation process Li Tao made use of 10 shelves into which he put the respective documents of each chronological period. When the documents concerning one year were assembled in one tray he started arranging them in a literary manner so that they were to read in a pleasant way. During the composition he followed Sima Guang's concept rather to omit facts than to overburden the reader. This work took Li Tao 40 years to finish. The result was submitted to the throne in four batches between 1163 and 1177. It was finished in 1183. To the 980 text chapters he added 60 juan of an introduction (juyao 舉要), a detailed index of text-critical amendations (xiuhuan shimu 修换事目) of 10 juan and a general index (zongmu 縂目) of 5 juan, which made a total size of 1,063 juan. Because of its sheer size and the abundance of sources Li Tao used his book is a very important source for studying the last part of the Northern Song period.
Early prints are only available as excerts of certain chapters, like the 175 chapters that the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) historian Xu Qianxue 徐乾學 was able to preserve and that only cover the reigns of the emperors Taizu 宋太祖 (r. 960-975) to Yingzong 宋英宗 (r. 1063-1067). The original was lost at an early date and had to be extracted from the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) encyclopedia Yongle dadian 永樂大典 when it was due to be incorporated into the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) collectaneum Siku quanshu 四庫全書. Several parts are missing, namely the periods of the years 1067-1070, 1093-1097 and 1100. In 1957 the Zhonghua shuju press 中華書局 published a modern edition based on the version of the Zhejiang shuju press 浙江書局 from the late 19th centurywhich was compared critically with the versions of the Liaoning Library 遼寧圖書館, the Beijing Library 北京圖書館 and the Wenjin Hall edition 文津閣.
Sources:
Cheng Yingliu 程應鏐 (1992). "Xu zizhi tongjian changbian 續資治通鑒長編", in: Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Zhongguo lishi 中國歷史, vol. 3, p. 1341. Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe.
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰 (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典, vol. 1, p. 894. Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe.
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Chinese literature according to the four-category system
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