Chapter 11 Chapter Four: The Era of Miscellaneous Comments

Qin was a short-lived dynasty. After it unified the whole country, it lasted only a short ten years, and did not have time to leave any important works.However, in the process of Qin's unification, he will undoubtedly collect a large number of books and documents from various countries for reference in governing the world.In 206 BC, Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, occupied Xianyang, the capital of the Qin State. Other generals competed for gold, silver, and silk. Only Prime Minister Xiao He hurried to receive the books of the Qin Dynasty royal family and government, including the materials accumulated in the Qin Dynasty. .Therefore, Liu Bang was able to know in detail the fortresses of the world, the number of households, the strength of the army, and the suffering of the people, which made necessary preparations for him to finally defeat Xiang Yu and seize the world.

When the country was stabilized, the Han government immediately ordered all parts of the country to report to the Taishi the "plans" recording the economy, tribute, etc., and the "prefectural annals" recording mountains, rivers, and customs.According to the records of "Sui Shu·Jing Ji Zhi", when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty: "Since the planning book is on the Taishi, the prefectures and countries are also there." The information on the Taishi is quite complete.This is the earliest historical record that all parts of the country should send local materials to the central government in a unified manner.

The unified situation, sufficient materials, and the need of the centralized government to strengthen the administrative management of the whole country have created good conditions for the compilation of national geography.When the Western Han Dynasty became emperor, Prime Minister Zhang Yu once ordered his subordinate Zhu Gan to investigate the customs of the whole country and compile it into a book "Geography", but unfortunately it was not handed down. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ban Gu, who was in charge of the official history of Lantai, used the pictures and books of Lantai (the place where the Han Dynasty court collected books and archives), absorbed the achievements of Zhu Gan and others, and wrote "Hanshu Geography".This is an article in the history of the Western Han Dynasty "Hanshu" written by Ban Gu. It is the first geographical general chronicle compiled in my country based on the territory and political regions of one dynasty and one generation.It no longer divides regions by natural mountains and rivers like the previous ancient geography books such as "Yu Gong", but after briefly describing the evolution of the territory before the Western Han Dynasty and the general situation of Kyushu, it uses the main pen and ink to follow the administrative divisions of the Western Han Dynasty. , respectively describing the household registration, mountains, rivers, gates, temples, products, etc. of each area.It is clear and informative, and it is an epoch-making masterpiece among Chinese geography works, and it has become a model for the compilation of "official history" geography in subsequent dynasties.Since "Hanshu·Geography" is limited to the description of geography and does not include humanities and social aspects, it is not equal to the national general chronicle in the local chronicles, but it provides valuable experience for the future compilation of the national general chronicle.

Since then, there have been some other national geographical annals, such as "Thirteen Prefectures" by Ying Shao in the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Thirteen Prefectures" by Kan [kan] Yi in the Northern Wei Dynasty, "Taikang Topography" in the Jin Dynasty, Chen Dynasty Gu Yewang's "Yu Di Zhi" and so on, but their influence is not as good as "Hanshu Geography Zhi", and they are all lost.One of the more important ones is the "Ji Fu Jing" compiled by Zhiyu in the Jin Dynasty. According to the introduction of "Sui Shu·Jing Ji Zhi", this book has 170 volumes.In addition to recording geography and customs in the same way as "Hanshu·Geography", it also records "the old friends of the sages", creating a precedent for recording people in topography, which is a step closer to local chronicles that also record history and geography.Based on this, some people think that "Ji Fu Jing" is already the prototype of local chronicles.

In addition to national geography, various regional histories and geography came into being.They take one county and one county as the narrative objects, with various contents and different styles.To sum up, it can be roughly divided into three categories: one is geography books, the other is local history, and the other is character records. The geography books are basically the continuation of the pre-Qin geography books, and the most numerous are the geographical records, also known as topography.Such as "Yunyang Ji" written by Wang Bao of the Eastern Han Dynasty (Sanyuan, Shaanxi), "Shu Ji" written by Li You (Sichuan), "Yizhou Ji" written by Chen Shu (Sichuan), and several "Jingzhou Ji" written during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties ( Hubei), etc.They generally only record territories, mountains and rivers, roads, products, and customs, and a few have noticed historical allusions, monuments, and legends.Geographical records are not official materials compiled by order. Most of their authors were born in local aristocratic families, or were officials in the local area, and had close contacts with local wealthy families.These authors themselves have high cultural accomplishments, feelings for the local area, and careful observation. In order to honor the local wealthy families, they often boast of the prosperity and beauty of the village through diary notes, so their writing style is fluent and vivid.For example, "Jingzhou Ji" written by Sheng Hongzhi of the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties records the wonderful scenery of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River:

"The Three Gorges are 700 miles away, with mountains on both sides. There is no place to be missed. There are many cliffs and peaks, hiding the sky and covering the sun. Since it stops at midnight, the sun and the moon cannot be seen... Sometimes the white emperor rises in the morning, and Jiangling arrives in the evening. During this period, there are 1,200 In spring and summer, there are turbulent green pools with clear reflections, and there are many tamarisks growing in the mountains. The hanging springs and waterfalls are flying in the middle, which is clear and magnificent, full of elegance. Every day when it is sunny and frosty, the forest is cold and the stream is solemn, and there are often tall apes screaming, which is called Qingyuan. skirts.'"

"In the Xiling Gorge of Yidu, there is Huangniu Mountain. The river is rushing back and forth. Passing by Xinsu, I can still see it. The traveler said: 'The yellow cattle are sent out at morning, and the yellow cattle are at night. Three days and three evenings, the yellow cattle are as before.'" (quoted from "" Art and Literature Clusters "Volume 7) Some geographical records and topographic records only record a certain aspect of a region.For example, "Lushan Ji", "Han Shui Ji", "Central Hunan Shanshui Ji" specialize in landscapes; "Zhufan Customs" specialize in customs; "Foreign Objects", "Southern Vegetables and Trees" dedicated to properties, and so on.They can be said to be the precursors of later monographs.

Those that specifically record the conditions of cities are called Metropolitan Books.Only the "Sanfu Huangtu" in the Eastern Han Dynasty can still be seen in the editions of later generations in the Metropolitan Book. "Sanfu" refers to the three administrative districts of Jingzhaoyin, Zuofeng [Ping Ping]yi, and Youfufeng near Chang'an in the Han Dynasty, which is equivalent to the current Xi'an and Xianyang areas.They assist the capital Chang'an from three directions, so they are collectively called "three assistants". "Sanfu Huangtu" originally had pictures and texts, but later only some words quoted by other works remained. It can be seen that it recorded the history, cities, gardens, terraces, Taixue, and temples of the Chang'an area. , Markets, buildings, government offices, warehouses, stables, bridges, mausoleums, etc., also recorded some local customs.Later generations often used it as a blueprint for compiling urban annals.The Metropolitan Book is obviously the harbinger of the Metropolitan Annals of later generations.

Tujing is actually a category of topography, but it evolved from ancient maps. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, the technology of drawing maps became more mature.In order to express more complex content, some maps are accompanied by text descriptions. In "Hanshu Geography", there are two quotations from "Qin Tutu". In 1973, three maps of the early Western Han Dynasty were unearthed in the Mawangdui Western Han Tomb in Changsha, Hunan Province, a topographic map, a garrison map, and a city map.The main part of the painting is the southern part of the Changsha Kingdom sealed off in the early Han Dynasty, which is the area of ​​the Xiaoshui River in the upper reaches of the Xiangjiang River today.This is the earliest surviving map drawn on the basis of actual measurements in the world.These three maps with different purposes have uniform legends and roughly appropriate proportions. Not only the names of mountains and rivers are shown on the maps, but also the statistics of the number of residents.The small country of Changsha has such a pretty good map, from which we can infer the general level of maps used for cartography in the early Han Dynasty.The court of the Han Dynasty even collected a large number of maps.Pei Xiu of the Western Jin Dynasty was an outstanding cartographer in my country.At the beginning of the Jin Dynasty, he served as Minister of the Order, and assisted the country's military administration. Due to his position, he had seen a large number of maps of the Han Dynasty in the state's collection.However, Pei Xiu was very dissatisfied with the accuracy of these maps. After careful examination and revision, he compiled the first historical atlas of our country and the world——"Yugong Atlas". A set of scientific map-drawing theories became the founder of traditional cartography in my country.

With the continuous expansion of the application field of maps, some maps are annotated with more and more detailed texts according to needs, and a new genre with pictures and descriptions is gradually formed, which is the map classic.The earliest Tujing known so far is the "Berjun Tujing" in the Eastern Han Dynasty.Ba County in the Eastern Han Dynasty was located in the area of ​​Ba County in the south of Chongqing today. The picture in the "Berjun Tujing" has long since disappeared, and only a paragraph of text quoted in the "Huayang Guozhi" of the Jin Dynasty remains.According to "Huayang Guozhi·Bazhi", Danwang, the prefect of Bajun, said in the second year of Yongxing in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 154): "According to the "Bajun Tujing", the boundary is four thousand from north to south, and five thousand from east to west. Zhou Wanli. It belongs to the fourteenth county, with salt and iron five officials, each with a history. The household is 464,780, and the mouth is 1,875,535. Yuanxian County goes to the county 1,200 Up to five hundred miles, the township goes to the county, or three or four hundred, or thousands of miles..." But Wang thinks that the area of ​​Berkshire is too large, and management is very difficult. ; A thief happened, and it took ten days for the catcher to arrive at the scene of the accident, and the thief had already fled.Therefore, he proposed to divide Berkshire into two counties.Judging from Danwang's tone, the "Tujing" must be an official document that the central government is familiar with and can use as evidence.Since the remote Berkshire has Tujing, other counties must have it too.Boundary, county, Yantie and other official settings, the number of household registrations and the distance of the road are all important contents recorded in the Tujing at that time.Because it was compiled by officials and mainly for government reference, it is rarely circulated in society, so we only know this about it today.

Books that mainly describe local characters are called "junshu".Although there are many vivid stories about characters in the classics of the pre-Qin period, there is no special book on biographies.After the system of prefectures and counties was implemented, all local officials were dispatched by the central government. In order to solve the source of officials, there must be a method of selecting talents.The Han Dynasty mainly adopted the "examination system", and local officials regularly or irregularly recommended people with good morals or knowledge to the central government. Mao Cai"), "Ming Jing" and other titles.During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the "Nine Ranks Zhongzheng System" was implemented, and large and small Zhongzheng officials were set up in prefectures and counties.The Zhongzheng officer is held by a local "prestige" person.They selected outstanding talents according to the comments of the township party, divided the selected talents into nine ranks according to their talents, and reported them to the central government, where they were awarded official positions by the Ministry of Officials.Both of these methods are based on the "public discussion" of public opinion, which promotes the atmosphere of commenting on people in society, thus promoting the development of biographies. From the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the power of local wealthy families gradually became stronger, especially in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and a family system was formed.The so-called "noble family" refers to the famous and noble families passed down from generation to generation.They are powerful, powerful, and have many connections in the local area. The power of commenting and recommending people is monopolized in their hands.In order to continuously expand their influence and consolidate their local privileges, these aristocratic families competed to write biographies of local figures in order to flaunt their noble family status and boast of their outstanding talents, so "county books" became popular for a while.After Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu of the Eastern Han Dynasty became emperor, in order to commend the figures in his hometown, he ordered the compilation of "Nanyang Customs Biography", which is generally believed to be the beginning of the compilation of county books.Since then, for example, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were "Old Biography of Chen Liuqi", "Old Biography of Bashu Qi", etc.; Old Biography of Buqi, Old Biography of Shanyangqi, Biography of Empresses of Shu, Biography of Empresses of Kuaiji, History of Ancient and Modern Figures in Youzhou, etc.Later generations of local chronicles used special volumes to record the deeds of one party's characters, which can be said to have originated from this.Liu Zhiji in the Tang Dynasty once criticized the common problem of the county books at that time as "respecting the sages of his country and beautifying his country", showing off the characters of the local family, and only talking about the good and not the bad.This kind of ethos also had a certain influence on the character records of later local chronicles. Local history is the development of ancient national history, mainly to record the history of a region.As we know now, there are "Yuejueshu" in the Eastern Han Dynasty in Jiangsu and Zhejiang and the "Wuyue Spring and Autumn" after that; There are "Huayang Guozhi" written by Changzhu (qu Qu) in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and so on. Most of the historical and geographical miscellaneous accounts of the Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties have been lost, and there are only more than 100 titles that can still be known.These more than 100 kinds of works involve 18 provinces and regions today.Among them, there are more than a dozen kinds such as "Shu Ji" and "Shu Zhi" that describe Sichuan, and only six kinds such as "Luoyang Ji" that describe the famous city of Luoyang by Jin people. From this, we can imagine the prosperity of such works in the past.On the whole, the author's pen has covered all aspects of geography and history, nature and social life, which fully prepares for the emergence of comprehensive local chronicles.