Chapter 4 Chapter Two "Book of Jin" and "Eight Books" and "Second History"

"Book of Jin" (Figure 9) has 130 volumes, including 10 volumes of Emperor Ji, 20 volumes of Chronicles, 70 volumes of Biographies, and 30 volumes of Records.Tang Fangxuanling and others wrote a detailed record of the history of the rise and fall of the Western Jin and Eastern Jin feudal dynasties, and used the form of "records" to describe the historical facts of the "Sixteen Kingdoms" of the separatist regime. The compilation of "Book of Jin" was started in the 20th year of Zhenguan (AD 646) and completed in the 22nd year (AD 648) according to the edict of Tang Taizong Li Shimin, which lasted less than three years.More than 20 people participated in the compilation. In addition to Fang Xuanling and other three as supervisors, among them were historians, such as Linghu Defen [fenfen], Li Yanshou, astronomer Li Chunfeng, and others were also well-known at that time. Bachelor of Arts.

Tang Taizong attached great importance to compiling history in order to sum up the historical experience and lessons of the rise and fall of chaos and consolidate the political situation of Tang Dynasty's unification of the world.Sima Yi was the founder of the Western Jin Dynasty, and Sima Yan was the finisher of the unified cause. Li Shimin paid special attention to their ruling experience; at the same time, Lu Ji's articles and Wang Xizhi's calligraphy were especially appreciated by Li Shimin.Li Shimin personally wrote four historical treatises ("Zhiyue") for "Xuandi Ji" (Sima Yi), "Wudi Ji" (Sima Yan), "Lu Ji Biography" and "Wang Xizhi Biography", so "Book of Jin" once had Said by Emperor Taizong.

In fact, the "Book of Jin" compiled in the early Tang Dynasty was mainly based on the "Book of Jin" by Qi Zang Rongxu of the Southern Dynasty, referring to the old histories of various schools, the anthology of Jin people, and notebook novels, etc., adding, deleting, revising, cataloging and embellishing.Originally called "New Book of Jin", it was later called "Book of Jin" because Zang's original book and other old histories were lost.Due to the fact that it was completed by many hands and the time was short, there were many problems left in the compilation.For example, because the new "Book of Jin" made many additions, deletions, revisions and revisions to Zang's old books, some explanatory texts that used to be interspersed with provincial texts were lost in the new version, but no corresponding revisions were made, which confuses readers.Another example is that "Geography" is detailed in the Western Jin Dynasty and slightly in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. It does not distinguish between counties and counties of overseas Chinese, causing confusion and difficulty.In addition, there are also mistakes and discrepancies in the names of people, places, official positions, time, and places in the narrative, and there is even one incident that is related to two persons with similar names.

Despite the above shortcomings, the "Book of Jin" compiled in the early Tang Dynasty completely and comprehensively described the rise and fall of the Jin Dynasty, and preserved a large amount of valuable historical materials.Therefore, as soon as it came out, "all those who talked about the history of Jin Dynasty abandoned their old books and competed to write new ones" (Liu Zhiji's "Shi Tong"), so that the old histories of various schools gradually disappeared.It is a major reference book for us to study the history of Jin Dynasty today. The style of "Book of Jin" is generally inherited from the previous generation with some innovations.In addition to the biography and biographies, "Ziji" is added to record the historical sites of the sixteen countries, and the division of countries reflects the separatist regimes established by the rulers of ethnic minorities such as the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie, Di, and Qiang.The materials in these 30 volumes of "records" are very important, and they are the only materials for studying the historical events of the sixteen countries today.There are only 14 countries recorded in the sixteen countries, they are the former Zhao, the later Zhao, the former Yan, the former Qin, the later Qin, the later Shu, the later Liang, the later Yan, the western Qin, the northern Yan, the southern Liang, the southern Yan, and the northern Liang ,summer.Because Li Hao (haohao), the king of Wuzhao in Xiliang, was considered by the Li Tang regime to be the ancestor, he was originally a Han nationality; the Zhang family in Qianliang was a minister of Jin for generations. Tang Xiu's "Book of Jin" included them in "Biography" instead of "Ziji".

The narrations of each annals in "Book of Jin" start from the end of Han Dynasty. For example, "Shihuo Zhi" starts from the economic historical data of the Three Kingdoms period.Among the annals, the "Tianwen Zhi" and "Lv Li Zhi" are always praised. They were written by Li Chunfeng, a famous expert who is familiar with astronomy, law and calendar. The loss of correct history is an important document in the history of Chinese science. The 70 volumes of biographies of "Book of Jin" are relatively well done, with extensive content and detailed narration, which preserves very rich and precious historical materials.There are many joint biographies in the biographies.Among them, the sons and grandsons of the rich and powerful families gathered together for one pass, reflecting the powerful power of the aristocrats at that time.There are also some co-biography, or literati and celebrities with similar thoughts and tastes, or historians with the same occupation, or people who have different generations but belong to rebellious officials and thieves.From these joint biographies, we can see the careful arrangements of the historians.

Biographies contain many useful articles, which is a prominent feature of "Book of Jin".For example, "Pei Xiu Biography" contains "Preface to Yugong Regional Map", which preserves the oldest map drawing method in our country. The Biography of Pei Wei [Wei Wei] contains "Chong You Lun", which is an important document in the history of philosophy. "Lu Bao Biography" contains "Money God", which fully exposes and satirizes the ugly phenomenon that money is omnipotent in the society at that time.Others, such as "Chongrang Lun" in "Liu Shi Biography", "On the Nine Grades and Eight Losses" in "Liu Yi Biography", "Shangbai Wushi Shu" in "Fu Xuan Biography" and other essays about building schools and farming merits, "Huangfu The Biography of Mi (mi Mi) contains "The Theory of the End", "Zhiyu Zhuan" contains "Theory of Today's Ruler Is Longer Than the Ancient Ruler", "Biography of Lu Ji" contains "Theory of Distinction", and "Biography of Jiang Tong" contains "Theory of Migration On ", "Guo Pu Biography" contains "Punishment Theory", etc., which are extremely important and precious documents for us to study the politics, economy, culture and folk customs of Jin Dynasty society.

The "Book of Jin" also appropriately reflected the class struggle in the society at that time. For example, the refugee uprising that occurred in the late Western Jin Dynasty, its main leaders, except Li Te, who was a member of the Di clan, were included in the "Ziji", Zhang Chang, Wang Ru, Du Tao , Wang Mi, etc. have biographies.Sun En, Lu Xun, etc. who launched large-scale uprisings in the Eastern Jin Dynasty also have biographies, which describe the relevant historical facts more systematically.In addition, for example, "Shu Xi Zhuan" records the discovery and arrangement process of the Jizhong Book, which is an important information about ancient cultural relics.In short, only the "Book of Jin" has the most concentrated and systematic records about the important historical facts of the Jin Dynasty.

"Book of Jin" has a wide range of materials and rich materials, but it has not paid much attention to the selection and selection of historical materials. In terms of discussion, there are both comments and praises after each volume, and it often uses parallel couplets, with gorgeous words. And the text is cumbersome.If it is said that the large number of materials collected and recorded in "Book of Jin" is mainly out of the need to reflect the fashion of the era of metaphysics and clear talk, and the editors prefer their diction to be elegant and clean, so it is difficult to choose Ganbao's "Sou Shen Ji" and Liu Yiqing's "You Ming Lu". " and the like refer to gods and monsters, which is too messy and ridiculous, and it is really not good enough.No wonder the "Book of Jin" was criticized by scholars not long after it was written, thinking that it "gave a lot of weird and trivial things, and spread anecdotes; ").There is some truth to this criticism.

Zhonghua Book Company’s proofreading version uses the Jinling Book Company’s version as the working version, collates with the photocopied Song version of the Banai version and the Qing Wuying Hall, and adds detailed punctuation and segmentation. It is currently the most readable version.