Chapter 10 Section 3 History of the Song, Liao, and Jin Dynasties Hastily Compiled

Soon after the founding of the Yuan Dynasty, it began to organize the compilation of the three histories of Song, Liao, and Jin.However, because the three dynasties existed at the same time, who should be the orthodox and how to deal with the issues related to the historical status of the Yuan Dynasty among the three dynasties have long been debated within the court.One school advocates taking the Song Dynasty as the century, and Liao and Jin as the records, while the other school insists on taking Liao and Jin as the northern history, Song Taizu to Jingkang as the Song history, and Jianyan and later as the Southern Song history.Both sides held their own opinions and were in dispute, which made it difficult to carry out the compilation work.At the time of Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty, the prime minister Tuotuo advocated that Song, Liao, and Jin should each be one history and write a book alone.In March of the third year of Zhizheng (AD 1343), Emperor Yuan Shun adopted Tuotuo's suggestion and ordered Tuotuo to be the president of the capital. Timur Tashi, He Weiyi, Zhang Qiyan, Ouyang Xuan, etc. were the presidents and presided over the revision of history.At that time, class conflicts and ethnic conflicts were sharp, the Yuan regime was in precarity, and finances were also very difficult, so the three histories were compiled hastily.The three histories were carried out at the same time. In March of the fourth year of Zhengzheng (AD 1344), the "History of Liao" was first completed, in November "History of Jin" was completed, and in the fifth year of Zhengzheng (AD 1345) "History of Song Dynasty" was compiled in October.Ouyang Xuan is the main figure in the actual compilation of the Three Histories, and he contributed the most to the development of precedents, review and revision.When the three histories were completed respectively, Ouyang Xuan also drafted the list of the imperial court.

"History of the Song Dynasty" (Fig. 15) is famous for its voluminous volumes, including 47 volumes of Benji, 162 volumes of Chronicles, 32 volumes of Tables, and 255 volumes of Biographies, with a total of 496 volumes. It is the largest official history book among the Twenty-Four Histories.It starts from the first year of Jianlong (AD 960) of Song Taizu to the second year of Zhao Bing (bing Bing) Xiangxing (AD 1279), recording a total of 320 years of history in the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty ruled for more than 300 years. During this period, the political system became more and more complete, and the economy and culture developed. In particular, the prevalence of engraving and printing and the invention of movable type greatly promoted the prosperity of academic culture.Therefore, when the Yuan Dynasty compiled the "History of the Song Dynasty", there were abundant historical materials that could be used, such as calendars and real records in the chronological style, official national history materials in the biographical style, important meetings of various dynasties that recorded the laws and regulations in detail, and related historiographical writings by the Song people. And a large number of anthologies and notes of Song people.Because there are many ready-made historical materials that can be relied on, it is possible for "History of the Song Dynasty" to be written into a masterpiece.

"Song History" has a complete style, including Ji, Biography, Zhi, and Table.In particular, the 15 kinds of chronicles are huge in length, accounting for 1/3 of the whole book. They systematically and detailedly recorded the astronomy and calendar, laws and regulations, social economy, administrative and military affairs, and cultural classics of the Song Dynasty. accused, but the details of its description are only seen in the twenty-four histories.The biographies are also rich in content, with a total income of more than 2,000 people. Although there are problems with cumbersome text, in terms of the value of historical materials, detailed is better than brief, and "Song History" has a brief summary after each long biography, which is also unique to it. The remedy.Among the many existing historical books about the Song Dynasty, only "Song History" runs through the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty, comprehensively and systematically preserved a large number of official and private historical materials for 320 years. It records many historical facts that are not found in other books.Therefore, "Song History" is still one of the indispensable basic historical books for studying the history of Liao, Song, and Jin.

Due to its huge size and hastily compiled book, "History of the Song Dynasty" failed to carefully sort out, identify and carefully cut and process the rich historical materials from different sources and different viewpoints.Therefore, the whole book is rather messy and rough, with many mistakes, omissions and contradictions.Readers often need to make a comprehensive reference to order in order to avoid mistakes.The content of the whole book is also extremely unbalanced. It is detailed in the Northern Song Dynasty, slightly in the Southern Song Dynasty, and detailed in the early and middle period of the Southern Song Dynasty in the late period.After Lizong, most of the biographies only listed job titles without any real facts, and the content was empty.Song Dynasties gradually became popular. "Song History" established "Tao Xue Zhuan" and placed it before "Confucian Biography", and set up biographies for representatives of Neo-Confucianism, such as Zhou Dunyi, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Shao Yong, Zhu Xi, etc. Praise.Although this actually reflects the historical characteristics of Song Dynasty society in terms of ideology, when "Song History" evaluates historical events and praises and criticizes figures, it does not start from historical merits and demerits, but completely uses Neo Confucianism as the standard for judging right and wrong, which has caused many problems. The reversal and confusion of good and evil, loyalty and evil, such as favoring the conservative Yuanyou party members, belittling the reform and innovation Wang Anshi, etc.The reason is that the compilers of "History of the Song Dynasty" are all believers in Neo-Confucianism.Regarding the records of the Song-Yuan War, all the unfavorable battles of the Mongolian army were deleted from the "Song History" because they violated the taboos of the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty.

"History of Liao Dynasty" includes 30 volumes of Benji, 32 volumes of Chronicles, 8 volumes of Tables, 45 volumes of Biographies, and 1 volume of Guoyu Jie, a total of 116 volumes.Its records can be traced back to the first year of Tang Tianfu (AD 901) when Liao Taizu Yelu Abaoji served as the "Yili Jin" of the Khitan tribe, and down to the fifth year of Liao Tianzuo Emperor Baoda (AD 1125) when the Song and Jin joint extermination Liao mainly records the history of the Liao regime for more than 200 years.It also briefly describes the history of the Khitan people before the Liao Dynasty and the history of the Xiliao established by Yelu Dashi at the end of the Liao Dynasty.

The compilation of "History of Liao Dynasty" has been delayed for a long time due to the undecided meaning and rules, mainly because the "emperor system" issue of which dynasty the Jin Dynasty will inherit has not been resolved.It was not until the third year from the end of the Yuan Dynasty to Zhengzheng (1343 A.D.) that he took off as the president of the capital who compiled the three histories, and it was decided that the Liao, Jin, and Song "each belonged to the orthodoxy, and each had its own year name". Lian Huishan Haiya, Wang Yi, Xu Xu Bing [bing Bing] and Chen Yizeng wrote the history of Liao Dynasty respectively.Based on Liao Yeluyan's "Records" and Jin Chen Daren's "Liao History", they refer to "Khitan Kingdom Chronicles" and "Khitan Biography" of various histories, etc., and slightly revised and arranged them.

"History of Liao Dynasty" is the most brief and rough one among the twenty-four histories.There is neither serious collection and revision of historical materials, nor detailed checking and polishing of the text. Therefore, there are many repetitions, omissions, mistakes and contradictions, and sometimes even one thing is regarded as two things, and one person is regarded as two persons.For historical events such as changing the name of the country, for example, Liao Taizong Yelu Deguang founded the country as Daliao, Liao Shengzong Yelu Longxu ascended the throne, changed Daliao to Daqitan, and Daozong Xianyong Second Year (AD 1066) re-reformed the country No. Daliao, there is no record in "Liao History", which shows how sloppy it is.

Since both Yeluyan's "Records" and Chen Daren's "Liao History" have been lost, and other historical materials about the Liao Dynasty are extremely scarce, Yuanxiu's "Liao History" has become the only existing one that records the history of the Liao Dynasty more systematically and completely. Official books, their historical value is very precious. Judging from the various components of "Liao History", some of its biography and annals are relatively substantial, while biographies are relatively brief and poor.Adapting to the unique characteristics of the political and military organizations established by the Khitan nobles, "History of Liao Dynasty" newly created "Ying Wei Zhi" and "Bing Wei Zhi". "Ying Wei Zhi" describes the general situation of camps and camps, the establishment and distribution of tribes, and the living conditions of the Khitan people fighting in wartime and farming, fishing and hunting in peacetime. To a certain extent, it truly reflects the social life characteristics of the northern nomadic peoples. "Bing Wei Zhi" briefly describes the military organization of the Liao Dynasty in accordance with the military system, the imperial tent pro-army, the palace guard cavalry army, the tribal army of the chieftain, the tribal army, and the five capital townships. "Hundred Officials" records the northern officials (the old official positions in the Khitan Grassland) and the southern officials (the traditional official positions in the Central Plains) respectively, and also truthfully reflects the historical characteristics at that time. "Liao History" has a total of eight tables, among which "Youxing Table", "Tribal Table" and "Subnational Table" are unique to "Liao History".These tables are not large in length, but they are concise and eye-catching, and they have a certain supplementary effect to make up for the lack of biographical narrative.In the last volume, Guoyujie, Chinese meanings are marked for some Khitan transliterated nouns in the book, which provides convenience for readers.

"History of Jin" (Figure 16) includes 19 volumes of Benji, 39 volumes of Chronicles, 4 volumes of Tables, and 73 volumes of Biographies, with a total of 135 volumes. It records the history from the rise of the Jurchen tribe to the establishment and demise of the Jin Dynasty.The Jurchens are one of the oldest ethnic groups in my country.At the beginning of the 12th century AD, Jurchen destroyed the Liao Dynasty, surrendered to Xixia, and established the Jin Dynasty, which confronted the north and south of the Song Dynasty. It ruled the north for 120 years and had a great impact on the history of our country.

The official compilation of "History of Gold" also began in the third year from Emperor Yuan Shun to Zhengzheng (1343 A.D.), and was completed in November of the following year.Among Yuanxiu's three histories of Song, Liao, and Jin, the "History of Jin" has always been the highest evaluation.The reason why the book was completed so quickly and well is that it is based on relatively sufficient historical materials, and the original blueprint is also based on a good foundation.Most of the official records of the Jin Dynasty have been preserved.Yuan Haowen, a literati at the end of the Jin Dynasty, once wanted to compile "History of Jin Dynasty", but failed to realize it, but his "Zhongzhou Collection" and "Renchen Miscellaneous Bian" preserved the historical materials of the Jin Dynasty collected and organized by him.Liu Qi's "Gui Qian Zhi" describes all aspects of the society at the end of the Jin Dynasty based on what he heard and saw, and the historical materials are also very rich.In the early Yuan Dynasty, Wang E (e E) compiled the first draft of Jin History based on the actual records, including three parts: Emperor Ji, Biographies and Chronicles.These historical works have provided a solid and reliable basis for compiling the "Golden History".

"History of Jin" followed the method of "Book of Wei Preface" and wrote "Century" for the first time, describing the history of the gradual rise of the Jurchens since their ancestor Hanpu.At the end of this period, "Shiji Supplement" is written, which describes the life stories of Zong Jun, the father of Jin Xizong Wanyan Quan, Zong Yao, the father of Jin Shizong Wanyan Yong, and Yun Gong, the father of Jin Zhangzong Wanyanjing.These three people were originally ministers. Since their sons later became emperors and had a special status, it was inconvenient to include them in "Biography of Zhuchen", so the "Century Supplement" was specially made to deal with them differently. "History of Jin" created the "Employment Form" for the first time. In the form of a table, it recorded in detail the envoys between Jin and Song, Xixia, and Goryeo one by one, which is quite concise and eye-catching.For major historical events, the origin and the whole story are firstly described in detail in the biographies of the main characters, and references are made in the biographies of other characters to avoid repetition, so the organization is strict and the pen and ink are saved. "Golden History" records the development history of Jurchen more systematically, especially about Jurchen and the early historical conditions of various ethnic groups that are mostly not found in other historical records.The annals of this book are relatively systematic and detailed, the classification is very detailed, and the narrative is relatively complete. The length of the book accounts for 1/3 of the whole book. data of.At the end of the book is the "Jin Guoyu Explanation", which is divided into five items: official title, personnel, object image, object category, and surname, and makes notes on the Jurchen language appearing in the book. Although the three histories of Song, Liao, and Jin were compiled at the same time, each of the three histories is based on the national history and actual records of its own dynasty, and its standpoints are different, so the descriptions must be different. Therefore, there are many contradictions and disconnections among the three histories.In case of discrepancy, it is necessary to refer to each other, or even use more materials other than the Three Histories, in order to reveal the truth of the historical facts. This is what readers need to pay attention to.