Chapter 20 Chapter Six: The Birth and Development of Chronicle History Books

The author of "Tongjian Chronicle" (Figure 22), Yuan Shu, styled Jizhong, was born in Jian'an (now Jian'ou County, Fujian Province) in the Southern Song Dynasty.Born in the first year of Emperor Gaozong's Shaoxing (AD 1131), he died in the first year of Emperor Ningzong's Kaixi (AD 1205) at the age of 75.Born as a Jinshi, he has never been a great official in his life. He is a man of integrity who cares about the sufferings of the people and has patriotism.He was eager to learn since he was a child, and he loved reading at ordinary times, and he had a certain degree of historical accomplishment.Regarding the situation of his compilation of "Tongjian Jishi Benmo", the historical records are very simple, just saying: "Shu often likes to recite Sima Guang, and it is hard to learn a lot, but he distinguishes it and runs through it. It is called "Tongjian Jishi Benmo"." ( "Song History" Volume 389) Yuan Shu's actual work was to break up and reorganize more than 3 million characters, and to transcribe and compile relevant textual materials according to the principle of establishing purpose according to facts. Not only the historical facts were completely taken from the original book , and the text is completely copied without changing the word, and finally compiled into 239 items, each item is described in detail from beginning to end in chronological order.Yuan Shu spent a lot of effort in determining the title of the division.The ministers of the Siku library in the Qing Dynasty once commented: "Although the collections edited by Shushu do not come out of the original text of "Tongjian", they are cut and edited. , and including coherence, without omission or redundancy, it all comes out of the book." ("Siku Quanshu Zongmu" Volume 49) Without a deep understanding and mastery, it is fundamental to seek a new edition ingeniously like this impossible.The title of each event in the book can summarize the main idea of ​​the whole article, be concise and to the point, and contain praise and criticism, so as to further refine and deepen the theme of the book.

The general situation of the chapters and titles of "Tongjian Jishi Benmo" is as follows: Warring States and Qin are divided into three chapters: "Three Families Divide Jin", "Qin Merges Six Kingdoms", and "Heroes Destroy Qin". There are 43 items from Chu to "Yuan Shao Begging Gongsun". During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, it is divided into 62 items including "Cao's Usurping Han" to "Wei Mieqiuchi". In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it was divided into 65 items, including "Sui Yi Prince" to "Zhu Wen Qu Ziqing", and in the Five Dynasties period, it was divided into 23 items, including "Zhu Wen Umpered Tang" to "Sejong Zheng Huainan".

Yuan Shu's adaptation of the novel is a very important invention with historical significance.Due to his contribution, a new genre was added to the traditional history books: the chronicle.The main advantage of the chronicle is that it is centered on the event, the title is clear, and then a systematic narrative is made, the content is concentrated, and it is concise.The ins and outs of an event, the cause and effect, the beginning and the end, through this kind of narrative, can make people understand at a glance.It can not only avoid the repetition and contradiction of biographical history books, but also avoid the fragmentation and fragmentation of chronicle history books.This genre of history books is easy to read and remember, which is very convenient for beginners.However, because it is based on facts, it can only extract some aspects of the whole history to make a systematic description, and cannot give a comprehensive and detailed reflection of the whole picture and all aspects of the whole history. Therefore, in terms of preserving historical materials, In terms of comprehensively reflecting the richness of historical development, it is not as large and comprehensive as biography and chronicle.The three basic genres of history books can be said to have their own advantages and disadvantages, and no one can replace the other.

Since "Tongjian Chronicle" is completely copied and compiled from Sima Guang's book, and the materials are more concentrated according to the facts, so all the problems of historical viewpoints are more exposed in "Tongjian Chronicle". Concentrate more prominently.For example, Han chauvinism, hostility to peasant uprisings, promotion of feudal principles, constant and famous teachings, etc.Due to the limitation of style, "Tongjian Chronicle" discarded many historical materials that could not be included in certain items. Therefore, the defects of "Tongjian" that were detailed in politics and military affairs, and slightly in economics and culture were also more prominent. up.