First, the general history works have achieved remarkable results.
There are many historical works in Song Dynasty, and the compilation and revision of large-scale general history have made remarkable achievements. Important large-scale general history works include Zi Tong Zhi Jian and Tong Zhi.
Zi Tong Zhi Jian is the first existing chronological general history in China, which was compiled by Sima Guang, a famous historian in the Northern Song Dynasty. Sima Guang co-wrote this book with famous historians Fan Zuyu and Liu Shu at that time, which lasted 19 years. The book ***294 volumes, from the 23rd year of Zhou Weilie to the 6th year of Xiande, records the history from the Warring States to the Five Dynasties 1362.
Zi Tong Zhi Jian is rich in information and detailed in textual research. There are 322 kinds of miscellaneous history besides the official history. One thing is often compiled with three or four kinds of materials, which keeps a lot of historical materials, which is more true than many official histories. Sima Guang wrote this book with the aim of "focusing on the rise and fall of the country, sharing weal and woe with the people, taking law as good and taking evil as a warning". Therefore, this book records the success or failure of the past dynasties in a large space, and pays little attention to other aspects.
Tongzhi is the representative work of Zheng Qiao, a historian of the Southern Song Dynasty, with a total of 200 volumes. The greatest contribution of this book is twenty chapters, which is the essence of the book. Twenty Articles summarizes all aspects of ancient culture and reflects Zheng Qiao's original spirit and magnificent spirit in cultural history. Among them, clan, six books, seven tunes, cities, insects and plants are all omitted from the old history. Six books tell words and seven sounds, which was initiated by Zheng Qiao.
Zi Zhi Tong Jian is the first historical work in China, which was compiled by Yuan Shu, a historian in the Southern Song Dynasty, and opened up a new way of historiography. Before the Song Dynasty, China's historical records were nothing more than chronicles and biographies. Chronological style takes the year as the classics, "it is difficult to remember the ending after several volumes", and biographical style is mainly people, "it is difficult to distinguish the subject and object after seeing several articles", which brings inconvenience to readers. In view of this, Yuan Shu adapted Zi Tongzhi Jian, which was divided into 293 items, one for each event, hence the name Chronicle.
Zi Jian Jian Jian, called Jian Jian Jian by Zhu. Zhu simplified the contents of Zi Tong Zhi Jian and compiled it into a compendium. The outline is a summary, imitating Spring and Autumn Annals, written by Zhu; The purpose is to narrate and imitate Zuo Zhuan, written by disciple Zhao Shiyuan. Its original intention is to use the brushwork of Spring and Autumn Annals to "distinguish between names and meanings, and be right and right". Although the historical value of this book is not high, it creates an outline genre and has a great influence on the compilation of historical books.
Second, the compilation of contemporary history has made remarkable achievements.
The Song government set up special historians to compile historical books, national history, conferences and other books, all of which were more detailed than the previous generation. The Collection of Books in Song Dynasty was compiled by Yongle Dadian in Qing Dynasty, with an original volume of over 2,200 volumes. There are 500 volumes in this edition, of which 78% historical materials can't be found in the History of Song Dynasty. It is an important reference book for studying the evolution of political, economic, cultural and military systems in the Song Dynasty. It is the first time in history that the Song government set up a meeting to compile and revise this meeting.
There are countless contemporary histories written by historians of the Song Dynasty, among which the following are the most prominent. Li Dao's "Long Compilation of Continuing the History as a Mirror" is a special account of the historical events in the Northern Song Dynasty and the Nine Dynasties. The original book has been lost, and the existing Qing dynasty book. Director Li spent forty years writing this book. This paper makes a detailed textual research and attaches similarities and differences to the text, and its style is copied from Tongzhi Bamboo Slips. Ye Shi, a thinker in the Southern Song Dynasty, called it the first historical masterpiece written by contemporary people after the Spring and Autumn Annals. Li Xinchuan's Chronicle of Yan Jian is a special study on the history of Song Gaozong. This book is a continuation of Li Dao's "long edition". The original book has been lost, and the existing series. Li Xinchuan is also the author of Miscellaneous Notes on the Ruling and Opposition since the Proposal, which specifically records the laws and regulations in the early Southern Song Dynasty. It is called Miscellaneous Notes, which has the same style as Hui and has high historical value. Xu's Annals of the Three Dynasties to the North recorded the wars and relations between Qin Zong and Jin. The book extensively collected the official and folk comments and accounts about the relationship between Song and Jin at that time, and arranged them by year, month and day. A large part of the historical materials come from the personal records of the witnesses and the parties, so that the original text can be recorded, so that it can "see right and wrong and coexist with differences". There are many records about the politics, economy, military affairs, culture and even customs of Jurchen.
Third, local chronicles and books.
In the Song Dynasty, a large number of local chronicles appeared, and the compilation style was gradually improved, including mountains and rivers, territory, places of interest, officials, compilation, taxation, property, villages, figures, inscriptions, literature and art, disasters and so on. Famous local chronicles include Wu Junzhi, Changle Zhi, Xin 'an Zhi, Jielu and Lin. Chinese Dream in Tokyo, Old Stories in Wulin and Dream of Liang are also valuable works of local history. National records include Taiping Yuhuan Ji, Yuanfeng Jiu Yu Zhi, Yu Di Ji Sheng and so on.
Class books are classified encyclopedias in ancient China. Their value mainly lies in retaining a large number of lost ancient books, which provides favorable conditions for future generations to compile and sort out ancient books.
The important books compiled in the Northern Song Dynasty include Taiping Yulan, Taiping Guangji, Cifu Yuangui and Wenyuan Huaying, which are collectively called four categories of books, among which Taiping Yulan and Cifu Yuangui have the highest historical value. Taiping Yu Lan is divided into 55 parts, 4558 categories, with a volume of *** 1000, and 2579 kinds of books are cited. At present, only 23 of the ten kinds are left. Therefore, since the Qing Dynasty, compilers and collators have attached great importance to Taiping Yu Lan.
Fourthly, the achievement of epigraphy.
Epigraphy is a new historical field opened up by scholars in Song Dynasty. The main epigraphy works are Records of Jigu by Ouyang Xiu in Northern Song Dynasty, Archaeological Map by Lu Dalin, Map of Xuanhe and Bo Gu by Wang Fu, and Epitaph and Postscript by Huang. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were Zhao Mingcheng's Jin Shilu, Hong Zun's Quan Zhi and Shi Hong's Shili. These provide new materials for the revision of history books.
Behind such a great achievement is the social atmosphere of attaching importance to culture in the Song Dynasty, the strong support of the state for cultural undertakings and the strong support of developed material conditions, which may have some enlightenment for the development of cultural undertakings today.