Family of Ten Kingdoms is the one with the most new historical materials in the history of the New Five Dynasties. Biographies have also been supplemented. Ouyang Xiu used new materials and materials in his notes and novels to supplement the facts and make the stories of characters more vivid and rich. There are also new additions to the description of ethnic minorities. For example, according to Hu Jiao's "Trapped in the Land", describe personal experience in Qidan. The Record of Khotan describes the mountains, rivers and customs of countries along the way that Gao Ruhui saw when he was in Khotan. Ouyang Xiu recorded the main contents of Four Chapters of Qin Jingtian written by Wang Bi, an astronomer in the later Zhou Dynasty. Because this part of the history of the Old Five Dynasties is incomplete, Ouyang Xiu's record has made an important contribution to the history of astronomy in China.
In addition, Ouyang Xiu made a detailed textual research on the historical materials used, and corrected many mistakes in the history books such as The History of the Old Five Dynasties. Because the old history of the Five Dynasties is not primitive and incomplete, the unique value of the new history of the Five Dynasties cannot be underestimated. From other angles, Ouyang's writing history is seamless, well-structured, well-selected and concise; Ideologically, unlike the old history, it does not exaggerate the "destiny" and pay attention to personnel; The "professional examination" was created in the form of a table, which clearly showed the abandonment of the examination in more than 290 counties. It is unique, concise, beautiful and highly respected, which are its strengths.
Generally speaking, the two histories of the Five Dynasties have their own advantages and disadvantages. The existing book History of the Old Five Dynasties is more than twice that of the New Five Dynasties. There are more than 460 biographies of old history and only 256 biographies of new history. Old history 10, only 2 new history. The New History Family 10 volume gives a complete account of the history of the Ten Kingdoms. There are also more words in biographies of individual characters than in old history. These two historical books are important materials for studying the history of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.
The New History of the Five Dynasties imitates the brushwork of the Spring and Autumn Annals, and uses different words to express its profound meaning. Personal likes and dislikes often affect the description of historical facts, and finally lead to criticism from future generations. However, Ouyang Xiu was a famous literary master in the Song Dynasty, the leader and master of the ancient prose movement, so the New History of the Five Dynasties was concise and vivid. At that time, people thought that its brushwork was comparable to historical records. The excellent writing style of the New History of the Five Dynasties is really rare in the twenty-four histories.
After the publication of the History of the New Five Dynasties, there was Xu Wudang's Note. However, Xu's annotation aims at explaining the brushwork and general idea of Chunqiu, which is of little benefit to readers. In the seventh year of Jin Zhangzong Taihe (1207), the book was officially published by scholars and became popular in the world.
Textual research on the New History of the Five Dynasties mainly includes: Song Wuzhen wrote three volumes of Compilation Errors of the History of the Five Dynasties, specially selected from the History of the Five Dynasties as one volume; In the Qing Dynasty, Wu Lanting compiled the History of the Five Dynasties in six volumes, mainly to supplement Zhen Wu's mistakes in compiling, with a total of 309 events; In the Qing Dynasty, there were four volumes of Yang Lurong's Doubts about the History of the Five Dynasties, Du Guiyong's Notes on the History of the Five Dynasties, and Niu Kun's Supplement to the History of the Five Dynasties (supplementing the biographies of 93 people).
In addition, there are many gaps in the two History of the Five Dynasties, and there are four supplementary works in the Qing Dynasty: Chronology of the History of the Five Dynasties by Zhou Jiayou, Geographical Examination of the Five Dynasties in Chen Shu, Supplement to the History of the Five Dynasties by Gu Huaisan and Song Zujun.
Scholars such as Gu and Qian Daxin criticized The History of the New Five Dynasties, arguing that Ouyang Yong was pedantic and wrote history books without paying attention to the discussion of historical facts. He has a glib tongue, which makes him boring to read. Zhang Xuecheng sneered, "It's just a bunch of sadness. How can we call it a historical talent?
Song people also criticized Ouyang Yong's historiography. Liu Chang's words "Good Europa, big articles, but unfortunately not good at reading" are quoted in Song Li's banknotes, and Wang Anshi's words "Europa doesn't learn" are also quoted in Xiangxi Fishing and Conceiving Conghua. One day, I asked Jiao, a disciple of Ou, whether the New History of the Five Dynasties was a biography of Han Tong. Jiao said no and said with a smile, "So, it's also a second-class ear."
However, Wang Mingsheng spoke highly of the History of the New Five Dynasties: "In the Five Dynasties, Liang was the smallest, the difference between Jin and Han was the biggest, Zhou was the biggest, and Tang was the biggest ... It goes without saying that the vocational examinations in Europe are all around. Although this test is simple, concise and eye-catching, it is beyond Xue Shi's reach. " . Zhao Yi also said that "the quantity reduction is less than half that of Shi Xue, but the revision is twice the result with half the effort".
Zhang Taiyan commented on the New History of the Five Dynasties: "Ouyang Yong wrote the History of the Five Dynasties and boasted the Spring and Autumn Annals. In the Tang Dynasty, Qidan made great achievements and was laughed at by everyone. This study of Chunqiu is also wrong. The calligraphy of Spring and Autumn Annals is not learned. As the saying goes, "Ren Wei made gold", and gold is the name. Today, the gold established by Qidan is a country name, not a name. Isn't the master ugly? " Therefore, the new history of the Five Dynasties is good at literary value and cannot replace the old history of the Five Dynasties, which is mainly based on historical materials.
At that time, Zhen Wu, a scholar, wrote three volumes of Errors in the History of the Five Dynasties, which was a monograph to correct the fallacies of the New History of the Five Dynasties. In Qing Dynasty, Wu Lanting wrote six volumes of Compilation of the History of the Five Dynasties, which is the continuation of Zhen Wu's Compilation of Errors. Both Peng and Liu have Notes on the History of the Five Dynasties.