1, the time is different from that of the author.
The Book of Old Tang Dynasty was written in the second year of the Late Jin Dynasty (945). The Book of the New Tang Dynasty was written in the fifth year of Song Renzong Jiayou (A.D. 1060).
The Book of Old Tang Dynasty was written by Liu Shao and Zhang Zhaoyuan of Jin Dynasty after the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. The Book of the New Tang Dynasty was written by Song Qi Ouyang Xiu and others in the Northern Song Dynasty, and was completed by Song Renzong Jiayou in five years.
3. The number of volumes is different
There are 200 volumes of old Tang books, including 20 biographies, 30 memoirs and 150 biographies.
The Book of the New Tang Dynasty has 225 volumes, including 10, 50, 15 and 150.
4. Different contents
It is the first time in the official history to add military records, election records and ritual records to the Book of the New Tang Dynasty. Since the Book of the Song Dynasty, other histories have followed suit. Military annals briefly recorded the military system and its changes in the Tang Dynasty. The election records mainly record the sources of officials in the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examinations in schools, the selection and assessment of officials, and so on.
The compilation of Old Tang Shu is rough, but it preserves a lot of original historical materials. Because there is no printed book for a long time, there are many defects and differences in the book.
5. Different meanings
Old Tang Shu has a unique writing style in faithfully preserving very detailed historical materials. The history of the relationship between the Tang Dynasty and its neighbors Japan, Korea and India is also recorded in detail.
Its weight is much more than other similar official histories, and the historical facts are more reliable. It has kept a wealth of historical materials and recorded them in detail, which is convenient for readers to understand the process and specific situation of historical events, so it has always been valued.
The Book of the New Tang Dynasty is a great pioneering work of the official history genre history books in China, which was later succeeded by the History of the Song Dynasty. From Sima Qian's creation of discipline, expressiveness, ambition and biographical history books to Wei, Jin and Five Dynasties, the compilation of history books and the omission of expressiveness restored the integrity of this style in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty. This system will be used in the history books of past dynasties.
The difference in emphasis lies in:
The Book of the Old Tang Dynasty preserves the first-hand historical materials of the Tang Dynasty with detailed records, which is convenient for readers to understand the process and specific situation of historical events.
The New Book of the Tang Dynasty, which studies the Spring and Autumn Annals, emphasizes the simplification of the books, and the number of words is less than one third of that of the Old Book of the Tang Dynasty, but it adds Yi Wei Zhi, Selected Records and Military Records, which are not available in the Old Book of the Tang Dynasty. This paper systematically discusses the military system and imperial examination system in the Tang Dynasty, and preserves many precious historical materials of China's military system and employment system.
Extended data:
The Book of the Old Tang Dynasty has only been circulated for about a hundred years, and it has already been doomed. Starting from the Qing Dynasty in Song Renzong, the court in the Northern Song Dynasty thought that the old books of the Tang Dynasty were miscellaneous but not refined, and ordered Song Qi and Ouyang Xiu to compile the Books of the Tang Dynasty.
This Tang book was written in 1060 (the fifth year of Jiayou) and began to "divide books into the world". Since then, the Book of the Tang Dynasty compiled by Liu Yong has stopped circulating.
Until the 17th year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1538), Wen Renquan, a native of Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, borrowed the Book of the Old Tang Dynasty collected by Suzhou natives, and asked Shentong, the instructor of Fu Xue in Suzhou, to proofread and print the manuscript in Fu Xue, Suzhou (Wen Renquan left Suzhou in the middle of his work, but the matter continued with the support of many parties). Liu Shaotang has experienced a bumpy fate for 478 years.
In order to distinguish these two kinds of Tang books, later generations named Liu Shao as the old Tang book, and later Tang books such as Song Qi as the new Tang book. After the publication of New Book of Tang Dynasty, Old Book of Tang Dynasty was almost abandoned by people for a long time.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Old Tang Books
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-New Tang Book