What's the difference between Old Tang Shu and New Tang Shu? What's the difference in emphasis?
The Book of the New Tang Dynasty was named to distinguish it from the Book of the Old Tang Dynasty. People in the Northern Song Dynasty believed that the Book of the New Tang Dynasty was better than the Book of the Old Tang Dynasty. They severely criticized "Old Book of Tang Dynasty" for its "lack of details, unclear literary talent and scattered facts", and thought that "New Book of Tang Dynasty" was perfect in style, tailoring and literary talent. After the New Book of Tang Dynasty was completed, Ceng Gongliang, its editor-in-chief, once appeared on the emperor's list, and said proudly, "The matter is increased before, and the text is saved", which is considered to be a great advantage over the Old Book of Tang Dynasty.
Indeed, the Book of the New Tang Dynasty is better than the Book of the Old Tang Dynasty in literary talent and compilation. Because: First, its main authors, Song Qi and Ouyang Xiu, were literary scholars and famous writers in the Northern Song Dynasty. Song Qi and his brother, Song Yao, were known as the "Second Song Dynasty" at that time. The Song people's "Dong Xuan Record" said that Song Qi was "knowledgeable and talented"; Ouyang Xiu was one of the eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties, and prose was his specialty. Of course, their kung fu is different. Other authors who participated in the compilation of the Book of the New Tang Dynasty were also famous masters in the Northern Song Dynasty. Fan Zhen, Wang Chou, Song Minqiu and Liu Xizuo listed in Ceng Gongliang's Book of Entering the New Tang Dynasty during the Jiayou period in Song Renzong were all famous figures in the literary world at that time. Fan Zhen used to be a bachelor of Hanlin, and his writing is fluent. There are more than 1 volumes such as "Dongzhai Chronicle" circulating in the world. Wang Chou's words are strict and beautiful, which has always been known to the world. Song Minqiu, a well-known anecdote of the Northern Song Dynasty, is rich in books. He has compiled the Collection of Imperial edicts of the Tang Dynasty and the Annals of Chang 'an, and is very familiar with Tang Shi. Liu Xicuo was a famous astronomer, and later helped Sima Guang compile Zi Zhi Tong Jian. The book of New Tang Dynasty was written by these people, which was naturally brilliant and rigorous in style. On the other hand, Song, Ou and others took a serious attitude when compiling the Book of the New Tang Dynasty. Ouyang Xiu was responsible for the biographical, annals and tables, and wrote for six or seven years. Song Qi's biographies are longer, lasting more than ten years. At one time, he was the prefect of Bozhou, and he carried this manuscript with him "inside and outside". When I was a magistrate in Chengdu, after dinner every day, I opened the door and lit candles, almost all of them worked late into the night. This serious and cautious attitude makes the New Book of Tang Dynasty really better than the Old Book of Tang Dynasty in many aspects. Due to the hasty writing time, some traces of the national history copied from the Tang Dynasty have not been erased, and there are many words such as "Datang", "Benchao" and "Jinshang". Song Qi and others cut these neither fish nor fowl words when they were newly renovated. The New Tang Book is much more complete and rigorous than the Old Tang Book in style, brushwork and style. In addition, The Book of the New Tang Dynasty has also summarized the titles of biographies, such as merging the minority officials and generals in the Tang Dynasty into the biography of the generals in various foreign countries; Put the separatist provinces together to write and so on. In this way, it makes the eyebrows clearer. These are the advantages of new books over old books in terms of writing and editing.
second, in terms of historical materials, because the Northern Song Dynasty was peaceful, many historical materials that were difficult to collect during the war were collected and sorted out in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty. According to experts' estimation, Sima Guang referred to as many as 3 kinds of historical materials when compiling Zi Zhi Tong Jian, and the compilation of New Tang Shu was similar to that of Tong Jian. What Sima Guang saw was bound to be seen by Song Dynasty and Europe. For example, the Biography of Li Ji, which was added to the Book of the New Tang Dynasty, records the attitude of the struggle after the establishment of the armed forces, and records Fang Xuanling's theory on the difficulty of holding on, which is beyond the reach of the Book of the Old Tang Dynasty and other books. Other materials, such as wasteland reclamation, Hehuo, mining and metallurgy in the Tang Dynasty, have been added to the Records of Foodstuffs in the New Tang Book. Geographical Records records the irrigation situation of various rivers, canals and weirs and the local products of various States, which are also rare and precious historical materials in his books. Ouyang Xiu was also a great master of epigraphy at that time. He had a good knowledge of ancient epigraphy. He once wrote Jigulu, and used the records of gold stone carvings to research historical facts. The most famous example is that he used Kong Yingda's inscription to verify the fact that this outstanding scholar in the early Tang Dynasty was a historian. All these make the New Tang Book slightly better than the Old Tang Book in some historical textual research.
third, the book of the new Tang dynasty wrote the annals of the army and the annals of the election for the first time, systematically discussing the military system and imperial examination system of the government and soldiers in the Tang dynasty. This is a great creation of official history books in China, which was followed by the later History of Song Dynasty and preserved many valuable historical materials of China's military system and employment system. The tables of prime ministers and towns in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty also provide readers with a clue to understand the rise and fall of the prime ministers' clan (aristocratic family) and the rise and fall of the forces of the vassal regions in the Tang Dynasty. Wang Mingsheng, a famous historian, said in A Discussion on the Seventeen Histories: "The best new book is the ambition and expression". This is a fair evaluation. From Sima Qian's creation of discipline, expression, ambition and biography of history books, from the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the Five Dynasties, the compilation of history records and the omission of expression were restored to the integrity of this style in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty. In the future, the history books of the dynasties will follow this system. This is also a great contribution of New Tang Book in the history of Chinese historiography.
Why is it called the draft of Qing history? It is because this book has not been finished yet, and the Northern Expedition Army has come. Only the old men of the Qing Dynasty threw him out. What is in the draft stage is naturally not included in the 25 th history.