Among the twenty-four histories, there are two records of the history of the Tang Dynasty. According to the order of completion of the two books, they are called Old Tang Book and New Tang Book respectively.
The Book of Old Tang Dynasty is an official history book in the late Jin Dynasty of the Five Dynasties, which was then called the Book of Rites. In the Song Dynasty, because Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi edited the Book of the Tang Dynasty, there was a distinction between the old and the new, calling the former the Old Book of the Tang Dynasty and the latter the New Book of the Tang Dynasty. The Book of Old Tang Dynasty consists of three parts: discipline, biography and system, with a total of 200 volumes. As early as the Liang and Tang Dynasties, the preparatory work for collecting materials and compiling Tang Shi had already begun. The official compilation of Old Tang Shu began in the sixth year of the Late Jin Dynasty (94 1) and was completed in the second year of Emperor Li (945), which lasted more than four years. At first, Prime Minister Zhao Ying supervised and presided over this work. He has done a lot of work in organizing personnel, collecting historical materials and determining the style. Sang and Liu Shao, later prime ministers, also served as supervisors. Nine people, including Zhang Zhaoyuan, Wei Jia and Zhao Xi, participated in the specific compilation work. When the book was finally completed, it happened that Liu Shao was appointed as the producer and he led the performance, so the Book of the Old Tang Dynasty was written by Liu Shao and others.
The remarkable feature of Old Tang Book is that the details of annotations are different before and after, and the style of writing is also very different, which is determined by the characteristics of the times at that time.
The compilation of the Book of the Old Tang Dynasty is very close to the demise of the Tang Dynasty, so a large number of historical materials can be directly used, especially in the early Tang Dynasty. However, at that time, it was the age of separatist disputes, and the Book of the Old Tang Dynasty was hastily compiled in a very short time. Therefore, the writings of historians in the Tang Dynasty are more copied than processed, lacking the necessary cutting, sorting and generalization.
With regard to the history of the early Tang Dynasty, Jason Wu, Yu Xiulie and Jiao et al. compiled 130 volume "The Book of the Tang Dynasty" and the history books of the dynasties up to Tang Wenzong recorded the historical events from the early Tang Dynasty to the present. There are not many historical materials in the late Tang Dynasty, only 1 volume "Records of Wu Zong" and other fragmentary materials. Old Tang Shi mainly copied the historical materials of the Tang Dynasty into books, so the later period was not as good as before. Biographies after Mu Zong are rather complicated. The records of Li Zhi and Jing Ji Zhi only reached Xuanzong era, but there are many omissions in the biographies of the late Tang Dynasty. In addition, there are phenomena such as one person's second biography and repetition of the same text. The old Tang books are relatively rough. Although they have the above defects, they also have undeniable value. 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. For example, the record of the political reform measures of the group during the reign of Wang is more specific. Although the Chronicle after Tang Muzong Chronicle is complex in content, it also records many precious historical materials, such as Chronicle of Zong Yi and Chronicle of Xuanzong, which have detailed records of Chongxun Uprising and Huang Chao Uprising. Chronicle of Zhao Zonghe and Eddie recorded in detail the vassal regime and eunuch's authoritarian power in the late Tang Dynasty. Due to the detailed chronology of Old Tang Shu, Sima Guang generally adopted Old Tang Shu in the Ji Tang part of Zi Tong Zhi Jian.
Old Tang books also preserved many precious items. For example, Biography of Lv Cai and Biography of Lu Zang-fei published two important articles against superstition respectively; Jia Dan Biography published a geographical catalogue compiled by him. These are important documents in the history of China's thoughts and geography.
The Book of the Old Tang Dynasty records the situation of ethnic minorities and foreign countries in the Tang Dynasty, transcending the previous history and preserving the historical materials of ethnic policies and foreign relations in the Tang Dynasty.
The guiding principle of the compilation of the Book of Old Tang Dynasty is "to be based on the old chapters", that is, to be faithful to the original materials left over by the Tang Dynasty and to record the historical facts completely in line with people's ideological understanding at that time, so as to truly reflect the ideological understanding and the style of the times in different periods of the Tang Dynasty.
Because of these advantages, the old Tang books have an irreplaceable position. Although the New Tang Book has made some supplements in historical materials, especially in records, tables and biographies of the late Tang Dynasty, the New Tang Book is intended to overcome the shortcomings of the Old Tang Book, so the text annotations are too brief for readers to understand the specific situation. The New Book of Tang Dynasty also deleted and revised a large number of articles preserved in the Old Book of Tang Dynasty, thus changing the true colors of historical documents. In contrast, the Book of the New Tang Dynasty cannot replace the Book of the Old Tang Dynasty in preserving historical materials. After The New Book of Tang Dynasty was written, The Old Book of Tang Dynasty was no longer handed down from generation to generation. It was not until the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty that it was republished and republished that it became popular all over the world. It was not until the compilation of Sikuquanshu in Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty that the new and old Tang books were officially included in the official history.
A century after the Book of the Old Tang Dynasty was written, another Tang Shi, the Book of the New Tang Dynasty, was built during the reign of Renzong in the Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, the purpose of editing was to draw lessons from the rise and fall of the Tang Dynasty. First, in order to praise and criticize the good and evil of loyalty and treachery through the revision of history, because the old books of the Tang Dynasty "praised or devalued or followed the new" and treated the problems of loyalty and treachery, rebellion and so on with the ideological understanding of the Five Dynasties, which was unacceptable to Confucianism in the Song Dynasty. The Book of New Tang Dynasty was compiled by Ouyang Xiu, Song Qi, Fan Zhen and Lu. The book consists of 225 volumes, which consists of four parts: Ji, Zhi, Biao and Chuan. In the fifth year of Li Qing (1045), Song Renzong wrote to start the revision of the Book of the Tang Dynasty, which was finally completed in the fifth year of Jiayou (1060).
Generally speaking, biographies are mainly written by Song Qi, and records and forms are written by Fan Zhen and Lu respectively. Finally, it was completed under the auspices of Ouyang Xiu. The 10 volume, praise, record, preface, selection and micro-record are all written by Ouyang Xiu. Because biographies were written by Song Qi, Ouyang Xiu only presided over the compilation of records and tables. Out of humility, Ouyang Xiu thought that Song Qi was a senior, so he did not unify biographies written by Song Qi from the perspective of the whole book. Therefore, the Book of the New Tang Dynasty has the disadvantages of contradictory annotations and different styles.
In addition to the old books of the Tang Dynasty, New Books of the Tang Dynasty also contain historical materials, as well as some re-collected documents and inscriptions. Song Qi used many novels, notes, biographies, epitaphs, genealogy, unofficial history and other materials to write biographies of people in the late Tang Dynasty. At the same time, there are many biographies of late Tang people. The New Book of Tang Dynasty has more and more detailed records about the races and tribes of ethnic minorities than the Old Book of Tang Dynasty. It is one of its main achievements that the historical sources of New Tang Shu are more than those of Old Tang Shu. In addition, the contents recorded in it are much richer in Bitang's old books, and many records also correct the mistakes of old books.
Compared with the old books of the Tang Dynasty, New Books of the Tang Dynasty also has its own characteristics in compiling style due to different times. Because the Song Dynasty generally inherited the system of the Tang Dynasty, in order to summarize the system of the Tang Dynasty for the reference of the Song Dynasty, the New Book of the Tang Dynasty paid special attention to chronology, adding Yi Wei Zhi, Selected Records and Military Records, which were not available in the old books of the Tang Dynasty. Among them, Bing Zhi is the first book of the New Tang Dynasty. "Selected Records" and "Military Records" systematically sorted out the evolution data of the imperial examination system and military system in the Tang Dynasty. The Shihuozhi has increased to five volumes, which is not only larger than the Old Tang Book, but also systematically and methodically preserves a large number of social and economic history materials. Geographical Records focuses on the geographical evolution of the Tang Dynasty, and records the establishment of military houses, the distribution of property, the rise and fall of water conservancy and so on. , and added a lot of materials that were not available in the geography of the old Tang Dynasty. Tian Wenzhi and Li Zhi are more than three times longer than Old Tang Shu, and they record seven popular calendars in Tang Dynasty, especially Li Yi, which occupies an important position in history and reflects the level and development height of calendar theory in Tang Dynasty. Yiwenzhi is much more than Jiutangshu Jingjizhi, especially the works of Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty after Kaiyuan. For example, some works by Li Bai and Liu Zongyuan were not included in Old Tang Shu. New books in the Tang Dynasty also restored the tradition of building watches. After Historical Records created tabular form, only Han Shu written by Ban Gu had tabular form. The Book of the New Tang Dynasty established the Prime Minister's Table, the Square Town's Table, the Imperial Clan's Pedigree Table and the Prime Minister's Pedigree Table, which made up for the lack of biographical style and had a great influence on the compilation and revision of historical books in the future. A major feature of the writing style of New Tang Book is that it imitates the writing style of Spring and Autumn Annals and uses different words to praise and criticize, which is not conducive to faithfully recording history.
Generally speaking, the old and new Tang books have their own advantages and disadvantages. For thousands of years, people have different opinions on these two books. As far as the historical value is concerned, these two books are important documents for studying the history of the Tang Dynasty.
The Difference between the Book of New Tang Dynasty and the Book of Old Tang Dynasty
1, different authors: The Book of the New Tang Dynasty is a biographical history book written by Song Qi and Ouyang Xiu; The Book of Old Tang Dynasty was edited by Zhao Ying.
2. Different time: The Book of the Old Tang Dynasty was written in the last two years of Jin Dynasty; The Book of the New Tang Dynasty was written in Jiayou, Song Renzong for five years.
3. Different volumes: **200 volumes of Old Tang Book; The Book of the New Tang Dynasty consists of 225 volumes. Wait a minute.
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, and the later Book of the Song Dynasty has been used all the time. 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. The Book of Old Tang Dynasty 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. Compared with other official history of the same kind, its weight is much larger, the historical facts are more reliable, and the annotations are more detailed, which is convenient for readers to understand the process and specific situation of historical events, so it is 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.
6. Different emphases: The Book of the Old Tang Dynasty focuses on the preservation of 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.