Book of Wei
"Book of Wei" has one hundred and twenty-four volumes, including twelve volumes of chronicles, ninety-two volumes of biographies, and twenty volumes of chronicles. Because some chronicles, biographies and chronicles are too long, they are divided into three volumes: upper and lower, or upper, middle and lower volumes, totaling 130 volumes in total. Compiled by Northern Qi Dynasty and Wei Dynasty.
As early as Tuoba Gui established the Northern Wei regime, Deng Yuan had written more than ten volumes of chronicles. Later, Cui Hao, Gao Yun and others continued to write the history of Wei, all using the chronological style. In the eleventh year of Taihe (487 AD), Li Biao participated in the compilation of history, which was changed to a chronicle and biography style, and was probably compiled until the reign of Tuoba Hong. Later, Xing Luan, Cui Hong and others successively compiled notes on daily life in the three dynasties of Gaozu (Yuanhong), Shizong (Yuanke), and Suzong (Yuanxu). The original chronicles of the Northern Wei Dynasty, such as "Dai Ji" written by Deng Yuan and "Guo Shu" written by Cui Hao, as well as biographical history books revised by Li Biao and Cui Guang, were used by the Wei Dynasty to collect materials, but they are all lost today. The works of the Southern Dynasty, such as Shen Yue's "Book of Song", can also be found in Wei Shuodang. In the second year of Tianbao (551), he was ordered to write a history of Wei, which was completed in five years (554). Although Gao Long was appointed as the director, Fang Yanyou and six other people assisted in the deliberation, Wei Shou was mainly responsible for writing.
Before Wei Shou and his contemporaries, Wei Shou and his contemporaries had compiled Wei history and other materials. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, some people also wrote several other Wei books, but these books have not been handed down. Li Yanshou's Northern History of the Tang Dynasty, of which the Northern Wei part is basically an excerpt from the Book of Wei. Therefore, Wei Shu is the most original and relatively complete source of existing information describing the history of the Northern Wei Dynasty.
Wei Shou (505-572), courtesy name Boqi, was born in Quyang, Juluxiaxia, Northern Qi Dynasty (today’s west of Jin County, Hebei Province). He served in the Northern Wei, Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties. At the age of 15, he was already capable of writing and showed his talent. After becoming an official, he served as a doctor of Taixue and other positions. At the age of 26, he moved to Sanqi Shilang, wrote annotations on daily life, compiled national history, and served as Zhongshu Shilang. In the Eastern Wei Dynasty, he was an official, secretary, supervisor, and writer, and Dingzhou Dazhongzheng. Entering the Northern Qi Dynasty, he served as Zhongshu Ling and Zuo Lang. In the second year of Tianbao in the Northern Qi Dynasty (551), he was officially ordered to write the history of Wei. It has been twenty years since he began to work on the history of Wei. At that time, Emperor Wenxuan Gao Yang said to him: "What a straightforward statement. I will never be the official historian of Wei Taiwu." Gao Yang was not a very good person in history, but it was rare for him to say such a thing. Wei Shou wrote the "Book of Wei", and there are not many documents that can be directly inherited and used for reference. According to him, the main references include Deng Yuan's more than ten volumes of "Dai Ji", Cui Hao's chronological "Guo Shu" (also known as "Guo Ji"), and Li Biao's adaptation of the chronological style into Ji, Biao, Chronicles, biographies, comprehensive national history, etc., but these are not complete finished products; then there are "Daily Notes" written by Xing Luan, Cui Hong, Wang Zunye and others for the three dynasties following Emperor Xiaowen and "Bian Zongshi Lu" written by Yuan Huiye; the rest are from that time You can also see related music discs and family biographies. Wei Shou, together with Fang Yanyou, Xin Yuanzhi, Diao Rou, Pei Angzhi, Gao Xiaoqian and other "boss generals", took just over three years to write the "Book of Wei" in 130 chapters: Emperor Chronicles in 14 chapters. There are ninety-six biographies and twenty chronicles. Wei Shou considered it a grand event to "conquer a generation".
Unexpectedly, the compilation of "Book of Wei" caused an uproar among the ruling group of Northern Qi. Some people say that "The Book of Wei" "left behind his family background and position"; some say, "There is no record of his family"; others say that the records in the "Book of Wei" are "exaggerated and false", etc., which caused a "group of mouths" for a while. boiling". This turmoil had a great impact on the time and later generations. First, the Northern Qi emperors Gao Yang, Gao Yan, and Gao Zhan all intervened in the matter one after another; second, in more than ten years, Wei Shou was ordered to write the "Book of Wei" twice. The third reason is that "Book of Wei" has been called "dirty history" by some people because of "public opinion". This last one has had an impact to this day.
Wei Shou was a major writer between the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi. "Since the second year of Wuding (544), all the edicts and orders on major national affairs and military and state literature have been collected" (the original biography of "Book of Northern Qi"). He is younger than Wen Zi□ and Xing Shao, but his literary reputation is as good as that of the "Three Talents" in the world. After Wen Zi's death, he and Xing Shao were the leaders of the two major literary factions in the Northern Qi Dynasty. "Xing admired Ren Yue but ignored Ren, while Wei admired Ren and broke Shen Yue." "Each was a partisan" and ridiculed each other. At that time, Renzu commented: "The right and wrong of Ren and Shen are the advantages and disadvantages of Xing and Wei." (Yan Zhitui's "Yan Family Instructions Article") is generally accurate.
How do you view the turmoil caused by "Book of Wei" from today's perspective? At least two points are worth noting. First, in an era when powerful landlords were in a dominant position, the historical status of the dead was directly related to the real interests of the living, which was more prominent than in any other period of feudal society. Only in this way can wealthy landowners be so sensitive and concerned about their family background, county titles, and ancestors' positions. The turmoil in the "Book of Wei" is just a prominent example of the direct interference of wealthy landowners in the compilation of history books during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Second, people at the time used the "Book of Wei" as an excuse for some "untruths" in describing the family backgrounds of wealthy landlords. It is inappropriate for later generations to use the "Book of Wei" as a pretext for "Party Qi to destroy the Wei" (protect the Northern Qi and slander the Eastern Wei) and call the "Book of Wei" "dirty history". Curved writing has always been scorned by upright historians and readers, and should undoubtedly be opposed; but just because there are certain crooked writings in a history book cannot completely deny it, resulting in the posthumous title of "dirty history". Qubi and dirty history are related but cannot be completely equated. Otherwise, many history books with distorted writing will be regarded as "dirty history", which is extremely inappropriate. The impact of the "Book of Wei" turmoil has not completely disappeared to this day. Therefore, clarifying these issues is necessary for our study of "Book of Wei".
"Book of Wei" has a very obvious feature, which is also the reason for its importance, that is, it is the first "official history" of my country's feudal society to specifically record the historical events of the ethnic minority regimes. In the past, there was a saying that ancient Chinese history books recorded the history of the Han people. In fact, this view is not very appropriate. Starting from "Historical Records" and "Hanshu", there are special chapters on the history of ethnic minorities in the "official histories" of all dynasties. During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, many special books describing the historical events of various separatist regimes appeared, but unfortunately most of them have been lost. "Book of Wei" records the history of the Tuoba tribe of the Xianbei people in northern my country from the late fourth century to the mid-sixth century (i.e., Emperor Daowu of the Northern Wei Dynasty to Emperor Xiaojing of the Eastern Wei Dynasty). The content involves its development and prosperity, the unification of the north, the realization of feudalization and the establishment of clans. The process of transformation, as well as the history of the relationship between the Northern Wei and Eastern Wei and the Southern Song, Qi and Liang dynasties; "Book of Wei·Xuji" also traces the historical events of the Tuoba family's distant ancestors to more than 20 generations. Although it cannot be fully believed, it is But it roughly explains the historical origins of the Tuoba clan. Therefore, studying the "Book of Wei" will definitely gain a lot in understanding the objective fact that our country's history was created by multi-ethnic people.
Another characteristic of "Book of Wei" is its author's consciousness in reflecting the characteristics of the times. In addition to the fact that its biographies have a more prominent family heirloom than the "Song Book", what is worth noting is its ambition. In the "Book of Wei", two new chapters are added: "Guan Shi Zhi" and "Shi Lao Zhi". Wei Shou said in "Qian Shang Ten Chronicles Qi" that the contents recorded in these two chronicles were "the urgent needs of the Wei Dynasty" and "the most important thing today". "Guan Shi Zhi" first records the official system, and later describes the surnames and clans. It is an important document that reflects the feudalization and clan-oriented rule of the Northern Wei Dynasty. "Shi Lao Zhi" records Buddhism and Taoism, focusing on Buddhism. It narrates the spread of Buddhism in China and records its rise and fall in the Northern Wei Dynasty in detail. Emphasis on surnames and Buddhism were the social customs and historical characteristics of the time.
These two characteristics can also be regarded as the main achievements of "Book of Wei".
Many people have criticized the "Book of Wei" in history. In Liu Zhiji's "Shi Tong" alone, there are dozens of criticisms of Wei Shou and his "Book of Wei". But there are people in history who affirm it. In the early Tang Dynasty, many historians believed that "Book of Wei" was "prepared in detail"; Li Yanshou even praised it for "following the class and the horse, being graceful and orderly, complex but not cluttered, with a preface to the argument, and deep hooks that reach far." During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, many people rewrote the history of Wei, but over the course of a thousand years, all the schools died, and the "Book of Wei" survived alone, which shows that it can withstand the selection of history.
The Xianbei people are an ancient ethnic group at the eastern foot of the Daxinganling Mountains in Northeast my country. At the end of the first century AD, with the disintegration of the Xiongnu Empire, the Xianbei people gradually migrated westward and became a powerful ethnic group in the desert. At the beginning of the third century AD, Yilu, the leader of the Xianbei Tuoba Tribe, established the Dai Kingdom in Saibei. In 376 AD, Dai The political power was eliminated by the former Qin Dynasty established by the clan. In 386 AD, Tuoba's Xianbei tribes returned to support Tuoba as their acting king and reestablished their political power. Tuoba disbanded Tuoba Xianbei
The original tribal organization, settled down for farming, and moved the capital to Pingcheng. It was renamed Wei in 398 AD and was known as Northern Wei in history. Due to the absorption of advanced Han culture, the Northern Wei Dynasty became increasingly powerful, and finally unified northern China in 439 AD, ending the turmoil of the Sixteen Kingdoms period. In 493 AD, Emperor Xiaowen Tuoba Hong moved the capital to Luoyang, changed his surname to Yuan, and implemented a series of sinicization reform measures. By the time of Emperor Xuanwu Yuanke, the Northern Wei Dynasty reached its peak, capturing Hanzhong in the west, exploring Bashu, consolidating the defenses around Luoyang in the east, and competing with the Liang Dynasty for Huainan. However, it soon collapsed due to political corruption and people's resistance. It was divided into two competing regimes, the Eastern Wei Dynasty and the Western Wei Dynasty. "Book of Wei" records the history of the Tuoba tribe in Xianbei from the early period to the period when the Eastern Wei Dynasty was replaced by the Northern Qi Dynasty in 550 AD.
Nevertheless, Shizhi still provided some valuable materials. Shi Huo Zhi records the land equalization order in the ninth year of Taihe (485) and the related three-chief system and rent modulation. It is the basic material for studying the feudal land ownership system in the Northern Wei Dynasty and the next three hundred years. Records about currency are helpful for understanding the social economy of various places in the Northern Wei Dynasty at that time. The first volume of Ling Zhengzhi contains records of earthquakes in various places during the 150 years since the founding of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Guanshi Zhi and Shilao Zhi were the Zhimu founded by Wei Shou. The surname part of Guan's Chronicle lists the Tuoba tribe and its affiliated tribes. The surname of the clan and the Han surname changed by Yuan Hong are one of the basic materials for later surname books. To a certain extent, they also reflect the formation of the Tuoba tribe and the various ethnic groups at that time. The tribes and clans were divided, merged and reunited. Shi Laozhi described the spread of Buddhism in the north and Kou Qianzhi's modification of Taoism. The annals reflect the contradiction between secular landlords and temple landlords, especially the rent exploitation and usury exploitation suffered by slaves and dependent populations in temples. This is not only important information about the temple economy, but also helps to understand the entire feudal system at that time. Understanding of systems of exploitation.
Regardless of biographies and annals, Wei Shu contains a large number of irrelevant edicts and memorials, making it bloated. However, some valuable materials have also been preserved, such as Li Anshi's biography about asking for land equalization and Zhang Puhui's biography about long-footed battles and taxation, etc., which are helpful for understanding the land equalization system and cruel exploitation in the Northern Wei Dynasty. The articles and poems contained in the book are the main sources for later generations to collect and compile the poetry of the Northern Wei Dynasty.
The Book of Wei was already incomplete in the early Song Dynasty. In the sixth year of Jiayou (1061), officials were ordered to collate the Book of Wei and the books of Song, Qi, Liang, Chen, Northern Qi and Zhou. There is a catalog preface at the front of the book of Wei Dynasty today, signed by Liu Xun, Liu Shu, An Tao and Fan Zuyu. The date is not recorded, but it should be roughly between the fourth year of Zhiping and the third year of Xining (1067--1070).
Both Liu and Zu Yu were famous historians in the Song Dynasty, and Liu Shu in particular was well versed in the history of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. They did a more detailed collation and found out that the missing volumes of the book had been filled in by later generations. They also compared various historical notes and catalogs of Xiuwendian Yulan, Northern History and Tang Dynasty, and compared the sources of the missing volumes. At the end of the volume-by-volume series, the catalog also indicates which volumes are "missing" or "incomplete." Now we have moved the Song Dynasty's proofreading of each supplementary volume into the school journal. There are errors in the catalog and copy. There are original annotations but no annotations, or there are no annotations but no annotations. All of them have been corrected now. There are twenty-six volumes in total, and three volumes are incomplete.
The exact date of the initial engraving in the Northern Song Dynasty has not been verified. According to the reading records of Chao Gongwu Junzhai, it was no later than Zhenghe Zhong. This first edition was not widely circulated at that time. In the 14th year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty (1144), the Book of Wei and other Six Histories were reprinted in Sichuan, but neither of these editions has been handed down. The earliest edition of Wei Shu that has been handed down was also reprinted in the Southern Song Dynasty, but this edition that has been handed down has been supplemented by the Yuan and Ming dynasties, which is the so-called "Three Dynasties Edition". The so-called "Song and Shu Large Character Edition" photocopied by the Commercial Press in 1935 is actually this kind of Three Dynasties edition. There are three rare books of Wei books in the Beijing Library, all of which are from the Three Dynasties. The library's Rare Books Catalog No. 7354 is similar to the original copy used by the Commercial Press.
Since the Qing Dynasty, the supplementary records on Wei Shu include: Wan Sitong: "Systematic Map of the Emperors of Wei".
Wan Sitong: "Genesis List of the Kings of Wei".
Wan Sitong: "Genesis List of Kings with Different Surnames in Wei".
Wan Sitong: "The decline of the kings of Wei's relatives".
Wan Sitong: "Chronology of Wei Generals and Ministers".
Wan Sitong: "Chronology of Generals and Ministers of the Western Wei Dynasty".
Wan Sitong: "Chronology of the Generals and Ministers of the Eastern Wei Dynasty".
Wu Tingxie: "Chronology of Fangzhen in the Yuan and Wei Dynasties". With the states as the main link, the names of the people appointed as governors are recorded by year under each state, and the sources are cited. The preface summarizes the development of the territory of the Northern Wei Dynasty, which is more concise and useful than "Topography".
Wen Yuejian: "Records of Topographic Records of Wei Shu". The proofreading of the title of the book is actually based on the official history and various ancient topographies, correcting and filling in the gaps in the "Topography". Although it is not possible to restore the entire territory of the Tuoba clan, it is sufficient for reference when using the "Topography".
Lu Wenxu: "Compilation and Supplement of Wei Shu Li Zhi". According to "Tongdian", the missing page of "Li Zhi" 14th is supplemented.
Chen Yi: "Wei Shugong's Chronicles".
Gu Jiguang: "Supplement to Wei Shu Bing Zhi".
Luo Zhenyu (1866-1940): "Wei Shu Clan Biography and Table". According to the "Book of Wei" annotated in the unearthed epitaphs, "The Biographies of the Five Kings, Descendants of Emperors Shenyuan Pingwen and Xiaowen", the name, year and month were corrected, and the lineage of officials and titles was added. The clan lineage table is attached to supplement the omissions in Zhou Jiayou's table. The book was written in 1924, and many epitaphs unearthed since have not been used.
Zhu Zuyan: "Examination of Lost Books of the Northern Wei Dynasty". Xie Qikun (1737-1802) of the Qing Dynasty, courtesy name Yunshan, wrote twenty-four volumes of "Book of Western Wei". In addition to chronicles, biographies, and records, there are three tables (nobles, major events, and foreign lands) and four tests (records of phenomena and rituals). System, region, officials). The materials come from official history and "Tongjian", etc., and are available for reference, but should not be quoted as historical materials.