On November 30, Chung Hwa Book Company held an online book launch conference for the book of Zhou (the revised version of the 24th History of the Dian School). Following the publication of the revised Book of Wei in 2017, the Book of Zhou became the second type of revised edition of the Four Histories of the Northern Dynasties.
The Book of Zhou is a 50-volume official history of the Tang Dynasty's official Xiu Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasty, including eight volumes of the Emperor Dynasty and 42 volumes of the Legend, which is a history of the official Xiu Dynasty compiled by Ling Hu Dedi and others of the Tang Dynasty, which records the history of Western Wei and Northern Zhou in 48 years from the division of the Eastern and Western Wei dynasties in 534 AD to the 48 years of Yang Jian dynasty Zhou Jian Sui in 581.
The 1971 school book "Book of Zhou" by Zhonghua Book Co., under the responsibility of Mr. Tang Changxiu, took the Qianlong Wuying Dian book of the Qing Dynasty as the base, and cross-proofread the three dynasties book, the Ming Nanjian book, the Beijian book, the Jiguge book, the Qing Jinling book book and the Bai Gu book, and at the same time the relevant parts of the "Book of Yuangui" and "Northern History" were all proofread, and absorbed the research results of predecessors, becoming the most common collation book in half a century.
In this revision, the Dianben is still used as the base, the Tang banknote book fragments, the Three Dynasties book, the Nanjian book, and the Beijian book are used as the general school text, and the Ji book, the Bureau book, and the Bai Jian book are used as the reference school texts, and the relevant parts of the "Book of Zhou" cited in the "Yuangui of the Book", "Northern History", "Tongzhi", and "Taiping Yuyan" and "Yongle Da Dian" are used as the general school text. During the revision, the results of previous proofreading research were widely collected and fully referenced, and the original proofreading book was appropriately revised and improved, errors and omissions were corrected, and the rules were unified, and deficiencies were made up for to form a revised version with accurate text, excellent proofreading and reasonable punctuation.
Zhang Jihai, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Chung Hwa Book Company (right), Hu Ke, Deputy Director of the History Editing Office of Chung Hwa Book Company (middle), and Liu Xue, Editor-in-Charge of the Revised Edition of the Book of Zhou (left)
At the press conference, Zhang Jihai, deputy editor-in-chief of China Book Company, Hu Ke, deputy director of the History Editing Office of China Book Company, and Liu Xuechang, responsible editor of the revised edition of the Book of Zhou, talked about the Book of Zhou and the history behind it. The Book of Zhou preserves historical materials related to the canon system, including the history of Eastern Wei, Northern Qi, Liang, and Chen, as well as some letters, current policies, poems, etc., which are precious documents for studying the history and medieval literature of the Northern Dynasty. Since none of the previous Tang texts describing the history of Western Wei and Northern Zhou have been handed down, as far as the existing materials on the history of Western Wei and Northern Zhou are concerned, the Book of Zhou was written earlier, and the preserved materials are also the most primitive, as one of the "Twenty-four History", it is extremely valuable.
According to reports, the "Four Histories of the Northern Dynasties" was originally presided over and sorted out by Mr. Tang Changxiu of Wuhan University, and the revision of the "Four Histories of the Northern Dynasties" is still undertaken by the School of History of Wuhan University, reflecting the inheritance and development of scholarship.
Mr. Tang Changxiu (1911-1994) who was in charge of the "Four Histories of the Northern Dynasties"
Professor Liu Anzhi of Wuhan University, the person in charge of the revision of the Book of Zhou, introduced the revision of the Book of Zhou by video as a special guest. He introduced that the revision work is mainly reflected in several aspects: First, a number of new materials have been added, such as the nineteen fragments of the Tang banknote book "Book of Zhou" in Japan, and the three kinds of Ming banknotes of the "Yuangui of the Book", as well as the "Yongle Dian"; Although the point school version of the Book of Zhou uses the Wuying Dian book as the base book, it also partially uses the method of mutual proofreading and choosing the good and following the good, and the revision work is carried out in strict accordance with the principle of the base book survey law; Third, the punctuation section is handled according to the punctuation segmentation method of the 24th History of the Revised School Book and the revised project of the Qing History Draft, and there are more than 500 punctuation points in the revised version; Fourth, there are a number of errors in the revised point school text; Fifth, carefully delete and supplement the proofreading record, the "Book of Zhou" points to the original proofreading of 1451 articles, this revision deletes 78 articles of the old school, adds 319 articles, a total of 1692 articles, and revises and remodifies many articles of the original school.
The person in charge of the revision of the Book of Zhou, Professor Liu Anzhi of Wuhan University
The online live broadcast of the conference received more than 200,000 views on all platforms, and the response was enthusiastic, and in addition to sharing the stories behind the Book of Zhou, relevant historical knowledge and revision results with readers, the live broadcast also added an interactive lottery with readers. According to reports, this is the second time that China Book Company has held an online new book release conference for the 24th History of the Revised History of the School Book after the online press conference of "Book of Liang" in 2020 and the new book sharing meeting of "Chen Shu" in 2021.
Author: Li Yang, Beijing correspondent of Wen Wei Po
Image: Chung Hwa Book Company
Editor: Jiang Shengxin