This article is a series of 215 intensive readings of Chinese history, and 25 consecutive years of "Sui and Tang History" (click on the blue character to view the previous part), welcome to watch.
Most of the history books before the Sui and Tang dynasties were private works. In the Tang Dynasty, official revision history books became customized. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang, he did not place the history museum in the forbidden place, specializing in the compilation of the history of the country, supervised by the prime minister. There are repairs and straight buildings in the museum, which are engaged in specific compilation work.
This measure shows that the compilation of ancient history books in China has undergone major changes in the Tang Dynasty, reflecting the increasingly strong centralized rule.
As a result of the intensification of the compilation of history books, great achievements have also been made. During the Zhenguan period, he completed the Book of Jin, the Book of Liang, the Book of Chen, the Book of Northern Qi, the Book of Zhou, and the Book of Sui. Li Yanshou was also ordered to independently delete and supplement the history books of the Eight Dynasties from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui Dynasty, and wrote the "History of the South" and "History of the North".
Of the twenty-four surviving histories, the Tang Dynasty revised eight books, recording the history of Chinese society from the Western Jin Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty, which is a great contribution.
In addition to inheriting the chronicles of the previous generations, the history books compiled by the Tang Dynasty also appeared in new genres of Huidian and Huijiao, such as the "Six Classics of Tang" under Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and the "General Code" of Emperor Dezong.
The Six Classics of Tang are based on the official system as the guideline, summarizing the various orders and styles of the time, and arranging them under the authority of the relevant officials. Among them, a large number of important materials on the field system, household registration, conscription, examination and selection, ceremony, music, military defense, yichuan, criminal law, camping, water conservancy and other systems and decrees of the early Tang Dynasty have been preserved.
The "General Code" compiled by Du You during the reign of Emperor Dezong consisted of 200 volumes, divided into nine gates, including food and goods, elections, officials, ceremonies, music, soldiers, punishments, prefectures, counties, and border defense, and each door was divided into several sub-categories, starting from Xia Shang to Tianbao, and all political and economic systems were detailed at the end of the article, and referred to the important discussions of previous generations and people at that time. This monograph provides a relatively systematic and complete data for the study of the Chinese canonical system of successive dynasties, and also sets a precedent for future generations to record the canonical system of each dynasty in different categories.
At that time, the most important creation in historiography was Liu Zhiji's "Stone". Liu Zhiji (661-721), zi xuan, a native of Pengcheng (Xuzhou), Jiangsu. His grandfather was a historian, and his father served as Emperor Gaozong's attendant. Liu Zhiji's family environment made him deeply interested in historiography, and at the age of 17 he basically read the main history books before the Tang Dynasty. At the age of 20, he was appointed by the Tang government as the chief bookkeeper of Jia County. He took advantage of his post-office position to continue his study of historiography.
Liu Zhiji not only studied history, but also cared about politics. Between the second year of Tianzhi and the first year of the Tianzhi Banzai (691-695), he advised the emperor three times to select the best and the most capable, eliminate redundant personnel, streamline the organization, severely punish corrupt elements, and not give high-ranking officials to those who lack moral integrity and talent. Although his suggestions were not adopted, his talents attracted the attention of the imperial court. Soon, he was promoted to the capital and participated in the compilation of the "Three Teachings of Pearls". In the second year of Chang'an (702), he was promoted to the post of Zuo Lang (佐郎), and later became Zuo Shi (a liupin official during the emperor's deliberations) and participated in the compilation of the History of Tang. The following year, he was promoted to Fengge Sheren (secretary of the central government), and the official residence wupin.
In the process of revising history, Liu Zhiji discovered all kinds of ugly behaviors of the big bureaucratic clique, who not only distorted history, but also had all kinds of "secrets." When writing the History of Tang, he was very disgusted because he could not write history straight. In the "Stone Self-Narration", he explains that he and the diehards' views are "contrary to the sodium and dirty", and at the same time he believes that the history books of the past, due to the influence of traditional ideas, have many falsehoods and must be revised.
However, as a historian, he was subject to various restrictions, and he could not "see the use of time, but the beauty of the ambition is not successful, depressed and lonely, and there is no way to hope." Therefore, from the second year of Chang'an, Liu Zhiji wrote "Stone" according to his own will.
At that time, the conservatives in the academic circles were extremely hostile to Liu Zhiji, attacking him for "writing privately for the sake of Shi Chen" and ridiculed him for "trivializing the former philosophy". Xiao Zhizhong, the chancellor and superintendent of the History Museum, repeatedly criticized him for "the ineffectiveness of the arguments" and put pressure on Liu Zhi'er. Emperor Chuke, a soldier, openly spread the word, "This man has written such a book, where does he want to leave me?" "Put up a posture that is incompatible with Liu Zhiji."
Liu Zhiji did not give in, he withstood the ironic blows of the diehards, resolutely resigned from his post in the history museum, and wrote a letter to Xiao Zhizhong to expose the darkness of the history museum. Since then, he seized the time to write "Stone", and after 9 years of hard work, he finally completed "Stone" in the first year of Jingyun (710).
In this book, the author summarizes various historical books before the Tang Dynasty, analyzes and demonstrates the advantages and disadvantages of these historical books, and puts forward his own views on the revision of history.
"Stone" is divided into two parts, "Six Houses" and "Two Bodies" in the inner part are dedicated to analyzing and studying the categories and styles of pre-Tang history books.
The so-called "six families" refer to the "Book of Shang", "Spring and Autumn", "Zuo Zhuan", "Chinese", "Shi Ji", and "Book of Han", indicating the rise and fall of each family and its advantages and disadvantages. The "two-body" is the chronicle and the chronicle, and the author points out that the two genres have their own characteristics and should not be abandoned.
The outer chapters include "The Establishment of Historical Officials" and "Historical History", which summarize the changes in the institutions of the past governments to compile history books, and the writing of the history of the dynasties.
In short, the two internal and external parts are actually Liu Zhiji's overview of the history of Chinese historiography before the Tang Dynasty, clearly affirming the advantages of certain history books and pointing out shortcomings. Not only that, but also for the history books, the family, the column biography, the table calendar, the chronicle, and the history books of the praise, preamble, and limits, etc., there are also additional comments.
While commenting on the ancients, he also put forward the author's own opinions. Liu Zhiji believes that historians must have historical talent, historiography, and historical knowledge, and all three are indispensable.
In the history of Chinese culture, "Stone" is an epoch-making historical theoretical work, and the great achievements of "Stone" are mainly manifested in the following aspects.
First of all, the author insists on simple materialism and opposes the promotion of theological superstitious ideas in the history books. The author cites a large number of records in the history books about the strangeness of the catastrophe, proving that the phenomenon of "heaven and man induction" does not exist.
Liu Zhiji pointed out that the so-called "auspicious fortune" and "providence punishment" are mostly forged, except for a few coincidences of natural phenomena.
Liu Zhiji also believed that the demise of the Qin Dynasty was due to Hu Hai's lack of way, and the rise of the Han Dynasty was due to Liu Bang's wisdom, which was not determined by providence at all. Otherwise, attributing everything to the Mandate of Heaven will neither prove the development of history nor give people useful historical lessons. Therefore, Liu Zhiji firmly advocated that theological superstitious ideas should be completely eliminated when writing history books.
Second, Liu Zhiji advocated that writing history should be written straight. The "Straight Book" and "Qubi Chapter" discuss this point in detail from both positive and negative aspects.
What is a straight pen? He said: "The so-called straight writer of the husband does not hide evil, does not humble beauty, and the benefit of the book is praise and depreciation, and the book does not harm the exhortation." That is to say, all things that are praised and depreciated by good and evil, no matter who does it, should be written directly according to the facts.
How can a historian be considered to have done a straight writing? Liu Zhiji put forward four requirements: That is, not to be afraid of rape, to distinguish between evil and right, to distinguish between the true and false historical materials, and not to be vainly embellished by floating words.
Liu Zhiji attaches great importance to straight writing, and he evaluates ancient and modern historians with straight writing as the standard, and he enthusiastically praises those who meet this standard; those who do not meet this standard are severely criticized, thus carrying forward the excellent tradition of historiography and having a far-reaching impact on future generations.
The scope of his comments is very wide, believing that although Confucius's "Spring and Autumn" is "don't be right and wrong, Shen Dethronement", it still has false beauty and fails to achieve standard straight writing.
Liu Zhi'er also commented on several historical books edited and revised by Tang Chu without exception. He said: "The five dynasties of the royal revision history (Liang, Chen, Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, and Sui) still exist in the museum, all of which are new histories because of their old events. "Or take the truth as the virtual, and take the non as the right", so that "the jade is exhausted, and the truth and falsehood are difficult to find.".
He criticized the Book of Zhou as "untrue in writing, elegant and uninspective, rare in authenticity, and particularly annoying in politeness" and "thus making the history of the Zhou Dynasty more than a real record."
He denounced the historian's song and pen as "the ugly deeds of the author, the same disease of human morality", and "the traitor of words, the murderer of the pen".
Why such a bad tradition? He believes that this is due to the fact that the history writers feared the powerful and took glory.
Third, Liu Zhiji opposes retrofuturism and advocates the theory of historical evolution. He believes that there is no basis for beautifying the era of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors into an ideal era and becoming a traditional preaching since the Spring and Autumn Period.
Liu Zhiji, in the "Doubtful Ancient Texts", according to a large number of historical materials, argues that Yao Shun's teaching was not Zen concession, but usurpation; it was not Shun who gave way to Yu, but Yu exiled Shun; it was not that the people did not support Qi, but that Qi killed Yi. The Generation Xia of Chengtang and the Generation of Merchants of King Wu are all struggles for power and profit between rulers.
Liu Zhiji's view is a powerful critique of retrofuturism. In Liu Zhiji's view, the ancient life is very simple, not that the present is not as good as the ancient, but the ancient is not the present.
Fourth, it opposes covering up the ugly features of the ruling class and advocates exposing the essence of the ruling class in a truth-seeking manner. Liu Zhiji traced all the way from the Xia Shang to the Tang Dynasty, seeking a general rule, that is, the rulers of all generations were figures who fought for power and profit, but the real history was whitewashed by historians, beautifying some entrepreneurial emperors into the most virtuous saints.
He used many examples to expose the hypocrisy of the history books. Liu Zhiji explained in the "Doubtful Ancient Chapters" that not only were the rulers of the Han and Tang Dynasties often in the midst of internal concessions, but also the three generations of so-called Holy King Yao Shunyu Tang Wenwu Zhou Gong were also masters of competing for power and power.
Liu Zhiji's above views not only reveal the truth of history, but also the expression of his progressive view of history. 1200 years ago, there was undoubtedly a great deal of progress.
Classic General History of China (16 volumes) ¥168 purchase
The content of this article is compiled from the Sui and Tang Dynasties History of the Chinese reading book "Classic Chinese General History" jointly created by China International Broadcasting Publishing House and "Reading History".
There are 16 books in the complete set of "Classic Chinese General History", namely: "Xia Shang History", "Western Zhou History", "Spring and Autumn History", "Warring States History", "Qin and Han History (Part I)", "Qin and Han History (Part 2)", "Three Kingdoms History", "Two Jin And Northern And Southern Dynasties History", "Sui and Tang History (Part 1)", "Sui and Tang History (Part 2)", "Five Dynasties History", "Song Dynasty History", "Yuan Dynasty History", "Ming Dynasty History", "Early Qing Dynasty History", "Late Qing History".
This set of books was carefully compiled by more than a dozen older historians born in the first half of the last century and took several years to compile. From the historical migration of xia and shang to the late Qing dynasty, the panoramic depiction of 5,000 years of Chinese history is professional and authoritative, and it is easy to understand, suitable for all ages, passing down classics, and it is worth learning and cherishing.