The Song Dynasty was recognized as the heyday of humanities at home and abroad, and it was naturally quite developed in historiography. At that time, many literati and doctors had the habit of recording miscellaneous histories of the government and the opposition, such as the "Jianlong Relics" written by Wang Yuwei in the early days about the Zhao Kuangyin era, the poetry Ouyang Xiu presided over the compilation of the "New Book of Tang" and the "New History of the Five Dynasties", and the great southern Song Dynasty poet Lu You also privately wrote the "Book of Southern Tang", which are very famous examples of literati writing history. The most important historians of the Song Dynasty are undoubtedly Sima Guang, Xu Mengxin, Li Tao and Li Xinchuan, known as the Four Greats, two of whom were Sichuanese.
A statue of Li Tao in Danling County
Erli's masterpieces "Continuing Zizhi Tongjian Long Edition" and "Records of the Year Since Jianyan", regardless of content and style, are huge works that inherit the characteristics of Sima Guang's "Zizhi Tongjian" and have become a must-read book for future generations to study the history of the Song Dynasty.
I. Li Tao, a Danling man of Meishan, continued to write the "Zizhi Tongjian"
Li Tao is said to have been born in the fifth year of the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty (1115) after The Tang Dynasty Emperor Cao Wang, just when the Northern Song Dynasty mansion was about to fall. Fortunately, Li Tao has always grown up in the relatively peaceful land of Bashu. He was a fellow villager with the famous Sansu father and son of the Northern Song Dynasty, both of whom were from Meizhou (Danling County belonged to Meizhou at that time, and now also belongs to the jurisdiction of Meishan City), Li Tao studied hard, and when he was young, he encountered the alternation of the two Song Dynasties, and was deeply troubled, and wrote fourteen articles of discussion anyway, expressing his expectations for ZTE and putting forward some specific insights.
Li Tao had lived in Sichuan for most of his life, including as a local official. In the eighth year of Emperor Gaozong of Song 's reign ( 1138 ) , Li Tao served as the chief of Huayang County ( belonging to Chengdu Prefecture ) , and then transferred to Yazhou ( present-day Ya'an City ) . In the eighth year of Emperor Xiaozong's reign (1172), he was renamed Luzhou (泸州, in modern Luzhou). At that time, Wang Anshi's teachings were popular throughout Bashu, emphasizing novel and original insights. Although it has a positive effect on learning, many people do not have sufficient knowledge and skills, often do not seek to understand, are too innovative, and are not good for literati to study. Li Tao opposed this approach, believing that it was necessary to study ancient books, make a solid foundation of learning, and then put forward his own unique insights.
Li Tao studied and accumulated a long period of history since the founding of the Song Dynasty, and finally copied Sima Guang's "Zizhi Tongjian" and compiled the "Continuation of Zizhi Tongjian Long Compilation", which was unanimously praised by the government and the public, and went to Lin'an to serve as a ceremonial attendant, and later entered the Wenge Academy, promoted the Youshenguan and the attendant, and studied the history of the country. Li Tao also recommended You Yuan, Liu Qingzhi, and ten other people to serve as historical officials.
Zhonghua Bookstore Edition Continued Zizhi Tongjian Chief Editor
In the spring of the eleventh year of Chunxi (1184), Li Tao wrote a letter hoping to return to his hometown, but Emperor Xiaozong of Song did not allow it, and repeatedly inquired about his condition. Conveying Emperor Xiaozong's will to Yuwen Price, Li Tao was very touched and had to dispel the idea of returning to his hometown. He also asked Yuwen Price about current affairs, heard that Sichuan begged to reduce the amount of liquor tax, and personally wrote a letter to suggest that Emperor Xiaozong implement it. In this year, Emperor Xiaozong granted him the title of Scholar of Shiwenge, and soon died of illness at the age of seventy, posthumously awarded guanglu the title of "Wenjian". Before his death, he said: "The subject is seventy years old, and he does not die for death, and he hates to repay the country." "Gift to Master Tai, Duke Wen Guo."
According to Li Tao's life experience, later generations believe that the "Continuation of Zizhi TongjianChang" should have been written in the twenty-fourth year of Shaoxing (1154), exactly forty years old, in the stage of rich and powerful. At that time, he was serving in Shuangliu County, Zhicheng Prefecture, and in addition to his official duties, he "turned the annals of history every day and compiled the facts of the sub-kingdom dynasty." It is said that Sima Guang's revision history was first fifteen volumes of the "Table of Hundred Officials and Secretaries of State", and then quite scattered. It is to seek the correct history, the actual record, the collection of the family, the history of the wild, the expansion of categories, from Jianlong, to Jingkang, combining the old and new official systems, into one hundred and forty-two volumes. Only one of its re-editors are only seven, and the cover of the Long Edition begins here", and it is clear that Li Tao had the intention to study Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian and continue this magnificent work.
However, although Li Tao's energy and knowledge were at the peak when he was forty years old, it was not objective to say that he successfully completed such a multi-volume tome history book with one shot. He collected information in front of him, and even wrote some outlines, points, and even drafts, probably earlier. In the ninth year (1182) of Emperor Xiaozong of Song's reign, Li Tao recalled his historiography and said that he had "collected forty years" for compiling this huge work intended to continue the Zizhi Tongjian. Then the retrospective time should be shortly after Li Tao went to Longhe Mountain to study.
Longhe Mountain, located about three kilometers outside of Danling County, Meishan City, Li Tao built a Sunda Book House in the middle of the mountain, which remained until the Qing Dynasty, expanded and renamed "Xunya Academy", one of the three major academies in Shuzhong, but unfortunately destroyed in the late Qing Dynasty and failed to preserve. Today, on a huge rock halfway up the mountain, the four characters of "Xunya BookHouse" are also engraved. Because Emperor Xiaozong of Song later wrote the three characters "Dragon Crane Mountain" to Li Tao to commemorate his study and study here, Longhe Mountain was renamed Longhe Mountain during the Southern Song Dynasty. From Song Xiaozong's special reward for Li Tao's writing of history books, it can also be understood that Li Tao's origin of sorting out the history of the Song Dynasty should indeed begin when he built a bookstore on Longhe Mountain to study and govern.
The old site of the Sundanese Cliff Book House on Dragon Crane Mountain is inscribed on the wall
In fact, for such a large tome, Li Tao did not write it smoothly at once, but completed it in stages. From the first year of Longxing (1163) to the fourth year of Chunxi (1177), Li Tao completed it in batches four times. In the first year of Longxing, Li Tao served in Zhirong Prefecture (知荣州, in modern Rong County, Zigong City), at the age of forty-nine, and entered the Taizu Dynasty. From the first year of the Song Dynasty (960) to the ninth year of Kaibao (976), seventeen years were counted and divided into seventeen volumes. In the fourth year of Qiandao (1168), he also entered the parts of Taizong, Zhenzong, Renzong, and Yingzong, with a total of 108 volumes, which were written into 175 volumes and the "Catalogue" volumes. There is also a special appendix to the "Table of Continuing Zizhi TongjianChang" to describe the purpose and significance of the compilation, so it can be seen that Li Tao had a profound influence on Sima Guang's presidency in the Northern Song Dynasty to compile the Zizhi Tongjian, and Li Tao basically completely imitated the style of the Zizhi Tongjian in the compilation method, but at that time, Sima Guang had many talented assistants, and Li Tao almost completed it by virtue of the merits of one person, although the text may not be as good as the "Zizhi Tongjian" in general, but today as long as people study the history of the Northern Song Dynasty, no one can bypass Li Tao's book. It is enough to illustrate its eternal value.
In the first year of Chunxi (1174), Li Tao was sixty years old, and entered the "Long Compilation" of the Shenzong Dynasty, from the fourth year of Zhiping (1067) to the third year of Yuan Fu (1100), counting 417 volumes. In the third year of Chunxi (1176), Emperor Xiaozong had fully realized Li Tao's great contribution to summarizing the history of the Song Dynasty, and was promoted to secretary supervisor, Quan Tongxiu guoshi, and concurrently served as a co-editor of the Shilu Academy, allowing Li Tao to play his specialty in compiling history books. In the fourth year of Chunxi (1177), emperor Huizong and Emperor Qinzong compiled the second dynasty, and Emperor Xiaozong praised him as "worthy of Sima Guang". As a result, the history of the Northern Song Dynasty was completed.
Since the "Continuation of the Zhizhi Tongjian Long Edition" was the work of Li Tao alone, he was also very aware of his haste in collecting and compiling this book, so he constantly revised and improved it. The revision was completed in the seventh year of Chunxi (1180) and the tenth year of Chunxi (1183), while Ma Duanlin's "Literature Tongkao Jingshu Examination" believes that it was in the ninth year of Chunxi (1182).
The great achievements of the "Continuation of the Zizhi Tongjian Long Edition" are beyond doubt, basically taken from the first-hand historical materials preserved at that time, although it cannot be said to be absolutely credible, such as the death of Song Taizu and the succession of Song Taizong. Coupled with the fact that Li Tao's book already represents the imperial court, it is inevitable that there will be ambiguity and avoidance. If we comprehensively compare the historical value of the history of the Northern Song Dynasty, the basic academic community still recognizes that it will give priority to the "Long Edition", and its status is definitely before the "History of the Song" compiled by the Yuan Dynasty.
Continuation of the Zizhi Tongjian Chief Editor page
Because the overall feature of this book is "it is better to lose than to lose to omitted". Li Tao's compilation process is carried out according to the long compilation method, first taking the years and months as the cluster, and the cluster is completed, but the slender compilation. Li Tao's examination of historical materials was also in accordance with Sima Guang's examination method, so another major historian, Li Xinchuan, commented that Li Tao was "imitating Sima Shi's Tongjian and heeling it.". "Roughly all the old rules of the Wen Gong" (Chen Zhensun).
In terms of formal methods, Li Tao comprehensively inherited the strengths of Sima Guangtong's jianshu history book, but the specific content of the "Long Edition" was still quite different from the purpose of the Zizhi Tongjian. As we all know, Sima Guang is actually the host of a set of writing teams, and he is the final draft based on the manuscript completed by the following authors, "deleting lengthy, picking up opportunities, specifically focusing on the prosperity and decline of the country, the relationship between the people, the good can be the law, the evil can be disciplined, for the chronicle book", plus Sima Guang himself is also a master of writing, so in the end, the style of writing and historical views in the "Zizhi Tongjian" are basically consistent, and most of them reflect many of Sima Guang's own tendencies.
However, Li Tao wrote the "Compilation of the Continuation of the Zizhi TongjianChang" to "unify the congregation's sayings, crack down on false discernment, so that treachery and deceit cannot take advantage of the gap to confuse the truth, and the ancestors' rich merits and virtues are clear" ("The Compilation of the Changjian Of the Continuing Zizhi Tongjianchang"). Therefore, in order to carry forward the achievements of the Song Dynasty since its establishment, Li Tao first basically retained many historical facts and many details in the original historical materials, showing the integrity of its contents. Secondly, he greatly respected the contributions of his predecessor Sima Guang, believing that the huge work that he had spent nearly forty years of painstaking efforts before and after him did not dare to call it "Continued Zizhi Tongjian", but could only be called "Continued Zizhi Tongjian Long Compilation", and from the work itself, it was still a kind of "historical manuscript" that recorded the Song Dynasty, not a formal history book, very modest, enough to make future generations admire.
Li Tao had great energy in his life, and in addition to such an imperial masterpiece, it is said that there are many other works. The list in the history books includes the "Sundanese Anthology", "General History of the Four Dynasties" in fifty volumes, "Tang Zai Xiang Genealogy" in one volume, "Jiangzuo Fangzhen Chronology" in six volumes, "Jin Sima Clan Benzhi", "Qi Liang Benzhi", "Wang Xie Shi Table", "Five Dynasties and Three Generals' Chronology", "Spring and Autumn Studies", "Yi Xue" five volumes, "Spring and Autumn Studies" ten volumes, and more than fifty volumes, but unfortunately most of them have been lost.
Zhonghua Bookstore edition of Jianyan since the annual record
II. Leshan Jingyan Li Xinchuan and the Alternating Records of the Two Song Dynasties
Li Xinchuan, a native of Jingyan County, Longzhou (present-day Jingyan County, Leshan), was born in the second year (1166) of Emperor Xiaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty, fifty years younger than Li Tao. At the age of fourteen, he left his hometown with his father Li Shunchen to live in Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang), and his father Li Shunchen and Li Tao were basically of the same generation and a very powerful scholar.
Li Shunchen and Li Tao are similar, living and working in Sichuan for the first half of their lives. He had a good relationship with Zhang Jun, a general from Sichuan, and had participated in the fight against the Jin army as a subordinate, which was very important. Later, Li Shunchen and another famous minister from Sichuan, Yu Yunwen, jointly appeased the people's livelihood and were recommended by Yu Yunwen to serve in the imperial court.
Li Shunchen served as the chief bookkeeper of Zongzheng Temple (in charge of Tianzi clan affairs) in the late xiaozong period, when Li Xinchuan was already a teenager, and after arriving in Lin'an Province, he had the opportunity to read the official history books. In the winter of the eighth year of Chunxi (1181), Li Shunchen died of illness in Lin'an. With the help of the famous scholar Lou Key and others, his son's heart transmission, Taoist transmission, and sexual transmission "helped his coffin back to his hometown" and returned to Jingyan County, Sichuan province for burial. The song dynasty's theoretical thinking has been very heavy, and although the descendants of the Li clan have already lived in other places, the tradition of falling leaves returning to the roots is still very important.
Since jianyan, the annual record of the pages
In the first year of the reign of Emperor Ningzong of Song (1195), Li Xinchuan took the township examination at the age of thirty and failed to be on the list, so he wrote books behind closed doors, especially concentrating on historical research. At that time, Li Tao's "Continuation of Zizhi Tongjian Long Compilation" was regarded as a model work in the Southern Song Dynasty, and Li Xinchuan greatly admired this Sichuan compatriot's predecessor, and was also determined to imitate Li Tao's "Continuation of Zizhi Tongjian Long Compilation" style, and then continue to write the history of the Song Dynasty. Li Tao's history book was just completed in the Jingkang period at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Li Xinchuan compiled the two-hundred-volume "Records of the Chronicles of the Lineage Since Jianyan", which detailed the continuation of the Song Gaozong period. From the first year of Jianyan (1127) to the thirty-second year of Shaoxing (1162), a total of thirty-six years of history.
Li Xinchuan once said in the preface to the first collection of "Miscellaneous Records of the Dynasty and the Wild Since Jianyan": "When xinchuan was fourteen or fifteen years old, the attendants of the junzi palace were quite able to spy on the deputy of the gold plaque and stone chamber hidden in the jade coal; when they retreated from the court, they were discussed by the famous Qingcai doctor. Since the crossing of the river, Ji Zai has not been prepared, so that the actions of the Ming Jun, the Good Ministers, the Famous Confucians, and the Fierce Generals are still depressed and not manifested. As for the seventy years, the source of the wealth of soldiers and soldiers, the cause and revolution of the liturgical system, and the transmission of the division, often fell, and it is a pity. It is the things that Jianyan has heard in the government and the public so far, and those who do not involve the interests of the moment and the gains and losses of all people, are divided into separate records, from Ding Wei (the first year of Jianyan, 1127) to the second year of Jiatai (Jiatai II, 1202), and the class is subordinate, and where there are five things in six hundred, it is reduced to twenty volumes. His friend Xu Yi also said in the recital of the "Essential Record": "Li Xin passed on the Botong Qunshu, especially familiar with the story of this dynasty. Since zhongxing, the Ming Emperor has been a good minister, and the merits have been great, although he has seen the "Records of Reality" and other books, and at the beginning of the Southern Crossing, the private records of the time were often rumored to be untrue, and the private intentions were chaotic. So the compilation of the articles, the compilation of the chronicle, specifically based on the "calendar" and "will want", and then the world to let go of the old news, the trustworthy to take, the cutable to braid, the suspicious to be broad, the collection of the long, according to the complexity and simplicity, for a long time to compile. ”
It can be understood that when Li Xinchuan compiled this book, it was precisely on the favorable conditions of his father Li Shunchen's appointment as the master bookkeeper of Zongzheng Temple that he read in detail the various official revision history books and archival copies preserved in the palace, and later contacted some colleagues and scholars to listen to their discussions on old things, coupled with decades of collection and collation, concentrated on writing, and finally wrote two immortal masterpieces on the history of the Song Dynasty, "Essential Records" and "Miscellaneous Records", which focused on recording the history of Emperor Gaozong of Song Dynasty, and "Miscellaneous Records" is also a model of Sima Guang's famous historical notes. The Anecdotes of Shuishui records the rumors and claims of some historical events of the Song Dynasty in the form of entries, which is regarded as a reference for writing history and an auxiliary material for leaving materials for examination preparation, and is a famous work in the historical materials of notes.
Li Xinchuan's "Essential Records" is still a model of Tongjian style, with the chronicle narrative as the meridian, inheriting the tradition of "Tongjian" and "Long Compilation". The Compendium of the General Bibliography of the Four Libraries commented: "Although his book is based on The Law and Li Tao, the fine examination is more successful." In the process of compiling the "Essential Records", Li Xinchuan carefully reviewed the various notes and works left by the Song Dynasty literati doctors, including his personal contact with many of the elders of his predecessors. Li Xinchuan did not lack information, but the test of skill lies in the selection and sorting, coupled with the fact that the generation of Emperor Gaozong of Song was a great turning point in the alternation of the two Song Dynasties, there were a large number of records of current affairs and rumors at all levels of the government and the public, because the observations, details, and political views of these records were different, the comments on the characters were also different, and there were many opinions on the deeds of many characters.
Of course, Li Xinchuan mainly records major events in the dpron, based on official books such as "Gaozong's Calendar" and "Zhongxing Huijiao", refers to more than a hundred kinds of private records, anthologies, biographies, deeds, inscriptions, etc., and conducts meticulous examinations, adopts what he believes is credible, distinguishes what he believes is not credible, and his advantages are explained one by one in some places where there are differences. For important events, this article can not be fully loaded, but also noted.
Due to the late era of Li Xinchuan himself, many official materials were revised by Qin Ju and Qin Xi's father and son, and Li Xinchuan's history books inevitably had some untrue flaws, but this was not directly related to Li Xinchuan's own level of historiography. The book "Essential Records" generally records in detail the political affairs, military, economy, culture and other aspects of the Song Gaozong generation, and also records the relevant historical events of the three dynasties of Jin Taizong's completion of Yan Sheng, Jin Xizong's completion of Yan Sheng, and Jin Hailing's completion of Yan Liang, which is one of the important historical books for studying the turn of the two Song Dynasties, and at the same time, the book can be supplemented with Xu Mengxin's "Compilation of the Northern Leagues of the Three Dynasties". The title of the book, "Essential Records", embodies the summary and record of historical facts, and also expresses that Li Xinchuan only serves as a basis for sorting out the historical events of the Song Gaozong dynasty, and also reflects a very modest historian's style, which is somewhat different from the principle of Ning Fanning and Neglect set in the "Long Compilation".
The "Essential Records" only record the events of Emperor Gaozong's thirty-six years, and the length of the volume is actually 200 volumes, especially the thirteen years from the first year of Jianyan to the ninth year of Shaoxing, almost ten volumes per year, which is far more detailed than the sub-volumes of the "Long Compilation". According to the beginning of the "Miscellaneous Records", this title was mostly written as "Records of the Year of the Gaozong Lineage" in that year, and the biography of the "History of the Song Dynasty" was also written as the "Annals of the Gaozong Lineage", but since the "Siku Quanshu" was set as the "Records of the Year of the Lineage Since Jianyan", posterity basically used this name. In fact, judging from the evolution of the title of the book, it seems that Li Xinchuan originally wanted to complete a more extensive chronicle of the chronicle, and the "Records of the Year of the Gaozong Lineage" is only a part of it, and then it should also include the records of the chronicles of different periods such as Emperor Xiaozong, Guangzong, and Emperor Ningzong. Emperor Xiaozong's record should have been completed, but unfortunately it has not been passed on, and it is not known whether the records of Emperor Guangzong and Emperor Ningzong have been written or not.
Zhonghua Bookstore edition of Miscellaneous Notes on the Government and the Opposition Since Jianyan
Li Xinchuan is another historian after Li Tao in the Southern Song Dynasty. Later, he was jointly recommended by Cui he, Xu Yi, Wei Yiweng and twenty-three other people to be a historical museum examiner, and he was given a scholarly background, specializing in the "Imperial Records of the Four Dynasties of Zhongxing", the book was not written, and then stopped to compile the "Thirteen Dynasties Meeting", and Song Lizong Duanping wrote in the third year (1236) and was awarded the Ministry of Works.
Although Li Xinchuan only served as a few petty officials in his career experience, with the emergence of various crises in the late Southern Song Dynasty, he was still very concerned about the people's livelihood and suffering, when there was a drought in the south, Li Xinchuan wrote a letter to say things, hoping that the imperial court would save the people. However, due to Li Xinchuan's mention in the SongShu that he hoped that the emperor would review himself, he issued an edict. At that time, Song Lizong was thinking of himself as a positive and enterprising person, and after "Duanping entered Luo", he thought that he had reached the ideal of destroying the old enemies of the Jin Dynasty by uniting with Mongolia, so how could he listen to the advice of a petty official? Li Xinchuan was deposed and removed from his post, and the shrine resided in Chaozhou.
In the third year of Emperor Lizong's reign (1243), Li Xinchuan finally retired, and died of illness in the same year, at the age of seventy-eight. In addition to the two major books of the "Records of the Chronicles of the Lineage Since Jianyan" and the "Miscellaneous Records of the Dynasties and The Wild Since the Jianyan Dynasty", there are also fifteen volumes of "Old Rumors and False Accusations", five volumes of "Xueyi Compilation", five volumes of "Recitation of Poetry Training", thirteen volumes of "Spring and Autumn Examinations", twenty-three volumes of "Ritual Discernment", twelve volumes of "Reading History", five volumes of "Records of Dao Ming", ninety volumes of "Records of Western Qitai Dinglu", one volume of "Records of Distinguishing Southern Migration", and one hundred volumes of poetry.