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Book of Song

From Quire, the open reference·Historical text of the Liu Song dynasty·2 min read
Book of Song
Traditional Chinese宋書
Simplified Chinese宋书
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Sòng Shū
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Sòng-su

The Book of Song (Chinese: 宋書; pinyin: Sòng Shū), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Liu Song dynasty of the Southern Dynasties of China. It covers history from 420 to 479, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories, a traditional collection of historical records. It was written in 492–493 by Shen Yue from the Southern Qi dynasty (479–502).[1]

The work contained 100 volumes at the time that it was written, but some volumes were already missing by the time of the Song dynasty. Later editors reconstructed those volumes by taking material from the History of the Southern Dynasties, plus a few works such as the Historiette of Gao by Gao Jun, though many of those volumes were no longer in their original condition.

History#edit

The Book of Song was based on records compiled beginning in the Liu Song. He Chentian (何承天; c.370 – c.447)[2] was commissioned by the imperial court of the time in 439. He compiled biographies and also treatises on astronomy and music. Compilation was later continued by Shan Qianzhi (山謙之; fl. 440–456), and Xu Yuan (徐爰; 394–475).[3] The Southern Qi court commissioned Shen Yue in 487 to complete the Book of Song.[4]

Historian Pei Ziye later summarized the work into a more succinct version, Summary of Song (《宋略》); after reading Summary of Song, Shen Yue was recorded to have said, "This is a standard which I cannot reach."[5]

Contents#edit

The first ten juan or volume are annals of the Liu Song emperors, 30 juan contain treatises, and 60 juan are dedicated to biographies.

Translations#edit

There are no known full translations to English. Dien includes partial translations of The Disputation at Pengcheng, a conflict in present-day Xuzhou.[6] Dien compares the Northern Wei and Liu Song accounts of this one in a long series of conflicts between the two states. The Liu Song account is included in volume 59 of the Book of Song. Holcombe translates a fragment of volume 54 on a land petition.[7]

Notes#edit

  1. ^ Wilkinson, Endymion (2012). Chinese History: A New Manual. Harvard University Asia Center. p. 730. ISBN 978-0-674-06715-8.
  2. ^ He himself has a biography in Book of Song, which recorded that he died at the age of 78 (by East Asian reckoning) around the 24th year of the Yuanjia era of the reign of Emperor Wen of Song. name="2">([元嘉]二十四年,承天迁廷尉，未拜，上欲以为吏部，已受密旨，承天宣漏之，坐免官。卒於家，年七十八。) Song Shu, vol.64>
  3. ^ Xu himself has a biography in Book of Song, which recorded that he died at the age of 82 (by East Asian reckoning) in the 3rd year of the Yuanhui era of Liu Derong's reign. name="4">(元徽三年，卒，时年八十二。) Song Shu, vol.94>
  4. ^ Knechtges, David R; Cheng, Taiping, eds. (2014). Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature (Vol. 2): A Reference Guide. Leiden; Boston: Leiden Brill Academic Publishers. pp. 1003–1005.
  5. ^ (子野更删撰为《宋略》二十卷。其叙事评论多善，约见而叹曰：“吾弗逮也。”) Liang Shu, vol.30
  6. ^ Dien, Albert E (2014). "The Disputation at Pengcheng: Accounts from the Wei Shu and Song Shu". In Swartz, Wendy (ed.). Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook (e-book ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 57–84.
  7. ^ Holcombe, Charles (2014). "On Land and Wealth: Liu Zishang's "Petition on Closing off Mountains and Lakes" and Yang Xi's "Discussion on Abolishing Old Regulations Regarding Mountains and Marshes"". In Swartz, Wendy (ed.). Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook (e-book ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 172–180.


Categories History books about the Northern and Southern dynastiesNorthern and Southern dynasties literatureTwenty-Four Histories5th-century history booksLiu Song dynastySixteen Kingdoms5th-century Chinese booksChinese history book stubs

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