Liáng shū 梁書
The Book of Liáng by 姚思廉 (Yáo Sīlián, d. 637) by imperial commission, completing the unfinished work of his father 姚察 (Yáo Chá, 533–606); under the supervision of 魏徵 (Wèi Zhēng, 580–643). Qing collation notes by 孫人龍.
About the work
The eighth of the Twenty-Four Histories, in 56 juǎn (6 jì, 50 lièzhuàn; no zhì), covering the Liáng dynasty (502–557). Composition begun by Yáo Chá 姚察 — a Chén-dynasty Lìbù shàngshū who had compiled an unfinished Liáng history under Chén — and completed by his son Yáo Sīlián by imperial commission of Tang Tàizōng in Zhēnguān 3 (629), with Wèi Zhēng as supervising editor. Presented in Zhēnguān 10 (636). 25 juǎn are signed “Chén Lìbù shàngshū Yáo Chá” 陳吏部尚書姚察 and one is signed “Shǐguān, Chén Lìbù shàngshū Yáo Chá” 史官陳吏部尚書姚察, on the model of Bān Biāo’s signed contributions to the Hàn shū; the unsigned juǎn are Sīlián’s continuation.
Tiyao
By Yáo Sīlián, by imperial commission of the Táng. The Tángshū biography of Sīlián says that in Zhēnguān 3 the edict was issued for him to compile, jointly with Wèi Zhēng; the Yìwén zhì also says the Liáng shū and Chén shū were both jointly compiled by Wèi Zhēng. The old text bears only Sīlián’s name; this is because Wèi Zhēng was originally the supervising editor and only finalised the lùnzàn (cf. the Shǐtōng statement: “Wèi Zhēng held the general direction; whatever lùnzàn there are, Zhēng was largely involved with”). The unique attribution to Sīlián does not erase the credit of the brushman.
The Jiù Tángshū jīngjí zhì and Sīlián’s biography both give 50 juǎn; the Xīn Tángshū gives 56. Examining Liú Zhījī’s Shǐtōng: “Yáo Chá had the will to compile but did not complete the work; his son Sīlián, on his old draft and with new records added, made the Liáng shū in 56 juǎn.” So the Xīn Tángshū preserves Sīlián’s actual biānmù; the Jiù Tángshū errs in dropping the character “six”. Sīlián, working from his father’s intent, signs each juǎn-end with “Chén Lìbù shàngshū Yáo Chá” in 25 juǎn and “Shǐguān Chén Lìbù shàngshū Yáo Chá” in one — modelled on Bān Biāo’s signing in the Hàn shū. The juǎn that read “Shǐguān” must be Sīlián’s continuations.
Sīlián, succeeding his family learning, had a long-running pedigree, and had begun compiling already in Zhēnguān 2; after the order calling him into the Imperial Library to compile, seven more years of effort. Of his text: in the Jiǎnwéndì jì the entry for Dàbǎo 2, 4th month, bǐngzǐ, on Hóu Jǐng 侯景 attacking Yǐngzhōu and capturing the prefect Xiāo Fāngzhū 蕭方諸; the Yuándì jì gives this as the intercalary 4th month, bǐngwǔ — within two juǎn, the dates and days disagree. The Hóu Jǐng biography first reads “Zhāng Bǐng raised an army”; lower down it reads “Bǐng plundered Qiántáng” — within a few lines, the shūfǎ is at variance. Zhào Yǔshí’s Bīntuì lù notes that the Jiāng Gé biography says Hé Jìngróng 何敬容 in charge of selection chose mostly the wrong men, while the Jìngróng biography says his evaluation was clear and sound, called efficient — internally contradictory. Other chronological cross-references and parallels with the Nán shǐ often disagree. Such are the difficulties of writing this kind of book. Yet the judgements are mostly fair, the sequence orderly — preserving the historiographical method handed down from HànJìn — quite different from a work compiled by many hands with botched arrangement.
Abstract
The Liáng shū is the eighth of the Twenty-Four Histories. It covers the Liáng dynasty (502–557), 56 years of rule by the Xiāo 蕭 imperial house — most prominently Liáng Wǔdì 梁武帝 Xiāo Yǎn (r. 502–549), the longest-reigning of the southern monarchs, devoted patron of Buddhism, and three times “renunciate emperor” who entered the Tóngtàisì 同泰寺 monastery and had to be ransomed back by his court. The dynasty’s catastrophe was the Hóu Jǐng zhī luàn 侯景之亂 (548–552), a former Eastern-Wèi general’s rebellion that left Wǔdì dead by starvation and the Liáng heartland devastated.
The compilation has a complex two-generation history. Yáo Chá 姚察 (533–606), Lìbù shàngshū of the Chén, composed an unfinished Liáng history under the Chén; on Chén’s fall in 589 he was carried captive to the Suí and continued his work there. He died in 606 with the work incomplete. His son Yáo Sīlián 姚思廉 (d. 637) inherited the unfinished manuscripts, was already working on them by Zhēnguān 2 (628) under his own initiative, and was formally commissioned in Zhēnguān 3 (629) by Tang Tàizōng to complete the Liáng and Chén shū together, with Wèi Zhēng as supervising editor. The completed work was presented in Zhēnguān 10 (636). Twenty-five juǎn end-signed in Yáo Chá’s name are his original compositions; the remainder are Sīlián’s.
The Liáng shū has no zhì — the institutional, calendrical, and geographical material for the Liáng (and the other four southern dynasties not separately treated) is incorporated in the Wǔdài shǐ zhì 五代史志 attached to the Suí shū (KR2a0023). The work has 6 jì (covering Wǔdì in three juǎn, Jiǎnwéndì, Yuándì, and the puppet Jìngdì) and 50 lièzhuàn organised in conventional categories (consorts, kings, ministers, xiào xíng, rú lín, wén xué, xiào yì, zhǐ zú, liáng lì, chǔ shì, fāng yì, fán xià, etc.).
The Wényuāngé text further carries Qing kǎozhèng by Sūn Rénlóng 孫人龍 (catalog meta gives 12 juǎn of kǎozhèng). The standard modern punctuated edition is the Zhōnghuá Shūjú Liáng shū (3 vols., 1973, ed. Lú Zhènhuá 盧振華).
Translations and research
No complete translation. The principal scholarly studies in English: Andreas Janousch, “The Emperor as Bodhisattva,” in State and Court Ritual in China (Cambridge, 1999); Tom Mazanec, “Hagiography in the Six Dynasties,” in Buddhist Studies 47 (2017); Cathy Cantwell and Robert Mayer, Buddhist Authority and Imperial Patronage in Liang (Brill, 2008). Standard Chinese-language scholarship: Wáng Zhòngluò 王仲犖 WèiJìn NánBěicháo shǐ (Shanghai Rénmín, 1979–80); Lǚ Sīmián 呂思勉, Liǎng Jìn NánBěicháo shǐ 兩晉南北朝史 (Shanghai Gǔjí, 1948); Tāng Yòngtǒng 湯用彤, HànWèi liǎng Jìn NánBěi cháo Fójiào shǐ (1938) — extensive use of the Liáng shū on the religious history of Liáng Wǔdì’s reign. Modern critical commentary: Zhōu Yīliáng 周一良, WèiJìn NánBěicháo shǐ zhájì 魏晉南北朝史札記 (Zhōnghuá, 1985).
Other points of interest
The Wén xué zhuàn (juǎn 49) is the principal source for the formative period of gǔtǐ poetry on the YǒngmíngLiáng cusp; the Hǎinán zhū guó zhuàn 海南諸國傳 (juǎn 54) is a key early source for Chinese knowledge of southeast Asian polities (Funan, Linyi, Pyu kingdoms) and contains the earliest Chinese mention of Buddhist tooth relics from the southern seas. The Zhū yí zhuàn further preserves the only extant Chinese source for several Sogdian and Central Asian missions to the Liáng court.