Zhōu shū 周書
The Book of [Northern] Zhōu by 令狐德棻 (Lìnghú Détén, 583–666) et al., by imperial commission of Tang Tàizōng. Qing collation notes by 金文淳 (Jīn Wéndùn).
About the work
The twelfth of the Twenty-Four Histories, in 50 juǎn (8 jì, 42 lièzhuàn; no zhì), covering the Northern Zhōu dynasty (557–581) and its predecessor Western Wèi (535–557). Compiled in Zhēnguān 3–10 (629–636) by Lìnghú Détén as chief editor, with Cén Wénběn 岑文本, Cuī Rénshī 崔仁師, Chén Shūdá 陳叔達, and Táng Jiǎn 唐儉 as collaborators. Détén had originally proposed the entire Wǔdài shǐ project to Tang Gāozǔ as early as Wǔdé 5 (622); after delays the project was finally executed under Tàizōng. The text is heavily damaged in transmission: the present juǎn 25, 26, 31, 32, 33 lack lùn, and many zhuàn duplicate the Běi shǐ phrasing — clear evidence of Northern-Sòng patching from Lǐ Yánshòu’s Běi shǐ (KR2a0025) without proper marking.
Tiyao
By Lìnghú Détén et al., by imperial commission of the Táng. In Zhēnguān the histories of Liáng, Chén, Zhōu, Qí, and Suí were compiled — the proposal originating from Détén — who took personal charge of the Zhōu shū, working with Cén Wénběn, Cuī Rénshī, Chén Shūdá, and Táng Jiǎn. Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì says: under Sòng Rénzōng, the Tàiqīnglóu copy was brought out, combined with the Shǐguǎn and Mìgé copies and with private texts — Xià Sǒng’s, Lǐ Xùn’s families — collated in the Guǎngé; later, Lín Xī and Wáng Ānguó submitted them. So the Northern Sòng re-collation took no notice of any loss.
(The tíyào then enters detailed analysis of the corruption: the present 25, 26, 31, 32, 33 juǎn end without lùn, with prose mostly identical to the Běi shǐ; Wéi Xiàokuān 韋孝寬’s biography reads “Zhōu Wén Zhōu Xiàomǐndì” 周文周孝閔帝 in succession, the Wéi Wén/Tàizǔ designation only partially updated; Wáng Qìng’s biography refers to “Dàxiàng 1 / Kāihuáng 1” without saying he passed from Zhōu to Suí — clear evidence of Běi shǐ patching. Wéi Xiàokuān biography has Béi shǐ’s reference to his elder brother Xiào Èrcún excised, leaving the line “saddled-and-mounted with Xiàokuān” without antecedent. Lú Biàn biography excises his earlier service to Northern-Wèi Jiémǐndì, leaving “and when the emperor entered the Pass” unintelligible. Where text has been hastily edited or missing material left unrepaired, things are now scrappy.)
Liú Zhījī’s Shǐtōng further says: “The Zhōu history that circulates today, by Lìnghú Détén, is florid but not solid, elegant but not careful — true marks are few, posturing is many. From Yǔwén opening the dynasty, the affair was led by Sū Chuò 蘇綽, whose military and political documents are all done in Shàngshū style. Tàizǔ ordered the court that all other documents follow this; so what historiographers recorded all received this canon. Liǔ Qiú 柳虬 and his colleagues followed it. Examining Sū Chuò’s prose: it is purged of vulgarity and elegance, retains a diǎnshí substance, but errs on the side of jiǎowǎng (over-correction), going against the grain of the times. If the recorded yán are like this, the errors must multiply. Down to Niú Hóng, with his ever-greater Confucian elegance, the old material was taken and decorated, never approaching genuine jiājù. Détén could not seek other texts to broaden the range of strangenesses; he only relied on the principal text and added fresh polish — so the Zhōu’s one-dynasty history is mostly not shílù.”
But the document of an age and the rendering by historiographers must follow the substance of the time; Zhōu prose was indeed styled on the ancient model. The historiographer cannot at will replace those flowery words with vernacular. The wholesale dismissal of slanderous quatrains and folk-rhymes is the mark of zhèngtǐ historiography, not a charge to lay against the work. And Détén worked from broad documentation aiming at the real: the Yuán Wěi 元偉 biography even appends those Yuán-clan kin whose careers were lost, recording their names and ranks for memory — hardly the slovenly sweep that Liú Zhījī accuses. The Yǔ Xìn biography’s lùn mimics Shěn Yuē’s Xiè Língyùn lùn in the Sòngshū — discoursing on the six yì of poetic source and tradition — and uniquely censures Yǔ Xìn for excessive ornament: clearly the historiographer’s project is to correct his contemporaries, by no means to extol mere virtuosity. Liú Zhījī’s verdict is no measured judgement. Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì parrots Liú’s words as his own — sound-following without examination, of no account.
Abstract
The Zhōu shū covers the Northern Zhōu dynasty (557–581), the western successor of the Tuòbá Wèi at Chángān, founded by the Yǔwén 宇文 imperial house under regency of Yǔwén Tài 宇文泰 (505–556). The Northern Zhōu is the small but pivotal northwestern state that absorbed the Northern Qí in 577, was usurped by Yáng Jiān 楊堅 in 581 to found the Suí, and was the institutional matrix for the Suí–Tang reunification of China. Its Zhōu lǐ-modelled bureaucracy (the Liù guān 六官 system), its Fǔbīng 府兵 garrison-militia institution, and its early-codified Wǔjīng curriculum all passed through the Suí to the Tang.
Compilation history: Lìnghú Détén had first proposed the comprehensive Wǔdài shǐ project (Liáng, Chén, Zhōu, Qí, Suí) to Tang Gāozǔ in Wǔdé 5 (622); the project lapsed and was renewed under Tàizōng in Zhēnguān 3 (629), with Détén this time leading the Zhōu shū working group — Cén Wénběn 岑文本, Cuī Rénshī 崔仁師, Chén Shūdá 陳叔達 (himself a former Chén-dynasty prince), Táng Jiǎn 唐儉 — and presenting the completed work in Zhēnguān 10 (636).
The text was already lacunose by the Northern Sòng. Liú Shù 劉恕, Fàn Zǔyǔ 范祖禹, and the team that collated the Sòngjiào běn 宋校本 in Jiāyòu (1056–1063) supplied the missing text from Lǐ Yánshòu’s Běi shǐ (KR2a0025); their additions are not separately marked in the present text. The Sìkù compilers identify the juǎn 25, 26, 31, 32, 33 (lacking lùn) and various biographies (Wéi Xiàokuān, Wáng Qìng, Lú Biàn) as obviously patched.
The work has 8 jì (Tàizǔ Yǔwén Tài, plus Xiàomǐn, Míng, Wǔ, Xuān, Jìng emperors) and 42 lièzhuàn. Notable chapters include the Yì zhuàn 異域傳 — early evidence of Northern Zhōu diplomatic contacts with the Eastern Roman Empire, the Western Turks, and Sasanid Persia; the Wényuàn zhuàn — preserves much of the prose corpus of 蘇綽 (Sū Chuò), the architect of the Wǔjīng-modelled official-document style; and the celebrated Yǔ Xìn 庾信 biography (juǎn 41), with the long lùn that is one of the major early documents of fù-criticism.
The Wényuāngé text further carries Qing kǎozhèng by Jīn Wéndùn 金文淳 (catalog meta gives 12 juǎn of kǎozhèng). The standard modern punctuated edition is the Zhōnghuá Shūjú Zhōu shū (3 vols., 1971, ed. Táng Zhángrú 唐長孺); revised Xiūdìngběn 3 vols., 2024.
Translations and research
No complete translation. Standard scholarly studies in English: Albert E. Dien, Six Dynasties Civilization (Yale, 2007); Charles Holcombe, In the Shadow of the Han (Hawai’i, 1994); Michael C. Rogers, The Chronicle of Fu Chien (Berkeley, 1968) — uses Zhōu shū contextually. On Yǔwén Tài and the Liùguān system: David A. Graff, Medieval Chinese Warfare 300–900 (Routledge, 2002), with extensive use of Zhōu shū. 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 (Shanghai Gǔjí, 1948); Tāng Yòngtǒng 湯用彤, HànWèi liǎng Jìn NánBěi cháo Fójiào shǐ (1938) — uses Zhōu shū on the Buddhist controversy of Wǔdì’s Sān Wǔ persecution of 574.
Other points of interest
The Wényuàn zhuàn preserves Sū Chuò’s Liù tiáo zhào shū 六條詔書 (Edict in Six Articles), the foundational document of the Northern Zhōu Liù guān bureaucratic system and one of the most important pieces of Zhōu lǐ-style political theory in early-medieval China. The Yìyù zhuàn preserves the only surviving Chinese account of an Eastern Roman embassy reaching the Northern Zhōu court (between 567 and 571), with detailed notes on Sasanid Persia, the Hephthalites, and the Western Turks.