Suí shū 隋書
The Book of Suí by 魏徵 (Wèi Zhēng, 580–643) et al. (jìzhuàn); 長孫無忌 (Zhǎngsūn Wújì) et al. (Wǔdài shǐ zhì); under Tang imperial commission. Qing collation notes by 張映斗 (Zhāng Yìngdǒu).
About the work
The thirteenth of the Twenty-Four Histories, in 85 juǎn (5 jì, 30 zhì, 50 lièzhuàn), covering the Suí dynasty (581–618). Composition history: Wèi Zhēng et al. compiled the 55 juǎn of jì and lièzhuàn in Zhēnguān 3–10 (629–636) under Tang Tàizōng. The 30 juǎn of zhì, called the Wǔdài shǐ zhì 五代史志 because they cover the institutions of all five short southern and northern dynasties (Liáng, Chén, Zhōu, Qí, Suí) collectively, were compiled separately under Wèi Zhēng / Yú Zhìníng / Lǐ Yánshòu et al. from Zhēnguān 15 (641) and presented under Tang Gāozōng by Zhǎngsūn Wújì in Xiǎnqìng 1 (656). The two parts were later merged under the heading Suí shū; the zhì are not properly Suí-specific but cover the entire late-Six-Dynasties to Suí range.
Tiyao
By Wèi Zhēng et al., by imperial commission of the Táng. In Zhēnguān 3 the order to compile the Suí history was issued; ten years later the jìzhuàn in 55 juǎn were complete. In Zhēnguān 15 the order to compile the Wǔdài shǐ zhì (Liáng, Chén, Qí, Zhōu, Suí) was issued; in Xiǎnqìng 1, Zhǎngsūn Wújì presented them. Per Liú Zhījī’s Shǐtōng, the jìzhuàn compilers were Yán Shīgǔ and Kǒng Yǐngdá; the zhì compilers Yú Zhìníng, Lǐ Chúnfēng, Wéi Ānrén, Lǐ Yánshòu, and Lìnghú Détén. (Mǎ Duānlín’s Jíjí lù notes that Kǒng Yǐngdá’s tomb-tablet says he co-compiled the Suí shū with Wèi Zhēng, but his biography fails to record this; Mǎ went only by the Jiù Tángshū, not consulting the Shǐtōng.) The Sòng-cut edition of the Suí shū has a Tiānshèng-era collation note recording further co-compilers — Xǔ Jìngzōng for the jìzhuàn, Jìng Bō for the zhì. Per-juǎn attributions in the older copies — Jīngjí zhì signed Wèi Zhēng, Wǔxíng zhì xù signed Chǔ Suìliáng, various jìzhuàn signed Xǔ Jìngzōng — were simplified in the Tiānshèng recutting, with everything attributed to Wèi for the jìzhuàn and to [Zhǎngsūn] Wújì for the zhì.
The jìzhuàn were not all from one hand; minor inconsistencies remain — e.g. the Wéndì jì’s skilled physiognomist Zhào Zhāo 趙昭, while the Yìshù zhuàn gives him as Lái Hé 來和; the Wéndì jì’s appointment of Héruò Bì 賀若弼 as Chǔzhōu zǒngguǎn, while his biography gives the post as Wúzhōu. With so vast a work, contradictions are unavoidable. Gù Yánwǔ’s Rì zhī lù objection — that the Tūjué zhuàn says above “attacking Shābōluè kèhán, breaking and capturing him” and below “Yōngyúlǚ took the Suí-bestowed qígǔ and west-attacked Ābō, captured him alive” — Gù treats this as a duplication, but more likely the upper text originally read “broke” rather than “captured”, a single-character corruption.
The ten zhì are most highly regarded by later students, though some have faulted them for failing the dynastic limit. Per the Shǐtōng, Tàizōng ordered the Liáng, Chén, Qí, Zhōu, and Suí compiled together; the ten zhì were therefore from the start designed to cover all five together. They were attached to the Suí shū because Suí was the latest of the five — not because they are Suí-specific. To object to their treatment of earlier dynasties is to miss the genesis. As to Lǜlì zhì’s overlap with the Jìnshū on bèishǔ, héshēng, shěndù, jiāliàng, héngquán; Tiānwén zhì’s overlap on dìzhōng guǐyǐng, lòukè, jīngxīng — both Lǐ Chúnfēng’s; he could hardly have wholly avoided his own earlier text. The Wǔxíng zhì’s style differs from the other three; it is unlikely to be Lǐ Chúnfēng’s, perhaps the older Sòng attribution to Chǔ Suìliáng has substance.
The Dìlǐ zhì with detail on mountains and rivers fixes the boundaries; the Bǎiguān zhì with clarification of ranks distinguishes the orders — supplying what Xiāo Zǐxiǎn and Wèi Shōu had omitted. Only the Jīngjí zhì is poorly arranged, narrating the source-and-flow of classical scholarship with many slips: it takes Fú Shēng’s 28-piān Shàngshū as oral transmission (Fú Shēng had a personal Shàngshū teaching in QíLǔ); takes the Shī xù as Wèi Hóng’s editing (transmitted in fact from Máo Hēng); takes the Yuèlìng, Míngtáng wèi, and Yuè jì of the Xiǎo Dài Lǐ as Mǎ Róng’s additions (Liú Xiàng’s Biélù already contains all three) — the lowest-quality of the ten zhì. Yet for post-Hàn bibliography, only this zhì allows source-and-flow analysis and authentication of forgeries; small errors do not impeach its overall value.
Abstract
The Suí shū covers the Suí dynasty (581–618) of Yáng Jiān 楊堅 (Suí Wéndì) and Yáng Guǎng 楊廣 (Suí Yángdì). The Suí is the brief but pivotal northern dynasty that completed the four-century reunification of north and south in 589, instituted the Grand Canal, codified the Suí-Tang law-code, established the Sān shěng liù bù 三省六部 central bureaucracy, and was destroyed by the Liáodōng expeditions and the resulting peasant rebellions of the second decade of the seventh century — leaving the institutional heritage on which the Tang built.
The compilation history is double. Tang Tàizōng commissioned the jìzhuàn in 55 juǎn in Zhēnguān 3 (629); Wèi Zhēng was the supervising editor with Yán Shīgǔ, Kǒng Yǐngdá, Xǔ Jìngzōng et al. as compilers, and the work was presented in Zhēnguān 10 (636). Tàizōng then commissioned in Zhēnguān 15 (641) a separate set of ten zhì to cover the institutional history of all five short southern and northern dynasties (Liáng, Chén, Qí, Zhōu, Suí); these were compiled by Yú Zhìníng, Lǐ Chúnfēng, Wéi Ānrén, Lǐ Yánshòu, Lìnghú Détén, and others, and presented under Tang Gāozōng by Zhǎngsūn Wújì in Xiǎnqìng 1 (656). The two parts were thereafter merged into the present 85-juǎn Suí shū; the ten zhì (officially the Wǔdài shǐ zhì 五代史志) are: Lǐ yí 禮儀 (7 j.), Yīnyuè 音樂 (3 j.), Lǜlì 律曆 (3 j.), Tiānwén 天文 (3 j.), Wǔxíng 五行 (2 j.), Shíhuò 食貨 (1 j.), Xíngfǎ 刑法 (1 j.), Bǎiguān 百官 (3 j.), Dìlǐ 地理 (3 j.), Jīngjí 經籍 (4 j.).
The Jīngjí zhì is the most important post-Hànshū yìwén zhì bibliographic compendium and the principal source for what Sui-Tang readers had available of Han-through-Six-Dynasties literature. Its four-part classification (Jīng 經, Shǐ 史, Zǐ 子, Jí 集) — replacing Liu Xin’s 七 lüè sevenfold scheme with a four-fold one — is the foundation of all subsequent Chinese bibliographic systems including the Sìkù itself. The Dìlǐ zhì is the principal source for the institutional geography of the Suí-Tang transition. The Wǔxíng zhì is uniquely valuable for the omen-and-portent culture of the late-Six-Dynasties period.
The Wényuāngé text further carries Qing kǎozhèng by Zhāng Yìngdǒu 張映斗 (catalog meta gives 30 juǎn of kǎozhèng). The standard modern punctuated edition is the Zhōnghuá Shūjú Suí shū (6 vols., 1973, ed. Wāng Shàoyíng 汪紹楹); revised Xiūdìngběn 6 vols., 2019.
Translations and research
No complete translation. Notable partial translations: Arthur Wright, The Sui Dynasty (Knopf, 1978) — extensive use of Suí shū throughout; Victor Xiong, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty: His Life, Times, and Legacy (SUNY, 2006) — substantial Suí shū citations; Étienne Balazs, “Le traité économique du Souei-chou” (Études sur la société et l’économie de la Chine médiévale, 2 vols., Brill, 1953–60) — the standard French translation of the Shíhuò zhì; Étienne Balazs, “Le traité juridique du Souei-chou”, T’oung Pao 33 (1937–8) — the standard French translation of the Xíngfǎ zhì; Howard L. Goodman, Xun Xu and the Politics of Precision in Third-Century AD China (Brill, 2010) — uses Lǜlì zhì. The Jīngjí zhì has been translated and annotated in Theodore de Bary et al., Sources of Chinese Tradition (Columbia, 1999), excerpts; on the Jīngjí zhì’s organisation: Hsüan Tu (Du Xuan), Sui shu Jingjizhi: A Study and Translation of the Bibliographic Treatise of the Sui shu (PhD diss., Harvard, 1958). Standard Chinese-language scholarship: Wáng Shùmín 王樹民, Shǐbù yàojí jiětí 史部要籍解題 (Zhōnghuá, 1981); Yáo Zhènzōng 姚振宗, Suí shū jīngjí zhì kǎozhèng 隋書經籍志考證 (Qing-Republican period, the standard premodern annotation).
Other points of interest
The Jīngjí zhì is the foundational document of the Sìbù (four-branch) bibliographic classification that has dominated Chinese book-organisation from Sui through Sìkù to the present. The Lǐ yí zhì’s seven juǎn are by far the most extensive zhèngshǐ treatment of imperial ritual and the principal source for the Wǔ lǐ 五禮 (Five Rites) systematisation that the Tang inherited from the Northern dynasties.