Nán shǐ 南史
The History of the Southern Dynasties by 李延壽 (Lǐ Yánshòu, fl. 618–676); Qing collation notes by 萬承蒼.
About the work
The fourteenth of the Twenty-Four Histories, in 80 juǎn (10 jì, 70 lièzhuàn; no zhì and no biǎo), covering the four southern dynasties LiúSòng (420–479), Southern Qí (479–502), Liáng (502–557), and Chén (557–589) — 169 years of southern history — as a single unified narrative spanning the zhèngshǐ limit. Composed by Lǐ Yánshòu in continuation of his father Lǐ Dàshī’s 李大師 (570–628) unfinished private project, presented to Tang Gāozōng in 659. The companion Běi shǐ (KR2a0025) covers the parallel northern dynasties.
Tiyao
By Lǐ Yánshòu of the Táng. Particulars in the Xīn Tángshū biography of Lìnghú Détén. Continuing his father Dàshī’s intent, he made the Běi shǐ and Nán shǐ; the Nán shǐ was finished first; he submitted it for correction to Lìnghú Détén, who emended its lapses. Sòng readers praised Yánshòu’s work for cutting the redundant and supplying the missing — a fine history of the recent past.
(The tíyào then enumerates strengths and weaknesses. Strengths: in the jì he cut the connected enumerations of various ministers’ deeds; in the zhuàn he cut much cífù (rhapsody) — keeping a concise grasp, far better than the originals. Weaknesses: the four-dynasty Jiǔxī 九錫 documents, fúmìng astrological prophecies, gàotiān heavenly proclamations are all hollow conventional words with no real evidence — yet copied verbatim, repetitive — pruning incomplete. As to taking multiple courts and combining them into a tōngshǐ, the fánlì and qǐlì should be unified — but Yánshòu in the Xúnlì 循吏, Rúlín 儒林, Yǐnyì 隱逸 chapters serially listed personnel from all four dynasties, while in Wénxué he followed the Sòngshū in not having the category and started from the Qí’s Qiū Línɡjū — as if the Sòng had no literature. The Xiàoyì chapter searches up missing material, but the wives of Xiāo Jiǎo (Yáng) and Wèi Jìngyú (Wáng) are listed in succession with no separation of male and female — as if there should not be a separate Liènǚ chapter. Where the Běi shǐ does have the Wényuàn and the Liènǚ — moving Yǔ Xìn and Wáng Bāo from the Zhōu shū lièzhuàn to the Wényuàn, adding Zhào and Chén ladies to the Liènǚ — surely the parallel adjustments in the Nán shǐ were not impossible. Inconsistencies issuing from one hand are doubly damning. Yánshòu’s main effort went to the Běi shǐ; the Nán shǐ is largely re-arrangement and polishing of the original four texts.)
The Sòngshū of Sòng Lù tàihòu’s drinking and poison-placement is not in Shěn Yuē — Shěn was working close in time and would not preserve such a slander; Yánshòu drew on miscellaneous histories and treated them as fact — to be taken with caution. Yet from the Sòng lüè, Qí chūnqiū, Liáng diǎn etc. all having perished, the only available comparative material for the SòngQíLiángChén four histories is this work — it cannot be discarded.
Abstract
The Nán shǐ is the first of the zhèngshǐ to break the duàndài 斷代 (single-dynasty) limit and treat multiple successive dynasties as a single unified narrative. Lǐ Yánshòu 李延壽 (fl. 618–676), continuing his father Lǐ Dàshī’s 李大師 unfinished project, composed it (alongside the parallel Běi shǐ, KR2a0025) over the years 643–659. The Nán shǐ covers LiúSòng (420–479), Southern Qí (479–502), Liáng (502–557), and Chén (557–589); the Běi shǐ covers the parallel Northern Wèi, Eastern Wèi, Northern Qí, Western Wèi, Northern Zhōu, and Suí.
Lǐ Yánshòu’s procedure was substantive editorial reduction of the four already-written zhèngshǐ — Sòngshū (KR2a0016), Nán Qí shū (KR2a0017), Liáng shū (KR2a0018), Chénshū (KR2a0019) — eliminating redundant material, especially long cífù in the biographies and ceremonial documents in the annals. He also added some new biographies and rearranged others by jiāzhuàn (family-line groupings) — the great Wáng 王, Xiè 謝, and other southern-aristocrat lineages each appear in extended cross-dynasty groupings. He had access to private histories, miscellaneous sources, and bàiguān materials not used by the zhèngshǐ compilers, and incorporated some — the source of the work’s recurrent charge of unreliability on details (e.g. the lurid Sòng Lù tàihòu episode noted by the Sìkù compilers).
The work was presented to Tang Gāozōng in Xiǎnqìng 4 (659). After the loss of most pre-Tang southern biéshǐ (the Sòng lüè of Péi Zǐyě, the Qí chūnqiū of Wú Jūn, the Liáng diǎn of Liú Cǎo etc.), the Nán shǐ became the indispensable comparative source for the southern dynasties. The Wényuāngé text further carries Qing kǎozhèng by Wàn Chéngcāng 萬承蒼 (catalog meta gives 32 juǎn of kǎozhèng). The standard modern punctuated edition is the Zhōnghuá Shūjú Nán shǐ (6 vols., 1975, ed. Lú Zhènhuá 盧振華).
Translations and research
No complete translation. Standard scholarly use: as for the source dynastic histories. On Lǐ Yánshòu’s editorial method: Lǐ Wéi 李偉, “Lǐ Yánshòu Nán Běi shǐ zhī jiào kān” 李延壽南北史之校勘, Wénxiàn 1996.4; Hú Bǎoguó 胡寶國, Hàn-Tang jiān shǐxué de fāzhǎn 漢唐間史學的發展 (Shāngwù, 2003) — the standard study of the Nán Běi shǐ in their Tang context. On the Nán shǐ’s sources: Wáng Zhònglào 王仲犖, WèiJìn NánBěicháo shǐ (Shanghai Rénmín, 1979–80).
Other points of interest
The Nán shǐ’s use of jiāzhuàn (family-line) organisation is a pioneering move in Chinese historiography — the great southern aristocratic lineages (Lánglìé Wáng 琅邪王, Chénjùn Xiè 陳郡謝, Wújùn Lù 吳郡陸 etc.) are tracked across multiple dynasties as continuous lineages rather than fragmented across dynasty-by-dynasty texts.