Sòng shǐ 宋史
The History of the Sòng by 托克托 (Toqto’a / Tuòtuō, 1314–1356) et al., by imperial commission of the Yuán Shùndì; Qing collation notes by 林蒲封 (Lín Pǔfēng), 齊召南 (Qí Zhàonán), and 楊開鼎 (Yáng Kāidǐng).
About the work
The twentieth of the Twenty-Four Histories and by far the longest — 496 juǎn (47 jì, 162 zhì, 32 biǎo, 255 lièzhuàn, plus 6 juǎn of shìjiā not separately counted in the table of contents). Covers the Northern (960–1127) and Southern (1127–1279) Sòng — 319 years. Compiled at the Yuán court under Toqto’a 托克托 (the tíyào uses the modernised Manchu transliteration; older texts give 脫脫) as supervising editor in Zhìzhèng 3–5 (1343–1345). Working compilers: Ōuyáng Xuán 歐陽玄, Tàibùhuā 泰不華, Zhāng Qǐyán 張起巖, Lǐ Hǎowén 李好文, Wáng Lǐ 王理, Yáng Zōng-rui 楊宗瑞, Xià Wéifā 夏惟發, Lú Sìcài 盧四才 etc. Drawing principally on the Sòng court’s own continuous guóshǐ tradition and the Sòng shílù, the work was completed in a remarkably short time (under two years from the start of intensive work).
Tiyao
By Toqto’a et al. (formerly written 脫脫; corrected here) by imperial commission of the Yuán. The general table of contents gives 47 jì, 162 zhì, 32 biǎo, 255 lièzhuàn; but juǎn 478–483 are 6 juǎn of shìjiā not listed in the general — an omission. The work is one dynasty’s history but already runs near 500 juǎn; collation simply could not be all-encompassing. Further the main thrust is to elevate Dàoxué 道學 (Neo-Confucianism); other matters less attended to. Errors are too many to enumerate.
(The tíyào gives extensive examples of internal inconsistencies, drawing on Shěn Shìbó’s 沈世泊 Sòng shǐ jiùzhèng biān 宋史就正編. Examples include: dating discrepancies between jì and zhuàn on Hóng Hào’s return from the Liáo (Aug 1143 in jì, July 1143 in zhuàn); Zhū Zhuó traced to Xuānhé 5 (1123) in his biography but the Huīzōng jì dates the corresponding examination to Xuānhé 6 (1124); Sòng Zhǔn’s zhuàn attributing the diànshì origin to a Tài-zōng-era event whereas the Xuǎnjǔ zhì correctly attributes it to Kāibǎo 6 (973) under Tàizǔ; Dù tàihòu’s zhuàn recording her as the eldest of five children but Dù Shěnqí’s zhuàn recording him as the eldest. Multiple genealogical inaccuracies in literary biographies — Cháo Bǔzhī claimed as fifth-generation descendant of Cháo Mí, but Huáng Tíngjiān’s tomb-inscription for Cháo’s father shows otherwise. These show the work’s looseness of cross-checking. Then citation problems — Hóng Mài’s biography on Qiándào 6 / Chúnxī era inconsistencies; Lǐ Língfǔ etc. — many minor errors. The tíyào concludes that the Sòng shǐ is not entirely reliable on details, but as the principal source for two-Sòng affairs is irreplaceable.)
This book uses Sòng-period guóshǐ as the base text. Sòng readers loved to recount Eastern-Capital affairs, so the historical text is more detailed for the Northern Sòng; from Jiànyán (the Southern crossing) on, it is somewhat thinner. The LǐDù two reigns the Sòng records are particularly thin, so the zhuàn are not full beginning-to-end. The Wényuàn category is detailed only on Northern Sòng; the Southern Sòng records only Zhōu Bāngyàn etc. — a few. The Xúnlì category — for the Southern Sòng there is not even one. These are the clear evidence. As to Liú Rénzhān of Nán-Tang’s death-in-loyalty — Ōuyáng Xiū’s Wǔdài shǐ jì and Sīmǎ Guāng’s Tōngjiàn both give detailed verification, yet this work still says he surrendered. Lǐ Hàn died at Liáo (never entered Sòng — see his Liáo shǐ biography), yet this work attaches him to Lǐ Tāo’s biography. — Long-listed at the schools, ostensibly the editorial team’s draft text, was not even cross-collated; what else can one infer?
From Kē Wéiqí 柯維騏 forward there have been multiple recompilation attempts. But years are remote, old material scattered; all return to using this work as their base; minor patches do not finally surpass it. So for two-Sòng affairs, all in the end depend on the original. To this day it cannot be set aside.
Abstract
The Sòng shǐ is the longest of the Twenty-Four Histories — 496 juǎn, more than any other zhèngshǐ — covering the 319 years of the Northern (960–1127) and Southern (1127–1279) Sòng. Compiled by Toqto’a 托克托 (1314–1356) — the great Yuán senior minister — at the Yuán court in Zhìzhèng 3–5 (1343–1345), as part of a triple-history project that simultaneously compiled the Liáo shǐ (KR2a0033) and Jīn shǐ (KR2a0035). The lead working compilers were Ōuyáng Xuán 歐陽玄, Tàibùhuā 泰不華 (the Manchu name of the Yuán scholar-official, also rendered Tāpùhuā), Zhāng Qǐyán 張起巖 etc.
The work draws on the rich Sòng-period documentary heritage: the continuous guóshǐ tradition (the guóshǐ yuàn compiled court histories at every dynastic transition); the shílù of every Sòng emperor; the huìyào compilations (the great Sòng administrative-document encyclopaedia); private zhuàn and jiāshǐ of the Sòng aristocratic-literati lineages. The result is unprecedented documentary richness — the Sòng shǐ preserves more direct documentary material than any earlier zhèngshǐ — but at the cost of editorial coherence: the work’s contradictions, duplications, and chronological errors are notorious.
The work’s zhì are particularly substantial: 162 juǎn, including monographs on rites (Lǐ zhì, 26 j.), music (Yuè zhì, 17 j.), astronomy (Tiānwén zhì, 13 j.), the calendar (Lǜlì zhì, 17 j.), the Five Elements (Wǔxíng zhì, 7 j.), official titles (Zhíguān zhì, 12 j.), the examination system (Xuǎnjǔ zhì, 6 j.), the bureaucracy (Bīng zhì, 12 j.), economic system (Shíhuò zhì, 14 j.), criminal law (Xíngfǎ zhì, 4 j.), bibliography (Yìwén zhì, 8 j.), administrative geography (Dìlǐ zhì, 7 j.), and water-control (Héqú zhì, 7 j.) — making the Sòng shǐ the principal documentary basis for Sòng institutional history. The 32 biǎo are also exceptionally rich, including the Zǎifǔ biǎo 宰輔表 (chief ministers; 5 j.) and the Zōngshì biǎo 宗室表.
The Dàoxué zhuàn 道學傳 (juǎn 427–430), separating Confucian moralists from generic Rúlín, is the principal early-Yuán articulation of the canonical Northern-and-Southern-Sòng Neo-Confucian lineage (Zhōu Dūnyí, the Chéng brothers, Zhāng Zài, Zhū Xī etc.) and was the influential template for the Ming-Qing orthodox tradition.
The Wényuāngé text further carries Qing kǎozhèng by Lín Pǔfēng 林蒲封, Qí Zhàonán 齊召南, and Yáng Kāidǐng 楊開鼎 (catalog meta gives 180 juǎn of kǎozhèng — by far the largest of all Sìkù kǎozhèng annexes, reflecting the work’s extent). The standard modern punctuated edition is the Zhōnghuá Shūjú Sòng shǐ (40 vols., 1977, ed. Yáo Cóngwú 姚從吾 et al.); revised Xiūdìngběn in preparation.
Translations and research
No complete translation. Substantial partial translations: Herbert Franke (ed.), Sung Biographies, 4 vols. (Steiner, 1976) — biographies of selected Sòng figures with extensive scholarly apparatus, drawing on the Sòng shǐ lièzhuàn; Robert M. Hartwell, Tributary Mission and the Inner Asian Trade in Sung Times (1983) — uses Shíhuò zhì; Harriet T. Zurndorfer, Change and Continuity in Chinese Local History: The Development of Hui-chou Prefecture, 800 to 1800 (Brill, 1989); Brian E. McKnight, The Quality of Mercy: Amnesties and Traditional Chinese Justice (Hawaii, 1981) — uses Xíngfǎ zhì; Beverly Bossler, Powerful Relations: Kinship, Status, and the State in Sung China (960–1279) (Council on East Asian Studies, 1998). Standard Chinese-language scholarship: Wáng Mínshèng 王鳴盛, Shíqī shǐ shāngquè 十七史商榷 (1787); Zhào Yì 趙翼, Niàn’èr shǐ zhájì 廿二史劄記 (1799); Zhāng Yuánjì 張元濟, Sòng shǐ jiàozhù 宋史校注 (Shanghai Shāngwù, 1936); Kē Wéiqí 柯維騏 (Ming), Sòng shǐ xīn biān 宋史新編 (200 j.) — the most influential of the early re-compilation attempts mentioned in the tíyào; in modern times the Chángbiān tradition (Lǐ Tāo’s Xù Zīzhì tōngjiàn chángbiān 續資治通鑑長編) provides the principal complement to the Sòng shǐ on the Northern Sòng.
Other points of interest
The Yìwén zhì of the Sòng shǐ (juǎn 202–209) is the principal pre-Ming bibliographic record of Sòng-period scholarship, listing some 9,800 titles across the Sìbù. The Dàoxué zhuàn is the canonical lineage of Northern-and-Southern-Sòng Lǐxué — the source-text for the orthodox Ming-Qing historiographical view of Neo-Confucianism. The Héqú zhì preserves uniquely detailed information on the Yellow River course-changes of the Sòng era and on the Grand Canal water-management.