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後漢紀

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Text ID
KR2b0004
Date
360–372
Dynasty
晉

Hòu Hàn jì 後漢紀

Annals of the Later Hàn by 袁宏 (Yuán Hóng, 328–376, zhuàn 撰)

About the work

A 30-juan annalistic chronicle of the Eastern Hàn 東漢 (25–220 CE), the Eastern Jìn counterpart and conscious successor to Xún Yuè’s Qián Hàn jì (KR2b0003). Composed by Yuán Hóng over roughly eight years in the 360s and early 370s during his time at Dōngyáng. As Yuán’s autobiographical preface explains, he set out to do for the Eastern Hàn what Xún Yuè had done for the Western Hàn — but with a much harder source-base, since no single comprehensive jìzhuàn history of the Eastern Hàn yet existed (Fàn Yè’s Hòu Hàn shū would not appear until ca. 432).

Tiyao

Hòu Hàn jì, 30 juǎn. (Anhuī Provincial Governor’s submitted copy.) By Yuán Hóng of the Jìn. Hóng, zì Yànbó, was a man of Yángxià. In the early Tàiyuán era he held office as Dōngyáng tàishǒu. His biography is in the Jìn shū Wényuàn zhuàn. The book is preceded by Hóng’s own preface, which says: “I once read the Hòu Hàn shū and found it cluttered and disorderly. In my leisure I compiled this Hòu Hàn jì. I gathered together the Hàn jì — (note: this Hàn jì refers to the work of Xún Yuè, in places that touch on early Eastern Hàn affairs, not the work of Zhāng Fán) — the books of Xiè Chéng, Sīmǎ Biāo, Huá Qiáo, Xiè Shěn, the Hàn Shānyánggōng jì, the Hàn LíngXiàn qǐjūzhù, the Hàn míngchén zòu, and ranged outwards into the various provincial Qíjiù and Xiānxián zhuàn — several hundred juǎn in all. The earlier histories were defective and disordered, with errors and divergences and no one to set them right. After eight years of struggle I was exhausted and could not bring it to a final form. Then a number of copies began to circulate, and I first encountered Zhāng Fán’s compilation; his account of the late-Hàn affairs is somewhat more detailed, and so I returned to it and supplemented mine.”

The Suí zhì lists Zhāng Fán’s book in 30 juǎn; it is now lost, surviving only in scattered citations in the commentaries to the Sān guó zhì and the Hòu Hàn shū. Cross-collated with the present text: many things in Fán’s jì are absent from this book, and what is preserved has been frequently reworded, with detail and concision varying both ways. For instance, Fán’s jì says: “Lú Fāng 盧芳 was a man of Āndìng; the Shǔ guó tribesmen were several tens of thousands; in the rebellion at Cānmán, Fāng joined them, falsely taking the surname Liú”; this book gives “Liú Fāng was a man of San-chuān in Āndìng; his original surname was Lú; at the end of Wáng Mǎng’s reign, all-under-heaven longed for the Hàn, and Fāng on this account falsely styled himself a descendant of Wǔdì, changed his name to Liú Wénbó; on Mǎng’s fall, Fāng with the San-chuān Shǔ guó QiāngHú forces rose at the northern frontier.” The Zhū Mù discussion of Liáng Jì’s pond-boat capsizing, and the Wú Yòu remonstrance of his father copying out books — all are more detailed here than in Fán. Fán’s jì says of Empress Mǎ of Míngdé that “she did not enjoy outings and never appeared at window or balcony”; this book has “her nature was not given to outings and excursions.” Fán’s jì records Yáng Bǐng saying “I have three things that do not confound me — wine, women, and wealth — the world calls me a true man”; this book has cut the last clause. The Wáng Gōng-and-Xuē Qín mourning-spouse episode: Fán’s jì describes Gōng first then traces back to Qín; this book describes Qín first and Gōng after. The Lǚ Bù post-defeat persuading Wáng Yǔn to flee with him: Fán’s jì places it at the time of Chángān’s fall; this book places it later — significant rearrangements throughout. On the merits of the wording, this book is everywhere superior. Although it follows Xún Yuè in form, Yuè had merely pruned and threaded Bān Gù’s ready text, while this book makes its choices and judgments from primary materials — an even harder labor than Yuè’s. Liú Zhījī in the Shǐ tōng “Standard Histories” chapter writes that “popular opinion holds that, of historians of the Eastern Hàn restoration, only Yuán and Fàn — the latter Wèizōng [Fàn Yè] — stand to be paired.” This is no exaggeration.

Abstract

The Hòu Hàn jì is the earliest extant comprehensive history of the Eastern Hàn, and Yuán Hóng’s preface (preserved at the head of the work) is a model document of fourth-century Chinese historiographical method. Yuán names seven previous Eastern Hàn histories he consulted — Xún Yuè’s Hàn jì (in its Eastern-Hàn-touching parts), Xiè Chéng’s Hòu Hàn shū, Sīmǎ Biāo’s Hòu Hàn shū, Huá Qiáo’s Hòu Hàn shū, Xiè Shěn’s Hòu Hàn shū, the Hàn Shānyánggōng jì, and the Hàn LíngXiàn qǐjūzhù — together with the Hàn míngchén zòu and assorted regional collections of biographies (Qíjiù zhuàn 耆舊傳 and Xiānxián zhuàn 先賢傳). All of these, except for fragmentary survivals, are now lost; the Hòu Hàn jì is consequently the principal vehicle by which their substance reaches us, and a primary source for Eastern Hàn history independent of Fàn Yè’s Hòu Hàn shū (composed ca. 432, KR2a0021). Yuán completed the work after Zhāng Fán’s Hòu Hàn jì (also lost) became available to him, and supplemented it from there.

The chronological span runs from Liú Xiù’s 劉秀 founding of the Eastern Hàn (Guāngwǔ 1 / 25 CE) through the abdication to Cáo Pī (Yánkāng 1 / 220 CE). Yuán’s compositional method — described in the Sìkù tíyào — is more demanding than Xún Yuè’s recasting of the Hàn shū: where Xún could prune and rethread an extant master-history, Yuán had to weigh seven contradictory accounts and adjudicate. The Sìkù editors judge his judgments superior to Zhāng Fán’s where they can be compared.

The work was paired in the bibliographic tradition with Xún Yuè’s Qián Hàn jì as the Liǎng Hàn jì 兩漢紀. The standard transmitted text descends through Huáng Jīshuǐ’s 黃姬水 Míng Jiājìng edition (1548) and the Kāngxī Liǎng Hàn jì of Jiǎng Guóxiáng 蔣國祥 and Jiǎng Guózuò 蔣國祚 (1685), the latter of which appended a one-juan Liǎng Hàn jì zìjù yìtóng kǎo 兩漢紀字句異同考. The standard modern critical edition is Zhōu Tiānyóu 周天游, Hòu Hàn jì jiào zhù 後漢紀校注 (Tianjin guji, 1987; rev. 2008).

For the dating bracket, Yuán’s “eight years of toil” plus the fact that he encountered Zhāng Fán’s Hòu Hàn jì late in the process and then “returned to supplement” suggests substantive work between roughly 360 and 372, with completion before his appointment as Dōngyáng tàishǒu in the Tàiyuán era. (See Wilkinson §44.4.1.)

Translations and research

  • Zhōu Tiānyóu 周天游, Hòu Hàn jì jiào zhù 後漢紀校注, 2 vols. (Tianjin guji, 1987; rev. ed. Beijing: Zhonghua, 2008) — the standard modern critical edition with full collation against Wáng Xiānqiān’s Hòu Hàn shū jí jiě.
  • Zhāng Lièhé 張烈, Liǎng Hàn jì 兩漢紀, 2 vols. (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2002) — combined punctuated critical edition.
  • Hans Bielenstein, “The Restoration of the Han Dynasty,” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (BMFEA) 26 (1954): 1–209 — heavily uses the Hòu Hàn jì as primary source.
  • Rafe de Crespigny, To Establish Peace, Being the Chronicle of the Later Han for the Years 189 to 220 AD as Recorded in Chapters 59 to 69 of the Zizhi tongjian of Sima Guang, 2 vols. (ANU, 1996) — extensive cross-reference to the Hòu Hàn jì throughout.
  • Zhōu Tiānyóu, Bā jiā Hòu Hàn shū jí zhù 八家後漢書輯注 (Shanghai guji, 1986) — companion reconstruction of the lost Eastern-Hàn histories that Yuán Hóng used.

Other points of interest

Yuán’s compositional preface is one of the few intact fourth-century statements of historiographical first principles; together with Liú Zhījī’s Shǐ tōng it forms the documentary backbone for studying pre-Sòng Chinese historiographical method. The work’s extensive preservation of speech-acts and memorials (zòu, biǎo) makes it indispensable for political-rhetorical history of the Eastern Hàn.

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