Jiǔcháo biānnián bèi yào 九朝編年備要
Annalistic Essential Compendium of the Nine Reigns by 陳均 (Chén Jūn, fl. 1209–1234, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
A 30-juan synoptic chronicle of the Northern Sòng nine reigns (Tàizǔ Jiànlóng 1 / 960 to Qīnzōng Jìngkāng 2 / 1127), composed by Chén Jūn from official archives plus Lǐ Tāo’s Cháng biān and a dozen-or-so other sources. The principal Northern-Sòng synoptic chronicle written within the Sòng dynasty itself, intended as a portable abridgement of the vast Cháng biān.
Tiyao
Sòng jiǔcháo biānnián bèi yào, 30 juǎn. (LiǎngHuái Salt Administration submitted copy.) By Chén Jūn of the Sòng. Jūn, zì Píngfǔ, hào Yúnyán, of Pútián. In early Duānpíng (1234), someone memorialized to the throne about this book; an edict was issued to Fúzhōu to summon him in, conferring on Jūn the office of Dígōng láng. Mǎ Duānlín’s Wénxiàn tōng kǎo records Jūn’s Biānnián jǔ yào in 30 juǎn and Bèi yào in 30 juǎn; he also has Zhōngxīng jǔ yào in 14 juǎn and Bèi yào in 14 juǎn. The Zhōngxīng jǔ yào and Bèi yào are both lost. The present book has at the front Zhēn Déxiù’s preface of Shàodìng 2 (1229), which says: “the Huángcháo Biānnián jǔ yào and Bèi yào together in such-and-such juǎn” — so at the time the two works were one combined book. Now the Jǔ yào is also lost; what remains is only this compilation.
The book takes the Rì lì and Shí lù, plus Lǐ Tāo’s Xù tōng jiàn cháng biān, prunes the prolixity, picks out the essentials, into one volume. Concurrently gathering from ten-or-so books — Sīmǎ Guāng, Xú Dù, Zhào Rǔyú, etc. — broadly examined and mutually corrected. Beginning at Tàizǔ, ending at Qīnzōng, the affairs of nine reigns. Aiming for compact volume to ease retrieval. So unless a great event, things are summarized and not recorded. Lín Jié’s preface says: he takes Sīmǎshì’s gāng and sometimes adds polish; takes Lǐshì’s mù and considerably abridges — adequate to summarize his form. But it actually uses the Tōng jiàn gāngmù as model, only that he records events straight without adding praise and blame. Look at Jūn’s own preface — his guiding principles can be seen.
Abstract
The Jiǔcháo biānnián bèi yào is the principal Northern-Sòng synoptic chronicle composed within the Sòng dynasty itself — a portable abridgement of Lǐ Tāo’s vast Xù Tōng jiàn cháng biān (KR2b0019). Chén Jūn took Lǐ Tāo’s master narrative as his core, supplemented from Sīmǎ Guāng and from a dozen or so other Northern-Sòng historical works (Xú Dù, Zhào Rǔyú, Wáng Chèng’s Dōng dū shì lüè, etc.), and produced a single volume covering the Northern-Sòng nine reigns from Tàizǔ to Qīnzōng (960–1127).
The form is explicitly modelled on Zhū Xī’s Tōngjiàn gāngmù — gāng (heading) drawn from Sīmǎ-Guāng-style condensation, mù (detail) drawn from Lǐ Tāo’s Cháng biān — but, per Chén Jūn’s own preface, “recording events straight without adding praise and blame.” The decision to refuse the Gāngmù’s praise-and-blame apparatus is doctrinally significant: where Zhū Xī had taken the Chūnqiū-tradition of bāo biǎn 褒貶 (praise-and-blame) as the proper instrument of Lǐxué historiography, Chén Jūn returns to the more documentary stance of his SīLǐ predecessors. The work is consequently a useful corrective, alongside Lǐ Xīnchuán’s Yào lù (KR2b0024), to the Gāngmù-tradition narrative of the Northern Sòng.
The text was originally one half of a paired work — the Jǔ yào (general outlines) and the Bèi yào (essential compendium) — but only the Bèi yào survives. The companion Zhōngxīng pair (covering the Southern-Sòng founding) is wholly lost. The dating is anchored by Zhēn Déxiù’s preface of Shàodìng 2 / 1229, which describes the work as already complete; the dating bracket here (1220–1229) reflects Chén’s likely composition during the Jiādìng / Bǎoqìng period.
Translations and research
No translation. No standalone Western-language monograph. Discussion in:
- Charles Hartman, The Making of Song Dynasty History (CUP, 2021), index s.v. Chén Jūn.
- Cài Chóng-bǎng 蔡崇榜, Chén Jūn yǔ Sòng Jiǔ-cháo biānnián bèi yào 陳均與宋九朝編年備要 (in his Xù Zī zhì tōng jiàn cháng biān yán jiū 1995, ch. 6).
Other points of interest
The work is one of the few surviving Sòng-period synoptic chronicles to consciously refuse the Gāngmù’s evaluative form, and its survival in the Sìkù transmits a methodological alternative within the late-Southern-Sòng historiographical tradition that would otherwise have been lost.
Links
- Wikidata Q11108125
- Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào 0104201.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.5.