Xù Sòng biānnián zī zhì tōng jiàn 續宋編年資治通鑑
Continuation of the Sòng-Period Annalistic Comprehensive Mirror by 劉時擧 (Liú Shíjǔ, fl. ca. 1240–1264, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
A 15-juan Southern-Sòng chronicle covering Gāozōng Jiànyán 1 / 1127 to Níngzōng Jiādìng 17 / 1224, written by Liú Shíjǔ from his position in the Guó shǐ and Shí lù bureaus during the Lǐzōng era. The principal extant Southern-Sòng chronicle of the post-Yào-lù period.
Tiyao
Xù Sòng biānnián zī zhì tōng jiàn, 15 juǎn. (Zhèjiāng Provincial Governor’s submitted copy.) By Liú Shíjǔ of the Sòng. Shíjǔ’s place of origin is not investigated. His office-title gives Tōngzhí láng hùbù jiàgé Guóshǐ Shílùyuàn jiǎntǎo jiān biānxiū guān. The Sòng jì sān cháo zhèng yào records Shǐ Sōngzhī, on his father’s death leaving office, recalled by edict as Yòuchéngxiàng in mourning, with Shíjǔ as a Lǐn xué shēng together with Wáng Yuányě, Huáng Dào, etc., 94 men submitting a forceful memorial against. The beginning and end are not detailed.
The book records from Gāozōng Jiànyán 1 to Níngzōng Jiādìng 17. It must have been completed in Lǐzōng’s reign. Yet the postface argument-paragraph at the end of the book says “Lǐzōng braced the polity for fifty years and then it fell — one cannot say it was not by luck” — these words come from after the Sòng’s fall; do not seem Shíjǔ’s original text.
The old-edition catalog after the mù lù has a book-house note: “this compilation, with its yearly arrangement having authority, with its event-recording having beginning-and-end, supplemented with the various Confucians’ collected discussions, three-times collated and freshly woodblock-cut” — so the discussions appended in the book are also additions by the Yuán-period printer, no longer the original.
In the substance of its records: although chiefly aimed at terseness, sometimes head and tail not present, with sketchiness and gaps in event-traces. Yet, e.g., on Zhāng Jùn’s not joining the peace-faction, but not concealing his crime of partying with WāngHuáng, attacking Lǐ Gāng, and bringing in Qín Huì; on the slander and remote banishment of Lǐ Gāng, but not concealing his shielding Wēng Yánguó and trapping Sòng Qíyù — judgment and praise quite achieving impartial mediation, no school-faction jiǎng xué views. At the head of the juǎn is Zhū Yízūn’s title-inscription, calling it superior to Wáng Zōngmù’s and Xuē Yìngqí’s compilations — surely no calumny.
Abstract
The Xù Sòng biānnián zī zhì tōng jiàn is the principal post-Yào lù Southern-Sòng chronicle. Where Lǐ Xīnchuán’s Jiànyán yǐlái xìnián yào lù (KR2b0024) covers the Gāozōng restoration period (1127–1162) at maximum detail, Liú Shíjǔ’s Xù tōng jiàn takes the Southern Sòng forward through Xiàozōng, Guāngzōng, and Níngzōng (1162–1224) at synoptic compression. It is the principal narrative source for late-twelfth-century and early-thirteenth-century Southern-Sòng court politics, including the Hán Tuōzhòu administration, the Kāixī běi fá / 1206 northern campaign, the Jiādìng peace, and the rise of Shǐ Mǐyuǎn.
The dating bracket is set to Liú Shíjǔ’s likely active period during the Lǐzōng Chúnyòu and Bǎoyòu eras (ca. 1240–1264 / Lǐzōng’s death). The closing post-Sòng-collapse argument-paragraph and the Yuán-period book-house’s added “various Confucians’ collected discussions” are noted as later interpolations and do not affect the original text proper.
The Sìkù editors’ verdict — that the work shows “no school-faction jiǎng xué views” — places it in the same documentary-historiographical lineage as Chén Jūn (KR2b0025) and Lǐ Xīnchuán, contra the Gāngmù tradition. Zhū Yízūn’s title-inscription compares it favorably to the much later Míng SòngYuán Tōng jiàn of Wáng Zōngmù 王宗沐 and Xuē Yìngqí 薛應旂 — both of which the Sìkù editors fault for failing to apply the kǎo yì method properly.
Translations and research
No translation. No standalone monograph. Discussion in:
- Charles Hartman, The Making of Song Dynasty History (CUP, 2021), index s.v. Liú Shí-jǔ.
- Yáng Wén-zhuàn 楊文撰, Liú Shí-jǔ Xù Sòng biānnián zī zhì tōng jiàn yán jiū 劉時舉續宋編年資治通鑑研究 (Hé-běi shī-fàn dà-xué thesis, 2014).
Other points of interest
The work is one of the few sources for the late-twelfth and early-thirteenth century Southern-Sòng court that pre-dates the Yuán-period Sòng shǐ compilation, and is therefore an essential check on the Sòng shǐ’s portrayal of figures such as Hán Tuōzhòu and Shǐ Mǐyuǎn — both of whom suffered heavily at the hands of the Yuán historians.
Links
- Wikidata Q11084114
- Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào 0104301.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.5.