三朝北盟會編

Sānzhāo běiméng huìbiān 三朝北盟會編

Collected Documents of the Northern Treaties under Three Reigns by 徐夢莘 (撰)

About the work

The Sānzhāo běiméng huìbiān in 250 juǎn is the most extensive documentary compilation produced by the Southern Sòng on the catastrophic decades of Sòng–Jīn 宋金 relations: from the Hǎishàng zhī méng 海上之盟 of Zhènghé 7 (1117) — the first secret pact between the Sòng and the rising Jurchen state for a joint move against the Liáo — through the fall of Kāifēng (1126–27), the Yuèfēi era, and the Lóngxīng border accords, down to Shàoxīng 31 (1161). The work was presented to the throne in Shàoxī 5 (1194). It is divided into three parts (above, middle, below): the Zhèngxuān 政宣 (25 juǎn) covering the late Northern Sòng, the Jìngkāng 靖康 (75 juǎn) covering the fall of Kāifēng and the abductions of 1126–27, and the Yánxīng 炎興 (150 juǎn) covering the early Southern Sòng. The compilation is documentary, not interpretive: imperial decrees, edicts, state letters, diplomatic missives, memorials, prefaces, inscriptions, and tomb-records are reproduced in extenso, together with material drawn from 196 separate works (102 books, 84 zákǎo private writings, 10 Jīn dynastic records). The compiler did not adjudicate among his sources, and contradictions and even outright fabrications stand side by side — by design, so that future historians might choose for themselves. Of all the Southern Sòng private histories of these decades, Wilkinson (§62.2 #11) ranks it second only to Lǐ Xīnchuán’s 李心傳 Jiànyán yǐlái xìnián yàolù 建炎以來繫年要錄 (KR2k0008).

Tiyao

The Sānzhāo běiméng huìbiān in 250 juǎn was composed by Xú Mèngshēn of the Sòng. Mèngshēn, zì Shānglǎo, was a man of Línjiāng. Jìnshì of Shàoxīng 24 (1154); he held office as Educational Officer of Nán’ān, then as magistrate of Xiāngyīn, and rose to Prefect of Bīnzhōu, but was dismissed for opposing the new salt regulations. His career is preserved in his biography in the Sòngshǐ rúlín zhuàn. Mèngshēn was a man addicted to learning and broadly read, with many works to his name. The Shǐ records that he was indifferent to advancement in office; that, born in the time of the Jīngkāng disaster, he longed all his life to see its full course; that he therefore gathered up the old materials, brought together their agreements and disagreements, and made the Sānzhāo běiméng huìbiān, taking it from the Hǎishàng pact of Zhènghé 7 (1117) down to Shàoxīng 31 (1161), a span of forty-five years; and that into it he placed every edict, mandate, manifesto, state letter, missive, memorial, record, preface, and inscription, leaving nothing out — at which the emperor, hearing of it, gave him praise, and promoted him to Editor-in-Chief of the Imperial Library. — A manuscript of the work survives, in three parts: the upper, Zhèngxuān, in 25 juǎn; the middle, Jìngkāng, in 75 juǎn; the lower, Yánxīng, in 150 juǎn. The starting and closing dates given in the histories agree with those of the work. The works he cites are 102 in number, with 84 separate private records and 10 from the Jīn — 196 in all, leaving the literary collections out. What the histories say falls short of the actual reach. — All matters of war and peace between Sòng and Jīn he ranged in order, year as warp, month as woof, with the entries laid out by day. His citations preserve the original wording of his sources without selection, and he passes no judgment of his own, so that disagreement and difference stand together to allow the historian to choose. Hence the title Huìbiān, “collected together”. Yet, from the disaster at Biàn down to the founding of the dynasty in the south, the order and disorder, the gain and loss, can be seen by following the text, weighing the events, comparing the matters together — the whole already made plain by what is laid out: not mere fragmentary trinketry. Though the records of the time are mixed and many, and reports of the affairs of the Jīn often pass beyond what was witnessed and cannot be wholly relied on, and though the memorials of officials of the day are often boastful and unfounded, and the compiler set them all down in full without choosing among them — yet for the breadth and reach of his learning none of the southern Sòng wild histories, save Lǐ Xīnchuán’s Jiànyán yǐlái xìnián yàolù, surpasses him; he is not to be held faulty for his abundance. — It is recorded that after finishing this book, Mèngshēn made a further continuation in five jiā of what was missing, placing it in the middle and lower divisions to complete what had been left out: 25 juǎn each for Jìngkāng and Yánxīng, called the Běiméng jíbǔ 北盟集補. This book has it not. Likely the two works circulated separately, and the second was lost over time. — Reverently collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 4th month. Senior compilers (chief): the Censor (chen) Jì Yún 紀昀, (chen) Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, (chen) Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Senior collation officer: (chen) Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

The Sānzhāo běiméng huìbiān is the principal documentary archive for the Sòng’s relations with the Jurchen Jīn during the years 1117–62 — covering the last two reigns of the Northern Sòng (Huīzōng, Qīnzōng) and the first of the Southern Sòng (Gāozōng), hence “three reigns”. Xú Mèngshēn began assembling materials from his youth, motivated (as the Sòngshǐ and the tíyào both stress) by his having been born in the Jīngkāng year and his lifelong determination to learn what had really happened. The compilation method — full-text reproduction from named sources, no editorial adjudication, parallel citation of conflicting accounts — makes the Huìbiān the single most important repository of primary documents for the SòngJīn wars; it preserves much that does not survive elsewhere, including diplomatic correspondence, memorials, and accounts by witnesses to the abductions of Huīzōng and Qīnzōng. Wilkinson (§62.2 #11) and the Sìkù tíyào both note Lǐ Xīnchuán’s Jiànyán yǐlái xìnián yàolù as the only contemporary work of comparable richness. A separate continuation, the Běiméng jíbǔ 北盟集補 in 50 further juǎn (25 each for Jìngkāng and Yánxīng), is mentioned by the compilers but not preserved. The catalog meta gives Xú Mèngshēn’s lifedates as 1124–1205; CBDB and Wilkinson give 1126–1207, followed here.

Translations and research

• Sānzhāo běiméng huìbiān, 2 vols. Shanghai gǔjí, 1987 (also in Scripta Sinica). Standard modern reprint.
• Franke, Herbert. 1975. “Chinese texts on the Jurchen: Translation of the Jurchen monograph in the San-ch’ao pei-meng hui-pien.” Zentralasiatische Studien 9: 119–86.
• Franke, Herbert. 1978. “Chinese texts on the Jurchen II: A translation of chapter one of the Chin-shih.” Zentralasiatische Studien 12: 413–52. Reprinted in Franke and Hok-Lam Chan, Studies on the Jurchens and the Chin Dynasty (Variorum, 1997).
• Franke, Herbert, ed. 1976. Sung Biographies. 4 vols. Wiesbaden: Steiner. (Entry on Xú Mèngshēn at SB 107–8.)
• Wilkinson, Chinese History, §62.2 #11.

Other points of interest

The compiler’s method — huìbiān in the literal sense — became a model for later imperial documentary compilations. The Běiméng jíbǔ 北盟集補 (50 juǎn) is mentioned in the tíyào and the Sòngshǐ biography but appears already to have been lost by the Sìkù compilers’ time.

Links

• Wikipedia: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/三朝北盟會編
• Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q10903692