Dōngdū shìlüè 東都事略
Outline of Affairs of the Eastern Capital by 王稱 (compiler)
About the work
A 130-juǎn private jìzhuàn history of the Northern Sòng dynasty (960–1127) by the Southern-Sòng historian Wáng Chèn 王稱 (zì Jìpíng 季平), native of Méizhōu 眉州. The “Eastern Capital” 東都 of the title is Biànliáng 汴梁 (modern Kāifēng 開封), the Northern-Sòng metropolis that fell to the Jurchen Jīn in 1127 — so the work is a retrospective on the lost northern dynasty written from the southern court at Lín’ān. The structure is incomplete jìzhuàn — 12 juǎn of imperial annals (Tàizǔ to Qīnzōng), 5 juǎn of shìjiā 世家 (empresses and imperial relatives), 105 juǎn of biographies, and 8 juǎn of appended fùlù 附錄 covering foreign relations (Liáo, Jīn, Xī Xià 西夏, Xī Fān 西蕃, and Jiāozhǐ 交趾) — there are no treatises (zhì) and no chronological tables (biǎo). Wáng inherited his father Wáng Shǎng 王賞’s Shílù-bureau archive (Wáng Shǎng having been Shílù xiūzhuàn of the Shàoxīng reign), drew widely on Sòng sources, and presented the manuscript to the throne while Hóng Mài 洪邁 was preparing the Sìcháo guóshǐ 四朝國史 — a circumstance which secured Wáng’s promotion to Zhímìgé 直秘閣. The work has been continuously regarded as one of the three great Sòng private histories, together with Lǐ Tāo’s 李燾 Xù Zīzhì tōngjiàn chángbiān and Lǐ Xīnchuán’s 李心傳 Jiànyán yǐlái xìnián yàolù.
Tiyao
Submitted by your servants, etc. The Dōngdū shìlüè in 130 juǎn was compiled by Wáng Chèn of the Sòng. Chèn’s zì was Jìpíng; he was a man of Méizhōu. His father Wáng Shǎng was Shílù xiūzhuàn during the Shàoxīng reign; Chèn inherited the family learning, gathered the affairs of the nine reigns from many sources, and gathered them into a compilation. Hóng Mài, when working on the Sìcháo guóshǐ, memorialised the throne presenting the book; Chèn, then Chéngyìláng and Prefect of Lóngzhōu 龍州, was promoted Zhímìgé. The work consists of 12 juǎn of basic annals, 5 of shìjiā, 105 biographies, and 8 fùlù. Its narration is concise yet comprehensive, and its judgements likewise even-handed. Thus he does not list Kāng Bǎoyì 康保裔 in the Zhōngyì 忠義 section; he does not conceal the failings of Zhāng Fāngpíng 張方平 and Wáng Gǒngchén 王拱辰. All these display historiographical insight. The opening of the Xīníng 熙寧 troubles and the resumption of those policies in the Yuánfú 元符 reign — to these he gives particular attention. After the biography of Zhū Miǎn 朱勔 he appends Monk Zǔxiù 祖秀’s Gēnyuè jì 艮岳記 — which is admittedly not in shǐfǎ, but is sufficient to bear out the evidence. Yet many Southern-Sòng writers were dissatisfied with the book — the result of partisanship of the day. Míng-period scholars, planning to edit the Sòngshǐ, began to commend it; recently Wāng Wǎn 汪琬 has further argued that the Yuán Sòngshǐ was in fact based on this work as its draft. We now find that only the Wényì 文藝 biographies were used by the Sòngshǐ compilers — hence the Dōngdū shìlüè is fuller for Northern Sòng but very thin for Southern-Sòng literary men. Other discrepancies: Fú Yànqīng 符彥卿 had two daughters who became Zhōu-dynasty empresses, but the Sòngshǐ omits one; Liú Měi 劉美 was originally surnamed Gōng 龔 and had been smuggled into the imperial in-laws — the Shìlüè records this directly, but the Sòngshǐ, drawing on the family genealogy, conceals it; on Zhào Pǔ 趙普 and Tián Xī 田錫 the Sòngshǐ misrepresents Tián as one of “the various ministers’ memorials must first be reported”; Yáng Shǒuyī 楊守一 was promoted from a palace eunuch to Yòubān diànzhí and then to Hànlín fùshǐ 翰林副使, which the Sòngshǐ miscopies as Hànlín xuéshì 翰林學士; the early Xīnfǎ implementation of grain-purchase by ordinary granaries was complained of by Wú Shēn 吳申 et al., but the Sòngshǐ misattributes the criticism to Sīmǎ Guāng 司馬光. As to place-names and posthumous epithets, the Sòngshǐ contains many slips. So the Yuán-era compilers absolutely did not collate this book — Wāng’s contention is inaccurate. Even so, the Shìlüè itself contains slips: it has Zhāng Qíxián 張齊賢 going out at Yōngxī 3 (986) for offending the throne — but writes it as if Zhāng requested to inspect the frontier; it attributes the dying lament of Vice-Envoy Wáng Lǚ 王履 to Lǐ Ruòshuǐ 李若水, and likewise omits Wáng Lǚ from the Zhōngyì. Inconsistencies of this sort do occur. Yet of all Sòng private histories that can be transmitted, this work, alongside Lǐ Tāo’s and Lǐ Xīnchuán’s, makes a tripod of three legs. Naturally those investigating the Sòngshǐ prize it. Twelfth month, Qiánlóng 40 (1775). Chief compilers, etc.
Abstract
Wāng Chèn produced the Dōngdū shìlüè in the late twelfth century — the date of presentation cannot be fixed exactly, but Wáng’s contact with Hóng Mài (active in the Sìcháo guóshǐ project from 1180s into the 1190s) and the Sìkù’s reference to his concurrent prefecture of Lóngzhōu place composition firmly within 1180–1195. The work is the principal private jìzhuàn history of the Northern Sòng and an essential supplement to the Sòngshǐ (KR2a0017), particularly for the lives of officials who served before the southward retreat of 1127. The historiographical reputation of the work has remained high since Sìkù evaluation: Wilkinson (Chinese History, §50.4 #14) describes it as “in some respects (e.g., biographies) more complete than the Sòngshǐ.” The eight appended fùlù on the Liáo, Jīn, Xī Xià, Xī Fān, and Jiāozhǐ are particularly important for Northern-Sòng frontier policy and constitute one of the earliest Chinese compilations to give substantial standalone treatment to Tangut Xī Xià. The Sòng print of 1186 (Méishān 眉山 cǎotáng kānběn 草堂刊本), now incomplete, is the earliest surviving witness; the Sìkù WYG draws on a Mí ng manuscript collated against this Sòng exemplar. The standard modern edition is Sūn Yánchéng 孫言誠 and Cuī Guóguāng 崔國光’s punctuated edition in Èrshíwǔ bièshǐ 二十五別史 vols. 13–14 (QíLǔ shūshè, 2000).
Translations and research
- Sūn Yánchéng 孫言誠 and Cuī Guóguāng 崔國光, ed. 2000. Dōngdū shìlüè 東都事略. 2 vols. Èrshíwǔ bièshǐ 二十五別史. Jǐnán: Qí-Lǔ shūshè. (Standard punctuated edition.)
- Shū Rénhuī 舒仁惠. 2007. Dōngdū shìlüè yǔ Sòngshǐ bǐjiào yánjiū 東都事略與宋史比較研究. Běijīng: Shāngwù. The principal modern monograph on the work and its relation to the Sòngshǐ.
- Yáo Lìnán 姚立南. 1992. “Wáng Chèn yǔ Dōngdū shìlüè” 王稱與《東都事略》. Sìchuān shīfàn dàxué xuébào 1992.4: 102–108.
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The Dōngdū shìlüè’s Liáo fùlù is one of the few Sòng-period continuous narratives of the Liáo court still extant; the XīXià fùlù (juǎn 127–128) is, alongside relevant chapters in the Sòngshǐ (Xiàguó zhuàn) and the Liáoshǐ/Jīnshǐ foreign accounts, a foundational source for the early study of Tangut history before the publication of the Tiānshèng gǎijiù dìnglǜlìng 天盛改舊定律令 manuscripts. The work’s inclusion of Monk Zǔxiù’s Gēnyuè jì 艮岳記 (after the biography of Zhū Miǎn) preserves the principal contemporary description of Sòng Huīzōng’s celebrated Gēnyuè 艮岳 imperial garden in Biànliáng, destroyed in the Jīn invasion.