Qīndìng chóngdìng Qìdān guózhì 欽定重訂契丹國志
Imperially Determined and Revised Record of the Khitan Kingdom by 葉隆禮 (compiler), revised by Qiánlóng-era Sìkù editors
About the work
A 28-juǎn dynastic history of the Khitan Liáo 遼 (916–1125) compiled by the Southern-Sòng official Yè Lónglǐ 葉隆禮 (jìnshì 1247) under imperial commission of Sòng Xiàozōng 孝宗 and presented to the throne in Chúnxī 7 (1180). The structure is broadly jìzhuàn: 12 juǎn of imperial annals (the nine Liáo emperors plus Yēlǜ Dàshí 耶律大石 and the Yēlǜ Yánxǐ 耶律延禧 puppets); 7 juǎn of biographies; 1 juǎn of the Jìn 晉 (Later) capitulation document and Sòng–Liáo treaty texts; 1 juǎn of tribute-list materials; 2 juǎn of geography and institutional matter; and 4 juǎn of itinerary records and miscellaneous notes (including envoy reports of Wáng Cén 王曾, Fù Bì 富弼, Hú Qiáo 胡嶠, Zhāng Shùnmín 張舜民; the Sōngmò jìwén 松漠記聞 derivatives; and an Yìgǎi guóyǔ jiě 譯改國語解 list of Khitan terms). The form of the text in WYG is the imperially-revised Chóngdìng 重訂 recension produced by the Qiánlóng-era Sìkù editors at the throne’s edict (preserved as the Shàngyù 上諭 of Qiánlóng 46.10.16 / 1781) — which adjusts Yè’s original interlineation of Sòng reign-years below the Liáo annals (held to violate the zhèngtǒng 正統 of the unified Sòng) and tones down the more partisan Sòng-period evaluative pronouncements (notably the citation of Hú Ānguó 胡安國 as “Hú Wéndìnggōng” in support of the controversial reading of Yáng Chéngxūn 楊承勳 forcibly rebelling against his father).
Tiyao
Submitted by your servants, etc. The Qīndìng chóngdìng Qìdān guózhì in 28 juǎn was compiled by Yè Lónglǐ of the Sòng. Lónglǐ’s hào was Yúlín; he was a man of Jiāxīng. Jìnshì of Chúnyòu 7 (1247), he served as Tōngpàn of Jiànkāngfǔ and successively as Mìshū chéng. Under Xiàozōng’s reign he was commanded to compile in order the affairs of the Liáo rulers and ministers and produce this book; in Chúnxī 7 (1180) he memorialised it. The work consists of 12 juǎn of imperial annals, 7 juǎn of biographies, one juǎn of the Jìn capitulation document and the Sòng–Liáo treaty and discussion documents, one juǎn of the volume of southern-court and various-state tribute-gifts, two juǎn of geographical and institutional matter, and four juǎn of itinerary records and miscellaneous notes. Lónglǐ being born after the southward retreat, far from the time when Liáo had fallen, and the books of the north having scarcely survived in transmission to the southeast, he had never seen the Liáo dynastic history. He merely took the text of Sòng-compiled histories and biographies, extracted them by topic, arranged them, and so composed his book. Hence the head and tail are incomplete: in general the annals and biographies down to Mùzōng 穆宗 are based on Sīmǎ Guāng’s Zīzhì tōngjiàn; those after Mùzōng on Lǐ Tāo’s Chángbiān and similar; the Hú Qiáo Xiànběi jì is from Ōuyáng Xiū’s [Xīn Wǔdài]-shǐ; the appended foreign-state records and biographies of Dáshí Yēdū 達實伊都 and others are from Hóng Hào 洪皓’s Sōngmò jìwén. He copies the wording wholesale without alteration; what he abridges, he often abridges injudiciously. Sū Tiānjué 蘇天爵 of the Yuán in his Sānshǐ zhìyí 三史質疑 already noted that the work’s accounts derive entirely from hearsay and are very often inaccurate; but his vision was limited and he scarcely glimpsed even one or two of the major errors. — When earlier the Shǐbù fair-copy was presented for inspection, our Imperial Lord, with his own brush, attentively reviewed it and exposed all the contradictions. As, for example, that Lónglǐ as a Sòng minister should under-note the Sòng reign-years [as if they were a chronology subordinate to the Liáo] is markedly contrary to the rectitude of dynastic succession; and his diction in matters distinguishing inner and outer is full of error and incompatibility; the worst is the discussion of Yáng Chéngxūn’s leading troops to coerce his father’s surrender, where his bias inclines him to defend a treacherous son and overturn the Heavenly Norms — the most absurd of all. The throne therefore issued detailed instructions and clear directives, commanding your servants to revise and re-edit and produce a renewed text. — In so doing we observe how our Imperial Lord upholds the moral fabric and reverences the canon of names — like a clear sun shining on all things, by which nothing escapes form, “level as the scales, severe as the executioner’s axe” — so that those of private bias and bent brush can no longer say a word; truly enough to surpass the ancients and instruct posterity. We have respectfully followed the imperial pronouncements and made the corrections; investigating and re-arguing, expunging error and preserving truth, all reduced to most exact mediation, looking up to the Imperial decision and inferring its purport into the fánlì 凡例 — so that later readers of this book may know in common where the great meaning lies, as bright as stars and sun, and that no rustic blind-Confucian’s senseless words can presume to weigh up between them. The deep heart of the great sage’s most great public-rectitude, and his subtle intent of upholding rectitude and rejecting heresy — what he transmits as instruction to ten thousand generations is truly profound and urgent. Eleventh month, Qiánlóng 49 (1784). Chief compilers, etc.
Abstract
The Qìdān guózhì is the principal Sòng-period synthetic history of the Liáo. Yè Lónglǐ’s compilation was the only such work to circulate in the Southern Sòng and remained the standard non-zhèngshǐ account through the Yuán; the actual Liáo Liáoshǐ 遼史 (KR2a0019) was compiled in the Yuán under Tuō Tuō 脫脫 in 1344 from sources Yè could not access. The Sìkù version is unusual in being a zhòngdìng 重訂 — an imperially-revised recension prepared in 1784 at the Qiánlóng emperor’s specific instruction (preserved as the Shàngyù of Qiánlóng 46.10.16 / 1781) to correct what he saw as breaches of zhèngtǒng in Yè’s original (the southerly under-noting of Sòng reign-years below the Liáo annals; the citation of Hú Ānguó in defence of a son who coerced his father). The earliest Yuán-era criticism of Yè’s accuracy comes from Sū Tiānjué’s 蘇天爵 Sānshǐ zhìyí. Modern scholarship — notably Lǐ Xīhòu 李錫厚 and Bái Bīn 白彬 — has converged on the judgement that, despite its derivative character, Yè’s compilation preserves substantial materials (especially in the four juǎn of itineraries and miscellaneous notes) that have not survived elsewhere, and is therefore essential as a supplement to the Yuán Liáoshǐ. The work has had a complicated bibliographical history: editions vary between 26, 27, and 28 juǎn depending on the treatment of the Yìgǎi guóyǔ jiě and the appended geographical sections. The Wilkinson reference (Chinese History) does not single out the Qìdān guózhì, but it is regularly cited in the standard Liáo-period bibliography. Wittfogel & Fêng’s History of Chinese Society: Liao (1949) draws on it heavily, with critical apparatus.
Translations and research
- Jiǎ Jìngyán 賈敬顏 and Lín Róngguì 林榮貴, ed. 2014. Qìdān guózhì jiào-zhèng 契丹國志校證. Běijīng: Zhōnghuá shūjú. The standard modern critical edition.
- Wittfogel, Karl A., and Fêng Chia-shêng 馮家昇. 1949. History of Chinese Society: Liao (907–1125). Transactions of the American Philosophical Society n.s. 36. Philadelphia: APS. The foundational Western-language study of Liáo society; uses the Qìdān guózhì heavily.
- Lǐ Xīhòu 李錫厚. 2007. “Qìdān guózhì yǔ Liáoshǐ xiānghù bǔchōng de zhūdiǎn lùn” 《契丹國志》與《遼史》相互補充的諸點論. Liáo-Jīn-shǐ lùn-jí 9: 47–63.
- Twitchett, Denis, and Klaus-Peter Tietze. 1994. “The Liao.” In Herbert Franke and Denis Twitchett, eds., The Cambridge History of China, vol. 6: Alien Regimes and Border States, 907–1368, Ch. 2. CUP. Standard English-language summary; uses the Qìdān guózhì as one of the key Sòng-side sources.
Other points of interest
The four juǎn of envoy itineraries and zájì 雜記 in the Qìdān guózhì (juǎn 24–27) preserve the full text of Wáng Cén 王曾’s Xíngchéng lù 行程錄 (1010s) and Fù Bì 富弼’s Xíngchéng lù (1042) — Sòng-period embassy reports to the Liáo court — together with Hú Qiáo’s Xiànběi jì (a 10th-century Hàn captive’s narrative of his fifty-year sojourn in Khitan territory) and Zhāng Shùnmín’s Shǐběi jì. Together these constitute the principal first-hand Hàn-language sources on the Liáo state. The Yìgǎi guóyǔ jiě 譯改國語解 in juǎn 28 is one of the very few extant Sòng-period word-lists of Khitan terminology, important for early Mongolic-Khitan linguistics. The Qiánlóng chóngdìng recension is one of the most explicit examples of Qīng-imperial editorial intervention into the Sìkù corpus on doctrinal grounds.