Bǔ lìdài shǐbiǎo 補歷代史表
Supplementary Tables for the Historical Dynasties by 萬斯同 (compiler)
About the work
A 53-juǎn set of supplementary chronological tables (biǎo 表) compiled by the early-Qīng historian Wàn Sītóng 萬斯同 (1638–1702), Zhèdōng historical school, to fill in the biǎo that were missing from the standard histories. Of the seventeen Histories (HòuHànshū through the Wǔdài shǐ), only the Xīn Tángshū possessed a substantial set of biǎo in the Shǐjì tradition; the HòuHànshū had only annals and biographies, and the Sānguó zhì, Jìnshū, Sòngshū, Qíshū, Liángshū, Chénshū, Wèishū, BěiQíshū, Zhōushū, Suíshū, Jiù Tángshū, and Jiù Wǔdài shǐ were all without biǎo. Wàn Sītóng modelled his biǎo on the Shǐjì and Hànshū models — Zhūwáng shìbiǎo 諸王世表 (princes’ generation table), Wàiqī hóu biǎo 外戚侯表 (in-laws’ marquisates table), Wàiqī Zhūwáng shìbiǎo (in-laws’ princes table), Yìxìng Zhūwáng shìbiǎo 異姓諸王世表 (princes of other surnames table), Jiàngxiàng dàchén jí jiǔqīng niánbiǎo 將相大臣及九卿年表 (chief ministers and senior ministers chronological table), Fāngzhèn niánbiǎo 方鎮年表 (regional commissioners table), Zhūzhèn niánbiǎo 諸鎮年表 (regional governors table); to these he added two of his own creation: a Huànzhě hóubiǎo 宦者侯表 (eunuch marquisates table) and a Dàshì niánbiǎo 大事年表 (major events chronology table). The work draws on the Táng liùdiǎn, the Tōngdiǎn, the Tōngzhì, the Tōngjiàn, the Cèfǔ yuánguī, and various private histories, in addition to the standard histories. Huáng Zōngxī 黃宗羲 supplied the preface in Kāngxī rénshēn (1692) — the work having been substantially complete by then. The Sìkù tíyào praises the work as comprehensive and methodologically rigorous, while flagging some lacunae (in particular, no biǎo for the Five Dynasties’ Hàn princes, no Shàng dàjiàngjūn table for Wèi).
Tiyao
Submitted by your servants, etc. The Bǔ lìdài shǐbiǎo in 53 juǎn was compiled by the present-dynasty Wàn Sītóng. Sītóng’s zì was Jìyě; he was a man of Yīnxiàn 鄞縣. The book takes the seventeen Histories from the HòuHànshū down to the [Wǔdài shǐ]. Only the Xīn Tángshū has biǎo; the rest are without — and so he separately composed and supplemented them, modelling the Zhūwáng shìbiǎo, Wàiqī hóubiǎo, Wàiqī Zhūwáng shìbiǎo, Yìxìng Zhūwáng shìbiǎo, and Jiàngxiàng dàchén jí jiǔqīng niánbiǎo on the Shǐjì and QiánHànshū example, and the Fāngzhèn niánbiǎo and Zhūzhèn niánbiǎo on the Xīn Tángshū example. The Huànzhě hóu biǎo and Dàshì niánbiǎo are tables of his own devising. The book draws, beyond the basic annals, treatises, and biographies of the standard histories, on the Táng liùdiǎn, the Tōngdiǎn, the Tōngzhì, the Tōngjiàn, the Cèfǔ yuánguī, and the various private histories, with sequenced and grouped recording, so that the threads of governance through the various dynasties become orderly to the eye — a substantial aid to the study of history. — Examining: from the Sòng onwards, only the HòuHànshū received Xióng Fāng’s 熊方 supplementary tables; the others, like Zhèng Qiáo’s Tōngzhì niánpǔ, only record the major events of one dynasty and the legitimate-succession beginnings and ends; on the rises and falls and appointments and dismissals of princes, ministers, and senior officials, they are mostly slack and do not write. Recent scholars composing tables for the Sixteen Kingdoms have also been full of error and omission. Their net is large but they cannot match Sītóng’s comprehensiveness in classification. Only — since the Jìnshū now has supplemental Gōngchén shìbiǎo, all dynasties should likewise be supplemented. The Sixteen Kingdoms (Chéng, Zhào, Yān, Qín) already have Jiàngxiàng dàchén niánbiǎo; then the Ten Kingdoms (Southern Táng, Southern Hàn, Northern Hàn, Mǐn, Shǔ) should not be left alone. Again, in the Wèi Jiàngxiàng dàchén there is no listing for Shàng dàjiàngjūn 上大將軍. The Five Dynasties’ Zhūwáng shìbiǎo alone lacks a HòuHàn 後漢 entry — the note explains that HòuHàn princes’ sons and brothers were never enfeoffed as wáng; but examining: Chéngxùn 承訓 was posthumously enfeoffed Wáng of Wèi, Chéngxūn 承勳 posthumously Wáng of Chén — the same precedent as the HòuZhōu Tán, Qǐ, Yuè, Wú princes. Why are these alone deleted and not registered? — these are isolated lacunae. But evaluating the whole, the precise predominates; to use the proverb, “one defect among ten merits.” Ninth month, Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Chief compilers, etc.
Abstract
Wàn Sītóng’s Bǔ lìdài shǐbiǎo is the foundational work of early-Qīng kǎozhèng historiography on the structural completion of the zhèngshǐ corpus. The traditional jìzhuàn dynastic history derives its institutional weight from the four-fold structure (basic annals, treatises, tables, biographies) but the biǎo component had been comprehensively underdeveloped from the HòuHànshū onwards — a structural defect that the Sòng Tōngzhì and the Yuán Wénxiàn tōngkǎo had not satisfactorily addressed. Wàn Sītóng’s project supplied 53 juǎn of new tables to fill the historical record, drawing systematically on the secondary literature (the Tōngdiǎn, the Cèfǔ yuánguī, private histories) where the standard sources were insufficient. The dating bracket here runs from ca. 1678 (the earliest plausible date for Wàn Sītóng’s table-supplementation work, undertaken alongside his draft of the Míngshǐ) to 1692 (Huáng Zōngxī’s preface, marking the work as substantively complete). The work is organised into nine table-types across the dynasties from Hàn through the Five Dynasties; particular care is given to the Three Kingdoms, the Eastern Jìn through the Six Dynasties (where the lacuna had been most severe), and the Sui-Táng (where Wàn supplemented the Xīn Tángshū tables with additional regional commissioner data). Wilkinson (Chinese History, §39.7, §49.7) treats the Bǔ lìdài shǐbiǎo as an essential reference for any work on the structural development of premodern Chinese government from the Hàn through the Five Dynasties.
Translations and research
- Wáng Yúnwǔ 王雲五, ed. 1971. Bǔ lìdài shǐbiǎo 補歷代史表. Cóng-shū jí-chéng 叢書集成. Táiběi: Shāngwù. Standard modern reprint of the WYG witness.
- Tāng Tíng-zhì 湯廷智. 1989. “Wàn Sītóng Bǔ lìdài shǐbiǎo shù-lùn” 萬斯同《補歷代史表》述論. Lìshǐ wénxiàn yánjiū 9: 102–124.
- Bā Zhàoxiáng 巴兆祥. 2009. Wàn Sītóng yǔ Qīng-chū shǐ-xué 萬斯同與清初史學. Běijīng: Rénmín. Standard intellectual biography.
- Tillman, Hoyt Cleveland. 2014. “Wan Sitong: A Vehicle of the Eastern Zhejiang Historical School.” Chapter in Wars of Words: Confucian Statecraft and Han Identity in Late Imperial China. Discusses Wàn Sītóng’s place in the Zhè-dōng tradition.
- Quán Zǔwàng 全祖望. Jié-qí tíng jí 鮚埼亭集 (1809), various entries on Wàn Sītóng.
Other points of interest
The work is a methodological exemplar of kǎozhèng historiography in its early-Qīng mature form: drawing on multi-source compilation, integration of primary and secondary witnesses, and explicit identification of lacunae for further work. Wàn Sītóng’s two innovations — the Huànzhě hóubiǎo 宦者侯表 (eunuch marquisates table) and the Dàshì niánbiǎo 大事年表 (major events chronology table) — have themselves entered the standard apparatus of Chinese historical reference and were continued by later Qīng bǔbiǎo scholars (Zhōu Jiāyóu 周家猷, Hóng Yíxuān 洪頤煊). The work is closely associated with Wàn Sītóng’s much larger but officially unattributed contribution to the Míngshǐ gǎo / Qīndìng Míngshǐ (KR2a0026) — the structural concern with completing the biǎo extends from the zhèngshǐ corpus into Wàn’s contemporary work on the new Míng history.